India, May 9 -- 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, full-blown wars and killings and the shenanigans of authoritarian regimes assailing us, offline and online, every day, 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 Bro...