Man's Search for Meaning

Man´s Search For Meaning is a book written by Víctor Frankl, an Austrian psychiatrist, founder of a psychotherapeutic discipline called logotherapy.

Frankl is a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps and in this book he describes that hell from his personal experience. It is not limited to a description of the facts, but it delves into how the psychology of the prisoners is affected (identifying different characters among them) and of himself.

What makes the book really interesting is that Frankl chooses that terrible framework, where the life of man is reduced to the minimum expression and the hope to get out of there is practically nil, to deepen the meaning of life. Does such suffering have any meaning? Can any reason be found in such circumstances to not allow oneself to simply die?

It is a book that is really worth reading. It will make us reflect on basic notions that shape us as people, such as hope, freedom, dignity, decency and love.

In addition, it results in a very good introduction to logotherapy, a discipline that is linked to philosophical existentialism from psychotherapy and that identifies the search for meaning as the primary motivation of the human being.