To choose one's own way

Embracing Hope, a compilation of the writings and speeches of the holocaust survivor and neurologist Victor E Frankl, feels like exactly what the doctor ordered

- Thangkhanlal Ngaihte

Embracing Hope claims to reveal "how to turn tragedy into triumph and lead a fulfilled, purposeful life." For a fraught time such as this, with pandemics, raging wild fires and full-blown wars and killings, it sounds like an enticing proposition. For me, having lived through two years of great unrest with no peace in sight, this book, a compilation of the writings and speeches of Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist Viktor E Frankl, spanning the period from 1946 to 1984, feels like exactly what the doctor ordered.

The pieces in this volume include Collective Neuroses (first published in 1955), an interview of Frankl for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1977, the text of a lecture titled Existential Analysis and the Problems of Our Times given at the Franco-Austrian University in December 1946, and Conquering Transience, the text of another lecture delivered at Dornbirn, Austria, in October, 1984. Forewords by Edith Eger, a fellow holocaust survivor, and Tobias Esch, an eminent neuroscientist, further enrich the book by providing context.

An Austrian Jew who survived Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps but lost his brother, wife and parents to the holocaust, Frankl was not beaten down by his experiences. Instead, they spurred him to a second life filled with meaning and success. A recipient of 29 honorary doctorates from universities around the world, he obtained his pilot's license at 67 and lived a full life until he died, aged 92, in 1997.

He wrote 39 books, including the acclaimed Man's Search for Meaning, and pioneered the field of logotherapy, a sub-field within psychotherapy, which aims to help people find meaning in their lives.