Book Paper Man s Search for Meaning
Benjamin Ryan
April 1, 2014
Second Assignment: Book Paper
THESIS STATEMENT: In this paper, I will be interpreting and displaying the various moral, spiritual, and psychological themes within the book “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor E. Frankl, including his theory of logotherapy.
INTRODUCTION:
“Man’s Search for Meaning” leaves a lot to be analyzed hence why it was a great choice for a philosophy paper. The three themes listed above: moral, spiritual, and psychological all play a major role in the book as each of which describes the feelings and traumatic stages that a prisoner within the Concentration camp would have felt. Logotherapy is the theory that author Frankl came up with in order to structurally find the meaning to one’s life, this is an important theme because after the first part of the book he tells you how it relates to his experiences and how it is and has been used to help people suffering from the concentration camps. When reading the book it begins as first-hand experience from the concentration camps, as it continues a concept similar to Ernest Hemingway’s Ice-berg concept is revealed. The author breaks up the mental, spiritual, and psychological state of prisoner’s into three categories: shock when immediately arriving to the camp, the depersonalization/dehumanization, and the hardships once being free. These can relate to Hemingway’s theory because behind all of what is being told or “seen” there is still much more beneath the surface of the writing, and the people within the writing that are telling much more than what meets the eye.
REFLECTION:
Throughout the entire book the author kept each of themes present: moral, spiritual, and psychological feelings. What is unique to this book is that each of the themes are derived from the common fact that each person in the book was part of a firsthand experience similar to the person in the camp with them. What this means is that when Frankl states his three phases each of them applies to
April 1, 2014
Second Assignment: Book Paper
THESIS STATEMENT: In this paper, I will be interpreting and displaying the various moral, spiritual, and psychological themes within the book “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor E. Frankl, including his theory of logotherapy.
INTRODUCTION:
“Man’s Search for Meaning” leaves a lot to be analyzed hence why it was a great choice for a philosophy paper. The three themes listed above: moral, spiritual, and psychological all play a major role in the book as each of which describes the feelings and traumatic stages that a prisoner within the Concentration camp would have felt. Logotherapy is the theory that author Frankl came up with in order to structurally find the meaning to one’s life, this is an important theme because after the first part of the book he tells you how it relates to his experiences and how it is and has been used to help people suffering from the concentration camps. When reading the book it begins as first-hand experience from the concentration camps, as it continues a concept similar to Ernest Hemingway’s Ice-berg concept is revealed. The author breaks up the mental, spiritual, and psychological state of prisoner’s into three categories: shock when immediately arriving to the camp, the depersonalization/dehumanization, and the hardships once being free. These can relate to Hemingway’s theory because behind all of what is being told or “seen” there is still much more beneath the surface of the writing, and the people within the writing that are telling much more than what meets the eye.
REFLECTION:
Throughout the entire book the author kept each of themes present: moral, spiritual, and psychological feelings. What is unique to this book is that each of the themes are derived from the common fact that each person in the book was part of a firsthand experience similar to the person in the camp with them. What this means is that when Frankl states his three phases each of them applies to
Cited: Frankl, Viktor E.. Man 's search for meaning. Boston: Beacon Press, 2006. Print.