Preview

Man's Search For Meaning By Victor Frankl

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
549 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Man's Search For Meaning By Victor Frankl
Man’s Search for Meaning is written by Victor Frankl, an Auschwitz Holocaust survivor. The book is divided into two sections that consist of an autobiography and a logo-therapy section. During the autobiography section Mr. Frankl takes the reader through his time at the Auschwitz camp and gives his perspective of what happened as a camp prisoner and a psychiatrist. Viktor Frankl discusses concepts of suffering, humanity, spirituality, choices, social factors, and meaning to life. Frankl thoroughly examines these concepts through the eyes of someone who lived through one of the worst concentration work camps and then explains how these concepts merge with his own theory of counseling, logo-therapy. Logo-therapy is based on a foundation of Existentialism, …show more content…
When Frankl describes meaning to life he focuses on the present moment and living more in the now. As someone that suffers from high levels of anxiety I personally appreciated his take on meaning. Frankl gave me a whole new perspective when talking about finding meaning in life. Before reading Man’s Search for Meaning, I always pondered the concept of meaning to life and correlated meaning with a spiritual connection or a big ideal (i.e, life after death, predestination). Frankl breaks meaning down into finding meaning in the given moment. Instead of thinking about meaning to life in a futuristic sense, I know think of meaning to life in the present.
Another concept that resonated with me was Viktor Frankl’s concept of suffering When Frankl describes meaning to life; he describes suffering in a way that states, “if there is a meaning to life at all, then there must be a meaning to suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete” (p.67). This aligns with one of my own personal life philosophies. Without the times filled with anxiety, pain, and sorrow, I would not fully appreciate the times filled with happiness, love, and
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Analysis Of Man By Peggy Seeger
    • 295 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Analysis Of Man By Peggy Seeger

    Peggy Seeger highlights perfectly in her 1970's folk song, "I'm Gonna Be an Engineer" the stereotypical gender roles discussed by Katha Pollitt in her essay, "Why Boys Don't Play With Dolls", as Pollitt states that despite studies showing that there are very minor differences found scientifically between male and female brains, there are very obvious differences in the likes, dislikes and behaviors of even very young boys versus very young girls. Pollitt further points to nurture and environment to account for those differences and this couldn't be more clearly and snidely said than it is by Peggy Seeger, "When I was a little girl I wished I was a boy. I tagged along behind the gang and wore my corduroys. Everybody said I only did it to annoy,…

    • 295 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Summary Of Man's Search For Meaning
    • 1013 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Summary Of Man's Search For Meaning

    Viktor E. Frankl was born in Vienna in 1905 and lived to be 92. He was a neurologist, psychiatrist, and a professor at Vienna Medical School. Frankl founded “logotherapy” which is the existential psychotherapy focusing on the importance of meaning. He was married twice, his first wife died in 1945 and then he married Eleonore in 1947. Together they had a daughter named Gabriele. He spent 3 years in concentration camps during World War II. When he was forced into the first concentration camp in 1942 he lost a book that was very similar to “Man’s Search for Meaning” and began jotting down notes to recreate it. When he got out of the camps he returned to Vienna. In 1946 he became the director of the Vienna Neurological Policlinic. His book “Man’s Search for Meaning” has been translated into 27 different languages and is considered one of the 10 most influential books in America.…

    • 1013 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Comparing Despelder And Strickland's The Last Dance
    • 1800 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Comparing Despelder And Strickland's The Last Dance

    In Viktor Frankl’s novel, A Man’s Search for Meaning, he starts by describing the stages he stages he noticed the prisoners go through while in the camps. Eventually he gets to the complete and utter apathy that one experiences when they are faced with traumatic things everyday. In DeSpelder and Strickland’s, The Last Dance, they describe different attitudes towards death and how many cultures view death as “not as a means to an end but as a change of status” and in Frankl’s story I feel as though the prisoners started off with this mindset (DeSpelder & Strickland). However, as they experienced more traumas, their views completely changed to feel nothing at all. It really emphasizes the psychology of this era and the intense observations that…

    • 1800 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Victor Frankl's Experiences During The Holocaust
    • 1469 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Victor Frankl's Experiences During The Holocaust

    Frankl believed that most of the people who survived the concentration camps were able to find a purpose in life to make themselves feel…

    • 1469 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Comparing The Blind Side And The Man's Search For Meaning
    • 1720 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Comparing The Blind Side And The Man's Search For Meaning

    Victor Frankl wrote The Man’s Search for Meaning, his story of the many hardships he went through in the concentration camps. When change happened Viktor Frankl understood what was necessary: “Even the helpless victim of a hopeless situation, facing a fate he cannot change, may rise above himself, may grow beyond himself, and by so doing change himself”(Frankl, 147). Viktor could not change the fact that he was starving, being treated less than an animal, and being mentally torn apart by the german soldiers but in all of that he reminded himself of the one thing that helped him through it all, his wife. He made the decision of knowing he was locked in a place that there was no where out he would change his views and his mindset. He had to change himself. The movie The Blind Side shows…

    • 1720 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Tragedy In Ellie Farel's 'Night'
    • 571 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Tragedy In Ellie Farel's 'Night'

