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Summary: Very Inspirational Thinking
Review: We really do only have one constant and irrevocable freedom--the freedom to choose our attitude in any situation, no matter how grave. This gives one a silver lining in any situation. Frankl shows us that the true test of one's existence comes only in the times of deepest suffering. The use of the word suffering is used so loosely in pschycological texts, in the context of our own lives, most of our suffering only construes to be the everyday problems of our existence. Recognizing this connection gives the reader a better understanding of the ideas of transendence, existence and love. A very enlightening school of thought that is well supported and easily understood through Frankl's many examples from his own practice. An excellent read!!!
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Summary: Enlightening.
Review: Can a man who experienced the incredible horrors of concentration camps in World War 2 produce a book that continues to both touch and instruct the soul nearly six decades after those experiences? The answer is simply yes. The author paints a remarkable picture. The first half of the book recounts his experiences in Nazi concentration camps. The fact that he survived at all is nothing less than miraculous. In the second half, Dr. Frankl writes of logotherapy. Different from other better known forms of therapy, logotherapy focuses on meaning in one's life. It is this which he believes is what deep down we all strive for more, far more, than anything else. There are intriguing concepts such as paradoxical thinking, etc. A remarkable book written by a truly remarkable man. I wholeheartedly recommend Man's Search for Meaning.
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Summary: a "why" to live...
Review: An American doctor once asked Viktor Frankl to explain the difference between conventional psychoanalysis and logotherapy. Before answering, Frankl asked the doctor for his definition of psychoanalysis. The man said, "During psychoanalysis, the patient must lie down on a couch and tell you things which sometimes are very disagreeable to tell." Frankl immediately replied by saying: "Now, in logotherapy the patient may remain sitting erect but he must hear things which sometimes are very disagreeable to hear." By this he meant that in logotherapy the patient is actually confronted with and reoriented toward the MEANING of his life. The role of the therapist, then, is to help the patient discover a purposefulness in his life. Frankl's theory is that man's search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life and not a "secondary rationalization" of instinctual drives. Whereas Freudian psychoanalysis focuses on the "will to pleasure" and Adlerian psychology focuses on the "will to power" it can be said that Frankl's logotherapy focuses on the "will to meaning." Does man give in to to conditions or stand up to them? According to Frankl, the strength of a person's sense of meaning, responsibility, and purpose is the greatest determining factor in how that question will be answered. He believed that "man is ultimately self-determining" and as such, "does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become in the next moment."The first (and largest) section of this book is the searing autobiographical account of the author's experience as a longtime prisoner in a concentration camp. These camps claimed the lives of his father, mother, brother, and wife. Frankl's survival and the subsequent miracle of this book are a testimony to man's capacity to rise above his outward fate. As Gordon W. Allport states in the preface, "A psychiatrist who personally has faced such extremity is a psychiatrist worth listening to." I agree, and highly reccommend this book. As the sub-title says, it is an "introduction" to logotherapy, and anyone who wants to go deeper into the principles and practical application of Frankl's existential psychiatry should go to his excellent "The Doctor And The Soul". Frankl was fond of quoting Nietzsche's dictum..."He who has a WHY to live can bear with almost any HOW."
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Summary: A real story about concentration camps
Review: Besides presenting his Logotherapy in a nutshell, Viktor Frankl tells us about the horrors of concentration camps and how some people survived - and why. A fascinating book on human behavior.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice superstructure, weak foundation
Review: Jewish German psychiatrist, Viktor Frankl, fathered the "Third School of Viennese Psychiatry," known "logotherapy." This book introduces his philosophy as he tells the gripping account of his three years in the Nazi death camps World War II. Frankl wrote seventeen volumes in German on the principles of logotherapy which he weaves into this short book, so it is difficult to summarize his philosophy in a review! Nevertheless, most basic to logotherapy is Frankl's strong conviction that man is responsible. I agree. Unfortunately, the great defect of Frankl's system is the lack of objective ground given for this responsibility! Humans are responsible, yes. But to what or who? Frankl fails to answer this. Logotherapy is then essentially a humanized moralism-better than the nihilism which was bred by Neitzsche,but still short of what men really need. The following paragraph represents the strength and contribution of logotherapy to the field of psychiatrics: "We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from 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." This is also the essence of the proactivity which Stephen Covey commends in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, the book in which I first learned of Frankl. In and of itself, this concept is good. But concepts cannot be divorced from a world-view. And a world-view which isn't built on objective reality is faulty. According to Frankl, the basic motivation in man is "the striving to find a meaning in one's life" - notice he says a meaning, and not meaning. He didnt' believe it was possible to define meaning generally for all people: "The meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day, and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment." Frankl's attempt to relieve the "existential frustration" of human beings fails to deliver right here; for though a subjectively perceived meaning may help a person endure suffering (as it did him), this meaning may have no objective ground in reality, and thus be REALLY meaningless after all, leaving the person deluded and deceived. Frankl says, "self-actualization cannot