Spoiler warning: this review contains spoilers.
TL;DR
Life’s primary drive is not pleasure, but meaning, and that even in the worst conditions, individuals retain the freedom to choose their attitude, which can sustain psychological survival.
Review
In this book the author writes about his life experience about being in the Nazi concentration camp where he lost hist wife too.
Frankl state that even in extreme suffering, humans retain a final freedom: the ability to choose their attitude. He saw the in the concentration camp people with a sense of meaning ultimately survived. According to him meaning could be found in three ways:
- Through work or achievement
- Through love or connection
- Through dignified suffering when unavoidable
He argues that when meaning disappears, psychological collapse follows—even in physically comfortable conditions. Later Frankl developed Logotherapy which was based on the experiences he had in his time in camp. To be honest there are lots of life changing ideas in this book you have to read it to know