Valet Reader

When this book was first given to me I got a little worried. Was the person who gifted this book to me trying to tell me something? Do I need to search for “meaning?” I honestly wasn’t quite sure what to do with this book, I was perplexed. Having never heard of the book before I looked at the title and took this book to be in the self-help genre. A genre which I typically steer away from. Of course, things are not always as they seem.

The first word out of my mouth upon finishing reading this was “intense.” I’m not quite sure that another word could amply explain the way I felt. My fear of it being a self-help book was quickly put to bed and in it’s place was a fear that perhaps I, myself, am not quite adequate.

The book itself is not a story but gives the reader an inside look at “how… everyday life in a concentration camp [was] reflected in the mind of the average prisoner?” If you were to try and answer that question from an outside perspective (by outside I mean from the perspective of someone who was not actually in a concentration camp) you would maybe have some ideas of how life was reflected. In all fairness, you’d be wrong.

In what is a juxtaposition of psychiatry, philosophy and religion, Viktor Frankl imparts on the reader why there is a “reason” to live. This book is broken down into two sections, the first of which is the section on the concentration camp circumstances and the second is that of Frankl’s theory of Logotherapy.

The autobiographical concentration camp portion takes place between 1942 and 1945 in various camps. Without knowing much about logotherapy this first section is pretty hard to swallow. The images Frankl provides of the separation of families, the gas chambers, the starvation and the torture endured will make your stomach ache.

Frankl breaks down the camp existence into three stages. Without going into too much detail I will broadly define each. The first of which is the existential idea that “He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how” (Nietzsche). Secondly, Frankl introduces us to his “will to meaning,” which in other words is the drive to having meaning in one’s life. Lastly, with three sections itself, are the three sources of meaning which are love, work and suffering. Love identified as surviving as a result of connection to a loved one. Work identified as surviving to complete what one has always desired. And suffering identified as a source of power to change one’s own attitude. It may not make much sense her in simplistic terms but once you take the chance to read it in Frankl’s book you will more than understand.

The second portion of the book is dedicated to explaining logotherapy. Due to my inability to phrase it properly I will revert to the definition provided by Websters dictionary: a highly directive existential psychotherapy that emphasizes the importance of meaning in the patient’s life especially as gained through spiritual values. I could have provided you with Frankl’s but this one just seems a little easier to digest.

There are so many quotes to pull from this book that for me to choose any would have been too difficult without just rewriting the whole book for you right here. My suggestion is that you read it. Either you’ll get it and appreciate what Frankl went through and how the man changed psychiatry and the way one may look at their meaning in life or your ignorance will get the better of you.

I decided to strip this post of any humor what so ever if you hadn’t noticed. As I see it there are two reasons for that. First off, I will never and can never make the slightest joke or sarcastic comment about incredible people who lost so much for nothing more than one man’s idiocy, ignorance and insanity. The holocaust will never be made into a laughing matter in anything I have anything to do with. Secondly, there is no room for humor in Frankl’s ideas. It is that simple.