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When this book first appeared in English in 1959, it carried a title few people would pick up on impulse: "From Death-Camp to Existentialism" (existentialism being a school of philosophy). Three years later it was renamed "Man's Search for Meaning." Altogether, across its editions, it has sold around 16 million copies in more than fifty languages. In a 1991 survey by the Library of Congress and the Book-of-the-Month Club, it was named one of the ten most influential books in the United States.
Both titles are accurate. The book is about the camps, and it is about meaning. What makes it unusual is that the person describing the camps was a psychiatrist who had been a prisoner in them, and who came out with a body of ideas he would spend the rest of his life developing.
The author and the circumstances
The book was written fast. Frankl, a Viennese neurologist and psychiatrist, produced it in nine days, while he was head of the neurology department at the General Polyclinic Hospital in Vienna.
What he was writing about had begun in 1942, when he and his family were deported to the Theresienstadt camp. From there he was sent to Auschwitz in 1944, and then to Kaufering III, a subcamp of Dachau: four camps in all. He also lost his closest family. His wife, Tilly, died at Bergen-Belsen. His mother and his brother Walter were murdered at Auschwitz, and his father had died at Theresienstadt.
The manuscript came out in German in the years just after the war (sources differ between 1946 and 1947) under a plain, almost clinical title, "Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager," roughly "A Psychologist Experiences the Concentration Camp." Later German editions added a phrase in front of it, meaning "saying yes to life in spite of everything," taken from a song written by a prisoner at Buchenwald.
Frankl had been born in Vienna on 26 March 1905 and had earned his MD at the University of Vienna in 1930. He went on to found logotherapy, which he presented as the third Viennese school of psychotherapy, after those of Freud and Adler. He died in Vienna on 2 September 1997, at the age of 92.
How the book is put together
The book has two parts, and it helps to know that before you start.
Part One is Frankl's account of camp life. It is organized around the psychological reactions he observed in himself and in other prisoners, which he describes in three phases: the period just after arrival, the long stretch of adapting to life in the camp, and the time after liberation. Throughout, he writes as both a witness and a clinician.
Part Two steps back. It introduces logotherapy, Frankl's theory connecting mental health with a person's sense of meaning in life. How that theory grows out of what he describes in Part One is something best followed in his own words.
Why it is worth your time
It asks a question rather than just recording events. Frankl records what he went through, but he is also asking what happens inside a person under those conditions, and what that might reveal about people in general. That is why readers who have never studied the history still come away with something.
It is short. The standard Beacon paperback runs to 184 pages. A difficult subject in a compact form makes it possible to read slowly, put down, and return to.
It has been seriously argued with. The book has critics, and they are worth knowing about. Some scholars have argued that its emphasis on inner attitude can seem to imply that those who died had given up; others have objected to what they see as a detached tone toward the victims. Reading with those objections in mind does not diminish the book. It makes the reading more honest.
Choosing an edition
Most English-language readers will meet the Beacon Press edition. The current paperback includes a foreword by Harold S. Kushner and an afterword by William J. Winslade, which together give useful context for a first-time reader. Beacon also publishes a large print paperback and a hardcover.
If you want more of Frankl himself, look for the Gift Edition, a hardcover published by Beacon in 2014. It adds previously unpublished letters, speeches, and essays, along with a section of photographs.
One small detail: the full title includes the subtitle "An Introduction to Logotherapy," which many modern covers leave off. The subtitle is a good reminder that the book is not only a memoir. And if you finish wanting more, Beacon also offers a companion volume, "Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything."
Who will get the most from it
This is a book for readers who have always meant to read it and kept putting it off because of the subject. It suits anyone interested in psychology, therapy, or the question of how people endure hardship, and it is a natural choice for a book group willing to talk about difficult material. It also rewards a second reading years after the first.
Take it at your own pace. It is a short book, but it is not one to hurry.
Sources
- Wikipedia, "Man's Search for Meaning" (original German title Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager; first published in Vienna in 1946 by Verlag für Jugend und Volk; later German editions adding Trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen, from a song by a Buchenwald inmate; first English title From Death-Camp to Existentialism; 1959 Beacon Press edition; Ilse Lasch as translator of Part One; subtitle "An Introduction to Logotherapy" often left off modern covers; Part One on the camp experience and Part Two on logotherapy; three phases of inmates' psychological reaction, on admission, in camp life, and after liberation; 1991 Book-of-the-Month Club and Library of Congress survey naming it one of the ten most influential books in the United States; over 10 million copies by 1997 and 16 million in 52 languages as of 2022; criticism by Richard Middleton-Kaplan and Lawrence L. Langer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27s_Search_for_Meaning
- Wikipedia, "Viktor Frankl" (full name; birth and death dates and places; neurologist and psychiatrist; MD from the University of Vienna in 1930; deportation with his family to Theresienstadt in 1942 and his father's death there; transfer to Auschwitz in 1944, where his mother and his brother Walter were murdered; transfer to Kaufering III, a subcamp of Dachau; four camps in all; his wife Tilly's death at Bergen-Belsen; logotherapy as the "third Viennese school" after Freud and Adler; writing the book in nine days while head of neurology at the General Polyclinic Hospital in Vienna) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Frankl
- Wikipedia (Japanese), "夜と霧 (文学)" (English title changed to Man's Search for Meaning in 1962) https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/夜と霧_(文学)
- Misuzu Shobo, "夜と霧【新版】" (gives 1947 as the year of the original German first edition, differing from Wikipedia's 1946) https://www.msz.co.jp/book/detail/03970/
- Beacon Press, "Man's Search for Meaning" (paperback with foreword by Harold S. Kushner and afterword by William J. Winslade; 184 pages; large print and cloth editions also listed; companion volume Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything) https://www.beacon.org/Mans-Search-for-Meaning-P602.aspx
- Penguin Random House, "Man's Search for Meaning" Gift Edition (Beacon Press hardcover, October 2014; foreword by Kushner and afterword by Winslade; previously unpublished letters, speeches, and essays; 8-page photo insert) https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/538699/mans-search-for-meaning-by-viktor-e-frankl/9780807060100/