Man’s Search for Meaning

By Viktor E Frankl

Overview:
At the Time of World War 2 Author of
Man’s Search for Meaning, Victor Frankly
was kept a prisoner under concentration
camp.

If you are aware then you must have the

idea that concentration camp used to be
the worst place for prisoners, and prisoners
used to prefer committing suicide instead
of going inside the concentration camp,
that concentration camp was filled with lot
of diseases and also was a very cold place at
that place those prisoners were tortured.
They were beaten and they were asked to
do very difficult work and task and they
were given very less food to eat and very
thin dresses to wear because of which
many prisoners body used to give up, in fact
many prisoners used to die because of
hunger and cold, and remaining prisoners
who able to survived but they were not
capable of doing any work was thrown
inside the gas chamber to die.

All this torture was done on people who

were fit when brought to concentration
camp and those who weren’t fit was
immediately thrown to gas chambers, at
the time of war many such camps were
opened where million people died, and
author of Man’s Search for Meaning book
was also brought to this concentration
camp where he spends his life three worst
and the most difficult years, In those three
years he lost his entire family his wife
parents brother, and also faced many
tortures, people who were brought to this
camp along with author amongst them
almost all died, at the same time author
managed to survive, at this difficult time
author learned to see hope and understand
the actual meaning of life, he learned the
actual meaning of happiness and also
learned various life lessons and through his
book he created huge positive impact over
millions of people, today I will share few life
lessons and important happiness success
related lessons from his classic and amazing
book whose 10 million copies has been
sold.
Let’s begin with Man’s Search for Meaning
Summary:
Man’s Search for Meaning Summary Point
1. Strong why and goal
Victor was a doctor as a profession so he
used to help many people in that camp who
were sick, usually many people used to die
in front of him, but one incident which has
happened to his patient made him think,
that patient was going through typhus,
typhus usually occurs during war times and
famines, when that patient came to meet
victor, he told him that doctor I had a weird
dream last night, in that dream I heard a
voice which said to me, like I can ask him
anything and he will give his answer, so
listening to that I asked that voice when I
able to move out of this place, when I able
to go to my home, when war will end and
when all my problems will end? , to this
that voice said you will be out of all this by
30th march and you’ll be free, that patient
had dreamed all this at the end of February
and march has been started.

Hence while sharing this incident with

author that patient was having a smile on
his face, he had hopes that yes he’ll be out
from all this before 30th and that voice was
real, but as days passed and as 30th was
about to come, war wasn’t getting o0ver
but was increasing with more force, and his
chances to getting out from that camp was
becoming less and finally got over, after
which he got very sick by 29th he had a high
fever, on 30th he fainted and on 31st
march he died, for everyone his reason for
death was typhus but victor knew and some
of his closed ones knew that the reason for
his death was the hope which he left, he
wasn’t getting the reason for his survival he
wasn’t knowing his “why” for his survival,
hence he lost his life.

Other camp doctors also confirmed this

weird fact that even they realized that most
of the death has occurred between
Christmas and new year and the reason for
this was most of the people expected that
they will be out from this camp and
difficulties by end of the year and will able
to celebrate festival with their families and
friends, but as Christmas arrived they
realized that things are not going as per
their expectations hence they lost hope and
as well as their lives, on the other hand
victor manage to survive three years after
facing all the difficulties because his Why
was very strong, he has some goals which
he wanted to finish after getting out from
that camp.

He wanted to live because he wanted to

complete his book which he had started
before getting into that camp, he wanted to
meet his wife because he wasn’t aware
whether she was alive or not, and because
of his this why and goals he able to survive
that too without losing hope and strength,
similarly other survivors who able to survive
has some strong goals and why’s hence
they managed to survive.

The thing you must learn from this is, that

to handle life difficult times and to get
success even your why and goal should be
strong, whatever you want to achieve you
should know it’s why, like why you want to
achieve it, why you want to get good
grades, why you want to get up early in the
morning? For all this your goals and why
should be clear and if your goal and why is
not clear then you will not be able to do
anything. Example, suppose you think you
want to get up early in the morning for a
walk then there are high chances you will
not get up, but if you know that if you don’t
get up early in the morning then one
criminal will come and shoot you then for
sure you will get up early and there are high
chances that you will not sleep whole night.
Hence having strong why to complete goals
is really important and necessary.

