Europe in the 1930’s and ‘40’s was a crazy place to come of age and start a career, especially if one was of Jewish descend like Viktor E. Frankl. Born, raised, and trained in Vienna, Austria, Viktor Frankl launched a neurology and psychiatry career in 1937 within the shadow of Nazi Germany. Five short years later Dr. Frankl and his family were sent to the concentration camps of War World Two wherein his father, mother, brother and wife would die. The next three years would be some of the most difficult years Dr. Frankl life; yet they also proved the launching pad for his later career as the founder of logotherapy.
Originally written over the course of nine successive days in 1945 soon after Dr. Frankl was liberated from a concentration camp, the book “Man’s Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy” is partly biographical and partly scholarly. The first part tells of Dr. Frankl’s experiences in the concentration camps. The second part, which was added to the book in 1962, gives readers a basic introduction to logotherapy, a school of Psychotherapy founded by Dr. Frankl. The final section was added to “Man’s Search for Meaning” in 1984 and deals with how humanity continues to have hope in the face of pain, guilt and death.
When Dr. Frankl wrote the first section the book, he originally did not want his name associated with it as he simply wanted to let people know that “life holds a potential meaning under any conditions, even the most miserable ones” (pg. 12). To this end, he proceeded to tell the stories of the common prisoner – no “suffering and death of great heroes and martyrs” nor “prominent Capos” or even “well-known prisoners” (pg. 17). Instead, Dr. Frankl wrote about the “sacrifices, the crucifixion and death of the great army of unknown and unrecorded victims” (pg. 17). Life in a concentration camp is, after all, a fight for existence, an “unrelenting struggle for daily bread and for life itself” (pg. 18).
In telling the story of the common prisoner, Dr. Frankl divided the first section into the three stages of the inmate’s mental reaction to camp life: “the period following his admission; the period when he is well entrenched in camp routine; and the period following his release and liberation” (pg. 22). Throughout each of these stages, Dr. Frankl highlighted the ways in which the human psyche adapted and responded to the horrors around them. In the words of Friedrich Nietzsche “he who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how” (pg. 84).
The second part of the book focused on introducing the reader to the world of logotherapy. Logotherapy is a form of psychotherapy developed by Dr. Frankl that focuses on the “meanings to be fulfilled by the patient in his future” (pg. 104). In other words, it seeks to help each person discover the meaning of their lives though either accomplishing a deed, experiencing something or encountering someone, or through the attitude one takes when experiencing suffering (pg. 115).
At its core logotherapy is built upon the thesis that “man is not fully conditioned and determined but rather determines himself whether he give into conditions or stands up to them. In other words, man is ultimately self-determining. Man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become in the next moment” (pg. 133). Humanity, therefore, has the freedom to change both the world and themselves for the better if they only choose to do so.
The third and last part of the book deals with the question of “how is it possible to say yes to life in spite of all that [pain, guilt, and death] (pg. 139). In answering this question, Dr. Frankl reminds the reader that “happiness cannot be pursued” (pg. 140). Rather, happiness is something that one finds once they have a meaning to life. It is a by-product of a meaningful life that comes naturally no matter the situations or conditions in which one finds themselves. Building upon this, Dr. Frankl explores how the three main avenues of find meaning in life – “creating a work or by doing a deed”; “experiencing something or encountering someone”; turning a “personal tragedy into a triumph” though one’s attitude – combat the tragic triad of pain, guilt and death (pg. 146-147).
On a personal note, the thing I loved the most about this book is Dr. Frankl’s view of humanity. Unlike Sigmund Freud and others like him who claimed that at individuals will cease to have an individual will when faced with extreme hunger and horror, Dr. Frankl’s experiences in “filth of Auschwitz” gave him a more Arminianism view of humanity.Namely, people have a choice in how they are going to respond to their environment rather then being pawns of their genes, fate or God Himself. As Dr. Frankl states at the end of the book, the more the horror around them grew, the more “people became more different; people unmasked themselves, both the swine and the saints” (pg. 145).