Man's Search for Meaning
Critical Analysis of Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Man’s Search For Meaning is a book documenting the experiences of an Austrian psychotherapist named Viktor Frankl who had his life completely turned upside down one day when he was dragged off to a concentration camp during World War II. Frankl, as a young man, showed early interest in psychology, and eventually went to medical school to study neuroscience and psychology. He ended up being extremely successful at counseling patients who were suicidal. He was a practicing doctor up until he was sent to Auschwitz, even in the small grotto similar to ones many of the Jews were sent to before being sent to concentration camps. Later, while in Auschwitz, to give himself a sense of purpose, he observed his fellow prisoners and their individual experiences. Once returning home after being freed, he developed an entirely new method of therapy called Logotherapy. He wrote A Man’s Search For Meaning in order to explain how the theory came about as well as to add a different perspective to the many books being written about the reality of the Nazi concentration camps. It is a difficult task to summarize Frankl’s experiences, because many of them are non-chronological narratives not about him, but about his fellow prisoners. For that reason this paper will examine a central theme present in the book: the three psychological stages Frankl claims each prisoner and the view of God, humanity, and the world that is characteristic of each stage.
The first stage explained in the book is when the prisoner is first brought into the camp. This stage is characterized by shock (22). The prisoner does not fully realize the magnitude of being in a concentration camp and experiences “delusion of reprieve,” a phenomenon where the prisoner thinks that maybe at the last minute they may be freed (23). The prisoners at this point are holding onto hope that they have not found themselves in such dire straits and they still hold
Man’s Search For Meaning is a book documenting the experiences of an Austrian psychotherapist named Viktor Frankl who had his life completely turned upside down one day when he was dragged off to a concentration camp during World War II. Frankl, as a young man, showed early interest in psychology, and eventually went to medical school to study neuroscience and psychology. He ended up being extremely successful at counseling patients who were suicidal. He was a practicing doctor up until he was sent to Auschwitz, even in the small grotto similar to ones many of the Jews were sent to before being sent to concentration camps. Later, while in Auschwitz, to give himself a sense of purpose, he observed his fellow prisoners and their individual experiences. Once returning home after being freed, he developed an entirely new method of therapy called Logotherapy. He wrote A Man’s Search For Meaning in order to explain how the theory came about as well as to add a different perspective to the many books being written about the reality of the Nazi concentration camps. It is a difficult task to summarize Frankl’s experiences, because many of them are non-chronological narratives not about him, but about his fellow prisoners. For that reason this paper will examine a central theme present in the book: the three psychological stages Frankl claims each prisoner and the view of God, humanity, and the world that is characteristic of each stage.
The first stage explained in the book is when the prisoner is first brought into the camp. This stage is characterized by shock (22). The prisoner does not fully realize the magnitude of being in a concentration camp and experiences “delusion of reprieve,” a phenomenon where the prisoner thinks that maybe at the last minute they may be freed (23). The prisoners at this point are holding onto hope that they have not found themselves in such dire straits and they still hold