Man's Search for Meaning
MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING
Author: Viktor Frankl, PhD
My Rating: 9.5/10
Length: 192 Pages
Description
Man's Search for Meaning is a 1946 book by Viktor Frankl chronicling his experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, and describing his psychotherapeutic method, which involved identifying a purpose in life to feel positive about, and then immersively imagining that outcome. According to Frankl, the way a prisoner imagined the future affected his longevity. The book intends to answer the question "How was everyday life in a concentration camp reflected in the mind of the average prisoner?" Part One constitutes Frankl's analysis of his experiences in the concentration camps, while Part Two introduces his ideas of meaning and his theory called logotherapy.
According to a survey conducted by the Book-of-the-Month Club and the Library of Congress, Man's Search for Meaning belongs to a list of "the ten most influential books in the United States." At the time of the author's death in 1997, the book had sold over 10 million copies and had been translated into 24 languages
The Book In 3 Sentences
Choose Your Attitude. Frankl talks about the space between stimulus and response, and it’s our choice on how we use that space. The situations in the Nazi concentration camps were unimaginable, whilst everything else was taken from them - they could still choose how to act and respond.
The Meaning Of Life. If your meaning in life is unknown, this is where the existential crisis happens. When we don’t have the meaning, we don’t know who we are. According to logotherapy, we can discover the meaning of life in three different ways: by creating a work or doing a deed (an achievement focus), by experiencing something or encountering someone (and the beauty or love as meaning), and by the attitude we take towards unavoidable suffering (giving meaning to the suffering). Ultimately, our meaning in life is to respond to what life throws at us.
Focus On The Future. Viktor noticed during his experience at the camp that the men who couldn’t see past their imprisonment started to decay both physically and emotionally - and never made it out alive. Those prisoners who survived, who found a way to endure, always had a greater purpose that carried them onward through difficult conditions.
Who Should Read It?
Everyone.
I’ve never said that about a book before - but I truly believe EVERYONE needs to read Man's Search for Meaning once in their life.
Frankl survived the horrors of Nazi concentration camps and, from that pain, brought the world his “Logotherapy”—A philosophy based on the fundamental precept that we have ultimate responsibility for choosing our responses to any given challenge AND equally powerful responsibility to determine how we will give ourselves to the world and create a truly meaningful life.
When we don’t have meaning in life, we don’t know who we are, and that is one of the biggest crises we face as a society. Man's Search for Meaning provides you with an answer and framework to resolve that question for you.
I promise you that you will be inspired and admire this amazing man as much as I am and do if you read Man's Search for Meaning.
How The Book Changed Me
Viktor Frankl is now one of my heroes and Man's Search for Meaning is incredible.
His story and teachings made me realize that we MUST recognize the fact that we have a responsibility to choose how we respond to any given situation.
We’ve all experienced many things that we wish never happened. But the fact is only very few among us have experienced anything as ghastly as losing our entire family and nearly losing our own lives in the horrors of a concentration camp. And if this man can choose his attitude in his situation, we can certainly choose OUR responses. Right?
Man's Search for Meaning showed me how to shift from a victim-mindset to a growth-mindset of life.
Of course, any and all of the challenges we face in our day to day lives can bring us turmoil, but NEVER forget that, ultimately, how you CHOOSE to respond to the challenge is entirely your call.
Get a parking ticket? Be grateful you even have a car. Be grateful you’re going to be able to help pay for someone’s wages for part of the day. Stub your toe? Be grateful you HAVE a toe to stub and such a great life that that’s probably the worst thing that’s going to happen to you today. Kids being a little challenging? Be grateful they’re healthy enough to make so much noise and honor them for the growth you both experience together.
Whatever it is, don’t just be reactive. Own your attitude. CHOOSE how you will respond to any given situation.
My Top 3 Quotes
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing, the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”― Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.” ― Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
“It is well known that humor, more than anything else in the human make-up, can afford an aloofness and an ability to rise above any situation, even if only for a few seconds. … The attempt to develop a sense of humor and to see things in a humorous light is some kind of a trick learned while mastering the art of living. Yet it is possible to practice the art of living even in a concentration camp, although suffering is omnipresent.” ― Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
Best Big Ideas
Please Note: The following is a collection of highlights taken straight from the book and online resources. Most of them are direct quotes. Some are paraphrases. Very few are my own words.
1. Life asks you the meaning of life by questioning you; you don’t ask life. It’s not what you expect from life, but what life expects from you.
2. Love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which you can aspire.
3. Self-actualization is possible only as a side-effect of self-transcendence.
4. Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue as a side-effect of a reason to be happy.
5. The meaning of life is unique to each moment; no situation repeats itself.
6. The meaning of life is unique to each individual; no one can be replaced.
7. Humans are self-determining; meaning is your responsibility to actualize.
8. No matter the circumstance, you always have the last of the human freedoms: to choose your attitude.
9. Tension, striving, and struggling for a worthwhile goal are positive; trying to close the gap between what one is and what one should become.
10. Life never ceases to have meaning; even suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning.
