With more than 4 million copies in
print in the English language
alone, Man's Search for Meaning, the chilling yet inspirational
story of Viktor Frankl's struggle to hold on to hope during his
three years as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps, is a true
classic. Beacon Press is now pleased to present a special gift
edition of a work that was hailed in 1959 by Carl Rogers as"one
of the outstanding contributions to psychological thought in the
last fifty years." Frankl's training as a psychiatrist informed
every waking moment of his ordeal and allowed him a
remarkable perspective on the psychology of survival. His
assertion that "the will to meaning" is the basic motivation for
human life has forever changed the way we understand our
humanity in the face of suffering.
Man's
Search for Meaning
A
N
I
NTRODUCTION
TO
L
OGOTHERAPY
Fourth Edition
Viktor E. Frankl
P
ART
O
NE
TRANSLATED
BY
I
LSE
L
ASCH
P
REFACE
BY
G
ORDON
W. A
LLPORT
BEACON PRESS
TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER,
Beacon Press 25
Beacon Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02108-2892
www.beacon.org
Beacon Press books
are published under the auspices of
the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations.
© 1959, 1962, 1984, 1992 by Viktor E. Frankl
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America First
published in German in 1946 under the title
Ein Psycholog erlebt das Konzentrationslager. Original
English title was From Death-Camp to Existentialism.
05 04 03 02 01
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Frankl, Viktor Emil.
[Ein Psycholog erlebt das Konzentrationslager. English]
Man's search for meaning: an introduction to logotherapy /
Viktor E. Frankl; part one translated by Use Lasch; preface
by
Gordon W. Allport. — 4th ed.
p. cm. Includes
bibliographical references (p. ).
ISBN 0-8070-1426-5 (cloth) 1. Frankl, Viktor
Emil. 2. Holocaust, Jewish (1939—1945)—
Personal narratives. 3. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)—
Psychological aspects. 4. Psychologists—Austria—Biography.
5. Logotherapy. I. Title.
D810J4F72713 1992
i5o.ig'5—dc2o 92-21055
Contents
Preface by Gordon W. Allport 7
Preface to the 1992 Edition II
PART ONE
Experiences in a Concentration Camp 15
PART TWO
Logotherapy in a Nutshell 101
POSTSCRIPT 1984
The Case for a Tragic Optimism 137
Selected English Language Bibliography
of Logotherapy 155
About the Author
8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Preface
Dr. Frankl, author-psychiatrist, sometimes asks his pa
tients who suffer from a multitude of torments great and
small, "Why do you not commit suicide?" From their an
swers he can often find the guide-line for his psycho-
therapy: in one life there is love for one's children to tie to;
in another life, a talent to be used; in a third, perhaps only
lingering memories worth preserving. To weave these
slender threads of a broken life into a firm pattern of mean
ing and responsibility is the object and challenge of logo-
therapy, which is Dr. Frankl's own version of modern
exis
tential analysis.
In this book, Dr. Frankl explains the experience which
led to his discovery of logotherapy. As a longtime prisoner
in bestial concentration camps he found himself stripped to
naked existence. His father, mother, brother, and his wife
died in camps or were sent to the gas ovens, so that, except
ing for his sister, his entire family perished in these camps.
How could he—every possession lost, every value destroyed,
suffering from hunger, cold and brutality, hourly expecting
extermination—how could he find life worth preserving? A
psychiatrist who personally has faced such extremity is a
psychiatrist worth listening to. He, if anyone, should be
8 Preface
Preface 9
able to view our human condition
wisely and with compassion. Dr.
Frankl's words have a profoundly
honest ring, for they rest on
experiences too deep for
deception. What he has to say
gains in prestige because of his
present position on the Medical
Faculty of the University of
Vienna and because of the renown
of the logotherapy clinics that
today are springing up in many
lands, patterned on his own
famous Neurological Policlinic in
Vienna.
One cannot help but compare
Viktor Frankl's approach to
theory and therapy with the work
of his predecessor, Sigmund
Freud. Both physicians concern
themselves primarily with the
nature and cure of neuroses.
Freud finds the root of these
distressing disorders in the anxiety
caused
by conflicting and
unconscious motives. Frankl
distinguishes several forms of
neurosis, and traces some of them
(the noogenic neuroses) to the
failure of the sufferer to find
meaning and a sense of
responsibility in his existence.
Freud stresses frustration in the
sexual life; Frankl, frustration in
the "will-to-meaning." In Europe
today there is a marked turning
away from Freud and a
widespread embracing of
existential analysis, which takes
several related forms—the school
of logotherapy being one. It is
characteristic of Frankl's tolerant
outlook that he does not repudiate
Freud, but builds gladly on his
contributions; nor does he quarrel
with other forms of existential
therapy, but welcomes kinship
with them.
The present narrative, brief
though it is, is artfully constructed
and gripping. On two occasions I
have read it through at a single
sitting, unable to break away from
its spell. Somewhere beyond the
midpoint of the story Dr. Frankl
introduces his own philosophy of
logotherapy. He introduces it so
gently into the continuing
narrative that only after finishing
the book does the reader realize
that here is an essay of profound
depth, and not just one more brutal
tale of concentration camps.