16 MILLION COPIES SOLD‘A book to read, to cherish, to debate, and one that will ultimately keep the memories of the victims alive’ John Boyne, author of The Boy in the Striped PyjamasA prominent Viennese psychiatrist before the war, Viktor Frankl was uniquely able to observe the way that both he and others in Auschwitz coped (or didn’t) with the experience. He noticed that it was the men who … experience. He noticed that it was the men who comforted others and who gave away their last piece of bread who survived the longest – and who offered proof that everything can be taken away from us except the ability to choose our attitude in any given set of circumstances. The sort of person the concentration camp prisoner became was the result of an inner decision and not of camp influences alone. Frankl came to believe man’s deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose. This outstanding work offers us all a way to transcend suffering and find significance in the art of living.
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I’ve read this book multiple times. It is in my reference library as I am inspired by it. Man’s Search for Meaning has gotten me through some pretty tough times.
I cannot choose a single word because no one word answer would do this book justice nor could a single word begin to describe this work, this book’s observation of the darkest corners of humanity and yet how hope can still survive when hope is trying to be extinguished off the face of the earth.
This is my favorite book. Ever. In the interest of inclusive language, I’ve seen this title changed to The Search for Meaning. Frankl’s focus on our greatest freedom–our attitude–is important for all of all always.
Victor Frankl knows so much more about life and living than so many of us. This is a book I’ve read and re-read and pondered….
This is another life changing book that I’ve read. It was an assigned reading book during the beginning of my spiritual formation. It is a book that I go back to often. I feel it should be required reading for every high school senior in today’s world. It just might change the course of some more lives. It’s the kind of book that keeps you thinking long after you put it down each time. It will keep you up at night. It will invade your mind and your heart.
While the book is a bit tedious to read, I think this is only understandable as Frankl lived through and is describing hell on earth in this book. I think books like this are important as a witness to history, and maybe as a lesson and a guard against what cruelties humans can do to each other.
Extraordinary book! I could have highlighted every sentence. A must read!
All of life is choice…however tragic the moment, we alone define our experiences.
This is the one book that I have seen referenced more than any other around a “must read”, as it is truly the most life changing book you can read, no matter how your life is going.
In a nutshell, Frankl demonstrated the impact of positive thinking in making it through this journey we call life.
If you haven’t read it, you must and then give it to someone else to change their life!
I’ve never been more humbled by a book. Thank you for writing this (RIP)
Man’s Search for Meaning is written by a Holocaust survivor with a deep understanding of the psychology of humans especially in these tragic and tormenting times. It has become a classic in trying to understand this era.
A great read and a must-read for anyone seeking the meaning of life.
I have to say that this is one of my favorite books of all time. I wish I would have read this book at a younger age, when the world seemed so bleak and when the world of psychiatry (as then and still as today) reduced ones existential anguish to that of “chemical imbalance.”
I am surprised that I had never heard of Logotherapy, and am surprised that even though this book is one of the most recommended books of all time the messages and thought seem to still be so utterly ignored.
This book was so full of gems that I read it at a snails pace and collected so many quotes along the way. Read it, and drink it in slowly like a fine wine.
An important work to be read multiple times through the years.
Amazing insights.
This is a must read book for all.
One of the worlds great pieces of wisdom out of the greatest of tragedies.
Those of us who grew up in the baby boom generation,have no idea of the horror o of W W I I and the atrocities of the Holocaust.Even the men who served in the U.S.army didn’t talk about it until many years later on.U.S.soldiers of German descent were often treated with undeserved maliciosnous.My father was one of those brave men.
A critically important book which should probably be read by all thoughtful people
Greta book if you’re feeling depressed and/or need a little guidance.