Embracing Hope: On Freedom, Responsibility & the Meaning of Life
By Viktor E Frankl (Translated by Joelle Young)
Rider/Penguin Random House, 176 pages

In modern times, as wars of ideologies using weapons of mass destruction rendered human life even more fragile, Viktor Frankl emerged as the icon of hope.

Frankl was born in Vienna in 1905 and died in that city in 1997. In a life coinciding with the eventful twentieth century, he saw much, suffered much and yet came out wiser. His wife, father, mother and brother all died in Nazi concentration camps, only he and his sister survived. As an Auschwitz survivor, he had every reason to be bitter and cynical. But he never lost the qualities of compassion, loyalty, undaunted spirit and thirst for life (earning his pilot's licence aged 67). He went on to become Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at the University of Vienna Medical School.

He shared his life lessons first in the book, ‘Man's Search for Meaning’ (subtitled ‘An Introduction to Logotherapy’, published in 1946 and in English translation in 19659) which has been a contemporary classic. Several more books followed, some scholarly and some for non-specialists. In 2020, a set of his lectures was published as ‘Yes to Life In Spite of Everything’.

‘Embracing Hope’ – “an inspirational new collection on turning tragedy into triumph” – is yet another posthumous publication, compiling four texts from the four decades between 1946 and 1984.

Frankl believed that regardless of circumstance, we can all find meaning and fulfilment in our lives, even in the face of great adversity. But how much influence do we have on shaping our own lives? How do we seize opportunities and create a meaningful life? And in doing so, can we still respect the dignity of others and tolerate all views?

In ‘Embracing Hope’, he shows that by exercising our freedoms, we have a duty and responsibility to ourselves, to others and to the world around us. This collection of timeless lessons offers hope and consolation, admonition and warning, and reveals how to turn tragedy into triumph and lead a fulfilled, purposeful life.

The first chapter, ‘The Crisis of Meaning and the Zeitgeist’, reproduces an article originally titled ‘Collective Neuroses’ (1955), describing the general social uncertainty and fear, as well as the feelings of purposelessness and existential emptiness in the lives of many people at that time. Needless to say, the condition today is no different, and the article is as relevant today as it was then.

The second chapter, ‘Ways of Finding Meaning’, is the transcript of an interview Frankl gave to Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1977 for a TV show called ‘Man Alive’. The question and answer format makes it even more accessible for lay readers.

‘Freedom and Responsibility’, the next chapter, is a lecture he delivered in December 1946 in Austria, linking the search for meaning with human freedom and responsibility. ‘Meaning and Responsibility in the Face of Transience’, the concluding chapter, is also a lecture (titled ‘Conquering Transience’), delivered in 1984, about the significance of meaning and responsibility in the face of mortality.

For those new to the work of Frankl, the two forewords, by Dr Edith Eger and Dr Tobias Esch, form an excellent introduction to this highly inspirational and equally remarkable author.

As our world today has started resembling the world a century ago, we need Frankl’s wisdom to survive and to let humanity in us survive.