I’m participating in the #AtoZ April Blogging Challenge 2025 and this will be my third year of joining the vibrant community that loves this one-of-a-kind creative challenge.
This year, my theme is—BOOKS THAT HAVE CHANGED MY LIFE—which means they are not just my favourite books, but they’ve also left a deep and lasting impact on me and continue to do so until this day. I’m also blogging on ’TheSkyGirlMusings‘—where my theme is THE A TO Z OF SELF CARE. Please do check it out and follow me there too, if you aren’t already. Before you leave, please leave your blog link, and I’ll be happy to stop by your blog, read your post and follow you back as well. Thank you! 🙂
Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl
This memoir is a tough read, I must confess.
But, once you read the book, you realise something within you has shifted and you have changed—no longer the person you were, when you picked up this book. Yes, it is that profound, enlightening and thought-provoking. It also makes you grateful that you’re not actually a prisoner at a concentration camp even though going through the vivid account means, there are times when it can blur the difference between the reality of the author and the reader. Such is the power of the narrative, which is more reportage style.
“Live your life as if this is the second time around, and you don’t want to repeat the same mistakes you did last time.”
There aren’t many quotes that one keeps coming back to, over the years, as this one, but that’s also the essence of this book, as I mentioned earlier. It teaches you about life and how you respond to the varying circumstances and even more importantly, how that paradigm actually colours your experience and your learning. The book is a testament to how humans have always evolved creative responses to rupture, crisis, and fissure, and how they manage to endure at the center of even the most unendurable atrocities.
Man’s Search For Meaning is an account of Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl’s horrifying experiences as a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp. The author, a former psychiatrist, also describes his own observations and that of his fellow-prisoners and how people tried to cope with the insurmountable obstacles they faced during their imprisonment at these camps.
If I could sum up the essence of the book in a line, it would be this—those who find meaning or purpose in their suffering turn out to be the ones who are also able to find the strength to go on.
The book stands out for its’ universal message about the human need for meaning, the power of choice, and the resilience of the human spirit.
The first half of the book is Viktor’s personal account as a prisoner in the concentration camp, and the latter half is all about how he developed his therapy, known as logotherapy, which was based on the conviction that the primary human drive is not pleasure but the pursuit of what we find meaningful. It is through these insights into finding meaning through deeds, experiences, and suffering that Viktor offer practical tools and strategies to his patients for navigating life’s challenges. Over the years, it is these insights that have helped individuals cultivate a greater sense of purpose and live more fulfilling lives.
I must confess, this book was not an easy read, for me, but, after going through the first hand experiences of Viktor and his fellow-prisoners, I learnt to emphasise on my own journey and not just the destination that I was headed to. I did so, whilst realising that “meaningful” doesn’t always mean ‘enjoyable’. It could also mean ‘fulfilling’. That was one of the many things about the book’s message, that nudged me to rethink my own priorities in life.
To sum up, Man’s Search for Meaning weaves together a compelling personal narrative and profound scientific inquiry into a short volume that is luminous, insightful, and deeply empowering.
This is not a book one comes to, for answers, but rather, a book that one can approach as a way of ‘being’ and ‘thinking’; as a way of conceiving of one’s self and the world; and as something to hold consciously at the center of one’s practice.
I highly recommend this book, not just for the great message it shares but also for the many life quotes and fundamental life lessons it brings. Do pick it up, dear reader! It will definitely make you sit up and look at your life in a very different way than you’ve ever done so far!
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If you’d like to read the rest of my A to Z posts written for the #AtoZAprilChallenge2025, then please click here to read on.