Man’s Search for Meaning

In this society in which we live, in which many times we do not find meaning in anything or almost nothingbecause the material, the physical aspect or what they will say occupy our mind and our life, the book “Man’s Search for Meaning” by the famous Viktor E. Frankl, one of the most reputable psychotherapists of the entire 20th century, It has become a classic that we should all read..

Viktor Frankl, already a recognized psychiatrist in 1942, was deported to Auschwitz and Dachau along with his wife and parents, they were all destined for different concentration camps. He went there where created this wonderful book on small pieces of paperwhich he collected here and there in which he related his experiences and feelings that he lived and felt in that terrible place.

Frankl observed every day how there were colleagues who resisted the harshest conditions compared to others who literally let themselves die. Not having internal strength, their immune systems went down and they finally died. He realized that both he and all those who resisted those harsh conditions both physical and psychological They were for a reason, they had searched for meaning in their lives. Viktor looked for his; His parents and his wife gave him strength to continuethinking about them and that all that horror would end and he would be able to reunite with his loved ones again gave him mental strength to continue fighting, as he said “who has a reason to live can resist any how.”

Unfortunately when it came out of the concentration camp in 1945, no more and no less than three years after entering it, He discovered that no member of his family had survived to the holocaust, But Frankl found a new meaning in his life, He continued fighting because he had to tell the whole world about his personal learning in those circumstances. It was then that he worked to create his own theory, logotherapy or therapy based on the search for meaning. His first book based on it was “Despite Everything, Yes to Life: A Psychologist in the Concentration Camp” and in 1959 “Man’s Search for Meaning” was published, of which nine million copies have already been published. specimens in the world. Frankl died in 1977 with a life lesson for everyone.

“At this point I would like to make an observation. I initially tried to write this book anonymously, using only my prisoner number. This was driven by my aversion to exhibitionism. Once finished the manuscript I understood that anonymity would make it lose half its value, since the courage of the confession raises the value of the facts. I decided to express my convictions with frankness, and for this reason I refrained from suppressing some of the passages, even overcoming my distaste for exhibitionism. “…”Man can be deprived of everything except the last of the freedoms, the freedom to decide his attitude towards suffering.” Viktor E. Frankl.