• Man's Search for Meaning

  • By: Viktor E. Frankl
  • Narrated by: Simon Vance
  • Length: 4 hrs and 44 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (49,064 ratings)

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Man's Search for Meaning

By: Viktor E. Frankl
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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Editorial review


By Seth Hartman, Audible Editor

THE BLEAK HISTORY AND BRILLIANT OUTLOOK OF MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING

Bringing his psychological expertise and penchant for philosophical analysis to the fore, Viktor E. Frankl manages to paint a harrowing yet oddly relatable picture of life in a Nazi concentration camp. Like many works of philosophy, Man's Search for Meaning deals with the existential need to find purpose in one's life. This sort of philosophical musing has been present as long as the written word itself, but Frankl takes this idea to its logical extreme by relating this common human need to one of the most horrible experiences possible.

Maybe it is due to the fact that I am Jewish, or perhaps due to my circumstances growing up around a large number of trained psychologists, but the ideas presented in this book resonate in an extremely powerful way for me. I was introduced to Frankl in a college philosophy course, but it wasn't until later in life that I picked up the book and read it cover to cover, and then went back and listened to the audiobook, narrated by Simon Vance. Having heard countless stories from Holocaust survivors throughout my life, I found that most of them repeated one key phrase about how they made it through the experience: "Find a purpose." This seems like a crazy thing to say while surrounded by so much death and suffering, but the idea is backed up strongly by Frankl's theories.

Throughout this book, Frankl is searching for something he calls a "will to meaning." In short, this concept sums up one's purpose to live and the drive to achieve that purpose. Frankl had been studying this very concept (which he coined as "logotherapy") in his college in Vienna before he was abducted. Frankl utilizes words from fellow philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche to illustrate this point—"He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how." One of the most powerful sections of this piece sees Frankl describing a fellow prisoner who thought he had a premonition about being freed by a certain date. This man was resilient and optimistic through his suffering until the date in question passed, after which he almost immediately died. After losing hope, the man's body followed suit.

While this book is full of bleak stories like the above, I find Frankl's words to be not only realistic and logical, but also optimistic. His chosen lane of "logotherapy" is a hopeful one, despite his deeply traumatic experiences. The fact that I can apply my own struggles to his life's work affirms my own search for purpose.

Man's Search for Meaning is, above all else, a philosophical treatise. Frankl's musings on the meaning of life are made even more powerful given the context in which he developed these feelings. Despite those brutal conditions, Frankl delivers a philosophical thesis that anyone can relate to. With this in mind, this title is best for people who might be asking themselves some of life's biggest questions. Themes like finding what Frankl calls the "will to meaning," or understanding what motivates an individual to press forward, are front and center throughout. Do not expect to listen to this book without experiencing some degree of internal reflection.

Continue reading Seth's review >

Publisher's summary

Man’s Search for Meaning is the chilling yet inspirational story of Viktor Frankl’s struggle to hold on to hope during the unspeakable horrors of his years as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps. 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.

Through every waking moment of his ordeal, Frankl’s training as a psychiatrist lent him a remarkable perspective on the psychology of survival. As a result of these experiences, Dr. Frankl developed a revolutionary approach to psychotherapy known as logotherapy. At the core of his theory is the belief that man’s primary motivational force is his search for meaning. Frankl’s assertion that “the will to meaning” is the basic motivation for human life has forever changed the way we understand our humanity in the face of suffering.

Frankl’s riveting memoir was named one of the 10 Most Influential Books in America after a 1991 survey by the Library of Congress and Book of the Month Club. This revised and updated version includes a new postscript: “The Case for a Tragic Optimism”.

