Viktor Frankl

Viktor Emil Frankl, M.D., Ph.D., (March 26, 1905 - September 2, 1997) was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist. Frankl was the founder of logotherapy and Existential Analysis, the "Third Viennese School" of psychotherapy. His book Man's Search for Meaning (first published in 1946) chronicles his experiences as a concentration camp inmate and describes his psychotherapeutic method of finding a reason to live. He was one of the key figures in existential therapy.

Life

Before 1945

Frankl was born in Vienna. Frankl's interest for psychology surfaced early in his life. For the final exam (Matura) in high school he wrote a paper on the psychology of philosophical thinking. After he graduated from high school in 1923, he studied medicine at the University of Vienna and later specialized in neurology and psychiatry. From 1933 to 1937 he headed the so-called "Selbstmörderpavillon" (suicide pavilion) of the General Hospital in Vienna and from 1937 to 1940 he privately practiced psychiatry. From 1940 to 1942 he headed the neurological department of the Rothschild hospital (at this point of time this hospital was the only one left in Vienna where Jews were admitted).

In December 1941 he married Tilly Grosser. In Autumn 1942 he, his wife and his parents were deported to the concentration camp of Theresienstadt. In 1944 he was transported to Auschwitz and later to Kaufering and Türkheim, two concentration camps adjunct to the KZ Dachau. When he was sent to Auschwitz, his manuscript for The Doctor and the Soul was found and destroyed. His desire to complete his work (which he did on stolen pieces of paper), and his steadfast hope that he would someday be reunited with his wife and family, kept him from losing hope in a death-drenched environment. He was liberated on April 27th 1945 by the US Army.

Frankl survived the Holocaust, but his wife, father and mother were murdered in concentration camps (among his immediate relatives, only his sister, who had emigrated to Australia, survived). It was due to his (and others') suffering in these camps that he came to the conclusion that even in the most absurd, painful and dehumanised situation, life has meaning and therefore even suffering is meaningful. This conclusion served as a strong basis of Frankl's later creation of logotherapy.

After 1945

Liberated after 3 years of life in concentration camps he returned to Vienna. He finally reconstructed his book The Doctor and the Soul and published it, which earned him a teaching appointment at the University of Vienna Medical School. In only 9 days, he dictated another book, titled "Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager" (English title: Man's Search for Meaning), wherein he tried to objectively describe the life of an ordinary concentration camp inmate from the perspective of a psychiatrist. Before he died, it sold over nine million copies. In 1946 he was appointed to run the Vienna Poliklinik of neurologics, where he worked until 1971. He remarried in 1947 to Eleonore Shwindt and gave birth to a daughter, Gabriele in December of 1947.

Frankl died September 2nd, 1997, in Vienna.

Work

In the post-war years Frankl published more than 30 books and is most notably known as the founder of logotherapy (logos is Greek for word, reason, principle). He gave guest lectures and seminars all over the world and received 29 honorary doctorate degrees. He received numberous awards, including the Oskar Pfister Prize by the American Society of Psychiatry and a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Logotherapy

Developed by neurologist and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, Logotherapy is considered the "third Viennese school of psychotherapy" after Freud's psychoanalysis and Adler's individual psychology. It is a type of Existential Analysis that focuses on a "will to meaning" as opposed to Adler's Nietzschian doctrine of "will to power" or Freud's of "will to pleasure".

The following list of tenets represents Frankl's basic beliefs regarding the philosophy of Logotherapy:

• Life has meaning under all circumstances even the most miserable ones.
• Our main motivation for living is our will to find meaning in life.
• We have freedom to find meaning in what we do, and what we experience, or at least in the stand we take when faced with a situation of unchangeable suffering.

Man's Search for Meaning

A short introduction to this system is introduced in Frankl's most famous book, "Man's Search for Meaning", in which he outlines how his theories helped him to survive his Holocaust experience.

The human spirit is referred to in several of the assumptions of Logotherapy, but it should be noted that the use of the term spirit is not "spiritual" or "religious." In Frankl's view, the spirit is the will of the human being. The emphasis, therefore, is on the search for meaning, not the search for God nor any other supernatural existential being. Frankl also noted the barriers to humanity's quest for meaning in life. He warns against "...affluence, hedonism, [and] materialism..." in the search for meaning.

Viktor Frankl's 1946 book Man's Search for Meaning chronicles his experiences as a concentration camp inmate and describes his psychotherapeutic method of finding a reason to live. According to Frankl, the book intends to answer the question "How was everyday life in a concentration camp reflected in the mind of the average prisoner?" The first section of the book constitutes Frankl's experiences in the concentration camps, while the second half is an introduction to logotherapy.

