Man's Search for Meaning

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1946

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Man's Search for Meaning

Genre: Nonfiction; autobiography; psychology
Originally Published: 1946
Reading Level/Interest: Lexile 1300L; grades 11-12; college/adult
Structure/Length: Approximately 165 pages; includes Frankl's autobiographical account and a theoretical discussion on his psychotherapeutic method; audiobook length is approximately 4 hours, 44 minutes
Central Concern: Man's Search for Meaning chronicles Viktor E. Frankl’s personal experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. It explores his psychotherapeutic method, which involves identifying a purpose in life to stride toward and then imagining that outcome in the future. According to Frankl, how a prisoner imagined the future affected their longevity, and the book considers broader existential questions about meaning, purpose, and individual choice in dire circumstances.
Potential Sensitivity Issues: Includes discussions of the Holocaust and experiences in concentration camps; topics of death and existential despair; psychological and physical suffering

Viktor E. Frankl, Author

Bio: Born 1905; died 1997; Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist; Holocaust survivor; founder of logotherapy and existential analysis; served as a professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Vienna Medical School; his ideas influenced the humanistic psychology movement
Other Works: The Will to Meaning: Foundations and Applications of Logotherapy (1969); The Doctor and the Soul (1955); Psychotherapy and Existentialism (1967)
Awards: The book itself has not been reported to have won specific awards, but it has been recognized as one of the most influential works on existential therapy and psychological resilience.