The Biography Of Viktor Frankl, The Father Of Logotherapy

Many do not know whether to call Viktor Frankl a hero, a martyr or a great thinker. The truth is, he was a little bit of everything. He was a hero because he was brave enough to face one of the worst adversities a person can face in life. He was a martyr, for although he could have escaped this misery, he chose to remain with his people during a horrible war and suffer with them. In the end, he was a great thinker because he left behind a new movement within psychology: logotherapy.

Viktor Frankl is one of those people who managed to develop as a human being in times of great human misery and managed to get out of it unscathed. He was an Austrian physician and psychiatrist, born in 1905 into a middle-class family. He had a brother and a sister, an older and a younger.

It is important to note that he grew up in a quiet home and enjoyed a quiet childhood. He describes it in his own words in a story from when he was five. He woke up in bed, and without opening his eyes he felt an immense sense of happiness and peace. When he opened his eyes, he saw his father sleeping next to him.

During his childhood, his family had to survive the rigors of World War I. Goods were few and he learned about scarcity and hunger. It was during this time that Frankl became an avid reader and correspondence arose between him and Sigmund Freud. He developed a passion for the riddles of the human mind.

Viktor Frankl and the meaning of life

When Viktor Frankl was just a student, he gave his first conference. It was called ‘The Meaning of Life’ and was held at the Vienna People’s University. From an early age he occupied himself with the questions he would try to answer throughout his life: Why do we exist? What is the meaning of life?

Although he was initially very interested in psychoanalysis, he distanced himself from Freud in 1925. He believed that its approach was too deterministic. He focused on the ‘individual psychology’ of Alfred Adler. He then became interested in the theses of Rudolf Allers and Oswald Schwarz, the founder of psychosomatic medicine.

Frankl has always been passionate about philosophy, especially existentialism. Nevertheless, he went on to study medicine, specializing in neurology and psychiatry. From 1933 to 1937 he was a psychiatrist in the psychological clinic at the University of Vienna. In 1939 he was appointed head of the Neurology Department of the Rothschild Hospital in Vienna. He excelled at his profession until his fate took a radical turn.

Nazism and World War II

Viktor Frankl was Jewish and lived in Austria. Because of this, he felt the effects of the spread of Nazism from an early age. His situation became increasingly precarious. When World War II started, his brother Walter was captured by the Nazis and sent to a concentration camp.

Later, his sister Stella fled to Mexico. Viktor applied to the United States for a visa and it was granted. However, he was concerned about the possible fate of his parents and patients.

Then he made an extreme decision. He explained it this way: “On the radio was a piece of marble… On the stone was engraved a Hebrew letter. My father told me that the letter was only in one of the commandments, in the Fourth Commandment which says: Honor your father and your mother and you will be in the promised land .” After that, he decided to stay in Austria and return his US visa.

In 1941 Viktor Frankl married Tilly Grosser. A few months later, the Nazis forced her to abort the baby the two were expecting. In 1942 Viktor, his wife and his parents were forced to go to the Theresienstadt camp. The following year, his father died of starvation, greatly weakened by respiratory ailments. In 1944 Viktor was moved to Auschwitz with his wife. They got divorced, and he didn’t hear from her again until after the war.

This  difficult  period of incarceration and forced labor led to a lot of self-reflection for Frankl. Frankl was finally liberated by the United States Army in 1945. His wife, who had moved to Bergen-Belsen, also regained her freedom. Tragically, she was crushed to death in the commotion that ensued as all the newly freed prisoners were liberated. Viktor’s mother had died in a gas chamber several years earlier.

Viktor Frankl in search of meaning

As he left the concentration camp, Frankl searched for his family and was confronted with the devastating truth that he was alone. He would never see his loved ones again. The first thing he tried to reconstruct was a book of his that existed in a manuscript, which had been taken from him when he entered the camp. He managed to recreate it and published it, his first book, under the title Psychoanalysis and Existentialism .

Shortly before Christmas 1945, Frankl felt an unmistakable urge. He had to talk about what he had experienced and what he had learned in the concentration camps. So he hired three secretaries and had them take notes as he told everything that had happened to him. He didn’t stop talking until nine days later, when he couldn’t stop his tears.

Thus was born Viktor Frankl’s greatest work: The Meaning of Existence . This book has been translated into almost every language. Many consider it a masterpiece of testimony and psychology. The most poignant part of the book is that Frankl wouldn’t tell the atrocities. His goal was to send a touching message to the world. He said, “I just wanted to convey to the reader, through a concrete example, that life has meaning and potential in all circumstances, even the most miserable.”

Logotherapy, a legacy for humanity

Viktor Frankl was able to rebuild his life. He remarried in 1947, had a daughter, two grandchildren and a great-grandchild. His marriage lasted fifty happy years. He has received more than 40 honorary degrees, published more than 30 books and taught at some of the most prestigious universities in the world. These include Harvard, Stanford and Vienna. He died in 1997, just after his first flight as an amateur pilot.

Frankl’s school of psychology is called logotherapy, and many psychiatrists still use his methods today. His theories hold that people have three dimensions: somatic or physical, mental and spiritual. From his perspective, psychological problems arise from a lack of strength in the spiritual dimension and/or in defining the meaning of life, and for the logotherapists, ‘the will to meaning’ is what allows us to continue living.

How do we find the meaning? According to Frankl and his followers, there are three paths we can take: creation, transcendental affective experiences, and our attitude to suffering. The first corresponds to the values ​​of creation and creativity. It has to do with the ability to create art, write, and so on. The second is based on the value of experience, interpersonal interactions and experiencing sensations. The third refers to the importance of attitude and presupposes the ability to overcome suffering.

The message Viktor Frankl wants to pass on to others is that mental disorders do not originate in suffering, but in the meaning given to that suffering. His life was without a doubt an example of the human capacity to rise above any circumstance.