VIKTOR FRANKL: BIOGRAPHY, MEANING OF LIFE, LOGOTHERAPY, CONTRIBUTIONS - PSYCHOLOGY - 2025

Viktor Frankl (1905 - 1997) was an Austrian psychiatrist and psychotherapist famous for developing a method of psychoanalysis known as 'logotherapy'. He is also known for having written the book Man's Search for Meaning, in which he explained the bases of his therapeutic approach and recounted the experiences he had lived as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Viktor Frankl is commonly known as the father of the 'third Viennese school', the first two being those founded by Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler. His most important idea is that the main motivator in people's lives is the search for a unique meaning. Therefore, for him, psychotherapy has to help individuals find their vital purpose.

Source: Prof. Dr. Franz Vesely

Frankl's interest in psychology and psychiatry was evident from his early years; but the concepts that would later form the foundations of logotherapy did not take hold until he had to spend time as a prisoner at Auschwitz. There, seeing the suffering around him, he theorized that inmates who had a meaning in life were more likely to survive.

After his release, Frankl returned to Vienna, being one of the few survivors of the Nazi concentration camp. Once back in his hometown, he wrote his famous work narrating what he had experienced, and began to teach at different universities on his new therapeutic theories. At the same time, he also served as director of the neurology department of the city's Polyclinic Hospital.

Biography

Viktor Emil Frankl was born on March 26, 1905 in Vienna, the capital of Austria. His parents were of Jewish origin, and both held public office in the city. From the first years of his life, he showed a great interest in psychology; and for this reason, after graduating from his local institute in 1923 he entered the University of Vienna to study medicine and psychiatry.

Once inside the university, he became especially interested in topics such as depression and suicide. At first she studied the theories of Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler, creators of the two most important currents of psychotherapy at that time in Austria. However, his thoughts soon diverged from those of these two therapists.

During his years at the university, he began to speak and hold sessions with high school students, to such an extent that he managed to almost completely eliminate suicide attempts in the area in which he worked. Because of this, after graduating he got the position of director of the suicide prevention department of the Vienna General Hospital.

After four years there, and after having treated thousands of people at this time, Viktor Frankl had to abandon it due to the anti-Semitism of the time. Later, he got a job as director of the neurology department at Rothschild Hospital, one of the few centers that allowed Jews to practice medicine at the time.

Life under Nazi rule

Prisoners in the Mauthausen camp released on May 5, 1945.

Shortly after assuming his position as director of neurology at Rothschild Hospital, Viktor Frankl and his relatives (including his parents, his brother and his wife) were sent in 1942 to the Thereisienstadt concentration camp, located in Germany..

Inside this concentration camp, Frankl's father passed away six months after arriving. During the next three years, Viktor and the rest of his family were transferred up to four times between different concentration camps. His wife died in Bergen - Belsen, while his brother and mother died in Auschwitz.

Viktor Frankl himself spent several months in this last concentration camp, from where he was released in 1945. However, during this time the psychologist decided to focus on doing all the good he could, and tried to avoid the suicide attempts of his companions., a practice that was very frequent among the prisoners.

Inside the concentration camps, Viktor Frankl began to develop the theories that would later shape logotherapy. In addition, he tried to find meaning in his own life during that moment, so he focused on expanding the information he wanted to capture in his next book, unfinished at the time of his capture.

Experience in concentration camps

Viktor frankl

Viktor Frankl was one of the few survivors of Auschwitz, the largest concentration camp in Nazi Germany. During this time he tried to help the rest of the prisoners as much as possible; and he did so by encouraging them to focus on positive memories, thoughts, and scenes.

From his experiences with the other prisoners and his own suffering Frankl drew the foundations for what would later become known as the "third Viennese school of psychotherapy." This psychologist believed that even in dire conditions, life could still have meaning, and suffering had meaning.

Based on his experiences in Auschwitz, Viktor Frankl wrote Man's Search for Meaning, a book that detailed his perspective on life and the horrors he had experienced there. Later, in his later years, he returned to teaching at different universities around the world, published numerous books, and received dozens of honorary degrees from such famous institutions as Harvard.

Meaning of life concept

One of the most important principles of Viktor Frankl's theories is that of the meaning of life. According to this psychologist, humans can find a purpose in our existence by taking responsibility for ourselves and others. On the other hand, it is necessary to find a "why", in order to be able to respond to the challenges that arise in our daily lives.

For Frankl, one of the most important elements of our existence is freedom. However, this author did not understand this concept in a traditional way, but believed that people are capable of maintaining our independence and spiritual freedom even in the most extreme situations, and despite being physically limited.

