Life Meaning

The logotherapy of Viktor Frankl, who rediscovered the idea of the meaning of life while imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, is particularly salient in the times we live in

The world is going through a crisis: we are witnessing how the pandemic is taking people's lives, political accords are being disrupted, the way of life we are accustomed to is being destroyed.

Life Meaning

as

remedy

for crisis

Life

Meaning

how logotherapy was created and the reasons we need it

Viktor Frankl

Logotherapy encourages people to draw on their experience, the meaning of life and inner fortitude. Instead of escaping reality, it urges you to accept life as it is. Logotherapy places a great emphasis on free will, enabling us to make choices now, regardless of our past.

It’s critical to distinguish between a person and his deeds, one can be a good person with a difficult past. This therapy focuses on human potential, helping people to get over crises and find the meaning of life.
Logotherapy complements other methods by adopting a holistic view ofa person’s traits, emphasising freedom and responsibility in making sensible choices shaping one’s future.

Why

do we need

logotherapy

and how it works

Austrian psychiatrist, philosopher and concentration camp survivor Viktor Frankl designed logotherapy more than half a century ago. Several generations of psychotherapists around the world have been inspired by his teaching about the search for meaning as the driving force for a human being.

Today, at the time of global upheavals and uncertainty, logotherapy takes on a special meaning.

Viktor Frankl before the outbreak of World War II

According to Frankl, a person's life is determined by his longing for meaning. A sense of loss of meaning or its absence leads to frustration, apathy and boredom.

Faced with the most difficult circumstances it’s impossible to deprive a human being of “the last freedom” - the freedom to choose how to respond to one’s trials and tribulations. You can deny what is happening to you and give up, you can break down and become a scoundrel, or you can step away from the situation, go through it with dignity and use it for personal growth. The key is to know why you are doing it.

According to Frankl, a person's life is determined by his longing for meaning. A sense of loss of meaning or its absence leads to frustration, apathy and boredom.

Faced with the most difficult circumstances it’s impossible to deprive a human being of «the last freedom» — the freedom to choose how to respond to one’s trials and tribulations. You can deny what is happening to you and give up, you can break down and become a scoundrel, or you can step away from the situation, go through it with dignity and use it for personal growth. The key is to know why you are doing it.

таким временам подходит логотерапия Виктора Франкла, переоткрывшего идею смысла жизни во время заключения в нацистском концлагере

Why do we need

How it all

began

Before Germany’s Anschluss of Austria

VIENNA in 1905

Viktor Frankl was born in Vienna in 1905 and grew up across the street from Alfred Adler, the founder of individual psychology. One could say that the Viennese school of psychiatry evolved on the same street.

Viktor Frankl 's parents

The ideas of logotherapy began to take shape during Frankl’s childhood years when he was only four years old: he suddenly realised that he was going to die.
At the same time the major question of logotherapy emerged: is there any meaning in life if it ends anyway?

Viktor found the answer in the beauty of life and in the evenings before going to bed he tried to find the wonderful things that happened to him in each passing day.

Frankl with colleagues at the clinic

Even if it were impossible to find something good, Frankl proceeded from a contrary premise: "It could be worse".

Frankl always wanted to be a doctor and in 1924 he entered the medical faculty of the University of Vienna, where he studied psychiatry and neurology.

In 1993, Viktor Frankl became the head of the suicide prevention department at aViennese clinic, where he helped more than 3000 patients. Based on that experience, he designed his own method, logotherapy. Thus, he founded the third Viennese school of psychotherapy.

The 1st and the 2nd schools were established by Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler respectively.

Freud’s and Adler’s influence at the very outset of the young psychiatrist’s path grew into a belief that every person has an innate will to find their meaning and purpose in life, and unhappiness occurs when this drive is not accomplished.

There was an inscription on the wall in camp Terezin "Don't think about any nonsense and rejoice over any shit."

The ideas of logotherapy began to take shape during Frankl's childhood years when he was only four years old: he suddenly realised that he was going to die. At the same time the major question of logotherapy emerged: is there any meaning in life if it ends anyway?

Viktor found the answer in the beauty of life and in the evenings before going to bed he tried to find the wonderful things that happened to him in each passing day.

Viktor Frankl as a child with his brother and sister

In 1993, Viktor Frankl became the head of the suicide prevention department at aViennese clinic, where he helped more than 3000 patients. Based on that experience, he designed his own method, logotherapy. Thus, he founded the third Viennese school of psychotherapy.

The 1st and the 2nd schools were established by Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler respectively.

