psychiatrist viktor frankls memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival based on his own experience and the stories of his patients frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it find meaning in it and move forward with renewed purpose at the heart of his theory known as logotherapy is a conviction that the primary human drive is not pleasure but the pursuit of what we find meaningful mans search for meaning has become one of the most influential books in america it continues to inspire us all to find significance in the very act of living