Experiences in a concentration camp

In this section of the book, Frankl recalls what he has seen and observed while in several Nazi camps. He then goes on to draw conclusions about life and human nature. Frankl asserts that the meaning of life is found in every moment of living; life never ceases to have meaning, even in suffering and death. According to Frankl, someone is always looking down on us, be it a living or dead friend, family member, or even a God; Therefore, we should not disappoint them. The book also concludes that there are only two races of men, decent men and indecent. No society is free of either of them, and thus there were "decent" Nazi guards and "indecent" prisoners, most notably the capo who would betray their fellow prisoners for personal gain. The final chapter concerns the mindset of the prisoners after liberation. While marching through the fields around their former prisons, the prisoners become aware that they are unable to comprehend pleasure. Flowers, kindness, and the sense of freedom given to them after their liberation seems surreal and the prisoners are unable to grasp it. Even when he or she would return to "normal" life, a prisoner would feel disillusion and bitterness. As time passes, the prisoner's experience in a concentration camp seems nothing more than a nightmare.

Quotations

• "It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us."

• "The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved."

• "Nietzsche's words, 'He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.'"

• "When we are no longer able to change a situation—just think of an incurable disease such as inoperable cancer—we are challenged to change ourselves"

• "We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

• "Fundamentally, therefore, any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him - mentally and spiritually. He may retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp."

• "We can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: (1) by doing a deed; (2) by experiencing a value; and (3) by suffering."

• "It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life—daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual."

• "Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of. And since Hiroshima we know what is at stake."

• "We must remain aware of the fact that as long as absolute truth is not accessible to us (and it never will be), relative truths have to function as mutual correctives. Approaching the one truth from various sides, sometimes even in opposite directions, we cannot attain it, but we may at least encircle it."

• "Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible."

• "We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

• "If all men were perfect, then every individual would be replaceable by anyone else. From the very imperfection of men follows the indispensability and inexchangeability of each individual" - The Doctor and the Soul

Miscellaneous

• Frankl coined the term "existentialism."
• Frankl often said that even within the narrow boundaries of the concentration camps he got to know only two kinds of men: decent and non-decent ones.
• Frankl once recommended the Statue of Liberty on the east coast be complemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the west coast.

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Bibliography

• Frankl, Viktor E. 1955. The Doctor and the Soul. From Psychotherapy to Logotherapy. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, und Souvenir Press, London. Paperback editions: Random House, London, 1986. ISBN 0-394-74317-2.

• Frankl, Viktor E. 1959-1962. From Death-Camp to Existentialism. A Psychiatrist's Path to a New Therapy. Beacon Press, Boston. ASIN: B0006AVXC8.
• Frankl, Viktor E. 1967-1985. Psychotherapy and Existentialism. Selected Papers on Logotherapy, New York: Simon & Schuster
• Frankl, Viktor E. 1969. The Will to Meaning. Foundations and Applications of Logotherapy. New York: New American Library, ISBN 0-452-01034-9.

• Frankl, Viktor E. 1975-1985. The Unconscious God. Psychotherapy and Theology. Simon and Schuster, New York, und Hodder and Stoughton, London.

• Frankl, Viktor E. 1997. Man's Search for Meaning. An Introduction to Logotherapy,. Beacon Press. ISBN 0-8070-1426-5; and Random House / Rider, London 2004, ISBN 1-8441-3239-0; also: Washington Square Press; ISBN 0-67102-3373 (Softcover, December 1997)

• Frankl, Viktor E.1997. Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning. (A revised and extended edition of The Unconscious God; with a Foreword by Swanee Hunt). Perseus Book Publishing. ISBN 0-306-45620-6.

• Frankl, Viktor E. 1997. Viktor Frankl - Recollections. An Autobiography. Insight Books, Perseus Books Publishing. ISBN 0-306-45410-6.

• Frankl, Viktor E. 2004. On the Theory and Therapy of Mental Disorders. An Introduction to Logotherapy and Existential Analysis, Translated by James M. DuBois. Brunner-Routledge, London-New York 2004. ISBN 0415950295

External links

• Biography at Vienna University
• Biography at Shippensburg University
• Viktor Emil Frankl - Man's Search for Meaning

• Logotherapy Institute at Vienna University
• Forum for Logotherapy

• Man's Search for Meaning
• Viktor Frankl at Ninety: An Interview
• Quotation Page

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