Freud’s and Adler’s influence at the very outset of the young psychiatrist’s path grew into a belief that every person has an innate will to find their meaning and purpose in life, and unhappiness occurs when this drive is not accomplished.

When adults are in denial of their personal responsibility for their decisions and behaviour, it forms the basis of future guilt.The ability to accept something one never chose but opted to take responsibility for it, is a tell-tale sign of one’s maturity. Frankl calls this part of life, which we do not choose, the domain of fate. Fate has many faces. One’s place of birth, father and mother, blood type, political situation in the country – all fall into this domain.

Other examples include the relatives of your life partner, your boss at work you are reluctant to quit ora child with a congenital disease. But regardless of the circumstances brought about by fate anyone is capableof filling their life with meaning. That isone’s responsibility. According to Frankl, responsibility lies "at the centre of the existential analysis research." Responsibility, spirituality and freedom are the three ultimate existential pillars..

On the evening of the very day when Hitler's units invaded Austria, Frankl was delivering a lecture on neuroses as a sign of time. Suddenly the door opened, and a Nazi stormtrooper in full uniform appeared in front of the audience. “Would this be possible under Schuschnigg?”, Frankl asked himself. It was obvious that the stormtrooper was going to interrupt his speech

And then he decided to continue talking! And to talk in such a way that the Nazi officer would forget to do what he intended. Frankl was looking into his face and kept talking and talking.
And the Nazi stood in the doorway like a chained man until the lecture was over. It was a small personal feat – the beginning of tragic decisions and exploits of a man who was responsible for his life and for his life's work

Life in Nazi

Austria

Refusal to emigrate

Frankl and his family: while still together

In 1937 the gifted doctor was forced to interrupt his research, as the National Socialists came to power in Austria. In Nazi Austria, any Jew could only enjoy limited professional opportunities.

Granted, by that time Frankle had found himself in a privileged position as the head of a neurological department in the Rothschild Jewish Hospital — an office he’d held since 1940, and he was not facing any danger of poverty or a concentration camp.

In 1941, the young psychiatrist was granted a visa to travel to the United States, but stayed in Austria with his parents, putting his own life and career on the line, fully aware that his relatives could be sent to a concentration camp immediately after his departure.

Victor and Tilly on their wedding day

Nine months later, the Rothschild Hospital was closed, and a shortly before that Frankl had met Tilly Grosser, a nurse who worked there. The couplein love got married on December 17, 1941.

At this time, Victor was engrossed in the work of his entire life — he was writing a book about his method of therapy.

In September 1942, they came for his parents, Tilly and Victor — all four were sent to the Theresienstadt camp. Frankl’s brother had been imprisoned even earlier for attempting to flee the country. Only his sister managed to escape from the Nazis, first reaching Mexico and then moving to Italy.

Victor Frankl in the Rothschild Hospital

Notice of Frankl's deportation

When adults are in denial of their personal responsibility for their decisions and behaviour, it forms the basis of future guilt.The ability to accept something one never chose but opted to take responsibility for it, is a tell-tale sign of one’s maturity. Frankl calls this part of life, which we do not choose, the domain of fate. Fate has many faces. One’s place of birth, father and mother, blood type, political situation in the country – all fall into this domain.

Other examples include the relatives of your life partner, your boss at work you are reluctant to quit ora child with a congenital disease. But regardless of the circumstances brought about by fate anyone is capableof filling their life with meaning. That isone’s responsibility. According to Frankl, responsibility lies "at the centre of the existential analysis research." Responsibility, spirituality and freedom are the three ultimate existential pillars..

On the evening of the very day when Hitler's units invaded Austria, Frankl was delivering a lecture on neuroses as a sign of time. Suddenly the door opened, and a Nazi stormtrooper in full uniform appeared in front of the audience. “Would this be possible under Schuschnigg?”, Frankl asked himself. It was obvious that the stormtrooper was going to interrupt his speech.

And then he decided to continue talking! And to talk in such a way that the Nazi officer would forget to do what he intended. Frankl was looking into his face and kept talking and talking.
And the Nazi stood in the doorway like a chained man until the lecture was over. It was a small personal feat – the beginning of tragic decisions and exploits of a man who was responsible for his life and for his life's work

Life in Nazi

Austria

Refusal to emigrate

Frankl and his family: while still together

In 1937 the gifted doctor was forced to interrupt his research, as the National Socialists came to power in Austria. In Nazi Austria, any Jew could only enjoy limited professional opportunities.

