Auction 94 Part 2 Rare and Important Items

Viktor Frankl – "Man's Search for Meaning" – First Edition, Vienna, 1946 – Rare

Opening: $3,000
Estimate: $5,000 - $7,000
Sold for: $3,750
Including buyer's premium

"Ein Psycholog erlebt das Konzentrationslager, " by Viktor Emil Frankl. Vienna: Verlag für Jugend und Volk, 1946. First Edition. German.
The present book, also known as "Man’s Search for Meaning", was written by the Jewish-Austrian psychiatrist, neurologist, and philosopher Viktor Emil Frankl. It is considered to be one of the most influential books of philosophy of the second half of the 20th century, and one of the earliest works to have offered a first-hand account of life in the concentration and death camps.
First edition. A copy in its original cover, bearing an illustration of the barbed-wire fences and a shattered pair of spectacles on the ground (cover designed by Leo Friedrich), not mentioning the name of the author, and with the book’s original title, "Ein Psycholog erlebt das Konzentrationslager" ("A Psychologist Experiences the Concentration Camp"), without the prefix "Trotzdem Ja zum Leben Sagen" ("Nevertheless Say Yes to Life") that only appeared from the second edition onward (later, the book’s English translations would be given the full, official title, "Man's Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy").
The work was the result of nine continuous days of writing undertaken immediately after Victor Frankl’s liberation from the Dachau concentration camp (he had previously spent time in both Theresienstadt and Auschwitz). It presented, for the first time ever, an approach to psychotherapy known as "logotherapy" – a form of therapy promoting attempts to search for meaning in life – which Frankl had developed during his period of incarceration in the camps.
The first part of the book is devoted to a description of life in the camps, relating the experience and feelings of Jewish camp inmates, beginning first with the shock they felt the moment they were packed into cattle cars on trains, and from there to the "selection" process at the camp gates, to the daily routine in the camps, to the hunger, the dulling of the senses, the agony, and the physical degeneration of the inmates. Frankl continues by depicting the relations with the SS guards, and the hierarchy that existed between the "appointed" camp inmates – the kapos and others – and the "regular" inmates. He speaks of the spiritual energies that developed in the camps in spite of the grim reality and the inhuman conditions, of the humor that helped fortify the inmates’ resolve, and of the hopes for a better future and an end to the war.
In the second part of the book, Frankl lays down the foundations of his new methodology in the field of psychotherapy, which he terms "logotherapy" (from the Greek words "logos" and "therapeia, " together meaning "therapy through meaning"). This existentialist-psychological approach focuses on the human being’s aspiration to seek meaning (in contrast to the Freudian approach, which emphasizes the aspiration to seek pleasure and avoid suffering, or to Alfred Adler’s approach, which centers around the human desire to seek power and social status). In Frankl’s system, the search for meaning and significance in the human experience gives the human being the necessary strength to cope with pain and suffering in a reality devoid of religious faith and tradition, and enhances one’s ability to survive even under seemingly unbearable conditions, such as those that characterized life in the camps. In Frankl’s words, even in Auschwitz, a prisoner observing a beautiful sunset might remark: "How beautiful the world could be."
Once published, millions of copies of the book were sold; it was translated into dozens of languages, and quickly became one of the best-known symbols of post-Holocaust humanism.
Rare book. Only a handful of copies of this edition have survived. Not in NLI.


130 pages. 20 cm. Good condition. Minor blemishes and abrasions to cover.

Autograph Letters and First Editions
Autograph Letters and First Editions