How to find happiness in a dismal situation

books:

	• Man's Search for Meaning Viktor E. Frankl Beacon Press, 2000 - 196 pages average customer review:based on 288 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

How to find happiness in a dismal situation

I bought this book because I was searching for yet another book on workplace bullying and another book came up in my search based on Frankl's book. I read the customer reviews on that book and one reviewer said something to the effect of, "If you want to read a book based on Viktor Frankl's opinion of how to get along at a bad work environment (like a Nazi death camp), why don't you just read Frankl's book?" So, that's where I started. I read it. Twice. Then I got out my computer and typed in passages that had meaning to me so I could re-read them during difficult times. I compressed the entire book down to about 10 pages, single spaced. I must admit that I consider myself a negative, often depressed sort of person, mostly because my work situation is so demoralizing. I was amazed by Frankl's coping mechanisms on how to get along in a difficult situation; every day meant multiple incidents of having to choose the correct path to avoid death or worse, making the choice to give up on your own life (suicide). He went through 5 years of that and lived to tell about it. It is a must read for everyone, particularly when you are having the hardest time of your life. I could tell that if I had read it as a college student, it wouldn't have the same meaning as now, when I am 50 and have had many ups and downs. I see everything at such a deeper level and appreciated this book so much more than I would have if I were younger. Briefly, the lessons in the book written 50 years ago still apply today. Here they are: Let luck be your guide. It's not what you know, it's who you know. Network with the equivalent of a one-step-up lateral (not your own) middle manager and they will help you when they can. Schmooze. Be kind to others. Don't complain, it doesn't help. You can't fix, deal with or appeal to a sadist, so don't try. Avoid sadists at all costs. Keep your mouth shut unless asked for your opinion and then be short and to the point. Praise, even when praise isn't deserved. Keep criticisms to yourself. Be inconspicuous. Work hard for the sake of doing a good job. Fantasize for escape. Everything can be taken away from you except for your past, so relish in it. When something good happens to you, write it down (keep a gratitude journal). Don't do anything that compromises your own values so you won't have regrets. Be careful who you abuse today because tomorrow they may be your master. You are not your job, your title or your position. You are a unique person loved by others. The only thing in life that really matters is the people you love and the people who love and need you. Love shared is eternal. Treat everyone with respect. The meaning of life is not what life can do for you, but what life expects of you; how you make the world a better place with your presence. The purpose of life is not happiness. The purpose of life is discovering what you can contribute to it. Save a slice of bread (or whatever is the only material thing that matters to you when there is nothing left) for later when you are really depressed and it's the only thing left that can get you through that difficult moment. (For me it's chocolate and a dark beer at the same time.) Apathy is the signaling of the beginning of the end of one's life. Everyone that you respect and look up to has human failings. Even tough guys cry. Suffering without purpose is meaningless. The larger the suffering, the bigger the lesson. There's lots more in the book for you to discover and it's an easy read.

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Fascinating; deeply moving...

A stunning story of a man who survived the horrors of concentration camps. He is a psychiatrist and developed his own theories and method of therapy called logotherapy. The book covers his experience in a concentration camp and the second half of the book explains his philosophy of logotherapy. Frankl says that the meaning of life is found in every moment of living; life never ceases to have meaning, even in suffering and death. He encourages his patients and readers to live a full life by looking to the future rather than reliving the past.

Quotation: "Self-transcendence of human existence: Being human always points, and is directed, to something, or someone, other than oneself - be it a meaning to fulfil or another human being to encounter. The more one forgets himself - by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love - the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself..."

Excellent read. Highly Recommended.

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Who has a why to live can bear any how...

Just in case, if one wants to ascertain the level of endurance human beings possess, he needs to go no further than read through the experiences at concentration camps as recalled by a survivor - Viktor Frankl - in this book.

And considering that a will to survive does not manifest only in situations where life is at stake, physically, but at various stages in life, where even smallest of problems can seem mammoth and wreck havoc in making life miserable at psychological level, the lessons contained in this book have vast practical applications, when it comes to understanding our survival instinct.

The basic principle which differentiates a survivor from a loser is well highlighted by the following quote, which is often cited by the author in the book - 'The one who has a why to live can bear almost any how.'

I would highly recommend this book and would suggest re-reading it a few times because it would better enable on to grasp and internalize the importance of the subject addressed in this book and appreciate the viewpoint of the author.

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A fine, fine book!

This is a wonderful book to read merely because of it's main message. Read it and find out the meaning of the title.

Reality for today and yesterday

I first read this book in college many years ago as I was working on my degree in psychology. An excerpt from it is in John McCain's autobiographical book, Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir. I was glad to be reminded of this book which I had not read in years. I found my old copy on the shelf but I am also glad to learn it is still available.

The comparison between Frankl and McCain as prisoners is striking. Both of them emphasize the basic human need for meaning and purpose. Both share incredible horrors of prison camp as well as the human ability to look beyond present circumstances, to keep the horrid memories from continuing as sources of torture years after the actual experiences.
We can apply this ability to many of the unfortunate experiences in our lives. It is not only an attitude of forgive and forget, it is the need to keep the horrors or smaller angers from continuing to torment us.

It is more than a little frightening that there are people who deny that the Holocaust even happened. I hope you read Frankl's book. Fully grasp the reality of his day and apply it to today's needs and problems.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Man's Search for Meaning has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 psychiatrist Viktor Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the stories of his many patients, 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. "What man actually needs," Frankl writes, "is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task . . . the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him."

In the decades since its first publication in 1959, Man's Search for Meaning has become a classic, with more than twelve million copies in print around the world. A 1991 Library of Congress survey 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. At once a memoir, a meditation, a treatise, and a history, it continues to inspire us all to find significance in the very act of living.

"One of the great books of our time."
¯Harold S. Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People

"One of the outstanding contributions to psychological thought in the last fifty years."
¯Carl R. Rogers (1959)

"One of the ten most influential books in America."
?Library of Congress/Book-of-the-Month Club Survey of Lifetime Readers

Born in Vienna in 1905, Viktor E. Frankl earned an M.D. and a Ph.D. from the University of Vienna. He published more than thirty books on theoretical and clinical psychology and served as a visiting professor and lecturer at Harvard, Stanford, and elsewhere. In 1977 a fellow survivor, Joseph Fabry, founded the Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy. Frankl died in 1997.

Harold S. Kushner is rabbi emeritus at Temple Israel in Natick, Massachusetts, and the author of several best-selling books, including When Bad Things Happen to Good People, Living a Life That Matters, and When All You've Ever Wanted Isn't Enough.

William J. Winslade is a philosopher, lawyer, and psychoanalyst who teaches at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and the University of Houston Law Center.

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