Man's Search For Meaning

Description

A prominent Viennese psychiatrist before the war, Viktor Frankl was uniquely able to observe the way that he and other inmates coped with the experience of being in Auschwitz. 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 prisoner became was the result of an inner decision and not of camp influences alone. Only those who allowed their inner hold on their moral and spiritual selves to subside eventually fell victim to the camp's degenerating influence - while those who made a victory of those experiences turned them into an inner triumph.Frankl came to believe that 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.

Reviews

Gerald F. Kreyche De Paul University "Man's Search for Meaning" is the story of a man who became a number who became a person. Today Frankl is one of the most famous and gifted of all psychiatrists. Frankl developed his ideas now generally known as the Third School of Viennese Psychiatry -- the school of logotherapy. The incredible attempts to dehumanize man at the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Dachau led Frankl to commence the humanization of psychiatry through logotherapy. Frankl is a professional who possesses the rare ability to write in a layman's language.  

Author description

Viktor E. Franklwas professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Vienna Medical School until his death in 1997. His twenty-nine books have been translated into twenty-one languages. During World War II, he spent three years in Auschwitz, Dachau, and other concentration camps. Harold S. Kushneris rabbi emeritus at Temple Israel in Natick, Massachusetts, and the author of bestselling books including"When Bad Things Happen to Good People, Living a Life That Matters, "and"When All You ve Ever Wanted Isn t Enough."William J. Winsladeis a philosopher, lawyer, and psychoanalyst who teaches psychiatry, medical ethics, and medical jurisprudence at the University of Texas Medical School in Galveston."