Man’s Search for Meaning

Viktor E. Frankl

Reviewed by David Hanlon.

Even if you don’t read much, this is one book that I suggest you take the time to
read. It’s influence on the world is the strength people take away from perhaps
the greatest of his inspirations – ‘we have the power to choose how things
effect us’.

It describes Frankl’s horrific journey through the Nazi concentration camps

where in the period 1942 to 1945, Frankl was moved between four different
camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife
perished.

Surrounded by terror, he asked: “How do you make sense of such madness?” Frankl found that many of
the survivors had something to live for beyond the immediate horror.

Part I, Experiences in a Concentration Camp, isn't for the faint-hearted. For those who weren't sent to
the gas chambers at the initial selection, the conditions in the camp were both physically and mentally
extremely harsh. He writes about the psychological effects of being completely dehumanised; of losing
even your name, and becoming simply a number. Also, he discusses the effects of not being able to
contact loved ones, or even know if they are still living. Frankl describes how the prisoners who created
dreams and plans for the future in order to stay sane, kindled their will to live in an environment where
it was very easy to give up. Frankl would imagine himself teaching his students, walking in the forest
with his wife and, using these powers of imaginary and mental and emotional resilience, he grew his
influence.

This section, largely autobiographical, provides unique and strong evidence for some of the principles of
logotherapy summarised in Part II.

Part II, Logotherapy in a Nutshell , provides details of Frankl's formal psychological theory he terms
"Logotherapy". He says traditional psychotherapy looks into our past to find cures for current
psychological problems. He describes the techniques used to put it into practice. The therapy deals with
the search for meaning in a person's life and the lack of it in present society. His Logotherapy on the
other hand he says helps people through finding hope for the future by getting in touch with the
meaning in their lives.

Key principles of the book

People can choose their attitude
Human beings want to feel in control. Time after time we "Everything can be taken from
hear people say: “But I had no choice.” Based on his a man but ...the last of the
experience in the death camps, Frankl maintains that there human freedoms - to choose
is always one final freedom. We can choose our attitude one's attitude in any given set
of circumstances, to choose
towards events. He wrote: “We who lived in concentration
one's own way."
camps can remember the men who walked through the
huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of
bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken
/Users/Clare/Dropbox/FR CLIENTS/The Right Mind/Website/Resources/Toolbox/Book Reviews/Frankl-Man's Search for Meaning.doc
 Mans Search for Meaning

from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one’s attitude in any given set of
circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

People want to find and follow their personal sense of meaning

Human beings long for a sense of purpose, said Frankl. He believed there were three ways to create
meaning in life: a) By doing a deed or creating a work; b) By appreciating the experience of someone or
something; c) By choosing our attitude towards suffering.

Accordingly, Frankl summarises the status of love and work as sources of meaning like this: “A man who
becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being 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’.”

However, it's with the third source of meaning that Frankl challenges us. This source is suffering. (Frankl
stresses that he's talking about unavoidable suffering; suffering that is avoidable is simply masochistic.)
There are two reasons why suffering can be a source of meaning. Firstly, because our inner freedom --
our “spiritual freedom”, as Frankl occasionally calls it -- to choose the attitude we have to things is
absolute, as it were, we can choose which attitude to take to suffering. Secondly, and closely related to
this stoic view, we can choose to see suffering as our “task”. This ”task” of suffering, the 'task' of bearing
one's cross, enables a human being to suffer “proudly”.

Frankl experienced this drive himself after losing the manuscript that summarised his life’s work. He had
sewn it into his coat lining, but lost it when transferred to Auschwitz. During the terror he kept himself
sane by spending nights reconstructing the book in his head, then on pieces of stolen paper.

People find ‘happiness’ as a by-product of following their meaning

“Ever more people today have the means to live,” said Frankl, “but no meaning to live for.” He saw that
people were striving to achieve happiness through self-indulgence or gathering “outer” things – such as
possessions or status. Writing in the preface to the 1984 edition of Man’s Search For Meaning, he
explained: “Again and again I admonish my students both in America and Europe: ‘Don’t aim at 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
personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product 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.’”

Inspiration
Frankl has been an inspiration and mentor to many people. Stephen R Covey in the “7 Habits of Highly
Effective People” draws heavily on Frankl. Raymond Ackerman in “The Four Legs of the Table” talks
about how five mentors (Frankl was one of the five) significantly influenced the way Ackerman
developed the Pick ‘n Pay model in South Africa (see below for excerpts of what these two have said).

