Book Review: Man's Search for Meaning

 
Photo from Amazon

Photo from Amazon

 

Publisher’s description on Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor E. Frankl:

Based on his experiences in Nazi death camps, including Auschwitz, from 1942 to 1945, Frankl's timeless memoir and meditation on finding meaning in the midst of suffering argues that man cannot avoid suffering but can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose.

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OOF. Oof. This should frankly be required reading. A psychiatrist examines his experience of life in Nazi concentration camps. The stunningly clinical yet emotionally raw way he relates his experience in Auschwitz and other camps is remarkable. This is one of those books that I will always remember reading. It’s brutal and necessary. At times you almost can’t quite believe what you’re hearing—how could humans do this to each other?—but you look around and you know they can. This book is full of both trauma and hope. Evil and resilience. I got a little lost in the last part of the book that goes over the clinical theory, but otherwise, truly, I can’t recommend this enough. It made me think a lot about resilience, our place in the world, and how we keep moving forward. It is somehow both a hard and easy read. You can’t look away—and you shouldn’t.

I listened to this on Audible, and I recommend it. I found it easier to hear this as someone’s story than I think I would have trying to get through it on the page. The narrator does an excellent job.