Man's Search for Meaning

I was in Krakow a few years ago with a dear friend, and we spent one morning touring Auschwitz and Birkenau. I cannot imagine I am likely to ever find myself in another place with similarly eerie energy. It is, of course, both sobering and horrifying to contemplate the Holocaust, let alone to attach a now beautiful spot in the Polish countryside to the genocide that took place there. Beyond that, though, the remains of Auschwitz and Birkenau have gravitas. I think that feeling (and it sounds a little woo-woo to say, but it's the perfect word) of gravitas just might stem from the dignity of the individuals who lived (and the many who died) there. Frankl spent four years in concentration camps, including these two, and emerged the sole surviving member of his family. He then went on to dedicate his career to found and then practice existential psychology–the idea that, counter to everything Freud ever said, it's not food, sex, and power that make us tick. It's our ability to create meaning out of our own lives, whatever the circumstances may be. When we lose sight of our own personal meaning, nearly every modern psychological malady has fertile ground to grow. Frankl found that not even concentration camps, however, can make a person lose sight of their purpose if they don't let them. If the idea that our humanity lies in our ability to make our own choices and create our own meaning sounds interesting to you, do not miss this book (and if you're a psychologist, just do not miss this book). It is an extraordinary memoir of an extraordinary man, and the foundational text of existential psychology. I hesitate to quote Frankl, although I found much of his writing deeply moving. He's just so quotable that his thoughts can come across as pithy at a glance, although they often made me teary-eyed with their power in the rich and nuanced context the book as a whole provides. So, a few favorites:

“If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering.”

“I called to the Lord from my narrow prison and He answered me in the freedom of space.”

“After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips.”