Stephen R Covey
Stephen Covey, refers to Frankl as his ‘intellectual mentor’ and he frequently recites the following piece.

/Users/Clare/Dropbox/FR CLIENTS/The Right Mind/Website/Resources/Toolbox/Book Reviews/Frankl-Man's Search for Meaning.doc 2

 Mans Search for Meaning

Viktor Frankl, in the death camps of Nazi Germany was being tortured, put under the white lights,
stripped naked, and ignoble sterilisation experiments done upon his body. And he discovered that
between everything that happened to him and his response, was a space. And in that space he had the
freedom and power to choose his response. He simply learned to change one question and it totally
changed his life and he became one of the most powerful, intellectual leaders in the field of
psychotherapy throughout the entire world. He changed his question from, “Why should I have to suffer
so as a Jew, at the hands of these Nazis?” to this question: “What is life asking of me?” He would find a
fellow prisoner ready to commit suicide and he’d ask them, “Why don’t you?”
“Because of what it would do to my wife.” That gave his life its meaning.

The business man’s mentor

Raymond Ackerman says Frankl’s philosophies taught him to “understand and appreciate the
possibilities of adversity.

For Raymond Ackerman the pivotal piece of advice that came from Frankl was “find out what it is you
want to do, and do it to distraction”. As Ackerman says, this piece “ has a layer of meaning that goes
deeper than the advice in a similar vein that has been given by leaders and achievers throughout history,
where total commitment is emphasized as a prerequisite for success.” Ackerman goes on to say “
Frankl’s philosophy sees the pursuit of a passion, an activity pursued to distraction, as starting point
from which will flow answers to those enormous, seamless questions that all questing people ask at
some stage of their life.”

Contribution to the strengths approach

Frankl talked about “meaning” and “purpose”, rather than strengths, and underlined we each have a
mission to fulfil. This could mean, in some cases, fulfilling our duty to make full use of our talents. At the
same time, he showed that people draw courage from pursuing their chosen path. (This aspect has since
been developed through Martin Seligman’s work on “character strengths”.) So here are several ways
that Victor contributed to what would later be known as the strengths approach.
§ He emphasised the concept of choice. People can choose their attitude. They can also choose
whether or not they want to use their strengths.
§ He showed that each of us have something to give to the world. We may have a book to write, a
legacy to leave, a talent to fulfil or whatever. We can do this by finding and following our
vocation.
§ He showed that people draw tremendous strength from doing something that provides a sense
of meaning.

Frankl always got to the heart of the matter. Speaking towards the end of his life, he said that, for
humanity to survive, we needed to coalesce around a common purpose. Faced by interviewers who
asked what people should do when faced by the absence of faith, economic crises or global challenges,
he went back to his famous saying. “Man is not free from his conditions, but he is free to take a stand
towards his conditions.” We can choose our attitude and, if we wish, pass-on a better world to future
generations.

Viktor Frankl quotations

A human being is a deciding being.

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In
our response lies our growth and our freedom.

Challenging the meaning of life is the truest expression of the state of being human.

/Users/Clare/Dropbox/FR CLIENTS/The Right Mind/Website/Resources/Toolbox/Book Reviews/Frankl-Man's Search for Meaning.doc 3

 Mans Search for Meaning

Each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he
can only respond by being responsible.

Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.

Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment
that demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated, thus, everyone's
task is unique as his specific opportunity to implement it.

Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose
one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

Fear may come true that which one is afraid of.

For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters,
therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a
given moment.

I recommend that the Statue of Liberty be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the west
coast.

Life can be pulled by goals just as surely as it can be pushed by drives.

Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time.

The last of human freedoms - the ability to chose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances.

Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he
who is asked.

What is to give light must endure burning.

When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves.

In summary
For me, the power of this short book is his narrative of survival in the concentration camps. What he
witnessed and reports has its own power, but when he compounds it with an interpretation, that is, a
search for meaning, Frankl's book has resounding merit.

Man’s Search for Meaning is available in good bookstores, Amazon and also in audible form
(www.audible.com).

There are also some very good interviews with Viktor Frankl on Youtube (www.youtube.com).

David Hanlon is the Founder of the Right Mind International Pty Ltd. He conducts his consulting and
training activities globally. He is the developer of numerous public and in-house training programs.

/Users/Clare/Dropbox/FR CLIENTS/The Right Mind/Website/Resources/Toolbox/Book Reviews/Frankl-Man's Search for Meaning.doc 4