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![Man's Search For Meaning: The classic tribute to hope from the Holocaust by [Viktor E Frankl]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Ss6sV3IrL._SY346_.jpg)
Man's Search For Meaning: The classic tribute to hope from the Holocaust Kindle Edition
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Over 16 million copies sold worldwide
'Every human being should read this book' Simon Sinek
One of the outstanding classics to emerge from the Holocaust, Man's Search for Meaning is Viktor Frankl's story of his struggle for survival in Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps. Today, this remarkable tribute to hope offers us an avenue to finding greater meaning and purpose in our own lives.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherEbury Digital
- Publication date9 December 2013
- File size2697 KB
From the Publisher

A prominent Viennese psychiatrist before the war, Viktor Frankl was uniquely able to observe the way that both he and others in Auschwitz coped (or didn't) with the experience. 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 concentration camp prisoner became was the result of an inner decision and not of camp influences alone. Frankl came to believe 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.
Product description
Review
''If you read but one book this year, Dr Frankl's book should be that one.'' --Los Angeles Times
''His works are essential reading for those who seek to understand the human condition.'' --UK Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
''A poignant testimony...a hymn to the phoenix rising in each of us who choose life before flight.'' --Brian Keenan, author of An Evil Cradling
''One of the most remarkable books I have ever read. It changed my life.'' --Susan Jeffers, author of Feel the Fear And Do It Anyway and Embracing Uncertainty
''Perhaps the most significant thinking since Freud and Adler.'' --American Journal of Psychiatry
''Much like a first aid kit, this recording has the potential to save lives . . . This classic, carefully read by Simon Vance, is a vital aid to the troubled of all ages.'' --Library Journal
''A fascinating, sophisticated, and very human book . . . Frankl's personal and professional discourses merge into a style of tremendous power.'' --Amazon.com, editorial review --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Preface to the 1992 Edition
This book has now lived to see nearly one hundred printings in English - in addition to having been published in twenty-one other languages. And the English editions alone have sold more than three million copies.
These are the dry facts, and they may well be the reason why reports of American newspapers and particularly of American TV stations more often than not start their interviews, after listing these facts, by exclaiming: 'Dr Frankl, your book has become a true bestseller - how do you feel about such a success?' Whereupon I react by reporting that in the first place I do not at all see in the bestseller status of my book an achievement and accomplishment on my part but rather an expression of the misery of our time: if hundreds of thousands of people reach out for a book whose very title promises to deal with the question of a meaning to life, it must be a question that burns under their fingernails.
To be sure, something else may have contributed to the impact of the book: its second, theoretical part ('Logotherapy in a Nutshell') boils down, as it were, to the lesson one may distill from the first part, the autobiographical account ('Experiences in a Concentration Camp'), whereas Part One serves as the existential validation of my theories. Thus, both parts mutually support their credibility.
I had none of this in mind when I wrote the book in 1945. And I did so within nine successive days and with the firm determination that the book should be published anonymously. In fact, the first printing of the original German version does not show my name on the cover, though at the last moment, just before the book's initial publication, I did finally give in to my friends who had urged me to let it be published with my name at least on the title page. At first, however, it had been written with the absolute conviction that, as an anonymous opus, it could never earn its author literary fame. I had wanted simply to convey to the reader by way of a concrete example that life holds a potential meaning under any conditions, even the most miserable ones. And I thought that if the point were demonstrated in a situation as extreme as that in a concentration camp, my book might gain a hearing. I therefore felt responsible for writing down what I had gone through, for I thought it might be helpful to people who are prone to despair.
