Man s Search for Meaning

Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its
 descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. 
Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, 
while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the 
experiences of others he treated later in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot
 avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move 
forward with renewed purpose. Frankl's theory-known as logotherapy, from the Greek 
word logos ("meaning")-holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained,
 but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.

At the time of Frankl's death in 1997, Man's Search for Meaning had sold more than 
10 million copies in twenty-four languages. A 1991 reader survey for the Library of 
Congress that asked readers to name a "book that made a difference in your life" found 
Man's Search for Meaning among the ten most influential books in America.