Victor Frankl 's Man 's Search For Meaning

'He who has a why to live for can bear any how.' The words of Nietzsche begin to explain Frankl's tone throughout his book. Dr. Frankl uses his experiences in different Nazi concentration camps to explain his discovery of logotherapy. This discovery takes us back to World War II and the extreme suffering that took place in the Nazi concentration camps and outlines a detailed analysis of the prisoners psyche. An experience we gain from the first-hand memoirs of Dr. Frankl.

In Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl describes his revolutionary type of psychotherapy. He calls this therapy, logotherapy, from the Greek word "logos", which denotes meaning. This is centered on man's primary motivation of his search for meaning. To Frankl, finding meaning in life is a stronger force than any subconscious drive. He draws from his own experiences in a Nazi concentration camp to create and support this philosophy of man's existence.

Elie Wiesel’s short memoir Night recounts his experience surviving the concentration camps during the Holocaust. In the third chapter of the book, he focuses on describing what it was like to arrive at the first concentration camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and the process the men had to go through to transform from men into prisoners. In addition to lying about his age and occupation, Wiesel lost his hair, his clothing, his mother and sisters, his name, and most importantly, his faith. Elie Wiesel's use of imagery and diction in Night makes readers understand the true atrocities of the Holocaust.

Many books were published about Holocaust, but Frankl’s work is “One of the outstanding contribution to psychological thought . . .” (Carl Rogers. 1959). Frankl, a psychiatrist and neurologist, spent 3 years in Nazis concentration camps where he underwent

In Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor E. Frankl tells the honest story of his own experiences as an inmate in a concentration camp during World War II. In his book, Frankl answers the question “How was everyday life in a concentration camp reflected in the mind of the average prisoner?” (Frankl, 2006, p. 3) He describes the physical, emotional, and psychological torment that he endured as well as the effect that the camp had on those around him. He breaks down the psychological experience as a prisoner into three stages: the initial shock upon admission into the camp, apathy, and the mental reactions of the prisoner after liberation. He highlights certain emotions experienced throughout the time in the camp such as delusions of reprieve, hope, curiosity, surprise, and even humor.

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl is filled to the brim with rhetorical devices from all three sections of the text. Particularly in his section about logotherapy, Frankl’s practice to find an individual’s meaning of life, he explores the three main meanings of life: accomplishment, love, and suffering. This area uses a plethora of comparison, such as parallelism and metaphor. Recurring themes are used to draw back to Frankl’s three life meanings, like word repetition and alliteration. Frankl’s use of rhetorical devices allows his audience to focus on their individual possibilities and incorporate his ideology into society.

Prior to World War II, Viktor Frankl was a somewhat successful therapist. Once the war began however, he was sent off to an Auschwitz concentration camp. Everyone in concentration camps had one wish, to stay alive (Frankl 15). Whether they tried to get on the good side of the warden, or attempt an escape, everyone had a different way to survive. Many prisoners died while at camps, but some of them who were hopeful and courageous made it out. Inspired by these prisoners, Frankl created logotherapy to help other find meaning in their own lives.

Long ago, Viktor E. Frankl was a part of the Nazi death camps. From 1942 to 1945, Frankl was forced to work in camps like Aushwitz while his family members perished. He used this experience and his own practice to write about suffering and finding meaning in leaf. His technique, known as logotherapy, believes that man's main drive is not to find pleasure in life. Instead, humanity's goal is to continuously discover and pursue the things that we find meaningful. Due to the immense popularity of his book, Frankl sold 10 million copies by the time he died in 1997.

Born in 1905 in Austria, Viktor Frankl was a Holocaust survivor. He was a neurologist and psychiatrist. During world war II, Dr. Frankl spend couple years in different concentration camp, Auschwitz being one of them. Dr. Frankl lost his first wife and most of his family during their stay in the concentration camps. He got his Medical degree in 1930 and his Doctorate in 1949. He was a professor of neurology and a psychiatry at the university of Vienna Medical school. He was also a visiting professor at some universities around the world. He wrote 39 books in his lifetime. He was the developer of the logotherapy theory, “the theory is founded on the belief that human nature is motivated by the searching for a life purpose”. In 1992 the Viktor Frankl Institute was founded in Vienna by friends and family. Dr. Frankl died in September 1997, the same year his last book was published - Man searching for meaning.

