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Man's Search for Meaning |  | Author: Viktor E. Frankl
Publisher: Beacon Press
List Price: $6.99
Buy New: $3.06
as of 11/24/2009 01:42 CST details
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Seller: mediathrill
Rating:  390 reviews
Sales Rank: 701
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 165
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 6.6 x 4 x 0.7
ISBN: 080701429X
Dewey Decimal Number: 302
EAN: 9780807014295
ASIN: 080701429X
Publication Date: June 14, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
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. 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. Frankl's theory—known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos ("meaning")—holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.
At the time of Frankl's death in 1997, Man's Search for Meaning had sold more than 10 million copies in twenty-four languages. A 1991 reader survey by the Library of Congress and the Book-of-the-Month Club that asked readers to name a "book that made a difference in your life" found Man's Search for Meaning among the ten most influential books in America.
Born in Vienna in 1905 Viktor E. Frankl earned an M.D. and a Ph.D. from the University of Vienna. He published more than thirty books on theoretical and clinical psychology and served as a visiting professor and lecturer at Harvard, Stanford, and elsewhere. In 1977 a fellow survivor, Joseph Fabry, founded the Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy. Frankl died in 1997.
Harold S. Kushner is rabbi emeritus at Temple Israel in Natick, Massachusetts, and the author of several best-selling books, including When Bad Things Happen to Good People.
William J. Winslade is a philosopher, lawyer, and psychoanalyst at the University of Texas Medical School in Galveston.
Amazon.com Review
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl is among the most influential works of psychiatric literature since Freud. The book begins with a lengthy, austere, and deeply moving personal essay about Frankl's imprisonment in Auschwitz and other concentration camps for five years, and his struggle during this time to find reasons to live. The second part of the book, called "Logotherapy in a Nutshell," describes the psychotherapeutic method that Frankl pioneered as a result of his experiences in the concentration camps. Freud believed that sexual instincts and urges were the driving force of humanity's life; Frankl, by contrast, believes that man's deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose. Frankl's logotherapy, therefore, is much more compatible with Western religions than Freudian psychotherapy. This is a fascinating, sophisticated, and very human book. At times, Frankl's personal and professional discourses merge into a style of tremendous power. "Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is," Frankl writes. "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."
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 390
 Where Have You Been All My Life? October 10, 2009
John R. Sedivy (Cape Cod, MA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I had received "Man's Search For Meaning" a couple of years ago as a gift. Since that time it had languished on my bookshelf, overcome by other priorities. After all, it was written in 1959, so it could wait a bit longer, right? Having just finished this book I really wish I would have made the time earlier. The lessons within could have easily been applied earlier and with great results. This book is simply remarkable. At 165 pages, "Man's Search For Meaning" is lightweight compared to some of my other reads, but this book took me some time to read, not because the subject matter was difficult, but because it really caused me to stop and reflect many a time. Great things really do come in small packages - less is more. "Man's Search For Meaning" is a life changing book that you simply cannot afford to pass up.
Man's Search For Meaning review September 9, 2009
Eileen Chalmers (Murfreesboro, TN USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Read this book as soon as possible no matter who you are. The first half is Viktor Frankl's experience in concentration camps during WWII. In the second half he explains logotherapy, logo from the Greek word for "meaning." He wrote something like 10 volumes during his life explaining logotherapy, so this is a short synopsis, but I am able to apply the logotherapy to my life to make it more meaningful. The book is wonderfully written. You will appreciate this amazing man after reading this book.
 not as advertised August 28, 2009
J. Dooley (Baltimore, MD)
1 out of 6 found this review helpful
I thought this book dealt with man's search for meaning too indirectly and too briefly (although sufficiently deeply when it occassionally is touched upon). While the personal Holocaust stories are moving, these are not why I picked up the book. About the second half of the book is a description of logotherapy, which went way over my head. This should be interesting for students and practitioners of psychology. In the final analysis, I didn't find this book especially compelling or worthy of recommendation.
Touching Story August 27, 2009
John H. Eagan (Freehold, NJ)
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl is a book about one man's struggle to find meaning in a life of imprisonment in Auschwitz and other concentration camps. Through all his hardships Frankl decided that man's deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose in life. A very touching and religious story.
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Are you a spiritual retard, or are you on the path to ENLIGHTENMENT?
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I like this book... August 20, 2009
Wayne A. Windsor (Fort Wayne, IN.)
... I really do. It's a great departure from the metaphysics of Jung and the sex-centered Freud. It might have been more helpful to present his theory of logotherapy before his account of the camps, but it still worked. And to all the people who bashed the book for not being complete in some way read page 97, Frankl flat outs says that it would be impossible to condense his entire theory down to 20-30 pages when it took volume upon volume in his native German to lay it all out. If you're going to bash a book on these bases you might not want to forget the author's own disclaimer (or maybe you do because then you wouldn't have anything to whine about).
Showing reviews 1-5 of 390
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