The author examines the role of moral concepts in the life of societies, pointing to the interaction between neurotic and psychotic disturbances in individuals and the pathologies which periodically overwhelm societies. He asserts that we are experiencing a disintegration of moral values in the civilization of the West and an upsurge of antisocial, destructive behaviour. When the moral directives upheld by a culture cease to be convincing, anti-moral attitudes of defiance will arise, resulting in an increasing number of people turning to crime, violence and murder, unrestrained self-interest and greed, and a profound weakening of social conscience. Frankl then asks why morality is necessary in the human species and examines its biological and psychological origins. Humans, he says, are no longer controlled by genetically programmed instincts. With the expansion of the pre-frontal lobes of the brain, humans have to acquire values which guide their actions - an inner representation of right and wrong, good and bad. To be given universal validity, these then have to be presented in the form of "morality". The book describes how these mental presentations are projected upon gods, priests and kings, who become symbolic representations of moral certainties, of rules and taboos to which men have to defer. The Enlightenment of Western civilization undermined the belief in those symbols of omnipotence and righteousness, and they were replaced by secular ideologies. Now, those secular ideologies are also discredited and threatened. In the philosophical section of the book, Frankl attempts a rational reconstruction of moral ideas based on an understanding of man's emotional needs.