Analysis Of Viktor E. Frankl

In the novel Night, Elie Wiesel gives an account about his life in a concentration camp. His focus is of course on his obstacles and challenges while in the camp, but his behavior is an example of how human beings respond to life in a concentration camp. The mood, personality, behavior, and obviously physical changes that occur are well documented in this novel. He also shows, as time wears on, how these changes become more profound and all the more appalling. As the reader follows Elie Wiesel’s story, from his home in the ghetto, to his internment at Auschwitz-Birkenau, to his transfer and eventual release at Buchenwald, one can see the impact of these changes first hand.

'He who has a why to live for can bear any how.' The words of Nietzsche begin to explain Frankl's tone throughout his book. Dr. Frankl uses his experiences in different Nazi concentration camps to explain his discovery of logotherapy. This discovery takes us back to World War II and the extreme suffering that took place in the Nazi concentration camps and outlines a detailed analysis of the prisoners psyche. An experience we gain from the first-hand memoirs of Dr. Frankl.

The concentration camps from World War II are part of a painful and tragic incident that we have learned about in school for many years. And while we are taught the facts, we may not fully understand the emotional impact it had upon the humans involved. Upon reading Night by Elie Wiesel, readers are given vivid descriptions of the gruesome and tragic behaviors that the Jews were forced to endure inside he treacherous concentration camps. Among all of the cruelties that the Jews were exposed to, a very significant form of the callous behaviors was the demoralization of the prisoners. Each inmate was given a tattoo of a number, and that tattoo became their new identity within the camp. Every prisoner was presented with tattered uniforms that became

Shock, apathy, and disillusionment were three psychological stages that the prisoners of the Nazi concentration camps experienced. Ironically, it took an event of such tragedy and destruction to enable us to learn more about how the human mind responds to certain situations. Frankl’s methods for remaining positive can be used by every human being to give them a meaning in their lives regardless of what predicament or mental state they are in – it is in many ways like a phoenix risen from the

“The camp looked as though it had been through an epidemic: empty and dead” (47); even when there is a break in between the horror and pain of working for Nazis in concentration camps and suffering from hunger, it is dead, empty and inhuman; this meaningful passage about the complete and utter truth of concentration camps comes from a memoir, Night, by Elie Wiesel. Vocabulary in this passage, is nothing short of exemplary, the words completely compliment the message being shared in this quote. Elie Wiesel describes the atrocious Buna camp as if it were through an epidemic, an outbreak, rendering people empty and dead due to starvation, lack of sleep, and over exertion. This paints a complete and thorough visual of how he viewed concentration

Frankl endured much suffering during his time in the concentration camp. All of his possessions were taken away, including his manuscript in which he recorded all of his life's work. He went through rough manual labor, marching through freezing temperatures, and little or no

In this scene from Night, Elie Wiesel and his inmates are rushed out of their barracks at 5 A.M, forced to strip, and ordered run, naked and cold. Elie unveils that enslavement strips one of their personal identity leading to dehumanization. Wiesel observes “Mountains of prison garb” in the concentration camp. The use of hyperbole, exaggerating the amount of prison garb, emphasizes the high density of individuals in the camp. They are forced to wear the same uniform clothing, illustrating the destruction of individuality. The use of the word “prison” shows the birth of subjection. Wiesel also uses syntax to demonstrate the conformity of the camp, recalling the daily routine “Disinfection. Everybody soaked in it. Then came a hot shower. All

In his memoir “Night”, Elie Wiesel gives his account of events that took place during the holocaust. Historical records confirm that the holocaust was an undesirable experience for the victims who had to go through physical torture. In his memoir, Wiesel gives gruesome accounts of the different threats prisoners faced at the Nazi concentration camp. Clearly, the psychological threats seemed to wear the prisoners down more than the physical ones, nevertheless, the prisoners adopted physical unresponsiveness and emotional numbness to protect themselves from both threats, however, Wiesel carefully selected the two execution scenes to strengthen the pathos of his memoir, and to show that sometimes even emotional numbness fails to shield one from

The concentration camp forced him to learn to think about himself “I had watched it all happening without moving I kept silent… that was what life in a concentration camp has made of me” (Wiesel 54). He became self-centered and determined to survive. He survived because he had to for his father, but it was only after his father died that he truly lived. He only thought of food and surviving “I spent my day in total idleness… I no longer thought of my father, or my mother” (Wiesel 113). When people go through any trauma they change, life changes people for either the better or for the

Elie Wiesel’s short memoir Night recounts his experience surviving the concentration camps during the Holocaust. In the third chapter of the book, he focuses on describing what it was like to arrive at the first concentration camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and the process the men had to go through to transform from men into prisoners. In addition to lying about his age and occupation, Wiesel lost his hair, his clothing, his mother and sisters, his name, and most importantly, his faith. Elie Wiesel's use of imagery and diction in Night makes readers understand the true atrocities of the Holocaust.

“…Imagine now a man who is deprived of everyone he loves, and at the same

After World War II, many people survived physically, but were killed off psychologically by the mental torture of the Nazis. Not only did these prisoners ache from physical torment, but they also suffered from intellectual abuse for decades following the concentration camps and still recollect their inhumane experience during the 1940s. The Nazis completed many different actions to incapacitate the prisoners psychologically, such as taking away their identities, making them feel like animals, and giving them an incredulous amount of false hope before the concentration camps were put into place. Elie Wiesel’s Night documents his experience, mentally and physically, from the holocaust and all of the suffering he went through. In Night, Wiesel

Many books were published about Holocaust, but Frankl’s work is “One of the outstanding contribution to psychological thought . . .” (Carl Rogers. 1959). Frankl, a psychiatrist and neurologist, spent 3 years in Nazis concentration camps where he underwent

Psychologist Victor Frankl’s novel: Man's Search for Meaning delivers a powerful and humbling perspective on life that inspires introspection in the minds of all those that read it. The book achieves this by taking us on a journey with Frankl as he describes his personal experiences of the Holocaust. During his time spent in four different concentration camps Frankl gradually learns lessons in spiritual survival. Devoid of all pleasures and possessing nothing but his “naked existence” Frankl is forced to look inward and in the process discovers what he believes to be the primary motivating factor of all men (p. 15).

In September of 1942, Viktor Frankl was arrested in Vienna and taken to one of the many Nazi death camps. Frankl was working on a manuscript which was confiscated from him in a move to Auschwitz. In this manuscript entitled, The Doctor and the Soul, Frankl had began his work on a theory he would later call logotherapy. The term logotherapy is derived from the Greek word logos, which means meaning. According to logotherapy, the striving to find a meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man (Frankl 121). Frankl’s theory and therapy generated and grew through his experiences in the concentration camps.