One of my favorite things Frankl says about this book is a response to its popularity. When an interviewer asks him about how its success makes him feel, he responds in the preface:
“I do not at all see in the bestseller status of my book an achievement and accomplishment on my part but rather an expression of the misery of our time.”
If you’re unfamiliar with this trend in the search for meaning, try this video lecture by John Vervaeke. It’s enlightening as to the deeper roots of many of our cultural changes.
Frankl’s easy answer to this question of meaning comes from Nietzsche whom he quotes as saying, “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” Finding a Why in a concentration camp was the hurdle as so much was taken upon entry. Your former life and your identity along with your agency was purposefully stripped away. Not even one follicle of hair was allowed to remain on your body. Everything from top to bottom was shaved away and a new life, a new slate was created. You were no longer even who you were by name but given a number. Your existence was now an abstract concept plus one and minus one of some other abstract concept.
“One literally became a number: dead or alive — that was unimportant; the life of a ‘number’ was completely irrelevant.”
The book is broken up into two parts: the first describes his experiences in the various camps and the second details his form of psychotherapy, logotherapy.
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