Man's Search for Meaning

     Author                         Viktor E Frankyl

     Country                       Austria

     Genre                          Non Fiction: Psychology

     Publication Date        1946

     Pages                          165






This book came highly recommended. Given the intriguing and thought provoking title, and the fact that it's a 150 page concise book, I was more than tempted to pick it up post my recently concluded escapade with the 900 plus page 'Anna Karenina'.

Through this book, Victor Frankyl, a psychiatrist by profession, chronicles his experiences as an inmate in the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War 2 and his psychotherapeutic method for dealing with such experiences. 

The first part of the book which deals with the author's personal experiences at the concentration camp is insightful. The fact that he analyses how people react to such experiences rather than just relaying these experiences as a work of historical fiction, make the book different from the host of other books on this subject. Victor throws light on how man can get used to any circumstances and how in such extreme conditions, he regresses to just fulfilling his basic needs and develops an almost uncanny insensitivity to others. One of the most disturbing impacts of such conditions is the loss of the sense of being an individual (with a free mind) and the constant threat to ones values. Such situations leave men with just 2 options - to either add a deeper meaning to life by being brave and dignified or to forgo all dignity and become an animal in this fight for self preservation. While very few men manage to do the former, the fact that even one can do it makes one believe in the feasibility of the same.

Through the second and third part of the book, Victor builds his psychotherapeutic method called logo therapy. While the details of this were too technical for my comfort, what has stayed with me is that ones mental well being depends on a certain degree of tension - between what one has achieved and what one still aspires to achieve - finding that deeper meaning in life. So many of us today suffer from what is called 'existential vacuum' or inner emptiness. As Victor aptly remarks, one can find meaning by devoting himself to a cause or by experiencing beauty/love or through the attitude one develops towards unavoidable suffering. 

In a snapshot, while the latter part of the book was a little technical, overall it's been insightful and thought provoking and definitely worth a read. 

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So, do check it out and Happy Reading!