Man's Search For Meaning : Victor Frankl

The third book I am mentioning here belongs to an eminent pshychiatrist Victor Frankl and the book is Man's Search for meaning. This book is an autobiographical account of frankl's days in concentration camp.

Frankl was arrested in september 1942 along with his new bride, his mother, father & the brother in Vienna. They were taken to a different concentration camps. Frankl was subjected to Bohemia's concentration camp. He was freed by American Army in april 1942, only to find out that all his loved one's are dead. He was then given a position of a director in Vienna Neurological Polyclinic where he served for 22 years.

This book is divided into two parts. First contains his experiences in concentration camp & the second contains his psychiatric theory- logotherapy.

For me, both the parts are worth reading. It is fascinating to see the life in concentration camp from an eye of a psychiatrist. What it seems that, yet in the moments of utter despair and sorrow , Frankl tried to maintain his vision. What he writes, is surely thinkable.

In his own words:-

There were many similar surprises in store for new arrivals. I would like to mention a few of them: we were unable to clean our teeth, and yet, in spite of that and a severe vitamin deficiency, we had healthier gums than ever before. I learned there that all medical textbooks tell lies.

Because of the high degree of undernourishment which the prisoner suffered, it was natural that the desire for food was the major primitive instinct around which mental life centered. The majority of prisoners when happened to work near each other , would start discussing food.

For the first time in my life, even in moments of utter desolation I knew a truth. The truth- that love is the ultimate and highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: the salvation of man is through love and in love.

The second part of the book contains his psychological theory: Logotherapy
Logotherapy postulates a will to meaning.
Will to find the meaning of life in love, essence of existence and in suffering.

Frankl quotes Nietzsche in the perface, ' He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how'.

Altogather, this book presents an idea that one can keep his individuality intact in worst situations also.

This book, I love a lot.