Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl’s memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences of others he treated later in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl’s theory-known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos (“meaning”)-holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.

Who should read this book?

– Anyone interested in psychotherapy
– Anyone who wants to know how ordinary people cope with extraordinary situations
– Anyone trying to work out the meaning of life

Reviews

“One of the great books of our time.” —Harold S. Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People

“One of the outstanding contributions to psychological thought in the last fifty years.”—Carl R. Rogers (1959)

“An enduring work of survival literature.” —New York Times

“An accessible edition of the enduring classic. The spiritual account of the Holocaust and the description of logotherapy meets generations’ need for hope.”—Donna O. Dziedzic (PLA) AAUP Best of the Best Program

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About the Author: Viktor Frankl

Viktor E. Frankl was professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Vienna Medical School until his death in 1997. His twenty-nine books have been translated into twenty-one languages. During World War II, he spent three years in Auschwitz, Dachau, and other concentration camps.

Quotes of Viktor Frankl:

– “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”

– “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

– “Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’.”