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Summary: For those who seek to live life to the fullest...
Review: I find myself, in the images of my mind, retracing some familiar paths, as a young boy, having lived through the Vietnam war, succumbed by hunger and malnourishment, detached from a mother's love, distanced from brothers and sisters, far away from all that brings comfort and contentment to life. Yet somehow, through providential care, I knew, even as a youngster, that life must have meaning to both the fortunate as well as to the unfortunate, to the rich as the poor, to the privileged as the lowly. This meaning I have long understood. Viktor Frankl has helped me to see, even more clearly, the groaning of life itself, which yearns for meaning and purpose, even in the midst of unimaginable sufferings. Frankl said, "For the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into songs by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth-that love is the ultimate and highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry, human thoughts, and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is the through love and in love." My personal discovery has, furthermore, led me see the significance of what Blaise Pascal said with respect to the futility of a life, whose existence is without love, and that the highest expression of this love is ultimately found in God. He said, "I see the terrifying immensity of the universe which surrounds me, and find myself, limited to one corner of this vast expanse, without knowing why I am set down here rather than elsewhere, nor why the brief period for my life is assigned to me at this moment rather than another in all eternity that has gone before and will come after me. On all sides I behold nothing but infinity, in which I am a mere atom, a mere passing shadow that returns no more." Yes, without God, life is a mere existential vacuum in the great cosmos. I am struck with one curiosity about the book. I am not sure why Frankl often quoted Friedrich Nietze. According to historians (Paul Johnson; History of the Jews), Nietzche's philosophy was one of the impetus which brought about the rise of Germanic-centricity, or the attitude that German was a superior race, which tragically led to the horrifying oppression against the Jews.
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Summary: This book should be required reading for life!
Review: Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning is a book that any reader can learn from. Frankl shares his experience as a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp during WWII, and how this experience helped him to develop an approach to psychotherapy (called logotherapy). Even those readers who are not interested in the details of his theory will enjoy Part I, which consists of the story of his experiences at Auschwitz and Dachau. His main point is that everyone can find the will to go on, even in the direst of circumstances, if only we can identify something that we are willing to live for. Frankl's tragic experiences, and his glorious victory are an example for every human to aspire to. Man's Search for Meaning should be required reading for life!
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Summary: An excellent book combining deep insight and common sense.
Review: An excellent book combining deep insight and common sense
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Summary: This book shows what man can endure if he really wants to.
Review: This book is very inspiring. It is amazing how long Mr. Frankl and many others who had a REASON to live did live through the worst concentration camps. He tells us that the ones who wanted to survive were the ones who did.
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Summary: This book has honestly helped to change and define my life.
Review: I read this book a year ago and have read it a half dozen times since. I am studying psychology in college and have heard so much freudian BS that I was loosing faith in the field. Upon reading this book, which a professor recommended I realized that many of my own feelings about life and therapy were all there in print. It helped me to define many of my own life experiences and shape my goals to the future. I have given this book to every roommate I have had. It is priceless.
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Summary: A diamond of humanity in a store of cubic zirconium!
Review: Frankl's masterpiece stands out as a diamond in a store where all else is made of cubic zirconium! The majority of this work which chronicles the atrocities of and his horrid experiences in the death camps (a more representative term than "concentration camps") stands as a testament to the "defiant power of the human spirit." The latter two chapters on the tenets of logotherapy are contained merely for the academically inclined. The narrative is paramount! Frankl's experiences serve to validate that "To live is to suffer. To survive is to find meaning in the suffering." Furthermore, his experiences support his infrequently cited "equations of meaning." Namely, "Despair=Suffering-Meaning" whereas "Hope=Suffering+Meaning!" Through this book Frankl has bequeathed a gift to us - a gift endowing us with the absolute knowledge of our inherent spirituality, bestowing upon us the existence of the Love of God and challenging us to discover and actualize the unique meaning(s) in our lives.
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Summary: Delivers what it promises!!
Review: I picked up this book because it is referenced in so many other books and I had to read for myself what all of the hype was about. Now I understand. Through Viktor Frankl's words you will experience what it was to have suffered a fate worse than death - or so I thought before reading this book. This is a book that will change your perceptions and paradigms. It is one of those books that you will pick up and not put down. Afterwards, the way you see yourself and your life will change forever.
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Summary: Live-changing
Review: Viktor Frankl changed my outlook years ago and I am now training the next generation in logotherapy. Wonderfully spiritual and needs to be read more than once.
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Summary: Inspiration from the inside, outwards.
Review: An understated revelation into the compelling search for meaning to life, which Frankl believes lies within the meaning we find in our suffering. His case is very persuasive. I was changed by the book. While a Jew from concentration camps, he sometimes borrows Christian imagery to make his point, and his message is ultimately and purposefully universal. This is not merely a work for Jews in search of their history, but also for people in search of their sleeping souls. I highly recommend it.
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Summary: Man's Search For Meaning (Logotherapy)
Review: This may be the only negative review of this book, but there needs to be a first for everything. This book started off great, recollections of the tradgedies and sufferings that the author (Viktor Frankl) experienced in numerous German concentration camps during the second World War. But the first section, describing the actual war, was intriguing and kept me reading. But with the introduction of Logotherapy, the book started to go downhill, and I lost interest in it, as logotherapy and an in-depth view of human reactions just isn't my thing. So, if you're into psychological text, this is your book, but if you're the action/suspense kind of book reader, you can read the first section. This was just a disappointment after the first section.
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