Man’s Search for Meaning, is a biography and the personal memoir of Victor Frankl’s experience in a Nazi Concentration Camp. The book was initially published in 1946 in German and was then published in 1959 in English, under the title From Death-Camp to Existentialism. Prior to World War II, Victor Frankl was a psychiatrist working in Vienna and then later was responsible for running the neurology department at a Jewish Hospital in Rothschild. In 1942 he and his family were arrested and deported. They were separated and sent to concentration

In part one of "A Man's Search for Meaning", Dr Frankl gives a glimpse in the world of the holocaust through the eyes of a prisoner in a Jewish concentration camp. He explains the three psychological reactions that all prisoners experienced in one way or another. The first stage, shock. The prisoners saw many alarming sights when riding in on the train: “long stretches of several rows of barbed wire fences; water towers; searchlights; and long columns of ragged human figures.” They didn’t know how to feel in this situation and their imaginations started running wild with different scenarios of what was going to happen in there. Frankl discloses a psychiatric condition known as "delusion of reprieve", it is described as "The condemned man, immediately

Viktor Frankl makes it clear from the beginning of Man’s Search For Meaning that the first part of the book is not concerned with the sheer facts and events pertaining to the Shoah, but, rather it is an examination of how day-to-day camp life affected the prisoners. Consequently, the book, in lieu of revolving around acts of great heroism, is a testimony vis-à-vis the psychological reactions experienced by the common inmates facing camp life. Given the immeasurable, multitudinous suffering experienced by these inmates, it is not surprising that suffering is a major theme of the book. Frankl, witnessing the attitudes taken towards suffering and perseverance by his peers, both in a positive

It was Frankl who first made a compelling case that the human quest for meaning was the heart and soul of psychotherapy. An approach by his own extraordinary survival experience in a Nazi concentration camps (Frankl, 1985). Frankl suffered in these horrific concentration camps and was able to somehow turn his life around when he was freed. He could have given up and blamed the concentration camps for ruining his life but instead he got up and was able to find something that gave him a sense of meaning. The primary objective of Meaning Therapy for Viktor was to awaken people from their everyday busy routine and help them with their potential meaning. Meaning is described as “man’s striving to fulfill as much meaning in his existence as possible, and to realize as much value in his life as possible” (Frankl, 2010). Viktor proposed that meaning is the core of human values and the principle should be taken seriously.

In September of 1942, Viktor Frankl was arrested in Vienna and taken to one of the many Nazi death camps. Frankl was working on a manuscript which was confiscated from him in a move to Auschwitz. In this manuscript entitled, The Doctor and the Soul, Frankl had began his work on a theory he would later call logotherapy. The term logotherapy is derived from the Greek word logos, which means meaning. According to logotherapy, the striving to find a meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man (Frankl 121). Frankl’s theory and therapy generated and grew through his experiences in the concentration camps.

Experiences encompassed in times of struggle can lead to a new transformative perspective of one’s relationship with self and the world. William Shakespeare’s last play “The Tempest” (1610), canvasses loss catalysing rediscovering the importance of life resulting in a greater understanding of how our flaws compromise our humanity. Prospero, the usurped Duke of Milan, shows this to be true, moving from a mindset focused on vengeance to a profound discovery of self. Similarly, in “Man’s Search for Meaning” (1946), fulfillment with discovering how we choose to cope and find meaning/purpose in life through unrelenting struggle is illustrated. The three-part non-fiction told by psychiatrist Viktor E. Frankl, depicts his ordeal inside of concentration camps during the Second World War, elaborating on finding true meaning in life even under the most horrific circumstances. Frankl shares his process of discovery demonstrating his ability to overcome the most overwhelming experience leading to doorway of meaning, purpose and happiness.