Man’s Search for Meaning

Frankl often uses ethos (appeal to credibility) across both parts of Man’s Search for Meaning in order to present himself as one uniquely well-equipped to make the case for logotherapy.

He begins Part I of the book with his primary aim: to attempt a methodical (that is, scientific) presentation of life during the Holocaust but with the intimate knowledge of the “insider.” He explains why being a former prisoner himself offers a rare perspective which differs from a factual account:

Here, facts will be significant only as far as they are part of a man's experiences. It is the exact nature of these experiences that the following essay will attempt to describe. For those who have been inmates in a camp, it will attempt to explain their experiences in the light of present-day knowledge.

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