©1959, 1962, 1984 Viktor E. Frankl (P)1995 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"An enduring work of survival literature." (The New York Times)

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Read This if You're Very Sick and/or Thinking About Ending Your Life

Does a chronic disease or messed up life have you feeling like you're at the end of the line? Are you feeling like it's time to end your life? Reading/listening to this book may end your suffering. The author, Dr. Frankl, has insights on life that may change your perspective. He was a Jewish doctor in Austria when the Nazis invaded in 1938. He had the opportunity to get out of the country, but decided to stay with his family. That was the wrong choice as he ended up in concentration camps, but this little book was the result. It was/is one of the most compelling that I've ever read. Steven Covey, the self help guru, made mention of this book in the first pages of his bestseller, "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People." It changed him. His self help system was based largely on this book. I could go on, but I'll just say that I read this book when I was in a dark, hopeless place after my doctor told me that my 11 month treatment would have to be extended to 18 months. Perhaps that sounds like no big deal, but I was living on savings and it meant that I would run out of money before the end. Obviously, that had me feeling pretty low. This book changed my perception of my lot and perked me right up! I couldn't change my fate, but I could change the way I thought and dealt with it. Best wishes & I hope you read this!

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497 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars

I will isten again and again

The beginning of this book deals with the author's time in concentration camps, and the descriptions are all to the purpose of tracing his observations, which he later builds his theory of logotherapy on. Thus, the descriptions are not horrifying for horrors sake, but serve to educate one regarding the way these experiences were able to be withstood.

There were a few surprises in this book as well. He mentions logotherapy, and paradoxical intention, in relation to its use in treatment for people with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, among other things.

Most importantly, to myself, were the ways he showed how he had developed his ideas on man's search for meaning. These are ideas that he himself used to save his life while enduring four concentration camps. They are not ideals plucked out of the ether and argued with only intellect.

The narrator has a European accent, which I cannot place, but which added greatly to my listening experience. Sometimes the ideas flow thick and fast and it is a challenge to keep up while also taking in completely the ideas you just heard.

This is a book I will listen to repeatedly and learn from on each occassion.

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    5 out of 5 stars

Humbling

All the other people that have reviewed this book have captured the content of the book very well. The only thing I have to add is that this is a book about an extraordinary man, with all of the horror he was subjected to he still remained a wonderful human. He is not bitter and does not hate the people who subjected him to these unspeakable acts, instead he tries to find the good or humor in their acts.

This book humbled me; I used to get upset when someone took my parking spot, or cut into my queue but now I smile as I have never had to endure real horror or injustice.

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Between stimulus and response, there is a space...

"Man's Search for Meaning" is the great summary of Frankl's view on life. Sold in 10 million copies - the book has two distinct parts - the first is a kind of memoir of the horrible time Frankl spent in at least four concentration camps during II World War, including Auschwitz. From all written stories about the life in camp - Frankl's relation is astonishing - there are no gruesome scenes, no ghastly relations - but through some cold description of prisoners shock, apathy, bitterness and finally deformation of morals - Frankl's account is one of the most fearful stories I have ever read. Yet, there is still a small light of humanness, still a germ of meaning in all these atrocities. Let's read: "We have come to know man as he really is. 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."

The second part of the book deals with his LOGOTHERAPY - the fundamental theory Frankl promoted in XX century. Logotherapy seeks the cure for neurosis and existential emptiness in the search for meaning in life. There are passages in the book, also those about love and its importance that make one shiver....

Let's read two citations from this great book:

"An incurable psychotic individual may lose his usefulness but yet retain the dignity of a human being. This is my psychiatric credo."

"Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."

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One of the Most Important Books Ever Written

There are a handful of books that should truly be required and desired reading for everyone across the world. This is one of them. It is simultaneously repulsive and compelling, disheartening and hopeful.

I read this book perhaps 20 years ago. The older I get, the more I find new meaning in it. There are a great many self-help books out there that go on and on and say nothing. Then there's a book like this that offers an unblinking look at one of history's most horrific events from an inside perspective and uses that as a lead-in to offer to us a scientific embrace of the three little words that could mean the most to all of us.

Love. Faith. Hope.

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Adversity-Suffering-Meaning

This is a book I would normally pass on the shelf. A friend who happens to be a Psychologist recommendedI I read this; after a terrible diagnosis I received. Never and I mean NEVER has a book enveloped me, inspired me, or, said exactly what I needed to hear, and on a level compare my own troubles to. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has given up on living a meaningful life; better even know what a meaningful life can be. I would give this book 5 stars, it didn’t solve my problem, but gave me the tools to do so on my own.

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Great book for those dealing w/ existential issues

Great book for anyone dealing with existential issues or anyone who wants an introduction into a sound anthropological psycho-therapy method. Frankl chronicles his experiences as a concentration camp inmate and from the viewpoint of his psycho-therapeutic / phenomenological method of finding meaning in all forms of existence, even the most sordid ones, and thus a reason to continue living. Through his experience, he developed a method of psycho-therapeutic method that he called logotherapy. His analysis focuses on a "will to meaning" as opposed to Adler's Nietzschean doctrine of "will to power" or Freud's "will to pleasure". Rather than power or pleasure, logotherapy is founded upon the belief that it is the striving to find a meaning in one's life that is the primary, most powerful motivating and driving force in humans. According to Frankl, "We can discover this meaning in life 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" and that "everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances". For Frankl, it was his love for his wife that enabled him to survive Auschwitz and three other camps, not to mention many moments of "luck" or grace. Love, for Frankle, became the highest experience that a human can have. I appreciated the back story of Frankl's experience that lead to his method and agree with his conclusions, but I think some of his premises fall into a naturalistic fallacy. Nevertheless, he has a great ability to put into words the psychological and existential reality that one deals with when suffering or striving to understand a purpose in life.

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I lived in Auschwitz for three hours

My mentor (a man from the Baby-Boomer generation) recommended this book to me by saying, "it was the single most influential book I ever read." With a endorsement like that, I had no choice but to read it. I am happy to say, he did not oversell this book.

The first three hours of Man's Search for Meaning, is a psychological account of Frankl's time in the Nazi prison camps. While I have seen countless documentaries about the atrocities that took place in those camps, Frankl made it far more real.

Frankl explains, not just the physical torments but rather, the mental toll it took on him and the other prisoners. However, Frankl does not attempt to paint himself as a hero - quite the contrary. In perhaps the most sobering line in the book, Frankl says, "We who have come back, by the aid of many lucky chances or miracles - whatever one may choose to call them - we know: the best of us did not return.”

In those first three hours of eloquent narration, I lived in Auschwitz.

The last two hours of the book were not as transcendent but were still fascinating. It describes his psycho-therapeutic method (Logotherapy), which helps a person identify their purpose in life and then to use that individual purpose to overcome the obstacles in their life. Of course, in just two hours there was not a lot of time for great detail but there were still some very solid nuggets of wisdom and several interesting case studies.

Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not mention Simon Vance's brilliant narration. A couple of years ago, I purchased The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection, narrated by Simon Vance. He has a soothing voice without being monotonous and in the Sherlock Holmes stories, Vance had a nice range of character voices. While there is rare occasion for this in Man's Search for Meaning, Vance's regal voice helps to add weight to this amazing text.

If you are a scholar or just someone who could use a little perspective on your troubles, Man's Search for Meaning is five hours well spent.

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Great Book!

I got this book after Dr. Phil said he has read and re-read it several times in his life. While I'm not always a Dr. Phil fan, I think he has it right with this one. It's one of the few books I consistently recommend to anyone. Very insightful, unbiased, and amazing the he has actually lived what he learned and vice versa.

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Invaluable path to a meaningful life

Frankel's account of his concentration experience is not as moving as those of Elie Wiesel, but the second half of the book on logotherapy draws together the threads of that experience into a structure for treating patients struggling with the existential crisis of life's meaning. Frankel, the founder of logotherapy (meaning therapy), is with Freud and Adler one of the primary Viennese psychiatrists of the 20th century. For Freud sexual conflicts were key to understanding mental turmoil. For Adler it was the struggle for personal power and superiority. Frankel thought that mental conflicts arose from a desire to know the why of existence. He thought that if we know the why we can live with any what. He said the why is clear if we can love someone and if we can work at something we enjoy.
The concentration camp experience also taught Frankel that he had control over his thoughts and feelings. No SS soldier could change his thoughts. He could always go somewhere in his mind. Frankel foreshadowed the present day's psychology of "think it and you will feel it."

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