“Man’s Search for Meaning “ by Viktor Frankl (1964) was Charlie Kirk’s favorite book. I hadn’t known of Kirk before he was assassinated, but I started listening to his work after his death in October. When I heard that this was one of his favorite reads, I realized that I hadn’t read it and that it tops many of the “best non-fiction books of all time” lists globally. It was time for me to give it a go.
Overview: I listened to Frankl’s’ book which was generously shared on Spotify. It took about 5.5 hours of listening. Part I is about Frankl’s experience being taken away and enslaved in the concentration camps during World War II. He describes different phases that humans experience when captured and tortured, using himself and his fellow captives as anecdotes to illustrate the phases from shock, to apathy, to depersonalization, to death (or life). Part II describes Frankl’s founded “logotherapy” a therapy of logic that argues that one must have love and a sense of something to look forward to in order to survive. He provides several patient stories and research outcomes of his work. Frankl maintains that his goal of surviving was to meet his wife again.
Key Message: The key message of the book is that you can separate yourself from your circumstances if you hold on to unconditional love and maintain a sense that you have expectations of life. Humans that die off no longer carry expectations of life.
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Where it Falls Short: I thought that Part II was pretty bland in comparison to part I. I think that its amazing that he apparently wrote the book in nine days, and that he wanted to write it autonomously, but it shows. I think that he could have split the book into two separate books and worked on them more if he wanted to make part I an optimistic “how-to” play, and part II a pragmatist framework.
Overall Assessment & Why: I rate it a 7 out of 10 in terms of a personal development book. With the decisive name “Man’s Search for Meaning,” I would hope the content would be as powerful. It did do a good job of bringing me back to present day horror. In current events, his work reminds me of the recent hostage release of Hamas. While Frankl explained that all he wanted was to see his wife again, a recent interview between Bari Weiss and Eli Sharabi shows that he spent 491 captured in the tunnels and lived in order to see his family again. I am thankful for their will to survive, and I am thankful every day for my freedom.