Guide to Viktor E. Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning

By . IRB Media

PLEASE NOTE: This is a companion to E. Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning and NOT the original book.

Preview:

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl is a memoir of Frankl’s imprisonment in concentration camps during World War II, and a brief description of the principles of logotherapy, a school of psychotherapy that he founded.

Frankl and his family were imprisoned in concentration camps during the war.

Inside this companion:

• Overview of the book

• Important People

• Key Insights

• Analysis of Key Insights

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• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Oct 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781944195007

. IRB Media

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Book preview

Overview

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl is a memoir of Frankl’s imprisonment in concentration camps during World War II, and a brief description of the principles of logotherapy, a school of psychotherapy that he founded.

Frankl and his family were imprisoned in concentration camps during the war. Frankl was held in several camps before he was liberated from the last in 1945. During his time in the camps, Frankl witnessed the extreme cruelty of camp guards and the prisoners who were given special status by them, also known as Capos. He also witnessed the cruelty of the prisoners to each other as they underwent the three stages of reaction to their imprisonment. These stages are denial, acceptance, and adjustment after their release.

Frankl discovered that, although the prisoners seemed completely powerless, they had the freedom to choose their reaction to their circumstances. Those prisoners who were most resilient were those who had something to live for. Frankl’s reason to live was to recreate his book manuscript that guards took from him when he was processed at Auschwitz.

Logotherapy is the form of psychotherapy that defines man’s motivation as seeking the meaning for the individual’s life. That meaning can come from creating something, having a unique experience or relationship, or enduring unavoidable suffering. Failing to find that meaning can cause a noögenic crisis, a kind of existential frustration. Logotherapy also teaches that phobias and anxieties can be avoided through paradoxical intention. Persevering through pain, guilt, and death requires a tragic optimism, the commitment to improve the self, and seeking meaning in the face of obstacles.