Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning

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Noi, cei care am trăit în lagărele de concentrare, ne amintim de aceia care treceau din baracă în baracă, mîng��indu-i pe ceilalţi, dăruindu-le ultima lor îmbucătură de pîine. Vor fi fost puţini la număr, dar ei ne dau îndeajuns de multe dovezi că omului i se poate lua totul, mai puţin un lucru: ultima dintre libertăţile umane - respectiv aceea de a-și alege propria atitudine într-un anumit set de împrejurări date, de a-și alege propriul mod de a fi... La o ultimă analiză, ne devine limpede că genul de persoană care ajungea să devină deţinutul era rezultatul unei decizii lăuntrice, nu doar rezultatul influenţelor lagărului asupra sa” (p.79). In his book Man’s Search for Meaning—an autobiography about his Holocaust experience and an introduction to the concepts of logotherapy—Frankl postulated that “the sort of person a prisoner became was the result of an inner decision, not the result of the camp influences alone.”

Second, as long as these people exist, they would have an empty life, as they would not have the chance to learn from the difficult moments of their lives. Read a summary about 12 Rules for Life here. 5. We Should Embrace Our Suffering

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Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure, as Freud believed, or a quest for power, as Alfred Adler taught, but a quest for meaning." This begins the second stage, in which there is a danger of deformation. As the intense pressure on the mind is released, mental health can be endangered. Frankl uses the analogy of a diver suddenly released from his pressure chamber. He recounts the story of a friend who became immediately obsessed with dispensing the same violence in judgment of his abusers that they had inflicted on him. Ca persoană care a suferit de depresie clinică și a urmat un tratament cu antidepresive, nu vreau să omit nici faptul că Frankl îți bagă sensul pe gât, vrei nu vrei, astfel nici măcar bieții sinucigași nu au voie să trăiască un vid existențial autentic pentru că, ei bine, dacă „nu ar mai crede cu adevărat în sens, n-ar mai fi capabili să miște nici măcar un deget și, de aceea, nu ar avea nici determinarea să se sinucidă.(pp. 99)” Să nu uităm un alt episod al istoriei care s-a întins pe o perioadă suficient de lungă astfel încât memoria lui să fie încă vie și astăzi, când persoanelor cu dizabilități intelectuale le era luat dreptul de a se autoguverna - non compos mentis, sicut quidam sunt per lucida intervalla, întocmai precum Frankl neagă faptul că anumite persoane și-ar putea trăi (culmea!) propria realitate. Ce poate fi mai egoist decât să îi refuzi unei persoane dreptul la propriul destin și corp? Iată motivul pentru care atât de multe persoane cu boli în stadiu terminal mor în condiții în care nicio persoană zdravănă la cap nu ar lăsa să sfârșească un câine. Dr. Frankl clearly shows us, our choice of attitude in any given situation, even in the most horrific places, is our freedom that cannot ever be taken away no matter where we are or what we may be going through. Man's Search for Meaning provides an unbiased narration of the experiences faced by a prisoner in a concentration camp, and the effects of it on one's most inner self. This is not a book on the specifics of torture, or other such inhumane things, but a prisoner's psychological impacts caused from numerous hardships.

But, while the basic premises are powerful and moving, the breadth and scale of repetition of the same ideas and the technical jargon and the constant Freud-bashing ensured that I did not enjoy the book as much as I had hoped. Furthermore, the whole chapter dedicated to the theory that ultimately our basic necessity of 'search for logos' can also be explained as a 'repressed religious drive' and his exhortation to religious people to not look down on irreligious ones (read atheists and agnostics) just because they have achieved a stage that the atheists/agnostics are still aspiring (unconsciously of course) towards rang patently false and too much in line with his argument of psychiatry being a sister to theology. The Ignored Presence of God is worth reading. The book teaches important points of logotherapy that are forgotten by many. Thus, reading is very interesting for anyone who wants to delve into the thinking of this great psychologist of the twentieth century. And of course, if you haven’t read other Viktor Frankl books, this book will be fantastic – and I think it’s a great introduction to the author. Read a summary about Psychotherapy and Existentialism here. Positive Points of Man’s Search for Ultimate Meaning It is quite hard to recommend Holocaust-related books, but out of all I have read, I find this one the most spiritual one.

