Man's Search For Meaning - review by Valerie

So sorry for the delay in getting this review done. Better late than never I hope!

We had a great meeting in May to discuss Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search For Meaning." There were 9 of us there and the discussion was very interesting. Not everyone loved the book most of us felt it's impact and can see why it is on the all time list of must reads.

Frankl was born in Vienna in 1905 and died in 1997. He was a Nazi death camp survivor and lost his wife, father, mother and brother in concentration camps. Despite these circumstances, Frankl remained an optimist and always believed that a person has the freedom to choose how they see their situation in life and to then create meaning for themselves. One of his favorite quotes was from Nietzche, "He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how."

The first half of "Man's Search For Meaning" is for the most part an autobiography of Frankl's experiences in a concentration camp. We all thought this part of the book was very interesting and felt empowered and inspired by his will to live. The last half of the book is a essay explaining his theory called "logo therapy." This basically states that the main human drive is not please but the pursuit of what we find meaningful. He believed that people often died in concentration camps because they did not have something to live for, something that was meaningful to them. Some of us felt this part of the book was repetitive and not a page turner as it was full of technical terminology and clinical psychology information. But we were all inspired by the bottom line of his philosophy: "Human behavior is not dictated by conditions than man encounters, but by decisions he himself makes." Our thoughts on this were that it's so nice to feel like we have a choice regarding how we live life, that you get out of life what you put into it, we are in control. Frankl has given us a challenge and we need to embrace it. Most of us could relate to his theory and would keep this book as a reference point when having a bad day. It can empower us all. 

The overall rating for this book was a 3.5. The first half of the book describing Frankl's experiences in the death camps was definitely preferred over the last half but taken as a whole, it was still an amazing book and has been a huge influence on major contemporary self-help writers. 

Frankl's message is one of hope, even in the worst situations. No matter what the circumstances, we can be free.