Man’s Search for Meaning

This book by Austrian psychiatrist and philosopher Viktor E. Frankl, first published in Vienna in 1946, presents a deeply personal yet universal work based on the author's experience as an inmate in Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz and Dachau from 1942 to 1945; Frankl outlines three psychological phases of camp adaptation—shock, apathy, and depersonalization—and demonstrates how, under conditions of total deprivation, one can find meaning that enables survival; he combines his own experiences with the logotherapy he developed, enriched with philosophical and psychological reflections on the will to meaning and personal responsibility, revealing concrete stories, psychological responses, and modes of inner resilience such as spiritual freedom, love, envisioning a future purpose, and mutual support among prisoners; Frankl analyzes not only the horrors of camp life,but also provides readers with practical tools for discovering personal purpose and meaning in both extreme and everyday life situations, thus offering a transformative insight into the value of life even under the most inhumane conditions.