About Viktor E Frankl
Viktor Emil Frankl (26 March 1905 – 2 September 1997) was an Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, who founded logotherapy, a school of psychotherapy that describes a search for a life’s meaning as the central human motivational force. Logotherapy is part of existential and humanistic psychology theories.
Following the war, he became head of the neurology department of the General Polyclinic Vienna hospital, and established a private practice in his home. He worked with patients until his retirement in 1970.
Frankl published 39 books. The autobiographical Man’s Search for Meaning, a best-selling book, is based on his experiences in various Nazi concentration camps.
In 1955, Frankl was awarded a professorship of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Vienna, and, as visiting professor, lectured at Harvard University (1961), Southern Methodist University, Dallas (1966), and Duquesne University, Pittsburgh (1972).
ORIGINS OF LOGOTHERAPY
Victor Frankl was born in Vienna in 1905. He trained as a psychiatrist and neurologist, working from the framework of existential therapy. During World War II, Frankl spent about three years in various Nazi concentration camps, an experience that greatly influenced his work . The harsh realities of the camp was the testing ground for logotherapy and Frankl witnessed first hand the principles of Logotherapy being applied in the inhuman conditions they lived. Frankl observed that those who were able to survive the experience typically found some meaning in it, such as a task that they needed to fulfils. For Frankl personally, his desire to rewrite a manuscript that had been confiscated upon arrival at Auschwitz was a motivating factor. Frankl resumed his work as a neurologist and psychiatrist successfully treating over 3000 students from depression & suicidal tendencies using Logotherapy.
In 1946, he published Man’s Search for Meaning which is a outlining of his experiences in the concentration camps as well as the basic tenets of Logotherapy.
Logotherapy was promoted as the third school of Viennese Psychotherapy, after those established by Sigmund Freud, and Alfred Adler
The Viktor Frankl Institute was founded in Vienna in 1992 by an international circle of colleagues and friends. It is a scientific society with the goal of maintaining and fostering the life work of Viktor Frankl and to provide access to authentic information about Logotherapy .
Self-Transcendence is a core principle in Viktor Frankl’s philosophy. His teaching recommends a purposeful way of life that fosters meaning through service to others.
Striving to find meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man
Viktor Frankl