Mans Search for Meaning

99 Pages·1993·1.078 MB·English

by  Viktor E. Frankl

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 Man's
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 Search for Meaning
human life has forever changed the way we understand our
humanity in the face of suffering.
A I L
N NTRODUCTION TO OGOTHERAPY
Fourth Edition
Viktor E. Frankl
P O I L
ART NE TRANSLATED BY LSE ASCH
P G W. A
REFACE BY ORDON 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.
Contents
© 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 Preface by Gordon W. Allport 7
Ein Psycholog erlebt das Konzentrationslager. Original
Preface to the 1992 Edition II
English title was From Death-Camp to Existentialism.
PART ONE
8 7 6 5 4 3 2
05 04 03 02 01 Experiences in a Concentration Camp 15
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data PART TWO
Logotherapy in a Nutshell 101
Frankl, Viktor Emil.
[Ein Psycholog erlebt das Konzentrationslager. English] POSTSCRIPT 1984
The Case for a Tragic Optimism 137
Man's search for meaning: an introduction to logotherapy /
Viktor E. Frankl; part one translated by Use Lasch; preface Selected English Language Bibliography
by of Logotherapy 155
Gordon W. Allport. — 4th ed.
About the Author
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
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 existential analysis, which takes
wisely and with compassion. Dr. several related forms—the school
Frankl's words have a profoundly of logotherapy being one. It is
honest ring, for they rest on characteristic of Frankl's tolerant
experiences too deep for outlook that he does not repudiate
deception. What he has to say Freud, but builds gladly on his
gains in prestige because of his contributions; nor does he quarrel
present position on the Medical with other forms of existential
Faculty of the University of therapy, but welcomes kinship
Vienna and because of the renown with them.
of the logotherapy clinics that The present narrative, brief
today are springing up in many though it is, is artfully constructed
lands, patterned on his own and gripping. On two occasions I
famous Neurological Policlinic in have read it through at a single
Vienna. sitting, unable to break away from
One cannot help but compare its spell. Somewhere beyond the
Viktor Frankl's approach to midpoint of the story Dr. Frankl
theory and therapy with the work introduces his own philosophy of
of his predecessor, Sigmund logotherapy. He introduces it so
Freud. Both physicians concern gently into the continuing
themselves primarily with the narrative that only after finishing
nature and cure of neuroses. the book does the reader realize
Freud finds the root of these that here is an essay of profound
distressing disorders in the anxiety depth, and not just one more brutal
caused by conflicting and tale of concentration camps.
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
From this autobiographical there must be a purpose in suffer­
fragment the reader learns much. ing and in dying. But no man can
He learns what a human being tell another what this purpose is.
does when he suddenly realizes Each must find out for himself,
he has "nothing to lose except his and must accept the responsibility
so ridiculously naked life." that his answer prescribes. If he
Frankl's description of the mixed succeeds he will continue to grow
flow of emotion and apathy is in spite of all indignities. Frankl is
arresting. First to the rescue fond of quoting Nietzsche, "He
comes a cold detached curiosity who has a why to live can bear
concerning one's fate. Swiftly, with almost any how."
too, come strategies to preserve In the concentration camp
the remnants of one's life, every circumstance conspires to
though the chances of surviving make the prisoner lose his hold.
are slight. Hunger, humiliation, All the familiar goals in life are
fear and deep anger at injustice snatched away. What alone
are rendered tolerable by closely remains is "the last of human
guarded images of beloved freedoms"—the ability to
persons, by religion, by a grim "choose one's attitude in a given
sense of humor, and even by set of circumstances." This
glimpses of the healing beauties of ultimate freedom, recognized by
nature—a tree or a sunset. the ancient Stoics as well as by
But these moments of comfort modern existentialists, takes on
do not establish the will to live vivid significance in Frankl's
unless they help the prisoner story. The prisoners were only
make larger sense out of his average men, but some, at least,
apparently senseless suffering. It by choosing to be "worthy of their
is here that we encounter the suffering" proved man's capacity
central theme of existentialism: to rise above his outward fate.
to live is to suffer, to survive is to As a psychotherapist, the
find meaning in the suffering. If author, of course, wants to
there is a purpose in life at all,
10 Preface
know how men can be helped to achieve this distinctively
human capacity. How can one awaken in a patient the
feeling that he is responsible to life for something, however
grim his circumstances may be? Frankl gives us a moving
account of one collective therapeutic session he held with
his fellow prisoners.
At the publisher's request Dr. Frankl has added a state­
ment of the basic tenets of logotherapy as well as a bibliog­
raphy. Up to now most of the publications of this "Third
Viennese School of Psychotherapy" (the predecessors being
Preface to the 1992
the Freudian and Adlerian Schools) have been chiefly in
German. The reader will therefore welcome Dr. Frankl's
Edition
supplement to his personal narrative.
Unlike many European existentialists, Frankl is neither
pessimistic nor antireligious. On the contrary, for a writer
who faces fully the ubiquity of suffering and the forces of
evil, he takes a surprisingly hopeful view of man's capacity This book has now lived to see nearly one hundred print­
to transcend his predicament and discover an adequate ings in English—in addition to having been published in
