Viktor Frankl and the Development of Logotherapy

The author writes about his loss of innocence after having a horror experience during the holocaust. The entire population of Jewish at his town were deported to Auschwitz concentration camp after the Nazis attacked his hometown. In the camp the author began to lose his innocence when his family was separated. The author states that “In a fraction of second I could see my mother, my sisters, move to the right. I saw them walking farther and farther away” (29). Wiesel did not know if he would see his mother and sisters again. Instead he held his father’s hand because he knew that was all he had after the loss of more than half of his family.

Prior to World War II, Viktor Frankl was a somewhat successful therapist. Once the war began however, he was sent off to an Auschwitz concentration camp. Everyone in concentration camps had one wish, to stay alive (Frankl 15). Whether they tried to get on the good side of the warden, or attempt an escape, everyone had a different way to survive. Many prisoners died while at camps, but some of them who were hopeful and courageous made it out. Inspired by these prisoners, Frankl created logotherapy to help other find meaning in their own lives.

The Holocaust is regarded as one of the worst events in human history. In fact, the vast majority of those who were sent to a concentration camp perished there. When prisoners view the despair all around them, they find it hard to see meaning behind all the suffering. Life is no longer worth living, so many prisoners see suicide as the only option to escape the pain. As a psychiatrist who was sent to Auschwitz, a concentration camp notorious for its crematoriums, Viktor Frankl has a special perspective on the loss of the will to live that those imprisoned exhibit. In his own words, “Life in a concentration camp tore open the human soul and exposed its depths”(Frankl 94). Frankl discovers in himself not only the shock and apathy he displays, but also the strange hope that comes with imagining his freedom. The brutality of the Holocaust changes Frankl and brings out his true self while teaching him that he and others can survive the worst of terrors by setting a purpose in life, which only they can individually determine.

Despite the poverty, Freud proves to be an excellent student who graduated with honors. He had intended on studying law, but instead decided on joining the medical faculty at the University of Vienna. There he studied under the Darwinist Professor Karl Claus. At the age of 24 Freud received his doctorate in medicine. He spent four months at the Salpêtrière clinic in Paris, France, studying under the neurologist Jean Martin Charcot. It was under Charcot's tutelage that Freud became interested in hysteria and its psychological origins. After studying with Charcot, Freud returned to Vienna and established a private neurology practice. He began treating hysterical patients by the use of hypnosis, a technique he learned under Charcot. Along with Joseph Breuer he became successful in hypnosis and together they published a book entitled Studies on Hysteria. Soon after this Freud began self analysis, the act of studying one’s own self, called psycho self-analysis, mainly through his dreams. He authored the book The Interpretation of Dreams, which became a worldwide phenomenon and classic in psychoanalytical studies.

Viktor Frankl’s, Man’s Search for Meaning, is a collection of his experiences in the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Dachau, and Mausthausen. His book speaks a story upon survival and the thought process to survive. Viktor Emil Frankl was born on March 26, 1905 in Vienna, Austria. He received his MD and PhD degrees from the University of Vienna where he studied psychiatry and neurology, while focusing on the areas of suicide and depression. In 1492, Frankl and his family were arrested and sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Over the span of three years, Frankl was transported between four different camps.

He was left wondering where they were, what they were doing, or if they were even still alive. It was not until he was released that he discovered the majority of his family had been murdered as a result of the Holocaust. Frankl speaks very highly of his wife within his novel. In fact, one may argue that if it was not for the love Frankl had for his wife, he may not have survived. He spoke of love and theorized that love is the ultimate goal in which a man can strive for. This can be related to how the love one man had for his work, and the love one man had for his son, saved their lives. In Viktors case, it was the love he had for his wife which would motivate him to stay in sane spirits. By imagining conversations in his mind with his wife where they would speak back and forth, Frankl made an important realization which he would later write about. To him, it did not matter if his wife was alive or not. Frankl, once again, is acting out in a way which supports his idea that suggests you cannot change your situation, no matter how horrible it is, but you may change your attitude. His attitude being that the strong love he had for his wife could not simply change due to his circumstances. No beatings, hunger, tiredness or labour could touch his spirits and effect his love. Therefor, Viktor clung to the conversations he would have in his head, he trusted the

