Title: Man's Search for Meaning
Author: Victor Frankl
What It's About: Victor is an Austrian Psychologists, and founder of Logo-therapy, who survived the Nazi Concentration Camps. Through his former education, personal camp experiences, observation of fellow camp mates and former patients, Victor finds that most of our mental and emotional states are formed by our sense of purpose and meaning in life. He states we can find meaning and purpose of our existence in even the worst circumstances. He found that those that survived the concentration camps were not the physically strong or seemingly emotional stable, but the ones who were able to introspectively look at where they have been, where they were at, and where they could one day be.
Why Did I Read It: I have had the book for a while and decided it was time to read it...especially after it was mentioned in the previous book I read.
Favorite Idea: We discover meaning in life in three different ways: 1) by creating a work or doing a good deed; 2)by experiencing something or encountering someone; and 3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering. He explains how he leaned on all three to give meaning to his life even in the worst of days while a prisoner.
Favorite Quote: "We who lived in the concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way."
Opinion: This is a heavy/deep read BUT everyone should read this book! Everyone of us, at points, think we are in a rough season and doubt the meaning of our life. Even in the worst of situations we still have reason and purpose. There is still something OR someone one we must carry on for.
I know in this picture there are only two books...that's because I've already given away a couple of the books that I've read! Pass it on!
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