Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor E. Frankl

Short summary of the book: Viktor E. Frankl describes his journey for the struggle of survival in an Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust as well as finding hope and greater meaning in our lives.

I'm not doing any sort of review that explains the whole premise and plot etc; I'm just voicing my opinions. For this, I might as well add that there might be spoilers.

There are over 10 pages that I bookmarked with quotes that I can carry through my life. This book did not teach me the actual meaning of life in the sense to find it, but in knowing that it exists.

Through his autobiographical journey we are taken into the holocaust and his experiences in it. He was in a concentration camp in Auschwitz as well as doctoring those who fell ill and were dying. Through his experience I could really empathize with his feelings. In such unbearably dark times he found strength in spirit.

I think just saying ‘strength in spirit’ is a bit weak to suffice how much he endured. If you read the book, even though the Holocaust was a dark, depressing time and so you would believe that the book reflects darkness and depression, though it does not. It is quite dark to read how much they endured, but Frankl made it easy to find hope even when everything crumbled down around him. I was so inspired. All that he said made sense. In the beginning, I wouldn’t believe myself if I said I could relate to a sufferer from the Holocaust, more so a concentration camp prisoner. However Frankl found the words to touch us all, suffering in our own challenges in life, and reminds us that as humans, it is normal to react a certain way to a situation, and that not everything is subject to mental illness/neurosis. This reminds me of his quotes I dearly kept close to heart.

“If there is meaning in life, then there is meaning in suffering. Suffering is an eradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete.”

But he doesn’t just ponder on the strength in suffering, such as his next quote “ It is just such an exceptionally difficult external situation which gives man the opportunity to grow spiritually beyond himself” but the hope drawing from it. He speaks of suffering in the positive, something that, in my case, takes a lot of practice and willpower. He doesn’t speak of optimism but of hope.

He speaks of happiness, of finding laughter in the midst of immense struggle, of holding on to the last bit of hope because that is what keeps us living. It is what carries us on.

I was very touched when he spoke of how he witnessed mass deaths occur after Christmas of that year, as many prisoners had hoped to be liberated, free and home to their wives and loved ones. The hope they held onto up until that point disappointed them and their bodies caved in to the diseases that they so willfully fought. It was so tragic to me, and reminded me of my struggles and the result of that which disappointed me. It seemed like the struggle would never end, even when we ourselves put an unofficial time limit to it so that the end seems closer than usual.

Which brings me to another quote, and I know I’m being excessive with the quotes, but it is all brilliant and deserves so much recognition. Reading all of these quotes really made me feel grateful for reading, it made me feel like I’ve now known true struggle and true hope. “It is a peculiarity of man that he can only live by looking to the future – and this is his salvation in the most difficult moments of his existence, although he sometimes has to force his mind to the task.”

Majority of us have been taught to set a goal and reach it. It also reminds me back of the book The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, where the character was a merchant whom had a set goal in his life to achieve and had the strength each day to carry on because of this goal. This was similar to what Frankl narrated. The belief of seeing what we believe was the future was the strength to carry on.

His autobiography was one of the most influential that I have read, and the most impactful. It taught me how to endure suffering, how to find hope, how to believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel in order to survive, for if there is no light, one would cease to exist.

I suppose the only fault I have with it is the scientific standpoint, but that is only because of my lack of intellect. I had to read things twice or thrice over during the second half, Logotherapy, because it was quite difficult to grasp.

A very good read, you can finish it in a matter of a few hours and be taught several lessons with it. 8/10.