Book Review - Man's Search From Meaning by Viktor Frankl

Man's search for meaning is Dr Frankl's bestseller, with according to the
jacket more than four million copies sold. Dr Frankl was a
psychotherapist and a concentration camp survivor,where he lost his
parents and wife. As a psychotherapist. Frankl reaction to this was, how
do I respond to all this ?,how do I find meaning in this ?. And this book
provides at least part of the answers he has come up with. The book
consists of three parts, the first one dealing with the actual concentration
camp experience, the second describing logo therapy ,also referred to as
the third Viennese school of psychotherapy and finally a third part in the
new edition titled the case for tragic optimism.

As can be expected with Dr Frankl's background the book is written in a
therapeutic vain, and will strike some readers as at times forcing the
case. Imbuing logic and meaning where some would see none and may
be ready to accept this absurdity as the substance of life. For example
Dr Frankl helps a rabbi who had lost his wife and children in
concentration camps and whose second wife turns out to be incapable
of bearing children. The man is in despair over the fact that there would
be no one to say kaddish(Jewish prayer of death) for him after his death.
To this Dr Frankl replies by asking if he did not hope to see the children
in heaven. This results in an burst of tears followed by the statement
that since the children were innocents they were assured a place in
heaven while he as an old sinner was not likely to get there. Dr Frankl
latches on to this and counters by asking if this was now not the meaning
of the despairing man's life. That is to suffer and purify himself thereby
making himself fit for the heavens.The author assures us that the advice
proves helpful.

I find the part about experiences in the concentration camp as the best
written part of the book. The images of cruelties of foreman and guards is
conveyed humanistic ally rather than succumbing to a simpler temptation
of demonisation. The point about cruel individuals present in all groups, is
appropriately made in the book's context. The author gives examples of
kind Nazi guards and the cruel prisoners, especially the notorious capo,
who tortured fellow prisoners for personal gains.

Although the author does not point to this directly, this section also sheds
a light on how sadists become especially dangerous in such conditions.
There are foremen under whom working can often be fatal. Such people
are present in all groups, the degree of danger they represent is in direct
proportion to the power they possess. Power corrupts acquires an
especially deadly tone here. With the way such individuals are described
here, it makes one wonder about the situations in which people are made
in charge of enforcing discipline, given a license to hard.How people who
relish (and this is always observable) such roles would have faired.

Dr Frankl analyzes the mental states of the inmates of concentration
camps and identifies 1) shock, during initial admission 2) apathy after
getting somewhat used to the camp and 3)reactions of bitterness ,
vengeance after liberation. However - analyzing and presenting
psychology of guards and inmates, Dr Frankl doesn't offer the readers
much more than a peep into his own mental state through the whole
experience. He comes off mostly as superhumanly calm, and the entire
affair seems to be only a difficult challenge to him . A challenge which he
always has the ability to surmount. For example his decision to forgo an
escape opportunity,a escape which could have made the difference
between life and death,in order to be able to help one of his patients is
arrived at,heroically,without much mental turmoil. One is tempted to
ask was it really so (i mean the lack of turmoil not the truth of the
decision) or more generally can it really be so ?

Also It seems that the creator of will to meaning has never been
personally, desperately confronted with meaninglessness in his own life.
The experience of meaninglessness is for him a problem to be solved in
others not so much in himself.For example his threefold solution of
finding meaning through
a) Action or deeds
b) Experiencing things and other human beings , especially by
loving them
c) The attitude towards unavoidable suffering.

This is quintessentially therapeutic - and therefore perhaps aimed at
effectiveness rather than philosophy. Can existential despair really ,
philosophically be answered by these and by "responsibleness".
Existential despair in an individual might be mitigated, forgotten or
overcome and in that sense answered. But what is one to say to the
existential philosopher, who reminds us that these may yet be another
set of tools, another set of dances that we keep inventing to be able
to bear the absolute absurdity and meaninglessness of the affair we
call life.Necessary though such tools might be, their very
instrumental nature has always been a great bone of contention.
Notice the analogous debate between religionists one one hand
- who contend that their belief in heaven and hell is truth itself and
the unbelievers who reply that it is actually no such thing but rather
a means to cope with the truth of our terrestrial condition.

Finally to sum up there are a lot of positive adjectives on can use while
describing this book like helpful,inspirational,influential etc. Then there are
another set of adjectives that one can't apply(without reservations at any
rate) -philosophical,detailed, literary. Your appreciation of the book will
depend on what qualities you like in books. If its the former you will really
like this book on the other hand if its the latter you may probably still like
this book but with qualifications.