Previous
Ethos
Experiences in a Concentration Camp
Explanation and Analysis—Frankl's Memories:
Flashbacks—as well as flashforwards and nonlinear narration in general—are characteristic of the narrative structure of Man’s Search for Meaning.
Across Part I, Frankl describes his years as a prisoner in various concentration camps. However, he often presents his memories as they are relevant to his psychological or philosophical views rather than in chronological order. For example, when Frankl describes the first stage of the prisoners’ psychological reactions—that is, shock—he uses his own admission to the concentration camp as an example. He describes his experience in a flashback at the start of Part I:
Under certain conditions shock may even precede the prisoner's formal admission to the camp. I shall give as an example the circumstances of my own admission. Fifteen hundred persons had been traveling by train [...]
Frankl uses this mode of narration across Part I. The start of most sections introduces a general concept tied to logotherapy, then Frankl describes a moment in his past that illustrates the thought in action. These flashbacks, therefore, serve less as factual accounts of life in the concentration camp—early on, Frankl mentions that many such accounts are already on record—but rather to support his psychotherapeutic techniques that he lays out later in Part II.
Related Themes:
