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.

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