And so it is both strange and remarkable to me that - among some dozens of books I have authored - precisely this one, which I had intended to be published anonymously so that it could never build up any reputation on the part of the author, did become a success - the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-produce of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long run - in the long run, I say! - success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think of it.'
The reader may ask me why I did not try to escape what was in store for me after Hitler had occupied Austria. Let me answer by recalling the following story. Shortly before the United States entered World War II, I received an invitation to come to the American Consulate in Vienna to pick up my immigration visa. My old parents were overjoyed because they expected that I would soon be allowed to leave Austria. I suddenly hesitated, however. The question beset me: could I really afford to leave my parents alone to face their fate, to be sent, sooner or later, to a concentration camp, or even to a so-called extermination camp? Where did my responsibility lie? Should I foster my brain child, logotherapy, by emigrating to fertile soil where I could write my books? Or should I concentrate on my duties as a real child, the child of my parents who had to do whatever he could to protect them? I pondered the problem this way and that but could not arrive at a solution; this was the type of dilemma that made one wish for 'a hint from Heaven,' as the phrase goes.
It was then that I noticed a piece of marble lying on a table at home. When I asked my father about it, he explained that he had found it on the site where the National Socialists had burned down the largest Viennese synagogue. He had taken the piece home because it was part of the tablets on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed. One gilded Hebrew letter was engraved on the piece; my father explained that this letter stood for one of the Commandments. Eagerly I asked, 'Which one is it?' He answered, 'Honour thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land.' At that moment I decided to stay with my father and my mother upon the land, and to let the American visa lapse.
Viktor E. Frankl
Vienna, 1992
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.Review
''If you read but one book this year, Dr Frankl's book should be that one.'' --Los Angeles Times
''His works are essential reading for those who seek to understand the human condition.'' --UK Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
''A poignant testimony...a hymn to the phoenix rising in each of us who choose life before flight.'' --Brian Keenan, author of An Evil Cradling
''One of the most remarkable books I have ever read. It changed my life.'' --Susan Jeffers, author of Feel the Fear And Do It Anyway and Embracing Uncertainty
''Perhaps the most significant thinking since Freud and Adler.'' --American Journal of Psychiatry
''Much like a first aid kit, this recording has the potential to save lives . . . This classic, carefully read by Simon Vance, is a vital aid to the troubled of all ages.'' --Library Journal
''A fascinating, sophisticated, and very human book . . . Frankl's personal and professional discourses merge into a style of tremendous power.'' --Amazon.com, editorial review --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Book Description
Product details
- ASIN : B00EKOC0HI
- Publisher : Ebury Digital; New e. edition (9 December 2013)
- Language : English
- File size : 2697 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 229 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: 466 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Viktor E. Frankl was professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Vienna Medical School until his death in 1997. He was the founder of what has come to be called the Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy (after Freud's psychoanalysis and Adler's individual psychology)—the school of logotherapy.
Born in 1905, Dr. Frankl received the degrees of Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Vienna. During World War II he spent three years at Auschwitz, Dachau and other concentration camps.
Dr. Frankl first published in 1924 in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis and has since published twenty-six books, which have been translated into nineteen languages, including Japanese and Chinese. He was a visiting professor at Harvard, Duquesne, and Southern Methodist Universities. Honorary Degrees have been conferred upon him by Loyola University in Chicago, Edgecliff College, Rockford College, and Mount Mary College, as well as by universities in Brazil and Venezuela. He was a guest lecturer at universities throughout the world and made fifty-one lecture tours throughout the United States alone. He was President of the Austrian Medical Society of Psychotherapy.
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- Summary of Man's Search for Meaning: by Viktor E. Frankl | Includes AnalysisSummaries, Instaread,Kindle Edition
Customer reviews

