I thought to share a little post about ‘Yes To Life’ by Dr Viktor Frankl (1905 – 1997) as it might help some of you out there who currently go through personal struggles especially due to the pandemic.
You might be familiar with the name of Dr Frankl from his other well-known book: ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’.
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‘Yes to Life’ is the newest publication in English of Dr Frankl’s lectures that he gave in March and April of 1946, just nine months after being liberated from the Nazi concentration camp. Dr Frankl spent three years in death camps such Auschwitz, Dachau and others. He lost his parents and his pregnant wife during the Holocaust.
Dr Frankl was a professor of Neurology at the University of Vienna for over 25 years. He was a founder of Third Viennese Direction of Psychotherapy and he was also a visiting professor at Harvard University and Stanford.
‘Yes to Life’ is about finding the meaning to life in the most tragic situations. Reading his lectures that he gave just a few months after being liberated is astonishing.
The title of the book ‘Yes to Life In Spite of Everything’ was taken from the lyrics of the song that the tortured and worked and starved nearly to death prisoners of Buchenwald sang to find some hope in the situation without hope.
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I would definitely recommend this book to everyone who goes through hardships. I would however first start with ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ if you have not read it yet and then read ‘Yes to Life In Spite Of Everything’.
Both books by Dr Frankl are not to be read, they are to be experienced. I hope if you read them they will bring you some solace.
