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Victor Frankl

Viktor Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist who founded logotherapy, which focuses on a person's will to find meaning. During the Holocaust, when Frankl was imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps, he observed that those who were able to find meaning and purpose had a greater chance of survival. His experiences and observations led him to validate logotherapy, which emphasizes three sources of meaning: love, work, and suffering. Frankl wrote about his experiences and the development of logotherapy in his influential book Man's Search for Meaning.

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125 views

Victor Frankl

Viktor Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist who founded logotherapy, which focuses on a person's will to find meaning. During the Holocaust, when Frankl was imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps, he observed that those who were able to find meaning and purpose had a greater chance of survival. His experiences and observations led him to validate logotherapy, which emphasizes three sources of meaning: love, work, and suffering. Frankl wrote about his experiences and the development of logotherapy in his influential book Man's Search for Meaning.

Uploaded by

Rafael Flores
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Victor Frankl

Viktor E. Frankl was one of


Europes leading
psychiatrists and one of the
most modern thinkers in the
world.
During and partly because
of his suffering in
concentration camps, Frankl
validated a revolutionary
approach to psychotherapy
known as Logotherapy.

Viktor E. Frankl
Born

in Vienna, Austria on March 26, 1905 as the second of


three children.
He died in 1997 in Vienna, Austria, of heart failure. His mother
was from Prague and his father came from Suedmaehre.
Frankl grew up in Vienna, the birthplace of modern psychiatry
and home of the renowned psychiatrists Sigmund Freud and
Alfred Adler.
A brilliant student, Frankl was involved in Socialist youth
organizations and became interested in psychiatry.
At age 16 he began writing to Freud, and on one occasion sent
him a short paper, which was published three years later,
Frankl earned a medical degree from the University of Vienna
in 1930 and was put in charge of a Vienna hospital ward for
the treatment of females who had attempted suicide.
When Germany seized control of Austria eight years later, the
Nazis made Frankl head of the Rothschild Hospital.

Victor Frankl
In

1942 Frankl married his first wife, Tilly Grosser.


Nine months later, Frankl, his wife and his parents were
deported to the Theresienstadt camp near Prague.
Even though he was in four Nazi camps, Frankl survived the
Holocaust, including Auschwitz in Poland from 1942-45,
where the camp doctor Josef Mengele, was supervising the
division of the incoming prisoners into two lines.
Those in the line moving left were to go to the gas
chambers, while those in the line moving right were to be
spared.
Frankl was directed to join the line moving left, but
managed to save his life by slipping into the other line
without being noticed.
Other members of his family were not so fortunate. Frankls
wife, his parents, and other members of his family died in
the concentration camps.

Victor Frankl
On

returning to Vienna after Germanys defeat in


1945, Frankl, who had secretly been keeping a record
of his observations in the camps on scraps of paper,
published a book in German setting out his ideas on
Logotherapy.
This was translated into English in 1959, and in a
revised and enlarged edition appeared asThe Doctor
and the Soul: An Introduction to Logotherapyin 1963.
By the time of his death, Frankls book,Man's Search
for Meaning, had been translated into 24 languages
and reprinted 73 times and had long been used as a
standard text in high school and university courses in
psychology, philosophy, and theology.

Victor Frankl
In

1947 Frankl married his second wife Eleonore Schwindt,


who survived him, as did a daughter, Dr. Gabrielle FranklVesely.
Frankls postwar career was spent as a professor of
neurology and psychiatry in Vienna, where he taught until
he was 85.
He was also chief of neurology at the Vienna Polyclinic
Hospital for 25 years. F
rankl received twenty-nine honorary doctorates from
universities in all parts of the world.
He wrote over 30 books and became the first non-American
to be awarded the American Psychiatric Associations
prestigious Oskar Pfister Prize and was a visiting professor
at Harvard, Stanford and other universities in Pittsburgh,
San Diego and Dallas. x

