A prominent Viennese psychiatrist before the war, Viktor Frankl was uniquely abl e to observe the way that he and other inmates coped with the experience of bein g in Auschwitz. He noticed that it was the men who comforted others and who gave away their last piece of bread who survived the longest - and who offered proof that everything can be taken away from us except the ability to choose our atti tude in any given set of circumstances. The sort of person the prisoner becam e was the result of an inner decision and not of camp influences alone. Only tho se who allowed their inner hold on their moral and spiritual selves to subside e ventually fell victim to the camp's degenerating influence - while those who mad e a victory of those experiences turned them into an inner triumph. Frankl ca me to believe that man's deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose. Th is outstanding work offers us all a way to transcend suffering and find signific ance in the art of living.