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Man's Search for Meaning

A psychologist's account of finding meaning in concentration camps.

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The book identifies three psychological reactions experienced by concentration camp inmates: shock, apathy, and depersonalization upon liberation.[1] In an interview with Nigel Warburton, Sarah Bakewell selected Man's Search for Meaning as one of her top five books on existentialism, calling it "an incredibly powerful and moving example of what existentialist thought can actually be for in real life, what good it can do, how it can help people."[2]

Making and release

The book was published by Beacon Press in 1963.[3] A 2007 edition was also published by Beacon Press.[4] Gordon Allport, who wrote a preface, described it as a "gem of dramatic narrative"[5]

What the cited sources add

The book was named one of the ten most influential books in the United States by a 1991 survey.[6][7] At the author's death in 1997, it had sold over 10 million copies in 24 languages.[6][7] Richard Middleton-Kaplan has criticized the implication that those who died had given up.[8] Thomas Szasz stated that Frankl's survivor testimony was written to misdirect and conceal collaboration with the Nazis.[9]

Lawrence L. Langer has criticized Frankl's advocacy of logotherapy and accused him of displaying a tone of self-aggrandizement and a detached, inhumane attitude toward Holocaust victims.[8][10]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Man's Search for Meaning" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Frankl, "Man's Search for Meaning", 1959 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. "The best books on Existentialism". facts only, no text reused. fivebooks.com
  3. Open Library record, ISBN 9780807014264 ("Man's search for meaning"). CC0 (metadata); book content not read. openlibrary.org
  4. Open Library record, ISBN 9780807014295 ("Man's Search for Meaning"). CC0 (metadata); book content not read. openlibrary.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Man's Search for Meaning" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl; "The best books on Existentialism"; "The best books on Auschwitz" (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Man's Search for Meaning" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Fein, "Book Notes", New York Times, 1991; Noble, "Dr. Viktor E. Frankl of Vienna, Psychiatrist of the Search for Meaning, Dies at 92", The New York Times, September 4, 1997, p. B-7; "Viktor Frankl Life and Work", Viktor Frankl Institute Vienna, 2011 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Man's Search for Meaning" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Fein, "New York Times, 11-20-1991", The New York Times, 20 November 1991 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Man's Search for Meaning" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Middleton-Kaplan, "Jewish Resistance Against the Nazis", Catholic University of America Press, 2014, p. 9–10 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Man's Search for Meaning" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Faith in Freedom, p. 181 Thomas Szasz; "Thomas Szasz: An Evaluation Psychology Today", www.psychologytoday.com; "Review of the Wilkomirski Affair", Swiss American Historical Society Review, p. 25–32 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Man's Search for Meaning" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lawrence Langer, Versions of Survival: The Holocaust and the Human Spirit (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1982), p. 24.; Pytell, "Redeeming the Unredeemable: Auschwitz and Man's Search for Meaning", Holocaust and Genocide Studies, June 3, 2003, p. 89–113 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Man's Search for Meaning (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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