Man's Search for Meaning

Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in fourdifferent camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences of others he treated later in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoidsuffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl's theory-known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos (meaning)-holds that our primary drive in lifeis not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.

At the time of Frankl's death in 1997, Man's Search forMeaning had sold more than 10 million copies in twenty-four languages. A 1991 reader survey for the Library of Congress that asked readers to name a book that made a difference in your lifefound Man's Search for Meaning among the ten most influential books in America.

Beacon Press, the original English-language publisherof Man's Search for Meaning, is issuing this new paperback edition with a new Foreword, biographical Afterword, jacket, price, and classroom materials to reach new generations of readers.

Foreword / Harold S. Kushner — Preface to the 1992 edition — Experiences in a concentration camp — Logotherapy in a nutshell — Postscript 1984: The case for a tragic optimism — Afterword / William J. Winslade.