Amazon Book Description
- A prominent Viennese psychiatrist before the war, Viktor Frankl was uniquely able to observe the way that both he and others in Auschwitz coped (or didn't) with the experience. He noticed that it was the men who comforted others and who gave away their last piece of bread who survived the longest - and who offered proof that everything can be taken away from us except the ability to choose our attitude in any given set of circumstances. The sort of person the concentration camp prisoner became was the result of an inner decision and not of camp influences alone.
- Frankl came to believe man's deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose. This outstanding work offers us all a way to transcend suffering and find significance in the art of living.
Notes
- I’ve read a lot on WW2 and experiences in the camps, so thought this might be more of the same.
- However, it’s from a different – psychological – viewpoint and provides many insights that I won’t have time to record here.
- On p. 66 of my edition there’s a reference to ‘Death in Tehran’. This is a variant of "Somerset Maugham (W.) - The Appointment in Samarra". The context is transfer to a ‘rest camp’ for the sick: it is fairly random whether this camp really is for rehabilitation (within the parameters of the camps) or is an extermination camp. Frankl decides to go – along fatalistic lines and gives a quick rendering of this ancient tale, though with Tehran rather than Samarra (or Luz, or Mecca …) as the destination.
- To be continued …
Book Comment
Text Colour Conventions (see disclaimer)- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2023
- Mauve: Text by correspondent(s) or other author(s); © the author(s)