Granted, by that time Frankle had found himself in a privileged position as the head of a neurological department in the Rothschild Jewish Hospital — an office he’d held since 1940, and he was not facing any danger of poverty or a concentration camp.

Victor and Tilly on their wedding day

At this time, Victor was engrossed in the work of his entire life — he was writing a book about his method of therapy.

In September 1942, they came for his parents, Tilly and Victor — all four were sent to the Theresienstadt camp. Frankl’s brother had been imprisoned even earlier for attempting to flee the country. Only his sister managed to escape from the Nazis, first reaching Mexico and then moving to Italy.

Victor Frankl in the Rothschild Hospital

Notice of Frankl's deportation

In 1941, the young psychiatrist was granted a visa to travel to the United States, but stayed in Austria with his parents, putting his own life and career on the line, fully aware that his relatives could be sent to a concentration camp immediately after his departure.

Nine months later, the Rothschild Hospital was closed, and a shortly before that Frankl had met Tilly Grosser, a nurse who worked there. The couplein love got married on December 17, 1941.

"One could say that most of the prisoners believed that all possibilities for self-fulfilment had been already exhausted, however, they were just opening up," -Frankl wrote.

or it depends on an individual whether he or she would turn their camp life into misery, as thousands did, or a moral victory, as few did.

One of the most revealing memories shared by the renowned psychiatrist was the case of one of their comrades bursting into the barracks full of prisoners exhausted from hours of labour. He called them out to watch a breathtakingly stunning sunset:
"Having stepped out, we saw an ominous storm brewing in the west, and the entire sky filled with clouds that came to life constantly changing shapes and colours, from grey and steel-blue to blood-red. The deserted clay huts contrasted sharply with this view, and the muddy puddles on the ground reflected the shining sky"

"How beautiful the world can be!" -one of the inmates exclaimed. Perhaps this phrase expresses Frankl's entire philosophy. Logotherapy does not promise a brighter future full of beautiful sunsets, but reminds us that at any particular moment you should find something to live for.

In Nazi

camps

Method refining and proof of concept

On the way to the concentration camp

It was in the midst of the horror of the Nazi camps that Frankl’s logotherapy took its final form.

Viktor had miraculously survived several life-threatening situations, endured hardship, illness, lost all his relatives and his beloved wife, but remained true to his humanist philosophy and found meaning in helping others — at that timeas well as thereafter.

Auschwitz barracks

In the camp Frankl was analysing the prisoners' responses to the nightmare around them, thus enriching his theory, and saw the meaning of his own suffering in it.

His only purpose in life was to survive in confinement, everything else fell by the wayside. But Frankl stressed the importance of not losing one’s humanity, of not surrendering to fate, of not becoming a scoundrel. And even when death seemed inevitable, he kept insisting that there was always a chance to survive.

At the Auschwitz camp

In every camp to which he was transferred, Frankl tried to help other prisoners and ease their suffering. Together with other imprisoned doctors, he created the shock squad, a group that helped newcomers overcome the initial shock of encountering the horrors of camp life.

Every day Viktor evoked positive emotions in the exhausted people around him and convinced them that it was crucial to find meaning even in the most difficult conditions.

The idea of collective guilt was unacceptable to Frankl. He refused to admit that all SS members were monsters, citing the example of the Turckheim camp commander, who secretly helped prisoners often putting his own life at risk. And that was another moral victory of the humanist philosopher over Nazism.

Prisoners roll-call

One of the most revealing memories shared by the renowned psychiatrist was the case of one of their comrades bursting into the barracks full of prisoners exhausted from hours of labour. He called them out to watch a breathtakingly stunning sunset:
"Having stepped out, we saw an ominous storm brewing in the west, and the entire sky filled with clouds that came to life constantly changing shapes and colours, from grey and steel-blue to blood-red. The deserted clay huts contrasted sharply with this view, and the muddy puddles on the ground reflected the shining sky"...

How beautiful the world can be!" -one of the inmates exclaimed. Perhaps this phrase expresses Frankl's entire philosophy. Logotherapy does not promise a brighter future full of beautiful sunsets, but reminds us that at any particular moment you should find something to live for.

For it depends on an individual whether he or she would turn their camp life into misery, as thousands did, or a moral victory, as few did.

"One could say that most of the prisoners believed that all possibilities for self-fulfilment had been already exhausted, however, they were just opening up," -Frankl wrote.

In Nazi camps

Method refining and proof of concept

On the way to the concentration camp

It was in the midst of the horror of the Nazi camps that Frankl's logotherapy took its final form.

