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Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl (1946)
“It did not matter what we expected from life, rather what life expected of us.”
SYNOPSIS: Powerful. One word that encapsulates everything this book is. It is difficult to really simplify and it deserves more than to be simplified. The book is its author. It is Frankl’s personal account of his time as a prisoner of the Nazis; he experienced the atrocities of the Holocaust during WWII, for three years. He was a psychiatrist before this and continued to be, following it; the psychiatric perspective he had during his time as a prisoner is palpable throughout and is what inspired to this succinct guide to survival. From the Holocaust, Frankl found a way to benefit others for generations to come with his attitude and will to survive and improve. This book is the phoenix rising from the ashes of horror. The most extreme case of turning negatives into positives. It is a book that perfectly translates recovery from horrific tragedy into tips for overcoming more relatable, smaller issues. How to explore sorrow, helplessness, depression – feelings that we all experience in various contexts – and the extent to which happiness and meaning can be found in even through most desperate of circumstances. A mindset shift that will leave you wishing only that you’d read it sooner.
THOUGHTS: This book is pure power. It is almost unfathomable that a single human being could even have the ability to create something so full of hope from a circumstance so dire. That in itself is inspiring. Although the book’s setting is of course horrific and the struggles Frankl recounts are harrowing, unbelievable in parts – that makes the overall positivity that emulates from the pages all the more up-lifting. If Frankl can make it through this, I can make it through anything. He simplifies the discovery of the meaning of one’s life into three main points. And they make so much sense. The advice given is unpatronising, unassuming. Once you explore the ideas, you think ‘I can’t believe I’ve never thought of it that way before’.
“Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we have a clear and precise picture of it.”
I read this book at the beginning of our big trip in 2019. I have to say, I’m so glad I read it at the start. Not because I was going through any particular struggle, but simply because it is completely perspective-changing. You turn the last page feeling lucky to be alive, lucky to have the ability to change your perspective to a positive one, lucky to be on a search for a meaning. Wondering if meaning really matters at all. You feel that anything is possible. How you can ever again honestly say you can’t mentally get through something, after reading how Frankl got through what he did, becomes implausible.
The attitude the author has and the advice he shares with his readers: sticks. The dichotomy of the theme of hope and and the theme of despair: sticks. It is factual, it is heavy in places and it is written from a psychiatrist’s point of view, with his own theories being part two of the book. Read it with an open mind, don’t expect it to be pretty and you’ll emerge at the end of it a different kind of person. The only thing I came away from it thinking about was how beautiful and full life is. I go back to it when I need to reconfigure my mindset. I wish everyone would read this book.
“The salvation of man is through love and in love.”
Places We Roam 