A quick summary: The
author was an Austrian psychiatrist who was a concentration camp survivor. The book is divided in two sections. In the first, the author shares some of his experiences
in the concentration camps, and in the second, he describes his theory of logotherapy
and how people can find meaning in their lives.
This was a great book.
Something I really enjoyed was that he discussed some of his experiences
from a psychological perspective: he explained why certain people acted in certain
ways, from a psychiatric point of view. His
theory of logotherapy was also something that resonated with me. He writes that everyone can find meaning in
their lives, even if it is through suffering (though suffering is not necessary to find meaning). The fact that he lived
through an awful experience and was still able to find meaning in his life
definitely added credibility to the things he talked about.
Here are some quotes I liked:
“No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute
honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same.”
“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men
who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of
bread. They may have been few in number,
but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from man but one
thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given
set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
“From all this we may learn that there are two races of men
in this world, but only those two – the 'race' of the decent man and the 'race'
of the indecent man. Both are found
everywhere; they penetrate into all groups of society. No group consists entirely of decent or
indecent people.”
“Only slowly could these men be guided to the commonplace
truth that no one has the right to do wrong, not even if wrong has been done to
them.”
This was an amazing book, and everyone should try to read
it!
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