Who is viktor frankl

Who is Viktor Frankl ?

Viktor (center)was born on March 26, 1905 in Vienna, Austria which also happens to be the birthplace of modern psychiatry, and home of renowned psychiatrists Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler.

At the age of 16, Frankl began writing to Freud. He was fascinated with Freud’s work. On one occasion Frankl actually sent Freud a short psychoanalytic essay that he had written and it was published 3 years later. ( Frankl later began to question the basic premises of Freud’s psychoanalysis)

Sigmund Freud Viktor Frankl

He earned a medical degree from the University of Vienna in 1930. Frankl was in charge of a hospital ward for the treatment of females who had attempted suicide. His success rate of helping patients who were suicidal was phenomenal!

It was here that, in spite of danger to his own life, he sabotaged Nazi procedures by making false diagnoses to prevent the euthanasia of mentally ill patients.

Eight years later, Germany seized control of Austria. The Nazis made Frankl head of the Rothschild Hospital ( a clinic for Jewish patients)

In 1942, he married Mathilde “Tilly” Grosser (They soon expected their first child… only to be forced by the Nazis to have it aborted)

Nine months later, their lives changed completely! Frankl, his wife and his parents were transported to Nazi concentration camps.

Viktor and Tilly FranklElsa and Gabriel Frankl (Viktor’s parents)

Frankl shares how he tried to “look smart” and the officer put his hands on his shoulders and turned him very slowly until he faced the right. Those sent to the left, (90%) were marched from the station straight to the crematorium.

Frankl and the other prisoners could actually see the chimney a few yards away that was sending a column of smoke and flame

”floating up to Heaven”.

Frankl and the other prisoners were divided into two lines – women on one side, men on the other. A senior officer motioned to each prisoner to go toward the right or to the left. It was Frankl’s turn! Somebody whispered to Frankl that to go the right would mean work. Those sent to the left would go to a “ special camp”!

The rest of his family were not so fortunate. Frankl’s wife, his parents and other members of his family, all died in concentration camps!

Frankl constantly found himself trying to help the other prisoners make some kind of sense of what was happening to them. He tried to help some of them see that suicide was not the answer!

At night when he could not sleep, Frankl scribbled on strips of paper that he had stolen from the camp office and continued to work on his thesis about Fate and Freedom.

This went along well with his development of Logotherapy that he had begun back in 1938.

You may be thinking…”How could someone even consider going on with their life after witnessing such horrific acts of torture and death?” Even worse, during all of his suffering, he had no idea that his wife, father, mother, and brother had all been murdered in Auschwitz . What did Frankl do to get through the dark days of being held prisoner in this terrible place?

Definition: “Therapy Through Meaning”….a highly effective existential psychotherapy that emphasizes the importance of meaning in the patient’s life especially as gained through spiritual values.

Logotherapy assumes that….Each person has the resources to manage any situation he or she may face, but may need assistance in discovering these resources.

Unlike most forms of psychotherapy, Logotherapy encourages patients to look to the future and live their lives fully, rather than relive the past.

Logotherapy also employs techniques useful for phobias, anxiety, and

obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Can be applied when working with juvenile delinquents, career counseling and helping us ALL find more meaning in life!

What is Logotherapy ?

Foundations: Existentialism It’s existentialist because it emphasizes the

“freedom of the will” and the consequent “responsibility”. It also, of course, asserts the importance of the “meaning of life” . While Freud said human’s have a “will to pleasure” and Adler “ the will to power”, Frankl says we have a “will to meaning” Frankl’s book “Man’s Search for Meaning”

Stoicism It’s stoic because it holds that no matter what

the state of the world, our attitude can always help us. Stoicism….holds that “Men are not moved by events but by their interpretations.” Even in facing death and suffering, by showing courage we can turn a situation into a supremely meaningful one.

What is Logotherapy…..cont’d

Finding meaning through attitudinal values:

Frankl argued that we always have freedom to find meaning through meaningful attitudes even in apparently meaningless situations.

For example: An elderly, depressed patient who could not overcome the loss of his wife was helped by the following conversation with Frankl.

Frankl asked, “What would have happened if you had died first, and your wife

would have had to survive you?” “Oh!” replied the patient, “ for her this would have been terrible: how she

would have suffered!”

Frankl continued, “ You see such a suffering has been spared her; and it is you who have spared her this suffering: but now, you have to pay for it by surviving her and mourning her.”

The man said nothing, but shook Frankl’s hand and calmly left his office. (Man’s Search for Meaning…..one of 32 books)

Case study example of one technique used by Frankl

Freedom of Will : Humans are not fully subject to conditions, but are basically free to decide and capable of taking their stance towards internal (psychological) and external (biological and social) conditions.

( example: The Liz Murray story… Homeless to Harvard )

Will to Meaning : The freedom of the human person plays an important role in psychotherapy, in that it provides clients with room for autonomous action even in the face of physical or psychological illness. ( To find a sense of meaning in a situation and to find a way to cope with it)

Meaning in Life : LTEA is based on the idea that people have freedom under all circumstances to activate the will to meaning and to find meaning.

Logotherapy/Existential Analysis (LTEA) : is based on Three philosophical and psychological concepts

“Other things being equal, those apt to survive the camps were those oriented toward the future- toward a task, or a person waiting for them in the future, toward a meaning to be fulfilled by them in the future”

But….Logotherapy was also the result of Frankl’s own ideas and improvisations, not all of which are very obviously connected with his experiences in the camps.

Lesson Frankl learned in three years spent in Auschwitz and Dachau…(Auschwitz a.k.a “Gate to Hell”)

“Those who have a 'why' to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’.

“ What is to give light, must endure burning.”

“The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance.”

Frankl ‘s famous quotes:

March 26, 1905 – Sept. 2, 1997 Age : 92 Name during Holocaust:

#119,104

He truly endured burning, to give us light!

As asked earlier….Who is Viktor Frankl ?I hope you can now answer this question if ever asked again, and never forget this outstanding therapist who not only taught his philosophy to us, but lived it!!!!

I first heard of Dr. Frankl in “The Psychology of Religion” class, which is why I chose this remarkable individual.

Even then, I was very impressed with what little I had read about him in our textbook “The Psychology of Religion and Coping”. Now I am not only impressed with Dr. Frankl; I believe deeply in his methods and admire how he lived his life.

Another concept that has had a huge impact on me is “Positive Psychology”.

In the future I plan to combine the LTEA concept of Dr.Frankl with the ideas expressed through positive psychology.

My personal testimony : Finding “meaning” in my life has brought me through several difficulties that I have faced through the years.

After the realization that this is a type of therapy developed by Dr. Frankl, I plan to learn more and more about its techniques and how I can put it into practice in whatever environment I find myself working in.

I’m sure there are some that have negative views of Dr. Frankl ,but personally I have found none during my research for this presentation.

Personal Input:

http://logotherapy.univie.ac.at/e/books_by_vf.html

www.timlebon.com/frankl.htm#whatis

http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/frankl.html www.google.com/images http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/frankl/frankl.html

http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/logotherapy

Frankl, V. E. (1959). Man's Search for Meaning (Fourth ed. ). Boston: Beacon Press.

References