    In the memoir Night, Ellie Wisel writes about how the concentration camps and/or the whole situation have made him and many other people suffer physical, emotional, and mental changes. These changes affected Ellie in such a way that he just gave up after a while. He no longer felt or wanted to feel. He had no emotion towards death or tragic things. “My mind was invaded suddenly by this realization- there was no more reason to live, no more reason to struggle (104).” I…

    • 571 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    night
    • 805 Words
    • 4 Pages

    night

    In the memoir “Night” we see the atrocious events of the holocaust through the eyes of Ellie Wiesel a young boy from Sighet, Romania. The memoir begins with Ellie and his family in Sighet unaware of the horrible events they will experience. In this book we see how his experiences in the holocaust change his beliefs about god and his complete kindness. The change we see in Ellie is most evident in his opinion, Ellie goes from a very religious and god fearing person and doesn’t question him to someone who questions him and at his lowest point criticizes him.…

    • 805 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Man’s Search for Meaning: Response Paper
    • 1013 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Man’s Search for Meaning: Response Paper

    Viktor Frankl (1902-1997) was an Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist, and is notable as the founder of logotherapy, a form of psychotherapy which focuses on the achievement of meaning in life. He was also witness to one of the most terrible genocides in world history, and it is his experiences and his takeaways from the concentration camps that form the basis of his book, Man’s Search for Meaning. The book is separated into two parts: the first part details his experience in the camps, and the second part discusses his theories on the meaning of life.…

    • 1013 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Book Analysis: Man's Search for Meaning
    • 1367 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Book Analysis: Man's Search for Meaning

    In Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning we are told a powerful story of a man’s survival through the Holocaust. Frankl struggles to not only keep his body alive, but his spirit as well. Frankl’s main goal is to not only come out alive from the Holocaust but to not let it change him and ultimately defeat or take over his life and change who he truly is. He knows the only way to stay alive is to find some sort of meaning in his life. As we watch him fight to survive during his stay in concentration camps we begin to realize that the only way he is surviving is because he hasn’t forgotten who he still is and the identity that the Nazi’s were trying to take from him. He keeps his personal identity, goals, and morals in mind while others seem to lose themselves.…

    • 1367 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    All But My Life Analysis
    • 1298 Words
    • 6 Pages

    All But My Life Analysis

    The desire for power, fear, and self-preservation can cause people to change in ways one could not imagine. In the story, Night by Elie Wiesel, and Gerda Weissman Klein’s All But My Life, the authors share their tragic experiences from their times in Nazi concentration camps. In Addition, Klein’s All But My Life shows her experience in many different concentration camps for three years and how differently female inmates were treated than male. In Wiesel’s Night, he discusses his experience of being sent to Auschwitz along with his father for a year and how the tragedies he endured transformed his character. In Addition, Klein’s All But My Life shows her experience in many different concentration camps for three years and how differently female…

    • 1298 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Viktor Frankl- an Overview of Logotherapy
    • 5174 Words
    • 21 Pages

    Viktor Frankl- an Overview of Logotherapy

    In his book ’The will to meaning’(3), Frankl is trying to describe the way psychologists/psychiatrists might try to understand the many facets of a human expressing or finding meaning in the world. He is expressing the different ideas given by psychoanalysis; Adler; and other individuals.…

    • 5174 Words
    • 21 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Mnas Search for Meaning
    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Mnas Search for Meaning

    Man's Search for Meaning is a relatively short but powerful novel about an experience through a concentration camp from the eyes of psychologist and author, Victor E. Frankl. "I had wanted simply to convey to the reader by way of a concrete example that life holds a potential meaning under any condition, even the most miserable ones." (Victor Frankel).…

    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    There s More to Life Than Being Happy
    • 2451 Words
    • 6 Pages

    There s More to Life Than Being Happy

    In September 1942, Viktor Frankl, a prominent Jewish psychiatrist and neurologist in Vienna, was arrested and transported to a Nazi concentration camp with his wife and parents. Three years later, when his camp was liberated, most of his family, including his pregnant wife, had perished -- but he, prisoner number 119104, had lived. In his bestselling 1946 book, Man's Search for Meaning, which he wrote in nine days about his experiences in the camps, Frankl concluded that the difference between those who had lived and those who had died came down to one thing: Meaning, an insight he came to early in life. When he was a high school student, one of his science teachers declared to the class, "Life is nothing more than a combustion process, a process of oxidation." Frankl jumped out of his chair and responded, "Sir, if this is so, then what can be the meaning of life?"…

    • 2451 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    An Analysis of Viktor Frankl's Philosophy: A Key for Suffering Nigerians
    • 12393 Words
    • 50 Pages

    An Analysis of Viktor Frankl's Philosophy: A Key for Suffering Nigerians

    There is no doubt that the question of the meaning of life strikes a bell not only in the philosophical, but scientific, theological and literary domain. It is perhaps the most fundamental question in human existence. It speaks about the inquiry into the reason for man’s existence and that of existence in the universe.…

    • 12393 Words
    • 50 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Purpuse of Life
    • 5712 Words
    • 23 Pages

    Purpuse of Life

    The meaning of life is a philosophical question concerning the significance of life or existence in general. It can also be expressed in different forms, such as "Why are we here?", "What is life all about?", and "What is the purpose of existence?" It has been the subject of much philosophical,scientific, and theological speculation throughout history. There have been a large number of proposed answers to these questions from many different cultural and ideologicalbackgrounds.…

    • 5712 Words
    • 23 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More