Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything

Product Information

It is terrible to know that at every moment I bear responsibility for the next; that every decision, from the smallest to the largest, is a decision 'for all eternity'; that in every moment I can actualize the possibility of that particular moment or forfeit it. Every single moment contains thousands of possibilities-and I can only choose one of them to actualize it.” (p.106) These three lectures by the Viennese psychotherapist and survivor of the Nazi concentration and labor camps, which he gave in Austria in 1946, within a year of his own liberation, have only recently been translated into English. They are an amazing testament to Frankl’s belief in the need for a life of meaning which he expanded on in the extraordinary work, “Man’s Search for Meaning”, one of the most inspiring works I have ever read. How misguided it now seems to us when people simply complain about their misfortune or rail against their fate. What would have become of each of us without our fate? How else would our existence have taken shape andform than under its hammer blows and in the white heat of our suffering at its hands?”

At the time of Frankl's death in 1997, Man's Search for Meaning had sold more than 10 million copies in twenty-four languages. A 1991 reader survey for the Library of Congress that asked readers to name a "book that made a difference in your life" found Man's Search for Meaning among the ten most influential books in America. He quotes a short verse by the great Indian poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore — the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize, Einstein’s onetime conversation partner in contemplating science and spirituality, and a man who thought deeply about human nature: Generations and myriad cultural upheavals before Zadie Smith observed that “progress is never permanent, will always be threatened, must be redoubled, restated and reimagined if it is to survive,” Frankl considers what “progress” even means, emphasizing the centrality of our individual choices in its constant revision: Reading Frankl’s book reminded me of something I recently learned about the roots of redwood trees. The roots of the towering, majestic redwood trees do not grow deep into the ground as one would expect. Instead they grow outward in circles, extending hundreds of feet laterally, by wrapping around each other so that in a storm, all of their roots are interconnected. This is how Frankl and others survived the war, by constantly focusing on and reaching out to others, by wrapping their roots around each other in the harshest of conditions.

Become a Member

What leads us forward and helps us along the way, what has guided and is guiding us, is a joy in taking responsibility.”

Because how human beings deal with the limitation of their possibilities regarding how it affects their actions and their ability to love, how they behave under these restrictions— the wayin which they accept their suffering under such restrictions—in all of this they still remain capable of fulfilling human values.” Insisting that it takes a measure of moral strength not to succumb to nihilism, be it that of the pessimist or of the optimist, he exclaims: Not only life itself but also the suffering involved has a meaning, and in fact a meaning that is so unconditional that it can be fulfilled even where the suffering does not lead to outward success, where it looks as though the suffering was in vain.”Viktor Frankl, like anyone who endured the atrocities of the Holocaust, is someone I don’t have the vocabulary to describe. I’m in awe of the resilience and oftentimes almost unfathomable positivity of anyone who has lived through experiences I can’t even imagine. What’s even more extraordinary is that the lectures Frankl gave, which are the basis of this book, were presented only nine months after his liberation from his final concentration camp.