Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

I knew how well respected this book is and when I saw that it was on sale on Audible, I thought I should purchase it and give it a read (listen). It was a great book. I appreciated the authenticity and all that was within the book. However, I did not learn a lot from the book, which is generally how I rate books.

In the book, Frankl talked about mindset. He reflected about all the others who were with him who died, often painfully, at the camps. But, the mindset and faith were huge reasons that he attributed his survival to. I noted the following:

State of mind and hope and the connection or closeness between the state of immunity. Lose hope or faith and you may lose health.

The other thing that I noted from this short book was meaning in life. There is a search for meaning, for all of us. Yet, not all of us attain meaning, I made a note about unemployment neurosis which I thought perhaps many retired people feel. Especially when there is a purpose to our work, there is typically a greater level of meaning to our lives. And, as Frankl wrote, I think that the opposite is even more impactful, just in a negative way.

Unemployment neurosis — being jobless is equated to being useless and being useless is equated to having a meaningless life.