Book review: Frankl, V. E. (1984) Man’s search for meaning, revised and updated. New York: Washington Square Press

Hutchison, Sonia (2016) Book review: Frankl, V. E. (1984) Man’s search for meaning, revised and updated. New York: Washington Square Press. Educational Journal of Living Theories, 9 (2). pp. 99-102.

Preview

PDF - Published Version Available under License CC BY-NC-ND Download (169kB) | Preview

Abstract

I have recently read Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning, as several people had recommended it to me. I found his text had great resonance with my experiences as a child in care, in the sense that, rather than being defined by a potentially harmful experience, I have found meaning and purpose for my life to go on and help others. In my Living Theory doctoral research Frankl has helped me to understand that it is my search for meaning that has led me to live a values-based life. It was not enough for me to just try to come through my childhood with as little damage as I could, I wanted my experiences of coming through the care system to make me the person I am as an adult; not as the third-person research on children in care predicts my life would be. There are many statistics that predict I would fail at school, I would be in prison, a drug addict or prostitute. My living-theory research provides an example of how children can come out of the care system with a passion to help others thrive despite suffering in their lives.

Item Type:	Article
Journal / Publication Title:	Educational Journal of Living Theories
Publisher:	EJOLTS
ISSN:	2009-1788
Departments:	Research Centres > Institute for Leadership and Sustainability (IFLAS)
Additional Information:	Copyright: © 2016 Hutchison. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Depositing User:	Anna Lupton
Date Deposited:	10 Jan 2017 15:48
Last Modified:	12 Jan 2024 16:31
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/2576

Downloads