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Summary: A Search for Meaning
Review: This is definately one book that should be read. Frankl provides so much insight into the psychological states of those in prison camps during the holocaust and provides us with a wonderful introduction to Logotherapy. It is really a moving book that will make you think about your life and the meaning of your own life.
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Summary: Thought-Provoking and Life-Inspiring
Review: Dr. Frankl's book is divided into two parts. In the first part, he eloquently describes how he survived a Nazi concentration camp. He took this terrible "opportunity" to learn how people survive crises and deprivation and horror. This section will be valuable to anyone, and especially to those of us who have survived tragedy and trauma of any kind (in other words, just about anyone again).The second part of the book describes the philosophy of life and the existential theory of psychology that Dr. Frankl derived from his experiences. I am a practicing clinical psychologist and, while Dr. Frankl probably would not label my brand of psychotherapy as his logotherapy, I credit this book as providing me with a framework that had been missing in my work. Through my education, I learned many techniques that were useful to me, and I read about many theories of psychology and psychotherapy that were interesting, but I ended up with a set of tools but no toolbox to put them in. "Man's Search for Meaning" gave me the toolbox, or the framework that tied everything else together. Read it; it will challenge you and probably change you.
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Summary: An Exceptional Human Being
Review: I read this book when I was 19 years old, and it remains, over a decade later, one of my favorite books. Dr. Frankl was an exceptional human being, taking a hellish experience and turning it into a way to help others. Highly recommended.
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Summary: A Must Read
Review: This should be compulsory reading for all of us. I found it very useful in helping me to review my life and put things into perspective.A Therapeutic book.
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Summary: Oh my goodness!
Review: I read this book for a high school class thinking it'd be some mediocre escapade filled to the brim with abnormal philosophy. Boy was I ever wrong. -- This book is organized into two different sections. The first section is about the author's time spent in a Nazi concentration camp. The latter half is of his philosophy and ideas of logotherapy. I found the events of the concentration camp to be very interesting. So interesting, in fact, that I ended up hating what I was reading. I'm sure everyone is somewhat familiar to what happened in this camps, and Frankl's depiction is no exception. -- I know that a lot of people get discouraged when they get to his philosophy sections, however. Yet these are some of the best ideas I have ever read in a book. His main point seems to be to find one's meaning in life, and I think everyone can relate to that. A very well-written book. If you're looking for some great insight about living, you need to read this. If you can stick it through his wordiness and technical explanations, you'll find something worth remembering.
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Summary: Inspirational and Thought Provoking - Life is the meaning
Review: I would never recommend an idea or explanation as the sole truth. I believe it is important to take the best from each idea and to take what best works for you. I however believe that the author hits many targets with his analysis. Read this book, even if just to open your eyes to another meaning. Severe incidents of human cruelty are mentioned, yet this book sends an uplifting and inspiring message to all. You will not be disappointed.
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Summary: Great for students
Review: I enjoyed reading this book, I read it for a Philosophy class. It made me vision what it was like in the concentration camps, and how people had to adapt to the situation. Shock and Apathy were ways to deal with it, but they weren't the only ways. In life we have many defense mechanisms, such as ignorance, humor, apathy, and others. I would encourage others to read this book, because in life there is meaning, we get it by our name, who we love, and our relationships with other people. We can identify with a lot...Read this book...
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Summary: Find out what life wants from you!!!
Review: Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going? These are questions that confront humankind each day. Without the answers to these questions, a person may find their life void of purpose or joy. This book does not answer any of those questions, but reminds you of the importance of getting the answer to the second and third questions. Before reading the book I felt I had a pretty good grasp on my own answers for the three questions of life. However, Dr. Frankl made me specify my answers. I needed a mission, a creed by which I should live my life, a statment by which I could measure each decision in life. Dr. Frankl explains, through his own experience during the Holocaust, that each person has a reason to live. When that reason ceases to exist, that person must either find another reason or be dead emotionally. This story reminds me of the story of Anne Frank. She was doing quite well until she felt that her entire family was dead. She could no longer see a reason to continue fighting the opposition, so she gave up and died shortly after her sister. Had she known or thought her father was still alive, I believe she may have been able to escape sickness and survive her imprisonment. Dr. Frankl encourages you, without preaching, to find THAT reason for you life. What purpose does your life hold? Don't ask what you want out of life, but ask, "What does life want from me?" The key is to find what life wants from you. The holocaust stories will help you see the necessity of answering these questions. Whether you find your life with or without purpose, read this book. It could change your life for the better.
