Man's Search For Meaning

I was very inquisitive to know more about Dr.Viktor Frankl on learning that he inspired Dr.Stephen Covey (author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) after Mahatma Gandhi.

There must be something about Dr.Frankl to have been placed in the same pedestal as Mahatma Gandhi.

‘Man’s Search For Meaning’ is mentioned in the first habit – ‘Be Proactive’ in Dr.Covey's book. The first edition of this book was published in German in 1946 and author was professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at the University of Vienna Medical School.

He was imprisoned into Nazi concentration and extradition camp and was one among 1500captives in a shed where hardly 200 could be accommodated. After he clears the first selection at the camp for survival he is given a customary bath and full body shave, both in just 2 minutes!!!

This marked his induction into the camp.

The only way a captive can survive in the camp is to look fit to work. Even small blister can lead one to gas chambers. Dr.Frankl strives to survive in spite of all odds. The first part of this book is full of his spine chilling experiences and tactics to endure. The second is a summary about Logotherapy - a psychoanalysis method to help the dependent to find meaning his/her life

We cannot even perceive hostage’s life at Nazi camp; this book is a great insight to the humanity – ‘power of choice during horrific situations’. ‘An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is a normal behavior. Author displayed this attitude in an utter desolation.

Unlike other self-help books which are generally a well thought rhetoric, this is a factual incident. I realize that many self-help books are derived from this book and hence a classic.

Apart from his experiences these below maxims were energizing…
- ‘I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved’. The Salvation of man is through love and in love.
- Humor was another of soul’s weapons in the fight of self preservation.
- He who has a ‘why’ to live for can bear almost any ‘how’.
- Live as if you were living already for the second time

Author says meaning of one’s life is a like a movie: it consists of thousands of individual pictures, and each of them makes sense and carries a meaning, yet the meaning of the whole film cannot be seen before its last sequence is shown.