“Man's search for meaning” by Viktor E. Frankl

The author 🖋

Viktor Emil Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist, neurologist, best selling author and a Holocaust survivor who endured years in Auschwitz and three other Nazi concentration camps.

He’s also the founder of logotherapy - a therapeutic approach that helps people find personal meaning in life.

Key takeaways 🎓

1. Will to meaning

Frankl believed that the pursuit of meaning, not pleasure or power, is the primary drive in human beings and is essential for our psychological health.

No matter the situation, we can always find a purpose in life - through work, love and/or courage during difficult times.

His own experiences in concentration camps showed that those who found a reason to live were more likely to survive.

2. Attitude is a choice

No matter what happens to us, we can always choose how we feel about it.

Even in the worst situations, like being in a prison camp, we can decide to stay hopeful and positive.

Based on Frankl's philosophy, this freedom of choice is fundamental to human dignity.

3. Finding purpose in hard times

Bad things happen even to good people.

Suffering is an inevitable part of life, but it is not meaningless.

We can always find a reason to keep going - by choosing to see it as a challenge, by using it as an opportunity for growth or by bearing it with dignity and testing our courage.

Frankl's own survival was due to his ability to envision himself sharing the lessons learned from his experiences.

Closing thoughts 🧠

The book is a truly profound exploration of the human spirit and the will to survive from someone who’s been in one of the darkest situations anyone could imagine.

The first part is a memoir while the second focuses on Frankl's theory of logotherapy.

It’s a real perspective shift that helped me handle some tough times of my own (and realise they pale in comparison to what others have to endure).