Review of Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl

Staying intrinsically motivated is important for self-improvement and progress. I have always wanted to understand factors that influence motivation and I found Frankl’s book to be extremely insightful in this regard. There are numerous accounts of the Holocaust that go into detail about atrocities committed in the dreaded concentration camps of Nazi Germany. This book is unique in that it discusses Psychological aspects of imprisonment, torture, starvation and suffering.

At the very start Frankl paints a vivid picture of life in Auschwitz and other camps. He focuses on the everyday sufferings that made life seem like a burden to prisoners. A few things really stood out to me about life in concentration camps. People were robbed completely of their identities and their existence was reduced to a mere number. Inmates were forced to work long hours performing intensive manual labour, and at the same time their diets were limited to a few slices of bread and a single serving of soup. Life and death were extremely unpredictable and a prisoner could be executed on the whim of a guard. It is fascinating that under this kind of an atmosphere, inmates still managed to have light-hearted discussions and steal a few moments to appreciate art and partake in humour. A major theme in the book that I found interesting, is the progression of an inmate’s mental state through three stages; Shock about the state of affairs at camp, entrenchment into the camp routine, and the reaction following their release. On arrival at a camp location, many inmates were directly sent to the gas chambers and crematoriums. The survivors of this event considered themselves lucky to be alive, but soon their gratitude turned into despair as they endured through camp life. The struggles included being stripped of all their clothes and possessions, walking barefoot over ice leading to frostbite and contracting infections due to their damaging lifestyles. Soon, starvation and constant physical pain reduced people in concentration camps to primitive beings. Their thoughts were limited to food and survival. Frankl describes the horrific way in which people dropped dead from disease, injuries and exhaustion during this time. Omnipresent death and suffering lead to a sense of apathy among the inmates. These traits marked the second stage of camp life. Reading about this caused me to think deeply about the ideas of humanity and morality – things that supposedly make us human. Values like these differentiate us from animals, however, in the absence of all the comforts of daily life we are not above the nourishment needs of our bodies.

Frankl emphasises that humans are peculiar in that they can only be content in the present by looking to and hoping for a better future. In fact, the author goes a step further and says, even suffering can become bearable if we look at how the experience could be of value to us in future through a possible silver lining. To validate these ideas he points to anecdotal evidence from his time at the camp. Prisoners who lost faith in the future would become subject to mental decay, and sooner or later they would perish. For other prisoners, the motivation to survive came from looking forward to life after their eventual homecoming. On understanding Frankl’s thoughts on motivation, I looked back to my own life and all the achievements that I was proud of. I have found myself in complete agreement with the view that the key to a meaningful life is to rise up to challenges that are sent our way. However, despite all the struggle, it is possible that we do not reach the goal we strived for. This is not something to lament over, since our struggles have intrinsic value of their own. Instead we should accept our situation and persevere towards our goal.

This review was written for a course assignment for the Introduction to Psychology course at IIT Bombay