Victor Frankl was a psychiatrist in practice in Vienna before World War II; he survived many years Auschwitz and other death camps. In this book he manages to convey his experience of living inside one of these death camps from the unique perspective an inmate who is also a healer, ever watchful and caring towards those around him. We enter into his descriptions knowing that he lived through an extended horrific nightmare that we do not even want to imagine. We can really only bear this because Frankl is with us along the way, helping us to see what he saw and to follow his desire to heal fellow inmates by noticing the details that point to this person's hope, that one's despair... His ability to continuously observe and synthesize these experiences ultimately bears fruit as the the new "Third Viennese School" of psychotherapy, logotherapy. For the reader, it provides a path to understanding human suffering, freedom, love, hope, and meaning in a way that no other writer can match.
You have to read it to find what it will reveal to you!
Sample below, and also PBS's The Question of God.
I find depth in every line of this book, but the thread that speaks the loudest to me in this reading is the one in which Frankl addresses suffering and meaning together. Here are long excerpts from the book...each one affects - and instructs - me at a deep level:
From p. 77 Meaning and life:
"We had to learn ourselves and furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life - daily and hourly. ...Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.
"Life" does not mean something vague, but something very real and concrete, just as life's tasks are also very real and concrete. They form man's destiny, which is different and unique for each individual...
"Sometimes the situation in which a man finds himself may require him to shape his fate by action...At other times it is more advantageous for him to make use of an opportunity for contemplation ... Sometimes a man may be required simply to accept fate, to bear his cross."
From p. 36-37 The centrality of love:
"A thought transfixed me...I saw the truth as it is set in to song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. the truth - that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love.
"I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world may still know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way - an honorable way - in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment.
"I did not know whether my wife was alive...but at that moment it ceased to matter. There was no need for me to know; nothing could touch the strength of my love, my thoughts, and the image of my beloved."
From p. 66-67 Suffering and spiritual freedom
"Fundamentally, therefore, any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him — mentally and spiritually. He may retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp. Dostoevski said once, "There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings." These words frequently came to my mind after I became acquainted with those martyrs whose behavior in camp, whose suffering and death, bore witness to the fact that the last inner freedom cannot be lost. It can be said that they were worthy of their sufferings; the way they bore their suffering was a genuine inner achievement. It is this spiritual freedom — which cannot be taken away — that makes life meaningful and purposeful.
"If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete.
"The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity — even under the most difficult circumstances — to add a deeper meaning to his life. It may remain brave, dignified and unselfish. Or in the bitter fight for self-preservation he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal. Here lies the chance for a man either to make use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford him. And this decides whether he is worthy of his sufferings or not."
There is so much here, and so much more in this book - I will read it again and again, I know. It is not long...it is surely one of the most valuable books I have read. One reviewer has said that every human being should read this book...I cannot disagree with that! I will add that there is a time for each thing...so, when it is your time - read this book!!!
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