Holmes on Man's Search for Meaning

Holmes opens Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl. Watson: a memoir of the camps? Holmes: half; a psychiatrist's years in them, then his theory, logotherapy. The prisoners who lasted had a task waiting, against odds he puts at one in twenty-eight. Watson: and the theory? Holmes: three roads to meaning, a deed, a love, an attitude to suffering; sixty percent of his American students, he found, felt a void. Lestrade: and what use is that to a working man? Holmes: for anyone who has asked why.

Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl, is half a psychiatrist's account of his years as a prisoner in the camps and half the theory he drew from it, logotherapy: the prisoners who knew a task was waiting for them were the ones most apt to survive, against odds he puts at one in twenty-eight; meaning comes three ways, by a deed, by a love, or by the attitude taken to unavoidable suffering; and the felt emptiness he calls the existential vacuum showed in sixty percent of his American students, so the book is for anyone who has asked why.

On the book: Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

Starring

Sherlock HolmesDr. WatsonInspector Lestrade