Man's Search for Meaning adapted for Young Adults [adaptation]

“WINSLADE FOREWORD VIKTOR FRANKL’S Man’s Search for Meaning is one of the great books of our time.”

“Typically, if a book has one passage, one idea with the power to change a person’s life, that alone justiɹes reading it, rereading it, and ɹnding room for it on one’s shelves.”

“Several times in the course of the book, Frankl approvingly quotes the words of Nietzsche: “He who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How.” He describes poignantly those prisoners who gave up on life, who had lost all hope for a future and were inevitably the ɹrst to die.”

“At one point, Frankl writes that a person “may remain brave, digniɹed and unselɹsh, or in the bitter ɹght for self-preservation he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal.” He concedes that only a few prisoners of the Nazis were able to do the former, “but even one such example is suʃcient proof that man’s inner strength may raise him above his outward fate.” Finally, Frankl’s most enduring insight, one that I have called on often in my own life and in countless counseling situations: Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation.”

“Frankl would have argued that we are never left with nothing as long as we retain the freedom to choose how we will respond.”

“We who have come back, by the aid of many lucky chances or miracles—whatever one may choose to call them—we know: the best of us did not return.”

“I therefore felt responsible for writing down what I had gone through, for I thought it might be helpful to people who are prone to despair.”

“I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge.”

“His toes had become frostbitten, and the doctor on duty picked oʃ the black gangrenous stumps with tweezers, one by one.”

“Thus, when we saw a comrade smoking his own cigarettes, we knew he had given up faith in his strength to carry on, and, once lost, the will to live seldom returned.”

“There were two exceptions to this: politics and religion.”

“The depth and vigor of religious belief often surprised and moved a new arrival.”

“1949 To the memory of my mother CONTENTS FOREWORD • HAROLD S.”

“Whether it was a family milestone they wanted to live long enough to share or the prospect of doctors ɹnding a cure by studying their illness, having a Why to live for enabled them to bear the How.”

“Just as the ideas in my book When Bad Things Happen to Good People gained power and credibility because they were oʃered in the context of my struggle to understand the illness and death of our son, Frankl’s doctrine of logotherapy, curing the soul by leading it to find meaning in life, gains credibility against the background of his anguish in Auschwitz.”

“Frankl saw three possible sources for meaning: in work (doing something signiɹcant), in love (caring for another person), and in courage during diʃcult times.”

“That time blood rushed to my head because I had to listen to a man judge my life who had so little idea of it, a man (I must confess: the following remark, which I made to my fellow- prisoners after the scene, aʃorded me childish relief) “who looked so vulgar and brutal that the nurse in the out-patient ward in my hospital would not even have admitted him to the waiting room.” Fortunately the Capo in my working party was obligated to me; he had taken a liking to me because I listened to his love stories and matrimonial troubles, which he poured out during the long marches to our work site.”

“The truth—that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire.”

“Just as the ideas in my book When Bad Things Happen to Good People gained power and credibility because they were oʃered in the context of my struggle to understand the illness and death of our son, Frankl’s doctrine of logotherapy, curing the soul by leading it to find meaning in life, gains credibility against the background of his anguish in Auschwitz.”

“Frankl, your book has become a true bestseller—how do you feel about such a success?” Whereupon I react by reporting that in the ɹrst place I do not at all see in the bestseller status of my book an achievement and accomplishment on my part but rather an expression of the misery of our time: if hundreds of thousands of people reach out for a book whose very title promises to deal with the question of a meaning to life, it must be a question that burns under their fingernails.”

“And yet sleep came and brought oblivion and relief from pain for a few hours.”

“All sus- pected of this crime had to go into a small adjoining room.”

“At ɹrst the prisoner looked away if he saw the punishment parades of another group; he could not bear to see fellow prisoners march up and down for hours in the mire, their movements directed by blows.”

“At such a moment it is not the physical pain which hurts the most (and this applies to adults as much as to punished children); it is the mental agony caused by the injustice, the unreasonableness of it all.”