Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers
with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for
spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four
different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and
pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences
of others he treated later in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot
avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in
it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl's theory-known as
logotherapy, from the Greek word logos ("meaning")-holds that our
primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the
discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.
At the time of Frankl's death in 1997, Man's Search for Meaning
had sold more than 10 million copies in twenty-four languages. A 1991
reader survey for the Library of Congress that asked readers to name a
"book that made a difference in your life" found Man's Search for Meaning among the ten most influential books in America.
