Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I picked this book up wanting to understand what a psychiatrist was going to say about the meaning of life. I came with the preemption that a person who suffers through a concentration camp, infamous for suffering and pain, should hold a deep and obscure understanding of life.
Well, the book was not obscure for sure. It did not try to appease the willingness of trying to complicate the meaning of life but to display his journey along pursuing one. He drew from his experience that a man’s meaning of life roots in his or her sufferings, including life and death. Not only the pain represents sufferings but it also does the living part. I was fascinated by the biography part of the book that the language was solid while filled with detailed emotion analysis of the writer, but also his inmates. Images he painted for psychological stages for himself through three different stages: early time in camps, sufferings in camps, and after liberation from camps, are so realistic and empathetic. Although no readers today may experience concentration camp’s terror, this book may take you under the cold, dry environment where they once suffered and died.
To be honest, I was not sure how to interpret the author’s logotherapy approach to clarify people’s pursuit of meaning. Maybe more books on that topic should be on my TBR next year.
Give a meaning of life for yourself, pursue a meaning of life for yourself, or not just typus, but your own body will raise white flag towards life.



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