During the terrible experiences he endured at Auschwitz and the other concentration camps in which he lived, Frankl discovered that his purpose in life was to help others find their own. Thus, in Man's Search for Meaning and the rest of his later works, he explored this concept in depth. Next we will see what are its most important components.

1- Live decisively

One of the most important components of the meaning of life is the ability to act in accordance with one's own values. Even in the most extreme circumstances, Frankl believed that people were capable of choosing and behaving freely. The main tool to achieve this is determination.

For this psychologist, the main tool we have to face the challenges that arise in our day to day is the decision to fight for something in particular. In this way, with the right motivation, we can fight problems and move on even in the most difficult circumstances.

2- Find a meaning for suffering

Viktor Frankl explains in his book Man's Search for Meaning that not all types of suffering are equally painful. For this psychotherapist, when we find a reason to endure those problems we have to face, our ability to resist pain increases significantly.

For the same reason, Frankl defended the idea that there is nothing worse than perceiving that one's own suffering is absurd and makes no sense. For this reason, his therapeutic proposal was focused on finding a meaning for the problems we have to encounter, in such a way that we can see them as a challenge and not as a misfortune.

3- The meaning of life is personal

Finally, Viktor Frankl believed that there is no single sense of life, but that everyone has to find their own. Because of this, it is not possible to look for it in books, in goals imposed from outside, in family or friends or in society. One of our main goals in life should therefore be to find that which will give us purpose.

But, on what is the vital sense of each based? For Frankl, this will depend on elements such as our values, our personality, our tastes, our history and our decisions. Therefore, it is essential that we remember that every day is an opportunity to act freely and seek what is really important to us.

Logotherapy

After passing through Auschwitz, Frankl created his own style of therapy, which became known as "logotherapy." It was based on the idea that the main human motivation was what he called the "desire for meaning", which translated into the need to find meaning in our lives. Therefore, its main therapeutic goal was to help people find it.

In his writings on logotherapy, Viktor Frankl described three fundamental properties on which he based his clinical approach:

- All people have a healthy base. This idea is opposed to those of Freud and Adler, who believed that the human mind has a basic dysfunction that must be solved through therapy.

- The main focus of people is to help others to discover their own resources and to fend for themselves from their healthy base.

- Life can be full of meaning and purpose, but this does not mean that it will also give us happiness or that we can reach a point where we do not have to face difficulties.

On the other hand, logotherapy also describes various ways of finding meaning for one's life. For Frankl, this can be achieved in three different ways: through work or works themselves, through certain experiences or relationships, or simply through a positive attitude towards suffering, which in many cases is inevitable.

In addition to this, logotherapy places great emphasis on human freedom, which for this author was absolute and could be found even in the most difficult circumstances. According to Frankl, not even situations as harsh as those experienced in the Nazi concentration camps could rob a person of the ability to choose, which in these cases translated into the possibility of choosing a positive interpretation of reality.

For this reason, logotherapy places a great focus on the search for one's own values, the meaning of life, the ability to choose in the face of suffering, and the desire to act with a purpose.

Other contributions

Despite focusing much of his works and his work on the meaning of life and the way to find it, Viktor Frankl also spent a lot of time studying other related topics. Thus, for example, the first years of his career were based on understanding phenomena such as depression, mental disorders and suicide, a subject that particularly concerned him.

In addition to this, Frankl also wrote on more metaphysical topics, such as existential philosophy, psychological pathologies in general, and the nature of the relationship between body, soul and mind.

On the other hand, the ideas and works of this psychotherapist laid the foundations for many of the concepts that would later become part of humanistic psychology, the first therapeutic current that saw people in a positive way. This is in contrast to psychoanalytic approaches, which believed that the human being has a negative nature that needs to be improved through therapy.

Plays

Viktor Frankl was not a particularly prolific author. However, some of his works have become very important over time. The most important are the following:

- The man in search of meaning (1946).

- The doctor and the soul (1955).

- Psychotherapy and Existentialism (1967).

- The will to make sense (1988).

- What is not written in my books. Memories (posthumous edition, year 2000).

- The man in search of the ultimate meaning (1997).

References

1. "Viktor Frankl (1905-1997)" in: Good Therapy. Retrieved on: November 05, 2019 from Good Therapy: goodtherapy.com.
2. "An Overview of Viktor Frankl's Logotherapy" in: VeryWell Mind. Retrieved on: November 05, 2019 from VeryWell Mind: verywellmind.com.
3. "Viktor Frankl" in: Famous Authors. Retrieved on: November 05, 2019 from Famous Authors: famousauthors.org.
4. "Viktor Frankl" in: Britannica. Retrieved on: November 05, 2019 from Britannica: britannica.com.
5. "Viktor Frankl" in: Wikipedia. Retrieved on: November 05, 2019 from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org.