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Man's Search for Meaning |  | Author: Viktor E. Frankl
Publisher: Beacon Press
Category: Book
List Price: $13.00
Buy Used: $6.09
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Seller: Infinite Jest Bookshop
Rating:  466 reviews
Sales Rank: 242
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 168
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 0807014273
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.5318092
EAN: 9780807014271
ASIN: 0807014273
Publication Date: June 15, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl is among the most influential works of psychiatric literature since Freud. The book begins with a lengthy, austere, and deeply moving personal essay about Frankl's imprisonment in Auschwitz and other concentration camps for five years, and his struggle during this time to find reasons to live. The second part of the book, called "Logotherapy in a Nutshell," describes the psychotherapeutic method that Frankl pioneered as a result of his experiences in the concentration camps. Freud believed that sexual instincts and urges were the driving force of humanity's life; Frankl, by contrast, believes that man's deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose. Frankl's logotherapy, therefore, is much more compatible with Western religions than Freudian psychotherapy. This is a fascinating, sophisticated, and very human book. At times, Frankl's personal and professional discourses merge into a style of tremendous power. "Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is," Frankl writes. "After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips."
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:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 466
 How to deal with unimaginable horror August 29, 2010
cassdog (Gainesville, Fl USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I read this book when I was in a very tough place based on the recommendations of a surgeon who unlike many surgeons was interested in my emotional well-being as well. I was hit by a semi-truck while riding my bicycle and spent months in a very difficult place. This book provided some solace although my situation was not nearly as bad as that suffered by the author and the other victims of the holocaust. The author attempts a very difficult task, namely to develop tools for people to find meaning in some unimaginably painful situations. Situations where finding the power to cope and find meaning seem to be pointless. The author describes how he found the emotional strength to survive the concentration camps and come out to be a man who is not broken by circumstances. I couldn't relate to all of his advice but I will remember one thing that the author advised. When in an unbelievably dire and hopeless situation and all other meaning is lost, you can find meaning in suffering and dying with dignity. When all bets are off, you shouldn't lose your humanity.
 Brilliant and Meaningful August 28, 2010
Scott T. Barnes
A friend recommended this book after a discussion of "character motivation" in science fiction. I am so glad he did. Frankl was a psychiatrist working on a theory of what motivated mankind when he was thrown in a Nazi concentration camp. He survived in large part because he had something to live for--the publication of his work. The first part of the book details survival within the concentration camp. This part alone is worth the book's price. Unlike Hollywood depictions of camps, he shows what the inmates actually had to do in order to survive (they would do just about anything not to be on a "list") and he even shows the occasional humanity of some of the guards, even, amazingly, the final commandant of his camp.
The second part of the book is a brief summary of Frankl's theories called logotherapy. I can't say I'm an expert on this; he published over 20 volumes on the subject. But what I read here is fascinating. In summary, he believes that man's search for meaning is his primary motivation, unlike Freudian psychology which teaches that man's search for pleasure is his primary motivation.
I plan to reread this book regularly. Truly inspirational.
A must read August 22, 2010
Elizabeth Swigar (Buffalo, NY)
This book is a must read for anyone in the field of psychology, and anyone in the field of life...everyone. Frankl intersperses his experiences in the concentration camp with an exploration of psychology and resilience in the face of the worst circumstances known to mankind. The existential results of his explorations and thoughts are incredible, and they are balm to anyone suffering a psychic or a circumstantial wound... that we have a will to find meaning as human beings. The final lines of the book before the postscript sum up the state of mankind: "...man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright..." and like the rest of the book, use a straightforward prose to convey the richest of ideas.
This is an incredible book. August 18, 2010
Stephen Richens
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have read this book many, many times. These are the words I live by. If I was told that I could only own one book for the rest of my life, this would be it. Viktor Frankl's harrowing testimony of surviving in a concentration camp seems incomprehensible. Even more unbelievable is the attitude he adopts during his struggle as he remains apart from his family, starving, cold, and forced to perform hard labor with no relief in sight. Through it all, he decides that even though his body is being held captive, he is still free to control his mind and his attitude.
When he is ultimately liberated from the concentration camp, rather than be bitter and remorseful, he uses his tragic experiences as a basis for logotherapy, a counseling theory that helps people to find meaning in their adversity. He also influences a generation of existential psychotherapists including another favorite writer of mine, Irvin Yalom. This is an incredible book that significantly altered my life and way of thinking. I recommend it to everyone.
Good book August 7, 2010
Corianne Aubry
I had to read this book for a class, but it turned out to be a very interesting and good book to read.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 466
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