Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning

A central peculiarity of Frankls medical science is its harmony with the image of God and man in the Christian and Jewish Bible. Man is according to Frankl designed for the realization of a meaning of life. Mans longing for meaning reveal his longings for God. The questions which arise in the life of everybody are questions of transcendence and originate in God. That meaning of life is most profoundly executed in a life in responsibility in front of God. Frankls philosophy and his Logotherapy stood the test of life in his whole life and especially in his sufferings. This is always a sign of a realistic and true philosophy, that it is reliable and practical in daily life. A truth not meant to be destructive! Some misguided people of today think to have found their meaning in the realization of non-sense or mad-sense. They miss the point of life. To be human means to come into confrontation with situations which are at the same time opportunity and challenge. This can also mean to bear with courage and dignity a seemingly hopeless situation, or the loss of a beloved one. This is also the message of Hiob. Even if not especially in sufferings the meaning of life is developed. This attitude which Frankl called a power of defiance helped him to survive 3 years in 4 concentration camps. The credibility and the attraction of his Logotherapy is not at last grounded on this probation in the extremes. For many people his psychotherapy proved to be of great help. Everybody who has to do with psychotherapy should have read this book!

There can be no question that Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning is a much more difficult read than Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. Is it worth it? Yes, many times over. The genesis of Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning was produced by Dr. Frankl a few months after his release from a Nazi death camp when WWII ended. This is the precious manuscript the Nazi's tore from his hands and he reproduced with notes on tiny scraps of paper in the death camp. Originally titled, "The Unconscious God," it was not translated into English until 1975. In many ways Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning is a spiritual book. Frankl informs us that "If religion is to survive, it will have to be profoundly personal." And, "... weak faith is weakened by predicaments and catastrophes, where as strong faith is strengthened by them." Regarding the spiritual unconscious, Frankl postulates a spiritual realm of thought, perhaps a superconscious mind, one that transcends the instinctive unconscious. Here dwells the higher self, the real self, the essence that cannot be observed because it is the observer. Here in the higher reaches of mind springs forth the spiritual strength to endure all things. There are many gems to be found in this book, here are two favorites. Regarding conscious ego, Frankl says "Consider the eye. The eye, too, is self-transcendent in a way. The moment it perceives something of itself, its function--to perceive the surrounding world visually--has deteriorated." Regarding prayer, Frankl says: "God is the partner in our most intimate soliloquies. That is to say, whenever you are talking to yourself in utmost sincerity and ultimate solitude--he to whom you are addressing yourself may justifiably be called God." There is much more here ... certainly worthy of the effort.

While this is an excellent and stimulating work, only older copies can be found. But it is available in its entirety within the author's updated version under the title just mentioned.

for a book that could help you discover your purpose in life? Exactly. God is not dead and reading this book helped me realize it. For that alone it is priceless. You owe it to yourself to add it to your cart now. Read it carefully enough and it could have a profound influence on your life too.

Holocaust survivor Frankl earned the right to teach us how to transcend ourselves and find "ultimate meaning". He was a contemporary of Freud who was able to take Freud to task for naturalism and reductionism which "undermines and erodes the enthusiasm of youth". Frankl has a lot to tell us about how to avoid the neurotic train wreck many of us are headed for. He points out that an existential vacuum (meaninglessness and emptyness) is growing in our culture as man "Now, knowing neither what he must do nor what he should do, he sometimes does not even know what he basically wishes to do. Instead, he wishes to do what other people do-which is conformism-or he does what other people wish him to do-which is totalitarianism." Frankl tells us "Man is responsible for fulfilling the meaning of his life." He contends "man is not he who poses the question, What is the meaning of life? But he who is asked this question, for life itself poses it to him. And man has to answer to life by answering for life; he has to respond by being responsible;" and "Being human means being confronted continually with situations, each of which is at once a chance and a challenge, giving us a "chance" to fulfill ourselves by meeting the "challenge" to fulfill it's meaning.Get it; read it; study it!