Rating: 
Summary: Cruel facts and mental health
Review: This book is divided in two parts. In the first one you will read about the horror of a Nazi concentration camp, written by a person that was there, in the very place, not by a history teacher or a researcher. Some details are omitted, but nonetheless the text shows much of the life (if we can use such word) of the prisioners.In the second part you will know about the psicology theory of the author. Even though the two parts of the book could be considered independent, after reading the first one you will understand how the theory introduced in the second part is developed. You would agree or not with the theory itself, you could even say there is some advertisement, but this book will make you think on the subject anyway, on both such cruel facts and mental health.
Rating: 
Summary: A GREAT SOURCE OF TRUTH -- one of the top 100 books ever !!!
Review: DEFINITELY one of the best 100 books ever written. It is an absolute classic. It helped me to see that it our purpose (ie. attitude) that keeps us going, even if all we own is taken away.
nobody can determine our attitude. Besides that, this book has many GREAT QUOTATIONS! Here are just a few (of many) examples: --"No one has the right to do wrong, not even if wrong has been done to them". --"It is the characteristic of...fear that it produces precisely that of which the patient is afraid." --"The fear is mother of the event." --"In the final analysis it becomes clear that the sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision, and not the result of camp influences alone." --"It is this spiritual freedom--which cannot be taken away--that makes life meaningful and purposeful." --"If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering." --"We who lived in prison camps can remember the men who walked through the 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 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." --"The crowning experience of all, for the homecoming man, is the wonderful feeling that, after all he has suffered, there is nothing he need fear any more--except his God." --George Stancliffe
Rating:
Summary: A book for anyone who wants to reflect on life
Review: I read this book while I was in high school and it touched me so much, I still enjoy rereading it today. Granted, I only read the first section, so I cannot speak for the second half on "logotherapy", but I can say this book ranks as one of my all time favorites. It is touching and it makes you really think about your life and what brings you happiness and meaning. Anyone can read this book, regardless of age or background. Obviously, when I was younger, I did not completely comprehend the finer points of "logotherapy", but I still found this book fulfilling because it really made me think. The holocost does play a role in this book, but even if you shy away from history books or books about an individual's suffering, you should still read it. It gets you to think more about your life than his and it opens your mind to thinking about everything just a little differently. And I always think that's a good thing.
Rating:
Summary: Must read
Review: Frankl's book is well done, with a lot of questions answered. I am well read, and this book is one I will have forever. Frankl does an excellent job describing the human condition, and providing insight into important actions and decisions. Start reading it, and you won't want to put it down. Knowing that it's the truth he's writing about lends credibility and powerful emotion into this work. Treat yourself, and read it. You'll be glad you did
Rating:
Summary: Interesting and Inspirational
Review: Man's Search for Meaning is an interesting and inspirational book that asks the question, what motivates the human race to survive? After surviving the hardships faced during his 3 years in four different concentration camps, Viktor Frankl created a theory known as Logotherapy. From "Logos" the Greek word for Meaning. During his time in the camps Frankl attempted to rewrite his life's achievement his manuscript. It was taken from him when he first arrived in Auschwitz. Whenever he found a small scrap piece of paper he would write down what he could. Frankl believes that the rewriting of his manusript is what allowed him to survive. In the second section of the book entitled "Logotherapy in a Nutshell", Frankl describes his theory of man's primary motivation being his meaning of life. Throught this section of the book he describes where you may find this meaning and how to go about searching for it. I personally have always shown a deep interest in concentration camps and the Holocaust. Therefore it was very easy for me to deeply enjoy this book. I found it interesting and unique that he wrote this book not about the tragic events of WWII but his personal experience. This book inspired me to search for the meaning of my own life and look more deeply into the strength and power of the human mind. In my favorite quote from the book, Frankl describes how not only is he a professor of two sciences, but also is a survivor of four concentration camps who has seen the bravery and strength of the human mind and body.
Rating: 
Summary: My review
Review: I think Frankl is a excellent writer and therapist. He makes several valid points about how man should go about finding meaning in his life. I especially like how he presented the Meaning of Suffering to the depressed doctor with the analogy of what if the wife died first? Essentially saying that the husband is saving the wife from having to suffer his death by the husband suffering the death of his wife. It is a justified way of looking at suffering. Logotherapy is all about finding meaning in life and the book explains just that but only after a very long, depressing section on his stay at Auschwitz. Although this section is somewhat dry, it is necessary to understnad where he gets his point of view for the remainder of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Insightful, but incomplete. I disagree on some key points.
