Man's Search for Meaning Study Guide
Man's Search for Meaning: Chapter Summaries
Man's Search for Meaning: Themes
Man's Search for Meaning: Characters
Man's Search for Meaning: Analysis
Man's Search for Meaning: Quotes
Man's Search for Meaning: Questions & Answers
Man's Search for Meaning: Introduction
Man's Search for Meaning: Biography of Viktor Emil Frankl
Introduction to Man's Search for Meaning
Man’s Search for Meaning was first published in German in 1946, just one year after the end of World War II and the liberation of its author, psychologist Viktor Emil Frankl, from a Nazi concentration camp. With its exhortation to each individual to find the meaning in their life, Frankl’s combined memoir and psychological treatise—first translated into English in 1959—has become one of the most influential books of the twentieth century.
Frankl’s book consists of two long essays and a short postscript, added in 1984. The first essay, “Experiences in a Concentration Camp,” details the author’s imprisonment in several different camps during the war, focusing in particular on how finding meaning in even the most dire of circumstances allowed him and others to survive. The second essay, “Logotherapy in a Nutshell,” describes the basic principles of Frankl’s meaning-centered therapeutic practice. In the postscript, “The Case for a Tragic Optimism,” Frankl advocates for the necessity of “saying yes to life in spite of everything.”
Frequently Asked Questions about Man's Search for Meaning
Man's Search for Meaning
What is a capo in Man's Search for Meaning?
A capo was a prisoner chosen by the SS officers to be directly in charge of a group of prisoners in the Nazi concentration camps. They were an intermediary between the guards and the other...
Man's Search for Meaning
What exists between stimulus and response?
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. Between stimulus and response, Frankl says,...
Man's Search for Meaning
What are Viktor Frankl's core beliefs?
In Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl shares three core beliefs throughout the text. First, individuals are driven by a desire for meaning as opposed to merely pleasure or power. When...
Man's Search for Meaning
What does Frankl mean by responsibility?
At one point in Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl claims that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast of the United States should be complemented by a Statue of Responsibility: Freedom,...
Man's Search for Meaning
How does Viktor Frankl find meaning in the midst of suffering in Man's Search for Meaning?
Viktor Frankl writes in Man's Search for Meaning that there are three ways in which one can find meaning in life. The first is to do work that is meaningful in itself or creates something...
Man's Search for Meaning
What does Frankl mean by saying that when a person can't find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with...
One of the most important differences between Frankl's logotherapy and Freud's psychoanalytic method is Frankl's rejection of the pleasure principle as a major motivating force. Freud thought that...
Man's Search for Meaning
What does Frankl mean by "What matters therefore is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific...
In Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl cautions against taking an abstract approach to meaning in life. He does not think that it is possible to find a general, universally applicable meaning...
Man's Search for Meaning
What does Frankl mean by "What man really needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for...
Viktor Frankl observes that most people think a good life is one devoid of suffering. After all, most people do all they can to avoid discomfort, distress, uncertainty, and pain. Some even go as...
Man's Search for Meaning
Why did Viktor Frankl write Man's Search for Meaning?
As a psychologist and concentration camp survivor, Frankl writes his book to try to answer this question: How was everyday life in a concentration camp reflected in the mind of the average...
Man's Search for Meaning
What does "the last of the human freedoms is to choose one's attitude" mean?
In Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl argues that the one freedom all people have at any time is the liberty to choose how to respond to a situation, no matter how dire that situation may be....
Man's Search for Meaning
What is the categorical imperative of logotherapy?
In Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl says that people should not keep asking what the meaning of their life is or what the meaning of life is more generally. Instead, they should act as...
Man's Search for Meaning
How did Viktor Frankl survive?
Frankl is very clear that survival in the camps was based primarily on luck. Most people who entered the camps died. There was little rhyme or reason in the camps, which meant that anybody, no...
Man's Search for Meaning
How does logotherapy differ from psychoanalysis?
While influenced in part by Freudian psychoanalysis, Viktor Frankl's logotherapy is quite distinct from it as well. Firstly, Frankl claims that psychoanalysis focuses on the past, while logotherapy...
Man's Search for Meaning
What did Frankl learn about human limitation?
Frankl speaks introspectively and at length about the human limitations of life in concentration camps. He learned that limits came both from the constrained world of the camps and, paradoxically,...
Man's Search for Meaning
How can we find meaning in suffering according to Frankl?
Suffering for Frankl is a kind of spiritual challenge. He quotes Dostoevsky to this effect, who said the following: "There is only one thing I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings." With him,...
Man's Search for Meaning
How does Frankl's wife give his life meaning?
The whole time he was imprisoned in concentration camps, Frankl thought about his beloved wife. He writes that nothing could touch the strength of my love, my thoughts, and the image of my...
Man's Search for Meaning
What does Frankl say about happiness?
In Man's Search for Meaning, Frankl makes several claims about happiness. The most significant is that happiness is secondary to meaning. He writes that, in American culture, one is constantly...
Man's Search for Meaning
What are the three main avenues for reaching meaning in life?
In the second section of Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl argues that people cannot be satisfied with a "tensionless state." They must be striving for something in their daily lives. Such...
Man's Search for Meaning
What is logotherapy in a nutshell?
Logotherapy is a psychotherapeutic method rooted in existentialist thought. It is a system grounded in the idea that people want to assign meaning to their lives and that a great deal of suffering...
Man's Search for Meaning
What is the meaning of life according to Viktor Frankl?
Frankl says the meaning of life lies in finding the "right answer" to the problems of life. Since everyone has different problems, the actual "meaning" is different for everyone, but the common...