Man’s Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl
31 December 2007Perhaps the most influential book of my life, Man’s Search for Meaning is an eye opener that will show you a different perspective, and may just give you something to live for.
Viktor E. Frankl survived Auschwitz. He entered the Nazi concentration camp as an psychologist, and found himself stripped of everything external, including his wife, his family, his life’s work, his home, his country, and even his identity.
In these circumstances, all we have left is our internal fortitude — our purpose. The author makes a decent argument that when we don’t have anything else, if we lose purpose, we die. He saw it happen with other prisoners, once they had come to the conclusion that they had no purpose in life, they would be dead within a few days.
What is your purpose in life?
Those close to me know what mine is, it’s to protect and provide for my family. The central theme of this book is to teach you how important it is to have a purpose - to search for the meaning of life.
Man’s Search For Meaning is not a nazi death camp horror story, he specifically tries to avoid this approach, as there are plenty of books out there that tell that story. Instead, Viktor Frankl evaluates the situation from a [surprisingly] objective scientific perspective, by focusing his efforts on watching the other prisoners from as a psychologist would, and this book — his purpose — is the result.
This book is mentioned in numerous other self-help books, and it is a must read. Buy Man’s Search For Meaning on Amazon
on December 31st, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Gabe Guzman, a friend of mine, read this book after recommending it, and his comments can be found here:
http://www.guzman-nunez.com/gabe/devnull/categorylist_html%3Fcat_id=4.html
on December 31st, 2007 at 5:10 pm
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