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Summary: A very wise book.
Review: This book is simultaneusly a chronicle, a pshychology essay, an ethical treaty, and a quite effective medicine against suffering. The first part is about the author's experinces in some nazi concentration camps, from a psychiatrist point of view. This view is fairly unbiased and an example of that is that he never mentions the word "jew" in the whole book. One of his categorical conclusions is that there are only two kinds of human reces: the decent human beings and the non decent ones. This first part of the book (originally planned to be the whole book) serves as a basis for the second part where the basics of logotherapy are explained. Regardles wheter or not a reader agrees with the psychiatry ideas on the second part, what resulted evident to me is that those ideas can be enormously helpful for people that are suffering deeply. Some of those ideas would seem commonplace but that is just because this book has been extremly influential. I am sure anyone can read this book with the certainty that she is not wasiting her time.
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Summary: 1 Of The Most IMPORTANT Books You'll EVER Read!!
Review: Wow. I work at a bookstore and have always been interested in the psychological and spiritual elements of life, so it was admittedly humbling when a young girl asked me to help her find this million-selling book which I had never heard of. Upon locating it, I looked at it in my hands and asked her what it was about----besides the obvious, that is. She didn't know that much about it herself, except that it had come highly recommended. I made a mental note to pick it up a copy, and did so. I dunno. There was just something about it.... Maybe it was the fact that this book just reeks of brilliance. And even more importantly, LOGIC!!! For something so short, it's amazing that Victor was able to cram so much insight and genius into such a small, riveting piece. From page one, you are enraptured, totally drawn into his grueling first-person account of what it was like to spend years in a concentration camp. Of special interest is it to note that Victor takes great pains not to "overglorify" the events, but instead chooses only to document accounts that were relevant to his learning. The second part of the book illustrates logotherapy, logos actually meaning the word "meaning". He discusses the existential vaccuum (TV, sex, etc), among other issues. Although enthralled by psychology, I was of course worried this segment would be drier and/or difficult to understand. Fortunately, Frankl is much better at explaining himself than the likes of other fascinating minds (e.g. Jung, etc.), and this part of the book was just as entertaining, since he not only speaks in a language we can all easily understand but also discusses behaviors and scenarios we each face (and struggle with) all the time. One example really stood out to me. He tells of an older, educated man of society who comes to him for help. Apparently this man's wife had died two years prior and he was still having difficulty overcoming the grief and loneliness--the utter depression---he was experiencing. He didn't know what to do. Victor simply asked him what his wife would have done had HE died first. The man quickly assured Victor that she would have been equally distraught and would have suffered greatly. Victor then commended the man on what a tremendous gift he was able to give to his wife in saving her all of that tremendous pain. The expense was, of course, his own pain and suffering, but he was still able to save his beloved wife from going through such a traumatic ordeal, and instead had gone through it FOR her (since one of them was bound to do it at some point!) This man, in five minutes, was healed. And beaming. My grandmother is going through this EXACT scenario, and you can be sure I am sending her a xeroxed, enlarged copy of that part of the book, to say the very least. His work is as equally philosophical as it is psychological--he speaks---NOT "preaches"---of changing one's outlook, which was perhaps the only thing the Germans couldn't rob the Jews of. And afterwards--although he's very careful not to tell anyone that they "should" in fact change their perspective, you can't help but look at things differently---with more acceptance and analysis than you might have otherwise done so. It's very enlightening, riveting, and insightful, and I look forward to exploring more of his mind and works. There is now not a doubt in my mind that the aforementioned customer at the beginning of this review came up to ME looking for that book for a REASON--and that I was supposed to read this book. And the next time she came in, I thanked her profusely as we discussed the book in total awe of what we had read. I can't recommend this book enough---to anyone and everyone. It should be required reading! In fact, I already bought a copy for my friend Rebecca, who just received her masters in psychology, although it would make a great gift for just about anybody. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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