Man’s Search for Meaning:- Book Review
“An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is a normal reaction.”
Dr. Victor Emil Frankl was a psychologist born on March 26, 1905 in Vienna, Austria. He was shackled four years in detention camps by Nazis. He is famed for his theory of logotherapy. Following theories of Sigmund Freud, he led to the meaning of human’s existence. Died on September 2, 1997.
The book Man’s Search for Meaning is a masterpiece by Victor Frankl to teach an individual to know the reasons of his existence. A man who is captive of depressed thoughts tries to figure out an escape from these feelings. It is mainly the story of Nazi concentration camps between the years 1942-45. Frankl defines his theory of logotherapy from his personal experiences, and experience and sufferings of other detainees. By the word “logos” he means “meaning”, the meaning of life. According to Frankl, the real meaning of life is not only bounded with happiness but also the sufferings and exit from the sufferings.
The journey of a prisoner who has been shackled in four concentration camps including Auschwitz, where he was ordered to be laboured. As a prisoner Dr. Frankl tried to understand the psyche of other prisoners, depressed from sufferings. He explains how a prisoner suffers from different brutalities and how their life transforms from an ordinary person to a prisoner. It also highlights the life after freedom. This book tries to enlighten the darkness of our lives that we are afraid of. Furthermore, he elaborates the triad of pain, guilt, and death.
Dr. Frankl enables one to cope with depression, anxiety, obsessive behaviour, aggression, and neurosis, and tells that these hard situations can be dealt through Logotherapy. He exemplifies different cases of his patients depressed from their past experiences trying to explain that one can begin practicing Logotherapy from himself. His efforts were mainly to take out human being from his mental boundaries and give him a broader vision. At one point, he narrates a quote of Nietzsche those who have a why to live can bear almost any how. The main concern of Victor Frankl is pursuit of “why”. If a man is successful is knowing the reason of his existence, he will really be living a life. He expresses this as when we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
He shares conversation with an old lady who attempts to take her life. When Dr. Frankl asks her the reasons for this step. She replies that “I had two sons and a millionaire husband. My husband died early and recently I also lost one of my sons, and the one alive is paralyzed. I know nothing of why I am alive, and I am totally depressed. When Frankl asks the same from his paralyzed son. He says I am happy just because I am alive.” From this conversation, he concludes that there is no reason necessary to be happy. If one can justify happiness just because of his being as alive. It means suffering is not necessary to find the meaning of life.