be attained if it is made an end in itself, but only as a side-effect of self-transcendence." But is not self-transcendence impossible if there is no objective reality which is transcendent?! Logotherapy leaves us to ourselvs after all. According to Frankl's philosphy, one can discover meaning in life in one of three ways: "by doing a deed, by experiencing a value [such as love], or by suffering." Unfortunately, logotherapy fails to connect deeds, experiences, or suffering to anything objective; God is virtually absent. Having said all of this, commendable in the book is Frankl's conviction that liberty be balanced with responsibility: "freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast." True. I also commend Frankl's rejection of pure naturalism: "there is a danger inherent in the teaching of man's 'nothingbutness,' the theory that man is nothing but the result of biological, psychological and sociological conditions, or the product of heredity and environment. Such a view of man makes him into a robot, not a human being. This neurotic fatalism is fostered and strengthened by a psychotherapy which denies that man is free." Thus, Darwin and Freud both suffer from Frankl's analysis. Of interest is Frankl's description of logotherapy as a technique, where he discusses "anticipatory anxiety" and its cure, "parodoxical intention." This sounded a lot like reverse psychology to me! I'm not a psychiatrist or the son of a psychiatrist,but I am a pastor, a theologian, and an amateur philosopher; and in my judgment, Frankl leaves us with some helpful principles, but they are like a beautiful superstructure with no foundation, and thus, shaky. Man's search for meaning will ultimately fail if it does't terminate in the purpose for which human beings are created,namely, "to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." Though Frankl has some good thoughts, I still prefer Saint Augustine who prayed to God: "Thou hast made us for thyself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee." That is where meaning in life is ultimately found.
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Summary: A meaningful and important book
Review: I have read few books that contain as much wisdom in as few pages as Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning". As a professional psychologist, Frankl's unique point-of-view within the Nazi concentration camps allowed him to observe phenomena that others would have missed. The theories that he refined while imprisoned, termed "logotherapy" (meaning-therapy) are a wonderful way a looking at ourselves and our problems. Logotherapy focuses on the importance of finding meaning in our lives and our activities - the very factor that Frankl noted was the most valuable in surviving the camps. I cannot give a higher recommendation from this book. It is profound, moving, informative - and under two-hundred pages. Without a doubt it is worth the handful of hours required to read it.
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Summary: a messenger to mankind
Review: Frankl presents the horrendous conditions of Auschwitz with the matter-of-fact tone of a sympathetic but objective observer, much like a clinician who cares deeply about his patients but does not allow his emotions to interfere with his analysis. He shows the reader a wide range of human behavior under extreme duress, including examples of the best and worst in our nature. It is hard to imagine anyone reading this first part, his condensed description of surviving the death camps, without being moved, without becoming deeply thoughtful, even stunned, in the face of man's inhumanity to man, and conversely of what it can mean to be truly human. The book continues with Frankl describing his philosophy of psychiatric treatment, "logotherapy", that is, therapy based on discovering meaning in one's life. Based in large part on his observations in the camps, Frankl developed a method of treating depression which rejected the Freudian approach of dwelling on the past, wallowing in childhood traumas, in favor of focusing on the future, discovering personal meaning in one's present context. The idea of proper context is important here. Frankl enjoins against the notion of a One True Meaning of Life. The analogy he uses is that of asking the chess grand master, "What is the best move in the world?" It's an absurd question as it stands, of course, as every move must be evaluated in light of a particular game, the current layout of pieces, the personalities and strategies of each player, etc. Similarly, the constellation of meanings that lend our lives substance and power can very well change over time. The content of the answer is not as important as asking the right question: "For me, in this place, at this time, what gives or can give my existence the most meaning?" [that's a paraphrase, not a quote] Acting always in accordance with the honest answer to this question is, in Frankl's view, the most sustainable route to happiness throughout our lives.
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Summary: Search no more.
Review: This book was everything it's title suggests. This coming from a person who has sworn off reading anything with existential undertones (although I still enjoy Woody Allen flicks). I encourage everyone to read this book. It was very refreshing to read something that had a positive answer for the " existential vacuum" (finding no meaning in ones life). In a "nutshell" it is... that EVERYTHING has meaning....even suffering. Simply put, but I was not convinced of this until I read Victor Fankl's MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING.
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Summary: The beginning of any search for meaning
Review: I really enjoyed this book because it started me on my search for meaning. While I don't think this is the be all, end all of books about life's meaning, I think it's important as a starting point. I'd also love to meet any psychoanalyst who is practicing Frankl's technique. It sounds so interesting and so helpful. Looking at your own life to discover why you're unhappy in life. Read this book.
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Summary: Life's Meaning
Review: Man's Search for Meaning really helped me find what was true for my own life, and what I believed in. This novel put in very simple terms all the complex thoughts of life's meaning. This book has taught me that one has to find their own life source, or why one lives. Viktor Frankl shows you how to find what you're living for. He really reinforced the ideas I already had about my own life.
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