Book Reveiw ~ Man's Search For Meaning ~ Viktor E. Frankl

 

Book Review ~ Man's Search For Meaning ~ Viktor E. Frankl

Internationally renowned psychiatrist Viktor E. Frankl endured years of unspeakable horror in Nazi death camps. During, and partly because of his suffering, Dr. Frankl developed a revolutionary approach to psychotherapy known as logotherapy. At the core of his theory is the belief that man's primary motivational force is his search for meaning. 

I will highlight a few of the points that Viktor has made that hit my heart and will stay in my heart.

From all of this we may learn that there are two races of men in the world, but only these two - the "race" of decent man and the "race" of the indecent man.

Both are found everywhere; they penetrate into all groups of society. No group consists entirely of decent or indecent people. In this sense, no group is of "pure race" and therefore one occasionally found a decent fellow among the camp guards. 

Life in a concentration camp tore open the human soul and exposed its depths. Is it surprising that in those depths we again found only human qualities which in their very nature were a mixture of good and evil? The rift dividing good from evil, which goes through all human beings, reaches into the lowest depths and becomes apparent even on the bottom of the abyss which is laid open by the concentration camp.

 

 That which does not kill me, makes me stronger.

What you have experienced, no power on earth can take from you.

Someone looks down on each of us in difficult hours. A friend, a wife, somebody dead or alive, or a God. 

For the world is in a bad state, but everything will become still worse unless each of us does his best.

So, let us be alert~alert in a twofold sense:

Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of.

And since Hiroshima we know what is at stake. 

 

 I will again share the quote that hit my heart and penetrated it.

 From all of this we may learn that there are two races of men in the world, but only these two - the "race" of decent man and the "race" of the indecent man.