What gives your life meaning, even on hard days?
Viktor Frankl was a psychiatrist who survived several Nazi concentration camps. Shortly after the war he wrote a short book about what he saw: the people who held on to a reason to live had a better chance to endure. It became one of the most influential books of the twentieth century.
Man's Search for Meaning in short
Man's Search for Meaning is Viktor Frankl's 1946 book about his time in Nazi concentration camps and the idea he built from it: that our deepest drive is not pleasure or power but meaning. He saw three ways to find it: through what we create or do, through what we experience and whom we love, and through the attitude we take toward suffering we cannot avoid.
Where it comes from
Frankl was a psychiatrist and neurologist in Vienna. From 1942 he was held in several camps, including Auschwitz. His wife, his parents and his brother did not survive the camps. He wrote the book in a few days after his liberation. The German original came out in 1946; the English title is Man's Search for Meaning.
His approach to therapy is called logotherapy, from the Greek logos (meaning). This page is a short introduction to his ideas, not therapy. If you are going through a dark time, please talk to someone you trust or a professional.
- Viktor E. FranklAustrian psychiatrist and neurologist (1905 to 1997), Holocaust survivor
The idea in five points
The will to meaning
Meaning before pleasure.
Frankl believed the strongest human drive is to find meaning. When it's missing, people fill the gap with distraction. When it's there, they can carry a lot.
Through what you do
A work, a task, a contribution.
The first path to meaning is creating something or doing a task that matters to you: a project, a craft, a job done well.
Through what you love
A person, a moment, beauty.
The second path is experiencing something, or loving someone. Frankl wrote about holding on to the image of his wife in the camp as a source of strength.
Through the attitude you choose
The last freedom.
The third path is the stance you take toward suffering you cannot change. Frankl wrote that everything can be taken from a person except the freedom to choose their attitude in a given situation.
Life asks the question
Not the other way round.
Frankl turned the question around: instead of asking what we expect from life, we can ask what life expects from us, today, in this situation. That makes meaning something concrete you can answer, not something abstract you have to find.
Often misunderstood
A famous line, "Between stimulus and response there is a space", is often credited to Frankl. It isn't found in his books. Stephen Covey, who made it popular, said he had read it in a book whose author he didn't remember. The spirit is close to Frankl's, the words aren't his.
Try it today: five questions
- What are you doing right now that matters to someone besides you?
- Who is waiting for you, or would miss you?
- What is life asking of you this week?
- Which difficult thing could you carry with a little more dignity tomorrow?
- What would you want to have done with this year, looking back from far away?
How do you feel, out of five? Take the 2-minute check-in → Purpose affirmations →
Meaning rarely arrives as a big answer. Mostly it's in the next small thing someone needs from you. Why not do it today?
Go deeper
Viktor Frankl Institute, Vienna
- Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
ifeelfive has no connection to the people named here. This is a short summary in our own words, not their official material, and not medical or therapeutic advice. The links are not affiliate links.
Questions people ask
What are Frankl's three ways to find meaning?
Through creating a work or doing a deed, through experiencing something or loving someone, and through the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering.
When was Man's Search for Meaning published?
The German original appeared in 1946, shortly after Frankl was liberated. English editions followed later.
What is logotherapy?
The form of psychotherapy Viktor Frankl developed. Its core idea is that the search for meaning is the main human motivation.
Did Frankl say "Between stimulus and response there is a space"?
The line isn't found in his books. It was popularised by Stephen Covey, who said he read it in a book whose author he couldn't remember.