Agreed! It is contains so much wisdom and is riveting to read. I, too, plan on a reread.
I'll probably try and get to it again in the next month or so while it's still fresh on my mind. I've rarely found a book to be as helpful as this one has been. Here are some takeaways in case anyone is interested:
One of the big ideas in MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING is to stop asking about the meaning of life, but rather to realize that life is asking something of you. In this way we begin to see how meaning is directly connected with responsibility (i.e. responsibility actually leads to meaning, not the other way round). This leads to inner freedom which cannot be lost or taken away by anyone else. But freedom is only half the truth or part of the story: the other half is responsibility. At some point Frankl says the Statue of Liberty on the east coast should actually be balanced with a Statue of Responsibility on the west. This is a profound idea. I learned from Chesterton many years ago how freedom is only possible within the rules, and Frankl makes it even more clear.
Another:
Man does not need a tension-less state (i.e. an easy life), but rather needs the struggling and striving for a worthwhile goal, a freely-chosen task.
Modern man's dilemma:
No instinct tells him what he has to do, and no tradition tells him what he ought to do. Sometimes he doesn't even know what he wishes to do.
Probably the most famous quote from the book is this one:
"...everything can be taken from a man but one thing, the last of the human freedoms: to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."
The main theme of the book is really to fully take responsibility for one's life, attitudes, and actions as the path to meaning. Considering all this comes from one who survived a concentration camp and lost his young wife in another, it's flat out amazing. He definitely had skin in the game and learned this all first hand. I highly recommend the book.
