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Cover of Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Emil Frankl

Man's Search for Meaning

  • 165 pages · about 3 hours
  • First published 1946
  • 111 editions

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1 About this book

Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Based on his own experience and the stories of his patients, 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.

At the heart of his theory, known as logotherapy, is a conviction that the primary human drive is not pleasure but the pursuit of what we find meaningful. Man's Search for Meaning has become one of the most influential books in America; it continues to inspire us all to find significance in the very act of living.

  • Spirituality
  • Autobiography
  • Biography
  • Existentialism
  • Meaning (psychology)
  • Psychology
  • Social psychology
  • Existential psychotherapy

2 What to expect

A psychiatrist's account of surviving the Nazi concentration camps, and the approach to meaning it led him to. Short, harrowing and, in the end, hopeful.

Good for readers who want: a true life story, meaning and resilience, and a short read.

3 About Viktor Emil Frankl

1905–1997

Viktor Emil Frankl was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor. He was the founder of logotherapy, which is a form of existential analysis, the "Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy".

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