Review: In "Man's Search for Meaning," Victor Frankl provides an introduction to existentialism and logotherapy. Based on his experiences in the concentration camps during World War 2, he says that life's meaning comes from within and that life does not cease to have meaning just because of suffering. He asked fellow prisoners why they did not commit suicide and he got responses such as they had a talent to be used, or a loved one waiting, or they had memories worth preserving. But how many people try to avoid death and don't commit suicide because they fear death? Frankl says that if there is a purpose in life at all, there must therefore be a purpose in suffering and dying. I don't think agree with that line of reasoning. If life is purposeful, then isn't death likely to be unpurposeful? Maybe there are "purposes" in suffering and dying but are they necessarily in our interest? The purpose of murder might be revenge, but that meaning doesn't benefit the victim. "Without suffering and death, life cannot be complete," he writes on page 76. WHAT?! Could some cases of searching for meaning in suffering and dying be rationalization? Frankl says to search through suffering and find how good can come of it, making the suffering more bearable. "Suffering ceases to be suffering the moment it finds meaning," he says. But I think it would be better still for good to come on its own and not through suffering. Finally, I think Frankl's statement that death gives life meaning contradicts his other beliefs. He is against suicide and helped his fellow prisoners to find meaning in life so they would keep living, yet he says life isn't complete without death. So if in his day, technology and medicine allowed man the option to live forever, would Frankl turn this down and allow himself to die? Wouldn't this be the same as commiting suicide? Frankl's Logotheraply proposes that many neuroses are caused by a failure of the sufferer to find meaning and sense of responsibility in his existence. Logotherapy is based on the belief that search for meaning is the primary motivation of man and not a "secondary rationalization" of instictual drives, defense mechanisms, reaction formations, or sublimations. He backs this up by saying that people live and die for their beliefs and values. He says that life is so valuable that it is worth living no matter how great the suffering may be, and finding meaning can pull man through any amount of suffering. He's against mercy killings and euthanasia for that reason. So if someone has a wasting, uncurable, terminatable illness, they should live out their natural life, he says. Or if someone has Alzheimer's disease, knowing who no one is, including themself, eats their meals through a straw, and has their diaper changed by a nurse-- they should be kept alive as long as possible. He says that we shouldn't confuse how much a person contributes to society with how much they are worth to it. Personally, I found insufficient information in the reading to convince me that there is a difference. The inference of these ideas is that human life is sacred and all humans are equal. What about animals? They can feel pain too. On the other hand, there are some humans who are in some condition that's it's like they don't even know they are alive, such as retardation, being comatose, etc and there are humans who do not want to be alive. As Frankl himself writes in the same book, being useful is equated with being meaningful and vice versa. So shouldn't we all seek to be useful in society to make our lives meaninful? As he noticed in the concentration camps, hope and courage were what kept people in the camps alive. Those who lost hope and courage would commit suicide or succumb to disease. Frankl quotes Nietzche, "He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how." In "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People", Stephen Covey noted that our ability to do anything is determined by knowing what to do, how to do it, and why to do it. Frankl's book stresses the "why"-- the motivation, the reason and meaning, to live. He says that people shouldn't focus on what they expect from life, but rather what life expects from them. To Frankl, the meaning of life is different for each person. To ask for a general, abstract meaning of life is like asking a chess Grandmaster what the greatest move in the world is, he writes. The last part of the book is devoted to a very brief intro to logotherapudic methods. "Hyper-intention" is how fear can bring to pass what we are afraid of or how trying too hard for something can prevent it from happening. To alleviate this problem, the author proposes to simply relax the hyper-intention. For example, to cure sleeplessness, try to stay awake. To achieve sexual orgasm, don't worry about it and instead focus on your partner. He says many neurotics aggravate their problems by trying to fight them. By learning to laugh at themselves, he says, neurotics can be on their way to a cure. As for the pursuit of happiness, Frankl urges the reader to pursue a REASON to be happy, just as to make someone laugh you must give him a reason to (tell him a joke). He notes that these days many people have enough to live by but nothing to live for-- they have the means but no meaning. In the future, as automation puts more time in people's hands, many will be in the "existential vacuum", faced with the lack of meaning in their lives when they aren't occupied with work or labor. Overall, I think this is an insightful book but I disagree with certain parts.
Rating:
Summary: space between stimulus & response
Review: Frankl developed his theory during the
horrifying experiences he had while being imprisoned in the
nazi death camps. The core of this theory is the belief that
man s primary motivational force is his search for meaning.
One of his other conclusions is that the space between
stimulus and response give us the opportunity to live our own
lives and be free no matter the circumstances.
