Man is originally characterized by his ‘search for meaning’ rather than his ‘search for himself.’ The more he forgets himself—giving himself to a cause or another person—the more human he is. And the more he is immersed and absorbed in something or someone other than himself the more he really becomes himself.

Viktor E. Frankl (1905–1997) was an Austrian psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and professor. The best-known of his many books, Man’s Search for Meaning, conveys his personal experience and professional observations as a doctor imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. His belief that the quest to find meaning is a driving force of human life was the basis for logotherapy, his revolutionary approach to psychotherapy.