Review of Logotheraphy and Man's Search for Meaning

Victor Frankl's 1946 Masterpiece

Alongside Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler, Victor Frankl is often considered as one of the greats of psychiatric literature. After publishing Mans Search for Meaning in 1946, he quickly became known as the founder of Logotherapy, often regarded as ‘The Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy’ behind Adler’s Nietzschean doctrine of ‘will to power’ and Freud’s ‘will to pleasure’. Logotherapy was the psychological doctrine that the most powerful driving force in humans is finding a meaning in one’s life, and this principle is explored throughout the book.

The first half of Frankl’s autobiographical book consists of his memoirs of his time spent in a concentration camp, and the lesson’s that he learnt during his torturous experience, also adding how it influenced his creation of Logotherapy. Frankl believed in the principle that “everything can be taken from man but one thing, the last of the human freedom’s – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstance”, so through finding meaning, even our worst atrocities would be to some extent more bearable if we are somehow able to find meaning in them, thereby confirming Friedrich Nietzsche’s famous saying; “that which does not kill you can only make you stronger”.

In the second half of the book, Frankl dives into a more in-depth explanation of Logotherapy, which he described as not only being a method of psychiatric analysis, but also essentially a personal philosophy on living one’s life. Through providing an in-depth explanation of Logotherapy, Frankl makes the important point that despite being the most influential, motivating factors in our lives, our search for meaning is hardly ever complete, since ‘meaning’ is something that can often change depending on our individual circumstances. So the search for meaning isn’t like a race, where once it’s found we feel complete, but is instead comparable to a marathon, i.e. a long continuous process which some may complete, whilst others might end their lives never fully discovering the meaning of their life.

Ultimately, Mans search for Meaning is easily one of the most influential books of the 20^th century, which I seriously recommend for not only people that are seeking a better understanding of psychology, but also those simply wanting a good read!