Viktor Frankl
Throughout history, famous psychologists and philosophers have influenced the way people live. New theories and generalizations about human nature are created repeatedly as scientists delve deeper into what makes humans act the way they do. Some of these theories are eventually proved wrong or flawed in some way, and others seem to hint at some basic truth that applies to us all. Viktor Frankl is known as the founder of a theory that lies in the latter category mentioned above. Frankl is the father of what is known as logotherapy, or simply put, "therapy through meaning." Frankl's ideas are based on the assumption that man's goal in life is to find some sort of meaning to why things are the way they are. According to Dr. Frankl, behavior is driven by a need to find meaning and purpose. His ideas have been especially appealing to those who complain about emptiness or the meaninglessness of their lives. In the concentration camps, between 1942 and 1945, he discovered a link between prisoner's loss of faith in the future and a dangerous giving up. He found the only meaning for him was to try to help his fellow prisoners restore their psychological health. From this basic idea an entire branch of humanistic psychology was formed that
Along the way to founding his ideas of logotherapy, Frankl was influenced by a number of things. Several other psychologists influenced him in his younger years. Perhaps one the most noted of these is Adler. For a time, Frankl was a member of Adler's Society of Individual Psychology. However, as he thought increasingly about why human's act the way they do, Frankl debated some of Adler's ideas. This eventually led to him being expelled from the society. In a way, this was a blessing for him in that he was able to pursue his own ideas. Among the other people that aided him in his studies were Oswald Schwarz, Rudolph Allers, and Max Scheler. These four men sought to approach the question that has baffled men for generations, "Why is life worth living?" While perhaps not a perfectly answerable question, this approach led to a new way of dealing with depressed patients or people that have lived through dramatic experiences. Some may agree that Frankl himself had to deal with the question of whether or not life was worth living when he was put into the notorious concentration camp, Auschwitz. His most famous book, Man's Search for Meaning, was written based on his time in the camp. The original manuscript, originally hidden in the lining of his coat, was lost. During his years in the camps, he began to recreate it on stolen sheets of paper. Dr. Frankl completed the book in 1946, and eventually reached an enormous readership. It was reprinted 73 times, translated into 24 languages and sold more than 10 million copies. There can be no doubt that the experience of the death camps in some way influenced his ideas and his method of therapy. In the book Ibid (pg. 183), he gives the following example of logotherapy: " At one point in my imprisonment, it seemed to me that I would die in the near future. In this critical situation, however, my concern was different from that of most of my comrades. Their question was, "Wi
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Approximate Word count = 1295
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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