Man’s Search for Meaning

Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl’s memoir Man’s Search for Meaning has inspired generations with its account of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons on spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945, Frankl endured four camps, including Auschwitz, where his family perished. From his experiences and later practice, he argued that while we cannot escape suffering, we can choose how to respond, find meaning in it, and move forward with purpose. His theory, logotherapy—from the Greek logos (“meaning”)—teaches that our main drive in life is the search for meaning, not pleasure as Freud believed. By 1997, the book had sold over 10 million copies in 24 languages and was named one of the ten most influential books in America by a 1991 Library of Congress survey.