Man's Search for Meaning | 
| Author: Viktor E. Frankl
Publisher: Beacon Press
Category: Book
List Price: $6.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  79 reviews
Sales Rank: 603
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 165
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 6.6 x 4.1 x 0.6
ISBN: 080701429X
Dewey Decimal Number: 302
EAN: 9780807014295
Publication Date: June 14, 2006
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Product Description
Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences of those he treated in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl's theory?known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos ("meaning")?holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.
At the time of Frankl's death in 1997, Man's Search for Meaning had sold more than 10 million copies in twenty-four languages. A 1991 reader survey by the Library of Congress and the Book-of-the-Month Club that asked readers to name a "book that made a difference in your life" found Man's Search for Meaning among the ten most influential books in America.
Born in Vienna in 1905 Viktor E. Frankl earned an M.D. and a Ph.D. from the University of Vienna. He published more than thirty books on theoretical and clinical psychology and served as a visiting professor and lecturer at Harvard, Stanford, and elsewhere. In 1977 a fellow survivor, Joseph Fabry, founded the Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy. Frankl died in 1997.
Harold S. Kushner is rabbi emeritus at Temple Israel in Natick, Massachusetts, and the author of several best-selling books, including When Bad Things Happen to Good People.
William J. Winslade is a philosopher, lawyer, and psychoanalyst at the University of Texas Medical School in Galveston.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 74 more reviews...
This Book Saved My Life: Create Meaning, Create Hope, Create New Life November 23, 2008
Dr. Frankl went through the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps. While many gave into despair and gave up their will to live, Frankl fought on to create some meaning from these horrible experiences. He believed that anything in life can be dealt with as long as we are able to find meaning in it.
This book saved my life when I had lost everything I ever worked for. All my life I fought to be a champion. I got close to my dreams with national shows and sponsorship requests at 18, but I got severely injured.
Doctors said I would need painkillers and Prozac for the rest of my life. They said I would never train again. I proved them wrong.
After 2 grueling years, I got back to my peak and surpassed it at 20. Yet, in the finals of a grappling tournament, I got a severe injury that was supposed to have crippled me forever. I felt constant severe pain throughout my body.
All the best doctors and therapists said I had no hope. I was doomed to lose the body that I worked all my life for. All my dreams, businesses, relationships, and meaning came from martial arts, fitness, and health. I sacrificed everything for my dreams, and now, everyone said my dream was dead. At times, I thought I should just die with my dreams.
This book made me realize I always, always, had a choice. No matter what happens in our external circumstances, we can always decide our character.
No one can take that away from us but ourselves.
Now, 2 years and 30 doctors later, I found the most amazing doctors and masters who could heal me. They both showed me a new life and a new way that I never even dreamed possible. I learned about qi qong, tai chi, and bio-mechanics to cultivate the yin in my yang soul.
I am healing, becoming stronger, bigger, and better than ever.
The wound is the seed of our adult life; it is out of that wound that our adult life grows. In the shaman traditions, it was believed that a healer only got his powers from being wounded in battle. It was through that wound that the spirit of healing could enter. It was by healing oneself that one could heal others. You can look at your suffering and pain as disabilities, or as an ability to be a miracle, an inspiration, and a champion.
A Classic For Your Personal Growth Library! November 13, 2008
The 4:8 Principle: The Secret to a Joy-Filled Life
This is an excellent book that continues to impact and influence a new generation of readers. Frankl's account of his time in Nazi death camps where he experienced the death of his pregnant wife, parents, and brother as well as other horrors placed Frankl in a position of real authority to share wise counsel in this area. His experiences and observations, ultimately leading to an incredible understanding of human nature.
Though he experienced unimaginable tragedy and adversity, he nontheless realized great truth. After reading and even re-reading his story, it is hard to imagine he authored these famous words, "The one thing you can't take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one's freedoms is to choose ones attitude in any given circumstance."
This message is a profound reminder to all of us who, in our more routine lives, may, from time to time, forget that regardless of what is going on around us, we can maintain control of what is going on within us.
This is a "TOP TEN" classic and should become a part of your self-growth library.
Highly Recommended!
 The role of Viktor E. Frankl October 27, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
As many stories introduce themselves, there are many times a main character who plays a strong influence in the books' effect on the person reading it. The reader will often be able to connect to the main character through similarities that they share. It could also be the willpower or determined personality that lure the reader closer to the main character. In the case of Man's Search for Meaning, this was exactly what happened to me. I was hooked by the first page. The author really allowed me to think about for who and what I am living for. If I were to put myself in his optimistic shoes, I would realize that there is no way I could have gone through what he did with the positive attitude that he had. Not only were his personality traits shining through the cover of the book into my mind, but alson adding to the books' real meaning.
My favorite personality trait would be Viktor's inspirational glow on life. His powerful quotes fill the magical pages with truth and acceptance to his new life in the camps. He teaches us that we need to sit back and just think about the true meaning in our lives. He is sure that he will get out of the camps alive and be able to share his story with the world. He overall just believed in what he said and was confident that everything would turn out okay.
Throughout Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor's personality traits shined out to me like a lightning bug in a dark night sky. In the camps he had a way of helping other prisoners get their hopes up and many others to find their meaning in life. It was his personality that pulled him through all his hardships.
Astounding October 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Man's Search for Meaning One of the most important books I will ever read. Life transforming. Unable to put it down. And, at the end of the day, spiritually uplifting.
A Phenomenal Book October 4, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Let me share part of the first paragraph of Harold S Kushner's introduction:
"Typically, if a book has one passage, one idea with the power to change a person's life, that alone justifies reading it, rereading it, and finding room for it on one's shelves. This book has several such passages."
There's nothing more to add to that, really. You can read the other reviews to get an indication of why I say that passage is accurate, but it most assuredly is. Maybe I should've bought the hardback...
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