Book Analysis: Man's Search for Meaning

In Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning we are told a powerful story of a man’s survival through the Holocaust. Frankl struggles to not only keep his body alive, but his spirit as well. Frankl’s main goal is to not only come out alive from the Holocaust but to not let it change him and ultimately defeat or take over his life and change who he truly is. He knows the only way to stay alive is to find some sort of meaning in his life. As we watch him fight to survive during his stay in concentration camps we begin to realize that the only way he is surviving is because he hasn’t forgotten who he still is and the identity that the Nazi’s were trying to take from him. He keeps his personal identity, goals, and morals in mind while others seem to lose themselves.
When Frankl enters the concentration camp, as much of his personal identity as possibly is taken away from him. All his possessions are taken, his hair is shaved, and he and all the other prisoners are dressed in the same ratty clothes. He is no longer Viktor Frankl. He is now a number tattooed on his skin. But Frankl quickly realizes that in order to stay alive he must not give into this delusion that all the inmates are the same, that they are nothing but animals. Frankl continues to keep his spirit alive by remembering his personal identity, while at the same time trying to keep himself from the delirium that comes with the typhus infection. He does this by reconstructing his manuscript that he had lost when entering the camps (35). Not only does this help him avoid delirium, it also helps him reconstruct himself and remember who he is and who he wants to be. By doing this, it helps Frankl reassure himself that although he is going through an event that broke and killed many people both physically and mentally, he could get through alive and still come out the same person he went in the concentration camp as.
Frankl not only keeps in mind his profession as a psychiatrist, but continues to