It becomes clear that Frankl was impressively optimistic and calm even in a situation such as the Holocaust. “Friends whom I have met later have told that I was not one of those whom the shock of admission greatly depressed. I only smiled, and quite sincerely…” after the morning in Auschwitz (pages 18-19). This trait of personality has saved countless men and women who are in under incredible

As a psychiatrist in Vienna, Austria, he helped suicidal patients before and after World War II find meaning in their lives. A Jew, Viktor Frankl was captured and put into three different concentration camps, Auschwitz, Theresienstadt, and Dachau, where he suffered greatly (“The Man”). During his time in camps, he developed his theory of logotherapy, a theory for finding meaning in life. Once liberated, he discovered that his wife, brother, mother and father had all been put to death in camps. All his experiences led to his theory of logotherapy and his book, Man’s Search for Meaning.

Sigmund Freud was born in May 6th, 1856 in a town called Moravia in Czechoslovakia (Freud, 1963). He became a doctor not because of his Jewish decent, but mainly because he was drawn to human behavior (Freud, 1963). Over the years he became a doctor and began to develop his own theories. One that is of importance pertaining to personality is what he called the levels of consciousness (Sharf, 2012). According to Sharf (2012), Freud believed that there were three levels

Viktor E. Frankl (26 March 1905 – 2 September 1997). He was born in Vienna into a Jewish family of civil servants. Frankl was a professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at the University of Vienna Medical School, he graduated and started working in general hospital in Vienna. After treating thousands of people over the four years he was there, Frankl took a position as the head of the neurological department at the Rothschild Hospital, one of the few facilities that allowed Jews to practice medicine at that time. In 1942, Frankl and his parents, wife, and brother were arrested and sent to the Thereisienstadt concentration camp. His father died in the course of six months, his mother and brother were killed three years later. After being a survivor from the holocaust he used his experiences in the camps to develop his theory of logotherapy.

Man’s Search for Meaning is a sentimental memoir about the struggles of a psychologist during the holocaust as a victim, and how he eventually developed logotherapy, a form of therapy, from his observations. The first portion of the memoir affected me the most because his first time doing even the basic activities like bathing were filled with fear and terror. Frankl’s use of imagery to describe his fear and the events that occurred lets the readers sympathize with the victims. The facts he stated throughout the memoir really helped me understand the gravity of the situation he was in. This memoir has taught me that the challenges and other difficulties in life can help you later in life. Another lesson this memoir has taught me is that challenges

Born into a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria, Viktor Frankl started showing interest in psychology at a young age. He studied medicine at the University of Vienna, specializing in neurology and psychiatry, with a deep focus on suicide and depression. When he first started to study these areas, Frankl’s influences came from two of the most well known psychologist’s Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler. Later, however, Frankl diverged from their teachings to study his own theories. When World War II began, Viktor Frankl was the director of therapy in a mental hospital in Vienna, and was also an organizer for youth guidance centers throughout the city. Like many others, Frankl and his family, as well as the families of other doctors,

Viktor
 Frankl
 and
Sigmund
 Freud, are two
of the most significant
 psychological
 philosophers
 of
 our time. They, have
 formed
 powerful
 perceptions
 concerning
 the
 role
 of
 culture, humanity, and
 the
 healing
 method. Even though
 Frankl
 and
 Freud
jointly
 experienced
 misery
 within
 their
 own
 existences
 and
 equally
 observed
 dramatic
 socio‐political
 alterations
 within
 the
 premature
 twentieth
 century, they eventually came to adopt completely different psychological concepts.

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.

Sigmund Freud was born on the sixth of May in 1856 in what is now Pribor in the Czech Republic, or at the time, Freiberg, a rural town in Moravia. The firstborn son of a merchant, Freud’s parents made an effort to foster his intellectual capacities despite being faced with financial difficulties. From an early age Freud had many interests and talents, but his career choices were limited away from his passion of medical research due to his family’s Jewish background, even though he was non-practicing, and his limited funds.