Man's Search For Meaning | Viktor E. Frankl

'Every human being should read this book' Simon Sinek, author of Start With Why

In 1942, just months after marrying his wife, Viktor Frankl and his family were sent, first to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, and then to Auschwitz.

A prominent Viennese psychiatrist before the war, Frankl was uniquely able to observe the way that he and other inmates coped with the experience of being in in the notorious concentration camp.

During his time in the camps, he noticed that those who comforted others and gave away their last piece of bread often survived the longest. He saw that the kind of person a prisoner became depended, not just the influence of the camp, but on an inner decision. Those who let go of their moral and spiritual selves eventually fell victim to the camp’s degrading effects; those who resisted were able to turn their suffering into a kind of inner triumph.

For Frankl, his experience was proof that everything can be taken from us except the ability to choose our attitude in any given set of circumstances. From this, he came to believe that our deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose.

One of the seminal pieces of literature to emerge from World War 2, this powerful and inspiring book offers us all a way to transcend suffering and find meaning in the art of living.

Viktor E. Frankl (1905–1997) was a professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Vienna Medical School and the founder of logotherapy. During the Second World War, Frankl survived three years in Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz and Dachau, where his parents, first wife and other members of his family were killed. He is the author of the international bestseller Man’s Search for Meaning, which has sold millions of copies and been translated into more than 50 languages worldwide.