For anyone who’s out there suffering – give “Man’s search for meaning” by Victor E. Frankl a read!

Let me tell you why.

You don’t often come across books like “Man’s search for meaning” which completely transforms the way you think about a lot of things in life. This is one of those books, I can wholeheartedly say, changed me as a person.

A major part of the book deals with the author’s experience as a prisoner in the Nazi concentration camp. Towards the end, he summarises his learnings and delves deeper into logotherapy and its applied aspects.

Some of the key takeaways from the book:

• Everything can be taken away from a man except one thing – the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. There are always choices to make – which would determine whether or not you would become the plaything of a circumstance.

• According to logotherapy, the striving to find a meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man.

• We can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: (1) by creating work or doing a deed (2) by experiencing something or encountering someone (3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering

• there’s emphasis on Nietzsche’s quote “He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how” which is then explained with experiences.

Honestly, it’s one of those books that changed my attitude towards suffering. The author even addresses in the latter part of book how society puts so much emphasis on being happy to the point that some of us are not only unhappy but also ashamed of being unhappy. This book encourages us to find meaning in our suffering (if it’s unavoidable).

Also I’ve to mention one of my favourite lines from the book (which I found incredibly romantic). Frankl is convinced that he’s about to die and he leaves with Otto (another prisoner) – his will – in the form of his words: “Listen Otto, if I don’t get back home to my wife and if you should see her again, then tell her that I talked of her daily, hourly. You remember. Secondly, I have loved her more than anyone. Thirdly, the short time I have been married to her outweighs everything, even all we’ve gone through here” (Perhaps what makes this all the more touching to us readers is knowing that she had already died at this time)

If you’ve a few hours to spare, I can assure you that you won’t regret spending it by reading this book. It’s a book I’ll always treasure and pick up while going through a tough time in life.