Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

43 reviews

abbyluvsfrogs444's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

Oh wow. I have so many words to say about this book but I don't know where to start. I'm blown away by Frankl and his insights. I can't even imagine going through something like he did and coming out of it with a renewed hope and joy in life. I don't know how he did it. All I know is this, the meaning of life is purely individual and personal for each person. My reason is different than another's reason. But, life does have meaning. It always does. And Frankl does an excellent job at drilling that into our minds. And if a Holocaust survivor says it's true, then I believe it. I finished this book with renewed hope. Hope is so rare in today's world, but I found it in Frankl's words. I love this book. It should be required reading for everyone. So fantastic. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Antisemitism, Grief, Religious bigotry, and War

Moderate: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Medical content

cmwilliams29's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful informative sad medium-paced

3.75

I read bits and piece of this many years ago, but it's great to finally read the full text. A harrowing and powerful account of life in a concentration camp and the insights he gathers from the behaviour of those prisoners is just stunning. To see how Frankl used his training from before the war to then develop his theories afterwards is impressive. An important book - I understand why it has received so much praise in the past.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Mental illness, and Murder

Moderate: Confinement, Racism, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Excrement, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, and War

Minor: Cannibalism

motokosmos's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Torture, Violence, and War

jataraxia's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Genocide, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Antisemitism, Suicide attempt, Murder, War, and Deportation

Moderate: Child death and Deportation

Minor: Excrement and Cannibalism

ghostycell's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.5

Difficult to get through at times, for different reasons. The subject matter is very dark but the story is told in a very engaging way and I was keen to keep going. The second half becomes a bit technical and I struggled to get through it at times, but it is well worth the time spent. 

The audiobook experience was decent. I think everyone should give this book a go, at the very least.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Police brutality, and War

Moderate: Suicide, Torture, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Child death and Cannibalism

jayvdw's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

This book is split into a few parts. I only read the first part of the book: Experiences in a Concentration Camp. This is the original book that Frankl wrote. Later on, other parts of the book about logotherapy were added. I read a bit from these parts but it was personally of no interest to me to read about it. But since I am rating the whole book and I was only interested in half of the book, I deduced 0.25 from my rating. 

The first part was a unique experience to read. It was written as a combination of a narrative and a psychological analysis of this narrative. Frankl wrote about his own experiences in the different Concentration camps and what he did to mentally survive. The book teaches the reader a lot about life in a concentration camp and how it was organized from the prisoner's perspective. 

The book is also full of great quotes from other people. My personal favorites were:
The story about the death in Teheran. A short story that highlights that people should let fate run its course. 

It did not really matter what we expected of life, but rather what life expected from us. 
What you have experienced, no power on earth can take away from you.

I have visited the Dachau concentration camp, the camp where Frankl was liberated from. This made reading the book a bit extra special, since I was aware of how to camp looked and I have walked around it myself. This also made me rethink my visit and the next time I will visit a concentration camp, I am sure to have this book in the back of my mind. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Genocide, Hate crime, Antisemitism, and Deportation

Moderate: Death, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: War

babydee's review against another edition

hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Genocide, Hate crime, Suicide, Torture, Antisemitism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, and War

mblanke's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, and War

kalyaniwarrier's review against another edition

challenging dark sad fast-paced

4.25

Explains in extent about the practice of logo-therapy in psychology that allowed ones thrown in concentration camps to hope for better. 

The narrative of this autobiography comes from a psychiatric perspective on the entrapment of the innocent victims due to their difference in ideology. Interesting and eye-opening read.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Genocide, Racism, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, and Deportation

noodlesny's review against another edition

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Deportation, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Xenophobia, and War