This month’s My Therapist’s Book Club is Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. 
I first read this about a decade ago and I recently just re-listened to it. During a season when we are meant to be thankful, this is a great reminder of how we can choose our own attitude and construct our own meaning out of what happens to us in life, even and especially when we feel like we have nothing to be grateful for.
Frankl is a psychiatrist and a Holocaust survivor. In Man’s Search for Meaning, he discusses his personal experiences in the concentration camps and also the style of therapy he founded and became known for, logotherapy.
Logotherapy is based on the importance of our own autonomy, meaning our ability to choose our attitudes, and the importance of finding meaning and purpose in our lives.
This is important for everyone to work through, of course, but I find that exploring meaning and thinking patterns and attitudes is especially impactful for my clients who have perfectionistic tendencies and who are anxious and unsettled when not in control of what is happening in life.
I LOVE to be in control and to have things go exactly as I have meticulously planned, so a framing for how to cope in any circumstance is something I need to be regularly reminded about as well.
He also really models the non-judgment of others and how the behavior of different individuals in the camps made sense given the context.
It’s a quick read, and has consistently ranked highly as an international best-seller and as one of the most influential books of the 20th century. Check it out soon!