From Amazon’s home page for Viktor E. Frankl. Man’s Search for Meaning.
On Amazon there are 94,761 reviews with an average rating of 4.7 out of 5.0. These reviews have written comments on the value of the book.
On Goodreads there are 848,111 ratings with an average rating of 4.4
In my ten years of closely following Amazon, I have never seen numbers this high.
Key Quote
“Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’.”
Frankl’s Life
Frankl was born in 1905.
His first publication was in Freud’s International Journal of Psychoanalysis in 1924.
He earned his MD from the University of Vienna in 1930.
He was in held various Nazi concentration camps during World War 2.
His first wife and most of his family died in the Holocaust.
He earned is PhD from the University of Vienna in 1948.
He was a professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Vienna Medical School.
He died in 1997.
Frankl’s Influence From his wikipedia article:
“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 for the Library of Congress 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.”
“In Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl states:
Freedom, however, is not the last word. Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.”
A Statue of Responsibility was later erected in Utah at Alliant International University
My Thoughts
The first part of the book covers what he did to survive in the concentration camps. He was a Jewish man who served the Nazis by helping the camps become more efficient killing machines. Frankl wanted to live and survive in the camps. What he needed to do was terrible and a betrayal of his Jewish identity. The wikipedia article and the introduction to the book tell how some Jewish leaders after the war viewed his betrayal.
The second half of the book gives his psychological views and rationale for how he acted. It is the weaker section and, in my opinion, inconsistent and, at times, confusing.
The first part of the book is worthy of its reputation and a sobering read.
Never miss out!
Get email updates whenever I publish new content.