Viktor had miraculously survived several life-threatening situations, endured hardship, illness, lost all his relatives and his beloved wife, but remained true to his humanist philosophy and found meaning in helping others - at that timeas well as thereafter.

Auschwitz barracks

In the camp Frankl was analysing the prisoners' responses to the nightmare around them, thus enriching his theory, and saw the meaning of his own suffering in it.

His only purpose in life was to survive in confinement, everything else fell by the wayside. But Frankl stressed the importance of not losing one’s humanity, of not surrendering to fate, of not becoming a scoundrel. And even when death seemed inevitable, he kept insisting that there was always a chance to survive.

At the Auschwitz camp

In every camp to which he was transferred, Frankl tried to help other prisoners and ease their suffering. Together with other imprisoned doctors, he created the shock squad, a group that helped newcomers overcome the initial shock of encountering the horrors of camp life.

Every day Viktor evoked positive emotions in the exhausted people around him and convinced them that it was crucial to find meaning even in the most difficult conditions.

The idea of collective guilt was unacceptable to Frankl. He refused to admit that all SS members were monsters, citing the example of the Turckheim camp commander, who secretly helped prisoners often putting his own life at risk. And that was another moral victory of the humanist philosopher over Nazism.

Prisoners roll-call

On 27 April 1945, Frankl’s camp was liberated by the Allies. The Americans appointed him the chief physician at the hospital for rescued prisoners in Bavaria, where he worked for two months, following which he spent another two months lecturing on rehabilitation problems on the radio.

Every day Viktor evoked positive emotions in the exhausted people around him and convinced them that it was crucial to find meaning even in the most difficult conditions

The idea of collective guilt was unacceptable to Frankl. He refused to admit that all SS members were monsters, citing the example of the Turckheim camp commander, who secretly helped prisoners often putting his own life at risk. And that was another moral victory of the humanist philosopher over Nazism

Liberation of Auschwitz

On 27 April 1945, Frankl’s camp was liberated by the Allies. The Americans appointed him the chief physician at the hospital for rescued prisoners in Bavaria, where he worked for two months, following which he spent another two months lecturing on rehabilitation problems on the radio.

Liberation

After

the war

The ultimate test for logotherapy

Frankl’s personal experience in the changed world after the war became the main test for logotherapy. Post-war Europe was shaken and devastated, and the question of the meaning of life was on everyone’s mind.

Frankl loved mountaineering all his life.
In the mountains

Victor learnt of his wife’s death only after he was liberated, and, in his opinion, the cause of her death was not the Nazis, but other prisoners who simply trampled Tilly at the moment when the Allied liberators entered the camp.

Instead of succumbing to depression, he settled down again in Vienna and took his recovery into his own hands: he completed work on the lost manuscript of his main book, went on to head up the neurological department of the Vienna City Hospital (where he had worked for 25 years), married for the second time and brought up his daughter Gabriele, who also became a psychologist.

Viktor Frankl with his wife Eleanor Katarina Schwindt

In the 1950s, the books "The Doctor and the Soul" and "Say "Yes" to Life!", and "A Psychologist in a concentration camp" were published in English and became international bestsellers.

Frankl was invited as a guest lecturer across the United States and delivered presentations at Harvard, Princeton, Northwestern and Chicago Universities. Logotherapy societies sprang up everywhere from his native Austria to Brazil and Canada, and Viktor’s talks were greeted with applause even in communist Moscow and Prague.

Victor Frankl delivering a lecture

Viktor Frankl died on 2 September 1997 during a risky surgical operation — in the last years of his life the psychiatrist suffered from heart failure.

He was 92, and even the darkest moments of his long life were invariably filled with love, beauty and meaning.

With the Andy Dufresne-like tenacity, all his life Victor promoted the idea that every person is responsible

for the way they manage their life: giving up or giving meaning to it, even in hopeless circumstances

после ВОЙНЫ

7 lessons

FROM FRANKL

for those who feel lost in life

Laughter

helps to distance oneself from suffering and look at life from a new perspective

Your path

is your choice. Regardless of the circumstances, your attitude and choices shape your freedom.

Success

is not a goal, but the result of dedication. Focusing on daily activities and enjoying them is more important than striving for success.

Love

is the highest meaning of life. The importance of love cannot be underestimated

s not measured by your productivity. Just being yourself is a value in and of itself.

Your value

Responsibility

is the basis of meaning. Taking responsibility for your life and dedicating yourself to someone or something gives your life meaning

unique

You have a unique life path that cannot be replaced. Don't compare yourself to others, choose your own unique path.