Rating:
Summary: Reconsider Viktor Frankl
Review: Please consider Viktor Frankl and his wonderful books with me for a few moments in time. The reason I edited in Psychology and against Psychiatry and Analysis was the same as the reasons of the great doctors of Europe had. Analysis made people capable of doing things and of pleasure instead of living, adapting, and even being able to suffer and triumph over it. This is not a tautology at all. "Pleasure" and "doing" are the parts of life that rudimentary psychologies, as still exist in alleged "depth" and analytical psychology still do to the limited extents that it still survives and continues to damage human beings. It is time to reconsider the books and thoughts of the great European born and internationally famous and revered Doctor and Existential Psychologist Viktor Frankl, who wrote "Artzliche Seelsorge," or "The Doctor and the Soul" and "Man's Search for Meaning." I was recently appalled that the life and work of Viktor Frankl contradicted every single thing a very bright and wonderful person whom I "met" on-line over two years ago, and later in person is and has been doing for many years in addition to getting support, conditional acceptance, and aquiescence from all family and friends for their behaviors and lifestyle. I became greatly concerned when I was trusted and admitted into the home of this fine person and discovered that they had never had much of a home at any time, but indeed had a very rich work life. This person had actually ceased to exist at all at home during the previous five years. Much of Europe supports this sort of existence, and certain countries there demand it as conditional to "privacy." This life completely contradicts and inverts what FRANKL who survived the entirety of Auschwitz and other places like it from 1939-45 says it NOT the way to do things. Instead of being outraged at their "help" playing psychological detective instead of helping them to find real meaning in life versus being emotionaly cold and inwardly dead. Frankl and others I worked with as a very young person in the early 1960's took a sense of compassion and concern born of their experiences much like Frankl's with the Nazi world, and of Ratibor Jurjevich with the communists after the war and Nazi invaders during it. The entirety of the second chapter of "The Doctor and the Soul" deals with the movement from psychoanalysis to existential analysis, and particularly the meaning of life and work in all of its nuances inclusive of love, suffering and our work. The meanings of life, death, and the experience of the concentration camp and healing from it form part one. Part three defines LOGOTHERAPY and it's development on the bases of experience and the results of other less effective and very "attractive" forms of analysis all stemming from Freud that 'allow' other to develop a life that is devoid of spirit and human responsibilities. The needs of the human spirit do not change. I've shared them with family including children, friends, colleagues, and readership for some time. Will to meaning is something that animals and analysts do not do or worry about at all. Frankl and others to include all of the American Psychological Association noted that psychoanalysis, analysis, and all "alleged" depth and anaytical approaches to humans were more than willing to turn "will to meaning" to a neurosis and frailty! Human spirituality exists separate of religion, and very often atheists and their families neglect this aspect of life at their peril. The concept of deity and spirituality are and should be mutually exclusive. Religion demands and does otherwise and atheism and agnosticism often throw out the proverbial baby and bathwater. Spirituality is a value and scientific in every way as Frankl is willing to relate to those willing to read. "The mind is a place of its own and makes a heav'n of hell and a hell of heav'n." John Milton: "Paradise Lost"
Rating:
Summary: Reconsider Viktor Frankl
Review: Please consider Viktor Frankl and his wonderful books with me for a fewe moments in time. The reason I edited in Psychology and against Psychiatry and Analysis was the same as the reasons of the great doctors of Europe had. Analysis made people cabable of doing things and of pleasure instead of living, adapting, and even being able to suffer and triumph over it. This is not a tautology at all. "Pleasure" and "doing" are the parts of life that rudimentary psychologies, as still exist in alleged "depth" and analytical psychology still do to the limited extents that it still survives and continues to damage human beings. It is time to reconsider the books and thoughts of the great European born and internationally famous and revered Doctor and Existential Psychologist Viktor Frankl, who wrote "Artzliche Seelsorge," or "The Doctor and the Soul" and "Man's Search for Meaning." I was recently appalled that the life and work of Viktor Frankl contradicted every single thing a very bright and wonderful person whom I "met" on-line over two years ago, and later in person is and has been doing for many years in addition to getting support, conditional acceptance, and aquiescence from all family and friends for their behaviors and lifestyle. I became greatly concerned when I was trusted and admitted into the home of this fine person and discovered that they had never had much of a home at any time, but indeed had a very rich work life. This person had actually ceased to exist at all at home during the previous five years. Much of Europe supports this sort of existence, and certain countries there This life completely contradicts and inverts what FRANKL who survived the entirety of Auschwitz and other places like it from 1939-45 says it NOT the way to do things. Instead of being outraged at their "help" playing psychological detective instead of helping them to find real meaning in life versus being emotionaly cold and inwardly dead. Frankl and others I worked with as a very young person in the early 1960's took a sense of compassion and concern born of their experiences much like Frankl's with the Nazi world, and of Ratibor Jurjevich with the communists after the war and Nazi invaders during it. The entirety of the second chapter of "The Doctor and the Soul" deals with the movement from psychoanalysis to existential analysis, and particularly the meaning of life and work in all of its nuances inclusive of love, suffering and our work. The meanings of life, death, and the experience of the concentration camp and healing from it form part one. Part three defines LOGOTHERAPY and it's development on the bases of experience and the results of other less effective and very "attractive" forms of analysis all stemming from Freud that 'allow' other to develop a life that is devoid of spirit and human responsibilities. The needs of the human spirit do not change. I've shared them with family including children, friends, colleagues, and readership for some time. Will to meaning is something that animals and analysts do not do or worry about at all. Frankl and others to include all of the American Psychological Association noted that psychoanalysis, analysis, and all "alleged" depth and anaytical approaches to humans were more than willing to turn "will to meaning" to a neurosis and frailty! Human spirituality exists separate of religion, and very often atheists and their families neglect this aspect of life at their peril. The concept of deity and spirituality are and should be mutually exclusive. Religion demands and does otherwise and atheism and agnosticism often throw out the proverbial baby and bathwater. Spirituality is a value and scientific in every way as Frankl is willing to relate to those willing to read. "The mind is a place of its own and makes a heav'n of hell and a hell of heav'n." John Milton: "Paradise Lost"
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