guiding truth. twenty-one other languages. And the English editions alone
I recommend this little book heartily, for it is a gem of have sold more than three million copies.
dramatic narrative, focused upon the deepest of human These are the dry facts, and they may well be the reason
problems. It has literary and philosophical merit and pro­ why reporters of American newspapers and particularly of
vides a compelling introduction to the most significant American TV stations more often than not start their in­
psychological movement of our day. terviews, after listing these facts, by exclaiming: "Dr. Frankl,
GORDON W. ALLPORT your book has become a true bestseller—how do you feel
about such a success?" Whereupon I react by reporting that
in the first place I do not at all see in the bestseller status
of my book an achievement and accomplishment on my part
but rather an expression of the misery of our time: if hun­
dreds of thousands of people reach out for a book whose very
Gordon W. Allport, formerly a professor of psychology at Harvard
title promises to deal with the question of a meaning to life,
University, was one of the foremost writers and teachers in the field in
this hemisphere. He was author of a large number of original works on it must be a question that burns under their fingernails.
psychology and was the editor of the Journal of Abnormal and Social
To be sure, something else may have contributed to the
Psychology. It is chiefly through the pioneering work of Professor All­
port that Dr. Frankl's momentous theory was introduced to this impact of the book: its second, theoretical part ("Logother­
country; moreover, it is to his credit that the interest shown here in apy in a Nutshell") boils down, as it were, to the lesson one
logotherapy is growing by leaps and bounds.
may distill from the first part, the autobiographical account
("Experiences in a Concentration Camp"), whereas Part One
11
12 Preface to the 1992 Edition Preface to the 1992 Edition 13
serves as the existential validation of my more you are going to miss it. For success, like
theories. Thus, both parts mutually support happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue,
their credibility. and it only does so as the unintended side-effect
I had none of this in mind when I wrote the of one's dedication to a cause greater than
book in 1945. And I did so within nine oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender
successive days and with the firm to a person other than oneself. Happiness
determination that the book should be must happen, and the same holds for success:
published anonymously. In fact, the first you have to let it happen by not caring about it.
printing of the original German version does I want you to listen to what your conscience
not show my name on the cover, though at commands you to do and go on to carry it out
the last moment, just before the book's initial to the best of
publication, I did finally give in to my friends
who had urged me to let it be published with
my name at least on the title page. At first,
however, it had been written with the
absolute conviction that, as an anonymous
opus, it could never earn its author literary
fame. I had wanted simply to convey to the
reader by way of a concrete example that life
holds a potential meaning under any
conditions, even the most miserable ones. And
I thought that if the point were demonstrated
in a situation as extreme as that in a
concentration camp, my book might gain a
hearing. I therefore felt responsible for
writing down what I had gone through, for I
thought it might be helpful to people who
are prone to despair.
And so it is both strange and remarkable
to me that— among some dozens of books I
have authored—precisely this one, which I
had intended to be published anonymously
so that it could never build up any
reputation on the part of the author, did
become a success. Again and again I therefore
admonish my students both in Europe and
in America: "Don't aim at success—the
more you aim at it and make it a target, the
your knowledge. Then you will live to see solution; this was the type of dilemma that
that in the long run—in the long run, I say! made one wish for "a hint from Heaven," as
—success will follow you precisely because the phrase goes.
you had forgotten to think of it." It was then that I noticed a piece of marble
The reader may ask me why I did not try to lying on a table at home. When I asked my
escape what was in store for me after Hitler father about it, he explained that he had
had occupied Austria. Let me answer by found it on the site where the National
recalling the following story. Shortly before Socialists had burned down the largest
the United States entered World War II, I Viennese synagogue. He had taken the piece
received an invitation to come to the home because it was a part of the tablets on
American Consulate in Vienna to pick up my which the Ten Commandments were
immigration visa. My old parents were inscribed. One gilded Hebrew letter was
overjoyed because they expected that I engraved on the piece; my father explained
would soon be allowed to leave Austria. I that this letter stood for one of the
suddenly hesitated, however. The question Commandments. Eagerly I asked, "Which
beset me: could I really afford to leave my one is it?" He answered, "Honor thy father
parents alone to face their fate, to be sent, and thy mother that thy days may be long
sooner or later, to a concentration camp, or upon the land." At that moment I decided to
even to a so-called extermination camp? stay with my father and my mother upon the
Where did my responsibility lie? Should I land, and to let the American visa lapse
foster my brain child, logotherapy, by
emigrating to fertile soil where I could write
my books? Or should I concentrate on my VIKTOR E. FRANKL Vienna, 1992.
duties as a real child, the child of my
parents who had to do whatever he could to
protect them? I pondered the problem this
way and that but could not arrive at a
PART ONE
Experiences in a
Concentration
Camp