I read this book when I was in a very tough place based on the recommendations of a surgeon who unlike many surgeons was interested in my emotional well-being as well. I was hit by a semi-truck while riding my bicycle and spent months in a very difficult place. This book provided some solace although my situation was not nearly as bad as that suffered by the author and the other victims of the holocaust. The author attempts a very difficult task, namely to develop tools for people to find meaning in some... more info
Brilliant and Meaningful:
A friend recommended this book after a discussion of "character motivation" in science fiction. I am so glad he did. Frankl was a psychiatrist working on a theory of what motivated mankind when he was thrown in a Nazi concentration camp. He survived in large part because he had something to live for--the publication of his work. The first part of the book details survival within the concentration camp. This part alone is worth the book's price. Unlike Hollywood depictions of camps, he shows what the inmates... more info
A must read:
This book is a must read for anyone in the field of psychology, and anyone in the field of life...everyone. Frankl intersperses his experiences in the concentration camp with an exploration of psychology and resilience in the face of the worst circumstances known to mankind. The existential results of his explorations and thoughts are incredible, and they are balm to anyone suffering a psychic or a circumstantial wound... that we have a will to find meaning as human beings. The final lines of the book... more info
This is an incredible book.:
I have read this book many, many times. These are the words I live by. If I was told that I could only own one book for the rest of my life, this would be it. Viktor Frankl's harrowing testimony of surviving in a concentration camp seems incomprehensible. Even more unbelievable is the attitude he adopts during his struggle as he remains apart from his family, starving, cold, and forced to perform hard labor with no relief in sight. Through it all, he decides that even though his body is being held captive,... more info
