Man′s Search for Himself

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Somehow this book manages to be both great and completely average at the same time. Below, I will attempt to explain. The mature person has “the capacity to love something for its own sake, not for the sake of being taken care of or gaining a bootlegged feeling of prestige and power. Certainly loneliness and anxiety can be constructively met. Though this cannot be done through the deus ex machina of a ‘cosmic papa,’ it can be achieved through the individual’s confronting directly the various crises of his development, moving from dependence to greater freedom and higher integration by developing and utilizing his capacities, and relating to his fellows through creative work and love.” An innocent is only doing what he or she must do. However, an innocent does have a degree of will in the sense of a drive to fulfill needs. Strictly speaking, the process of being born from the womb, cutting free from the mass, replacing dependency with choice, is involved in every decision of one’s life, and even is the issue facing one on his deathbed. For what is the capacity to die courageously except the ultimate step in the continuum of learning to be on one’s own, to leave the whole? Thus every person’s life could be portrayed by a graph of differentiation — how far has he freed himself from automatic dependencies, become an individual, able then to relate to his fellows on the new level of self-chosen love, responsibility and creative work?” Frankl identifies three psychological reactions experienced by all inmates to one degree or another:

Man’s anxiety, bewilderment and emptiness — the chronic psychic diseases of modern man — occur mainly because his values are confused and contradictory, and he has no psychic core. We can now add that the degree of an individual’s inner strength and integrity will depend on how much he himself believes in the values he lives.” May also says that Nietzsche was not calling for a return to the conventional belief in God, but he was pointing out what happens when a society loses its center of values. May talks at length on this topic here, as well. Frankl observed that among the fellow inmates in the concentration camp, those who survived were able to connect with a purpose in life to feel positive about, and then immersed themselves in imagining that purpose such as conversing with an (imagined) loved one. According to Frankl, the way a prisoner imagined the future affected his longevity. I don't know about you, but I find that self-help books had too much fluff. So after being disappointed by many books, I decided to read more psychology and philosophy. And I somehow found this book by Rollo May.Frankl also concludes that there are only two races of men, decent men and indecent. No society is free of either of them, and thus there were "decent" Nazi guards and "indecent" prisoners, most notably the kapo who would torture and abuse their fellow prisoners for personal gain.

urn:lcp:manssearchforhim0000mayr:epub:1f0959fe-3fc1-4cd6-a65d-d618b56e7138 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier manssearchforhim0000mayr Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t0dw1rb6b Invoice 1652 Isbn 0393062902 Pytell, Timothy (June 3, 2003). "Redeeming the Unredeemable: Auschwitz and Man's Search for Meaning". Holocaust and Genocide Studies. 17 (1): 89–113. doi: 10.1093/hgs/17.1.89– via Project MUSE. All the years of his therapeutic work and he has the gift to articulate the issues of modern man so clearly. Rebellion – the rebellious person wants freedom, but does not yet have a good understanding of the responsibility that goes with it.Fein, Esther B. (20 November 1991). "New York Times, 11-20-1991". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 28 April 2020 . Retrieved 21 April 2020.

Reading this book will challenge you to change the way you are currently living in life. Instead of pandering to people you don't really like, trying to kill time, and just overall being passive with your life. You will learn why it is paramount to be responsible for your life and taking a step forward. When a nation, rather, is prey to insupportable economic want and is psychologically and spiritually empty, totalitarianism comes in to fill the vacuum; and the people sell their freedom as a necessity for getting rid of the anxiety which is too great for them to bear any longer.” In this book, I noticed parallelisms between Rollo May's insights with those of Erich Fromm, especially on the aspect of freedom and irrational authority. But the difference is, May's style is rather free-flowing and spontaneous as contrasted with Fromm's somewhat repetitive with rigorously referenced writing. People often don’t know what they truly feel or want. They sense something missing inside themselves, an existential emptiness, an anxiety that gnaws deeply at their insides. After reading this multiple times, it has helped me be more in the present (in a non-corny way) and appreciate life more honestly (including conflicts and challenges).Granted, much of this can be written off as attempts to meet the reader of the time where they were at, but I hope someone today is reading this book with an appropriately critical eye and not blindly accepting his unfounded or even eventually disproven claims. Considering the success of "12 rules for life", I have my doubts about the modern reader's capacity for skepticism. These are not "stages" in the traditional sense. A child may certainly be innocent, ordinary or creative at times; an adult may be rebellious. The only association with certain ages is in terms of importance: rebelliousness is more important for a two year old or a teenager.

Life Is Beautiful (1997), film on how a positive attitude can be maintained in the worst of circumstances, including a concentration camp Rollo May (April 21, 1909 – October 22, 1994) was an American existential psychologist. He authored the influential book Love and Will during 1969. May opens the book by describing the existential crisis that modern mankind faces. He describes the concept of "hollow men." He also mentions man's social-seeking tendencies; and talks at length about loneliness. The book intends to answer the question "How was everyday life in a concentration camp reflected in the mind of the average prisoner?" Part One constitutes Frankl's analysis of his experiences in the concentration camps, while Part Two introduces his ideas of meaning and his theory called logotherapy. Through his power to survey his life, man can transcend the immediate events which determine him. Whether he has tuberculosis or is a slave like the Roman philosopher Epictetus or a prisoner condemned to death, he can still in his freedom choose how he will relate to these facts.”Gordon Allport, who wrote a preface to the book, described it as a "gem of dramatic narrative" which "provides a compelling introduction to the most significant psychological movement of our day". [9] Sarah Bakewell describes it as "an incredibly powerful and moving example of what existentialist thought can actually be for in real life" [10] while Mary Fulbrook praises "the way [Frankl] explores the importance of meaning in life as the key to survival." [11] These gifts of humanity come with anxieties and fears, with inner-crises. People still struggle with not only their current states of development, but with all those influences which had come from before. This one was a mixed bag for me. I found some of this writing very interesting and insightful, while other parts of the book had me becoming super-frustrated byMay's long-winded prose... Freedom comes when people mold themselves and take care of others. Freedom comes first through self-awareness, expanding forever out. The originality and uniqueness which is always part of a spontaneous feeling can be understood in this light. For just as there never was exactly that situation before and never will be again, so the feeling one has at that time is new and never to be exactly repeated. It is only neurotic behavior which is rigidly repetitive.”