Reviewed in Australia on 9 February 2021
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Top reviews from Australia
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While I and my fellow companions around the globe may not all be faced with such challenges, Frankl’s work has helped me find great meaning and purpose in my life during these times of uncertainty and fear.
Viktor's views and psychological assessments run deep from a raw place. His insights resonant with me. It was an humbling to read his book.
We are stronger than we realise.
This is not a personal memoir or autobiography at all. The way Viktor Frankl explains his experience in the Holocaust is truly incredible as he talks about it from a purely physiological perspective.
I think this book is relevant to everyone in the world as the main message is that we cannot influence the negative things that happen in our life, however we can influence the way we react to them. Whilst I feel most people know this anyway, hearing it come from one of the most impressive doctors in history following his own shocking experience really brings home the message
A short description :
Frankl's is a Auschwitz survivor who has taken experiences of the Holocaust to help him (and maybe you) learn that even in the direst of circumstances we still search for meaning in life.

Reviewed in Australia on 9 February 2021

Top reviews from other countries

Well writing a review for this kind of extraordinary book is a big audacity for me. however here I’m, trying to give some brief review of the book.
The book is basically divided into three parts, the first one describes the way the Jews prisoners were treated in the Nazi Concentration Camps and how their lifestyle was. In the second part, the author described the basics of Logotherapy, a way of treatment of the Psychotherapeutic Patients. And finally, in the third part, he described what he actually meant by Man’s Search for meaning.
Being a Jew, the author was transferred to the Auschwitz, Dachau and other concentration camps during the Nazi occupation in Austria. Here, in the first part of the book, the author described his days in those concentration camps, where is were no chance of seeing the morning sun in the next day. And this happened every day. He described the way the SS guards used to treat the prisoners, the corruption prevailed in the camps, the malnutrition, the lifestyle of the camp Jews etc. The way he described the tortures the prisoners suffered, would surely bring tears to your eyes. During his description, he also pointed out the psychological condition of the other comrades in those camps. When most of the prisoners lost all hope of his life, some of them still kept the faith, that good days were coming.
In the second part, the author basically described the Logotherapy Techniques. And the most interesting part of the book is the third part. Here the author describes “Man’s search for meaning”. We, the human beings on this planet are living for a purpose. Until & unless we can’t find the purpose of our life, there is no reason for us to be here alive. Most of the prisoners in the camps lost all of their hopes and then died because they lost their purpose, as per the author. It is a must-read book for all I think.
The book also consists of few life-changing quotes which I liked in the book and would like to share:
1. For success, like happiness, can’t be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself.
2. There are things which must cause you to lose your reason or you have none to lose.
3. Suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great of little. Therefore the ‘size’ of human suffering is absolutely relative.
4. No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same.
5. The human being is completely and unavoidably influenced by his surroundings.
6. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death, human life can’t be completed
7. Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it.
8. There is no need to be ashamed of tears, for tears bore witness that a man had the greatest of courage, the courage to suffer.
9. A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the “why” for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any ” how”.
10. The body has fewer inhibitions than the mind.
11. No one has the right to do wrong, not even if wrong has been done to them.

This book has two parts:
1.Experiences in a Concentration Camp.
2.Logotherapy in a Nutshell
The second part is so impactful and unique that you will re-read this book. The first part mainly is the autobiographical account of Sir, Frankl and the best part is both parts mutually support their credibility.
The way he has poured all the pain in this book is not so easy and that too after experiencing it, I was literally shocked because firstly, I was unaware of the term “Holocaust”, maybe I have read before somewhere in History but I was unaware while reading and Secondly, I had never come across something like this.
He has talked about everything related to life in this book and you know what the best part is even after so much pain, I felt sad but I wasn’t demotivated, I could relate it and with each page-turning, what I found was ‘I am into the book’, suffering all this but I wasn’t tackling all the worst situation in my life as he did.
Suddenly I started understanding that what life is? what suffering is? and what surviving is? and where am I lacking?
So, in another way, I discovered the answer to three most important questions which I wanted to be answered since maturity.
I came across a new word “Logotherapy” and I loved that section so much that I will re-read this book.
In one line, I learned a lot from this book, which I can further practice to live a peaceful and beautiful life ahead. And this what makes this book worth reading.


Reviewed in India on 5 July 2018
This book has two parts:
1.Experiences in a Concentration Camp.
2.Logotherapy in a Nutshell
The second part is so impactful and unique that you will re-read this book. The first part mainly is the autobiographical account of Sir, Frankl and the best part is both parts mutually support their credibility.
The way he has poured all the pain in this book is not so easy and that too after experiencing it, I was literally shocked because firstly, I was unaware of the term “Holocaust”, maybe I have read before somewhere in History but I was unaware while reading and Secondly, I had never come across something like this.
He has talked about everything related to life in this book and you know what the best part is even after so much pain, I felt sad but I wasn’t demotivated, I could relate it and with each page-turning, what I found was ‘I am into the book’, suffering all this but I wasn’t tackling all the worst situation in my life as he did.
Suddenly I started understanding that what life is? what suffering is? and what surviving is? and where am I lacking?
So, in another way, I discovered the answer to three most important questions which I wanted to be answered since maturity.
I came across a new word “Logotherapy” and I loved that section so much that I will re-read this book.
In one line, I learned a lot from this book, which I can further practice to live a peaceful and beautiful life ahead. And this what makes this book worth reading.


Anyone who feels their life has no meaning or purpose, as our society has become increasingly Dickensian in the last 10 years, will find hope, as I did, to motivate myself to lead a fuller life, in spite of some of life's setbacks. I feel a winner, now, and am grateful for a special mentor who gave me her copy to learn wisdom.... I bought my own copy, as above to refer to it in times of stress. Other than that, it is a great read, which casts an objective eye on a period of history, some would rather forget.


But actually it’s a detached prose (insofar as a scientist who lives his unchosen experiment can write) which signifies the importance of finding meaning in life.
It’s like a really visual, visceral reminder that we can survive anything if we choose to. If we have our attitude reframed or we do it ourselves. If we see purpose or meaning in suffering, we cannot die.
Quite a profound read that gave rise to new thinkings and questionings in my head, and which I intend to follow for my own personal development and flourishing but also as a path to teach others.
Thank you, for going through it, sharing it, understanding it.