Man’s Search for Meaning Summary Point

2. We give meanings
I still remember the time when I have taken
my first multimedia phone, I used to love
listening songs, still I like listening songs but
that time I was very much into it, so earlier I
have stored various different songs under
my playlist, and I have created my own
different playlist, such as hindi songs,
English songs, Punjabi etc in fact I used to
search different songs every time, and
whenever I used to find different unique
song I used to save it under my collection,
while doing this I have created my own
awesome playlist, for me my songs
collections were very important, but one
day I gave my cell phone to my friend for
some kind of work, by mistakenly he
deleted my entire phone data, all my songs
forwarded messages were deleted which I
was saving from very long time, at that time
I felt really very bad, in fact I had taken so
much of stress that because of it I used to
feel depressed used to feel anxiety, well
right now thinking about it I feel like
laughing and smiling but at that time I
wasn’t feeling good and wasn’t able to
handle that situation, I am sharing this
experience to you because this is really very
important point which author has shared
with us, sometimes in life we give negative
meanings and too much value to small
situations which start creating problems for
us which is not at all good.

Buddhism central theme which is known as

emptiness, this teaches us that everything
is empty and we give meaning to
everything.

Meaning whatever happens to you its

neutral you as per your preference gives
meaning to it and makes it negative or
positive, example, suppose if you are
driving a car and another car with full speed
overtakes your car, then its your choice
whether you want to take that situation in a
negative way whether you’ll abuse that
man and say he is trying to be show off or
whether for your own benefit you’ll give
that situation a positive meaning by
thinking that maybe that person is going
through some medical emergency or
anything and bring your mood back to
normal.
Another example, suppose black cat crosses
your way then its your choice or decision
whether you want to give that situation a
meaning of superstitious and will not travel
through that way or whether you will use
that way and reach your destination on
time, I know these examples are not the
ideal one but the thing is you can give any
meaning to situation and can deal with it,
you can take things and situation positively
and can stay happy, yes maybe you were
right that driver was trying to be a show-off
but by thinking this way nothing will
happen to that driver eventually your mood
will get spoiled, hence no matter how bad
the situation is trying to find good in every
situation.

Try to give positive meaning to a particular

situation and deal with it trusts me this
thing will keep you happy healthy mentally
and physically which is the most important
thing to convert any bad situation in to
better one.

Man’s Search for Meaning Summary Point

3. React or respond
Earlier whenever my bike used to get
damaged at the middle of the road at that
time I used to get frustrated and used to
think bad things about the situation and
used to feel very angry while taking my bike
to mechanic, used to think whole day has
gone so bad and worst etc, but today after
reading how to stop worrying and start
living and 7 habits of highly effective people
book now when my bike used to get
damaged instead of getting frustrated or
instead of reacting I started to respond,
instead of getting angry I used to think good
my bike stopped if it would have kept going
smoothly maybe after few miles I would
have faced accident and maybe my bike got
damaged because god wants to save my
life, or I think good now I can listen audio
book for little more longer and I will be
healthy by taking a walk till mechanic shop,
and I take best action to deal with that
situation at that time, I started responding
to such situations instead of reacting.
Usually whenever we face difficult situation
as per our thinking, so for its we starts
reacting we start hurting ourselves mentally
and physically, we start taking pressure and
tension, and used to feel frustrated and
sometimes we irritate other as well
whereas in such situations we should
respond instead of reacting, and I am not
saying this to you on the bases of my small
experiences instead author is teaching us
about this he has faced such situation in
those three years under concentration
camp, where he could have died any
moment, he wasn’t having food family and
friends for his support, so if he can stay in
such difficult situation and can respond to
such situations positively if he can learn
about life meaning and happiness so why
can’t we do anything positive for our
problems why can’t we stay positive in
negative situations?
I understand most of the times, its not easy
and sometimes we take month weeks years
to come out of that negative situation and
to become positive, but I am saying why to
stay negative and torturing ourselves even
on those two or three hours for any god
damn reason, why to spoil our precious day
and precious time just by thinking of the
situation which is not going right as per our
thinking.

we should learn to respond instead of

reacting, just like author try to change
things for something better, now we can
spend our lives by being two person first
who stays angry and spoil his and others
mood by thinking why all glasses broke at
his house or by being the second kind of
person who thinks that glass has broken
means something good will happen here I
am not saying you to be superstitious but I
am asking you to search a reason so that
you can stay happy hence try to find good
in every situation no matter how bad the
situation is, because this positive attitude
will give you huge success.

Now to end this summary I would ask you

to start your day by saying authors
beautiful quote which says, everything can
be taken from you in this world, A thing
which you like can be taken from you, but
there is one thing which no one can take
from you on which you will always have
your control and that thing is your decision,
you have a choice that whether you want to
react or respond to any situation whether
you want to stay positive or negative this is
the thing which is in your hands.