Book
Recommendation: Man's Search for Meaning by
Viktor E. Frankl
This
wonderful book was recommended to me by my 17-year-old granddaughter, Britnye,
who read it for school. My congratulations to her for reading and recommending
such a serious, important work, and to her teacher for assigning it. It was
first published in 1945, the year before I was born, and 12 million copies have
been printed in 24 languages. Many people I mention it to have already read it…where
was I? Frankl was a Jewish psychiatrist living in Vienna when he was arrested
by the Nazis. He could have fled to America before that, but stayed to help his
elderly parents. They died in the camps, as did his first wife. He had almost
completed his book on logotherapy, but it was taken from him along with
everything when he was sent to Auschwitz. He survived four different concentration
camps. While Freud held that man seeks pleasure and Adler that man seeks power
or control, logotherapy holds that people seek meaning in their lives. Frankl
recounts his time in the horror of the camps and noticed that those who gave
up, who had no goal to live for, died, while many of those who did have such a
goal still found meaning in life and often survived. Of course, a twist of fate
could kill you in the camps anyway. I believe what Frankl says. In my books, “Advice for my Granddaughter” and its
companion, “Advice for Boys,” I write
that the secret of happiness is to find something you care about more than yourself,
be it your family, your church, your work, rescuing dogs or people, your
country or the US Marines. I think that is another way to say you must find
meaning. Frankl writes that people cannot find happiness, they mush find
meaning in their lives and then happiness ensues. My favorite quote in the book
is, “I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented
by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.” Frankl believes that much
drug and alcohol addiction come about because the addicts have not found
meaning in their lives. I wish more people, especially teens and young adults,
would read this short volume.
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