This is one of those books I’ve been meaning to read for years. I first heard of Viktor Frankl in Stephen Covey’s book ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.’ I’m not sure what inspired me to look the book up now, but perhaps my recent travel to Europe and passing through Amsterdam (Anne Frank) tickled my memory of it.

Although I was a bit intimidated by the Logotherapy angle (and found the last part of the book the hardest to get through), I was fascinated by Frankl’s story and in particular, the very calm and clear way he presented it. It takes a special kind of person to take a ‘the cup is half-full’ perspective on life in a concentration camp.

Frankl makes no bones about the hardships and horror’s he suffered or the hard decisions he made to get through them. In the opening pages, he emphasizes that those who survived did so through any means necessary. He says simply: “We sho have come back, by the aid of many lucky chances or miracles – wqhatever one may choose to call them – we know: the best of us did no return.” There’s no vestige of ‘survivor’s guilt’ in his statement, just a plain statement of fact.

He doesn’t dwell on the details of camp life, rightly pointing out that it’s already well-documented. Instead, he focuses on the psychological aspects of survival by using his own personal example.

I found the book inspiring and full of hope. Frankl is not naively optimistic, but his observations about the strength of the human spirit are deeply moving.

In my favourite quote from this book, Frankl talks about the power of love as a way of finding meaning:

“The Meaning of Love

Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality. No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him. By his love he is enabled to see the essential traits and features in the bleoved person; and even more, he sees that which is potential in him, which is not yet actualized, but yet ought to actualized. Futhermore, by his love, the loving person enables the beloved person to actualize these potentialities. By making him aware of what he can be and of what he should become, he makes these potentialities come true.”

“In logotherapy, love is not interpreted as a mere ephiphenomenon of sexual drive and instincts in the sense of a so called sublimation. Love is as primary a phenomenon as sex. Normally, sex is a mode of expression for love. Sex is justified, even sanctified, as soon as, but only as long as, it is a vehicle of love. Thus love is not understood as a mere side-effect of sex; rather sex is a way of expressing the experience of that ultimate togetherness which is called love.”
(Page 116)