Victor Frankl
Frankl

has given lectures at 209 universities on five


continents. The U. S. International University in California
installed a special chair for Logotherapy- this is the
psychotherapeutic school founded by Frankl, often called
the Third Viennese School (after Freuds Psychoanalysis
and Adlers Individual Psychology.)
The American Medical Society, the American Psychiatric
Association and the American Psychological Association
have officially recognized Dr. Frankls Logotherapy as one of
the scientifically based schools of psychotherapy.
In a 1991 survey of general-interest readers conducted by
the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month
Club,Mans Search for Meaninghas sold over nine million
copies alone in the USA and was ranked among the ten
most influential book in America.
In 1992, the Viktor Frankl Frankl-Institute was created in
his honor in Vienna.

LOGOTHERAPY
At

the core of this theory is the


belief that mans primary
motivational force is search for
meaning
"Other things being equal, those apt to
survive the camps were those oriented
toward the future - toward a task, or a
person, waiting for them in the future,
toward a meaning to be fulfilled by them
in the future" (Viktor 2003, 1-2).

LOGOTHERAPY
Frankl's approach is based on
three
philosophical
and
Will
psychological concepts:

FREEDOM OF WILL
According

to LTEA humans are not fully subject to


conditions but are basically free to decide and
capable of taking their stance towards internal
(psychological) and external (biological and social)
conditions.
Freedom is here defined as the space of shaping
one's own life within the limits of the given
possibilities.
This freedom derives from the spiritual dimension
of the person, which is understood as the
essentially human realm, over and above the
dimensions of body and of psyche.
As spiritual persons, humans are not just reacting
organisms but autonomous beings capable of
actively shaping their lives. >>>>

WILL TO MEANING
Human

beings are not only free, but most


importantly they are freetosomething - namely, to
achieve goals and purposes.
The search for meaning is seen as the primary
motivation of humans.
When a person cannot realize his or her "Will to
Meaning" in their lives they will experience an
abysmal sensation of meaninglessness and
emptiness.
The frustration of the existential need for
meaningful goals will give rise to aggression,
addiction, depression and suicidality, and it may
engender or increase psychosomatic maladies and
neurotic disorders. >>>>

MEANING IN LIFE
LTEA

is based on the idea that


meaning is an objective reality,
as opposed to a mere illusion
arising within the perceptional
apparatus of the observer. >>>>

Three Sources of Meaning

Love
Loveis

the strongest bond between people


and will lead to wonderful inspiration and
great sacrifice.
Many of the great works of art were
inspired by love, including more general
love such as of nature or God.
Frankl himself used his love of his wife to
keep up his spirits and also noticed how
other prisoners used their connection with
others to stay positive in the face of
extremely negative circumstances. >>>>

Work
Without

work, people easily fall into an


aimless existence.
Work provides both short- and longerterm objectives and completion of these
can result in a deep satisfaction and
sense of value.
Frankl had the manuscript of a book he
had written confiscated.
He used this as a spur to re-write the
book, using every scrap of paper he
could find. >>>>

Suffering
Suffering

as a source of meaning is both curious


and also understandable when it is seen in the
light of pain that leads to enlightenment.
There is more than one religion in the world that
is founded on the suffering of its prophet.
A key effect is that with a loss of outer freedom,
we often turn inwards and find meaning in places
where external cruelty cannot reach.
In the manner of the Stoics, we may also
reframesuffering as our 'task', of 'bearing the
cross'. and gaining a sense of achievement
simply by surviving.

Suffering
Frankl's

concentration camp
experiences were no doubt fraught
with unbelievable suffering and it is
remarkable that he could find meaning.
He did note that it was unavoidable
suffering that led to meaning, thus
obviating self-flagellation or other
privation. >>>>
Frankl quoted Dostoevski:
'There is only one thing that I dread: not to be
worthy of my sufferings.'

Prepared by: JC de Egurrola


[email protected]

THE END

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