I just finished one of most powerful books I ever read: ‘Man’s Search for Meaning‘ by Viktor Frankl. A psychologist, Viktor Frankl has been interned in the Nazi concentration camps, and survived. In the book he gives an account of his atrocious experience at the edge of what humans can endure (and beyond what most humans can endure) – with the point of view of a psychologist.
This book is emotionally extremely powerful and very profound as well. Frankl states that “There is nothing conceivable which would so condition a man as to leave him without the slightest freedom“. Even in the worst possible external conditions, barely surviving to cold, hunger and abominable treatments, man can still keep its internal freedom intact.
The books also explains vividly why certain people do cope with terrible conditions and survive while others will soon reach despair and die. It all depends on whether life keeps meaning at the present moment.
The lesson is summarized in the following way: “Man is not fully conditioned and determined but rather determines himself whether he gives in to conditions or stands up to them. In other words, man is ultimately self-determining“.
Read the book, it will change your view of life, and at the same time make you so grateful for the normal lives we live today. And even if you feel you are trapped in the worst possible situation, realize that you still have the choice to determine yourself.
