Skip to main content

Victor Frankl : Founder of Logotherapy





When we are no longer able to change a situation we are challenged to change ourselves

- Victor E. Frankl

Victor Frankl, an Australian Psychiatrist and psychotherapist developed a psychology theory of logotherapy (healing though the meaning). Frankl’s primary motivation for developing a theory was to help individuals make meaning in life and the primary purpose of psychotherapy was to help individuals find that meaning.

In 1942, Frankl and his parents, wife, and brother were arrested and sent to Theresienstadt concentration camp. They spent three years in four concentration camps. Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Kaufering III, and Türkheim. He lost his father in the Terezín Ghetto, his brother and mother at Auschwitz, and his wife in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. His sister, Stella, escaped to Australia. He was ruined and came back to Vienna and found that nothing left of his life he once knew and the people he loved. To prevent suicide attempts, Frankl and others tried to help other inmates facing severe depression by encouraging them to reflect on positive memories, scenes, and thoughts. He focused on reconstructing his manuscript about logotherapy which had been taken from his at the first camp.

Over the nine days his book ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ was published in 1959 and became an international bestseller. He saw this as not so much personal achievement but as a symptom of the mass neurosis of modern times since it promised to deal with the question of life meaninglessness, which is often referred to as the Third School of Viennese Psychology.

Frankl coined the term ‘existential vacuum’ to describe the emptiness of meaninglessness that many people experience, especially students. He warned this void would produce anxiety, depression, addiction, and even suicide.

Frankl’s logotherapy is based on the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard’s ‘will to meaning’. Frankl dawned upon Kierkegaard’s philosophy in arguing that the primary drive is to search for meaning not the drive for sex or pleasure as Freud described, or power. Logotherapy is a form of existential therapy that emphasizes that people have the power to find meaning in anything they do.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Vipassana Meditation at a Glance

“The past is already gone, the future is not yet here. There’s only one moment for you to live.”- Gautam   Buddha   A small introduction Vipassana means to see things as they are. This is the most ancient meditation technique of India that was taught by Gautam Buddha 2000 years before. Through this meditation technique, Buddha (the Awakened One) achieved his enlightenment under the Bodhi tree in Bodhgaya, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh. A small history Vipassana teaching started by S.N Goenka in 1969. Now the dhamma messenger of modern times returned to India- it is the country where the vipassana first started and Buddha’s teachings were totally lost and ‘Vipassana’ was a foreign word. From 1969 to 1975, Vipassana courses were held across 11 Indian states and 37 towns and cities. How it works According to dhamma.org, it is an observation-based, self-exploratory journey that focuses on a deep interconnection between the mind and body, which is realized thr...

A short biography of Alfred Adler: Founder of Individual Psychology

The science of the mind can only have for its proper goal the understanding of human nature by every human being, and through its use, brings peace to every human soul.- Alfred Adler   Alfred Adler born in Suburb in Vienna. He developed theories on personality and development, and an approach to counseling and psychology, that he called Individual Psychology. His main focus was on the feeling of inferiority. He said every individual goes through many life crises during his developmental process that makes them dependent on another person for survival. Hence, face feeling of inferiority also called inferiority complex. Like Jung, Adler became familiar with Freud Psychology by reading his book “Interpretation of dreams”. Adler wrote a paper defending Freud’s Theory. In 1902, he was invited to join the Wednesday Society met regularly on Wednesday evenings at Freud’s home and that was the beginning of a psychoanalytic movement. This discussion group turned into the f...

Alfred Binet and The Binet-Simon Intelligence scale

  Comprehension, inventiveness, direction, and criticism: intelligence is contained in these four words- Alfred Binet Alfred Binet was a French psychologist who was known for his first practical IQ test, the Binet- Simon test. In 1904, the French Ministry of Education asked Alfred Binet to make an instrument for students who did not learn effectively from regular classroom structure so that they could give them remedial classes. In collaboration with Theodore Simon, Binet published revisions of his test in 1908 and 1911. After graduating from law school in 1878, Binnet planned to follow his father as he was a physiologist and enrolled in medical school. He began to study science at Sorbonne but soon began educating himself in psychology by reading works of individuals such as Charles darwin and John Stuart Mill. After being fascinated by the work of Jean-Martin Charcot on hypnosis, Binet abandoned a law career in 1878 to devote himself to Medico-scientific studies at the hospital, ...