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One should not search for an abstract meaning of life. Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life to carry out a concrete assignment which demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Frankl divides his inspiring book into two parts. The first describes his experience living in Nazi death camps and how he dealt with the doom and decay that always surrounded him. He laces his story with astute, dispassionate observations about his emotions and the suffering of those around him. The second section explores a type of therapy that arose from his time in the death camps: logotherapy. Logotherapy focuses on helping people find meaning in their lives, to give them a greater sense of purpose and to push them past the obstacles they face. He writes that people can discover meaning in three different ways: 1) by creating a work or doing a deed, 2) by experiencing something or encountering someone, and 3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering (this last option is only meaningful when the first two are unavailable).

An inspirational exploration of the psychology that enabled Viktor Frankl, bestselling author of Man's Search for Meaning, to survive the Holocaust

If someone asks me to recommend the best three books related to the Second World War and the horrors of the holocaust, this book will be one among them. Viktor Emil Frankl was an Austrian Neurologist and Psychiatrist. He was also a Holocaust survivor. This book describes his experiences in concentration camps in the first section and the logotherapy he developed for finding meaning in all forms of existence during the suffering in the second section. vrea cu dinadinsul Frankl, un sens al sensurilor, îmi amintesc că un psihoterapeut a spus odată: „Sensul vieții înseamnă să înveți să iubești.”, iar acesta este unul destul de bun pentru The body is the first element to break out of this stage, responding by big appetites of eating and wanting more sleeping. Only after the partial replenishing of the body is the mind finally able to respond, as "feeling suddenly broke through the strange fetters which had restrained it" (p. 111). explicará la trascendencia de la conciencia incluyendo temas como la libertad, servir y concebir a la conciencia y Dios. La religiosidad y lo irreligioso que también está presente en el hombre que no cree en Dios. El hombre se comprende así mismo, comprende su existencia a partir de la trascendencia que existe.

Man has as one of his greatest accomplishments the search for meaning in his existence, as it makes him more complete. Therefore, this search for meaning is what moves human beings, enabling them to go further and achieve more results in their lives. Later German editions prefixed the title with Trotzdem Ja zum Leben Sagen ("Nevertheless Say Yes to Life"), taken from a line in Das Buchenwaldlied, a song written by Friedrich Löhner-Beda while an inmate at Buchenwald. [4] impresión, experiencia mía: Es que aprendí más sobre la Logoterapia en éste libro que en "El hombre en busca de sentido". De todos modos, dicho libro es la base de todo lo que viene después. Existencia para Frankl es espiritual: somos alma, cuerpo y espíritu, siendo ésto último la parte más humana de la persona. El ser humano es un ser que decide, es responsable y es existencial. I can only admire a man who went through hell and was nevertheless able to preserve his inner strength and integrity. Victor's resilience, stoic attitude to pain, and faith in humankind fascinate me. Much wisdom can be found in some of his observations. That being said, Frankl's philosophy, in which his religious beliefs played a big part, did not always resonate with me. I did not always agree with what he was saying.Viktor Frankl is known to millions as the author of Man's Search for Meaning, his harrowing Holocaust memoir. In this book, he goes more deeply into the ways of thinking that enabled him to survive imprisonment in a concentration camp and to find meaning in life in spite of all the odds. He expands upon his groundbreaking ideas and searches for answers about life, death, faith and suffering. Believing that there is much more to our existence than meets the eye, he says: 'No one will be able to make us believe that man is a sublimated animal once we can show that within him there is a repressed angel.' Lawrence Langer, Versions of Survival: The Holocaust and the Human Spirit (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1982), p. 24. que reconocer que los primeros capítulos por estar narrado con un lenguaje típico de la psicoterapia, se me hicieron difíciles, pesados de leer, pero conforme seguí leyendo -despacio- se me fue haciendo un poco más llevadero. Me permitió conocer más sobre la Logoterapia y debo decir que con algunos conceptos no coincido pero como lectura y aprendizaje sobre ella me vino muy bien. A partir del capítulo 5,6,7 y el suplemento a la 3ra edición alemana, me encantaron y los leí muy entusiasmada. Using his logotherapy analysis, a type of existential inquiry into meaning, Frankl examines how religion can help one actualize. Little is paid to the method of logotherapy, but he succinctly describes it as: will to meaning; meaning in suffering; freedom of will. At one points he writes the task of logotherapy to let conscious mind find religiousness. Frankl writes beautifully, although sometimes vaguely about happiness, meaning, religion, suffering and the preciousness of life. One of my favorite quotes from him is "happiness is the side effect of living out the self-transcendence of existence". Another is "Wisdom is knowledge+. Knowledge and the knowledge of its limits." Although the Nazi menace was growing, and he had been granted a visa for the US, he decided to let his visa lapse. He felt he should stay in Vienna for the sake of his ageing parents. In September 1942, Frankl and his family were arrested and deported.