Viktor Frankl
Viktor Frankl | |
---|---|
PhD, 1948) | |
Occupation(s) | Neurologist, psychiatrist |
Known for | Logotherapy Existential analysis |
Spouse(s) | Tilly Grosser, m. 1941 – c. 1944–1945 (her death) Eleonore Katharina Schwindt, m. 1947 |
Children | 1 daughter |
Viktor Emil Frankl (26 March 1905 – 2 September 1997)[1] was an Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor,[2] who founded logotherapy, a school of psychotherapy that describes a search for a life's meaning as the central human motivational force.[3] Logotherapy is part of existential and humanistic psychology theories.[4]
Logotherapy was promoted as the third school of Viennese Psychotherapy, after those established by Sigmund Freud, and Alfred Adler.[5]
Frankl published 39 books.
Early life
Frankl was born the middle of three children to Gabriel Frankl, a civil servant in the Ministry of Social Service, and Elsa (née Lion), a Jewish family, in Vienna, in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire.[1] His interest in psychology and the role of meaning developed when he began taking night classes on applied psychology while in junior high school.[1] As a teenager, he began a correspondence with Sigmund Freud upon asking for permission to publish one of his papers.[8][9] After graduation from high school in 1923, he studied medicine at the University of Vienna.
In 1924, Frankl's first scientific paper was published in
Career
Psychiatry
Between 1928 and 1930, while still a medical student, he organized youth counselling centers[13] to address the high number of teen suicides occurring around the time of end of the year report cards. The program was sponsored by the city of Vienna and free of charge to the students. Frankl recruited other psychologists for the center, including Charlotte Bühler, Erwin Wexberg, and Rudolf Dreikurs. In 1931, not a single Viennese student died by suicide.[14][unreliable source?]
After earning his M.D. in 1930, Frankl gained extensive experience at Steinhof Psychiatric Hospital, where he was responsible for the treatment of suicidal women. In 1937, he began a private practice, but the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938 limited his opportunity to treat patients.[1] In 1940, he joined Rothschild Hospital, the only hospital in Vienna still admitting Jews, as head of the neurology department. Prior to his deportation to the concentration camps, he helped numerous patients avoid the Nazi euthanasia program that targeted the mentally disabled.[2][15]
In 1942, just nine months after his marriage, Frankl and his family were sent to the
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.[2]
In 1948, Frankl earned a PhD in philosophy from the University of Vienna. His dissertation, The Unconscious God, examines the relationship between psychology and religion,[16] and advocates for the use of the Socratic dialogue (self-discovery discourse) for clients to get in touch with their spiritual unconscious.[17]
In 1955, Frankl was awarded a professorship of neurology and psychiatry at the
Throughout his career, Frankl argued that the
The American Psychiatric Association awarded Frankl the 1985 Oskar Pfister Award for his contributions to religion and psychiatry.[18]
Man's Search for Meaning
While head of the Neurological Department at the general Polyclinic Hospital, Frankl wrote
Logotherapy and existential analysis
Frankl developed logotherapy and existential analysis, which are based on philosophical and psychological concepts, particularly the desire to find a meaning in life and free will.[22][23] Frankl identified three main ways of realizing meaning in life: by making a difference in the world, by having particular experiences, or by adopting particular attitudes.
The primary techniques offered by logotherapy and existential analysis are:[24][22][23]
- Paradoxical intention: clients learn to overcome obsessions or anxieties by self-distancing and humorous exaggeration.
- Dereflection: drawing the client's attention away from their symptoms, as hyper-reflection can lead to inaction.[25]
- Socratic dialogue and attitude modification: asking questions designed to help a client find and pursue self-defined meaning in life.[26]
His acknowledgement of meaning as a central motivational force and factor in mental health is his lasting contribution to the field of psychology. It provided the foundational principles for the emerging field of positive psychology.[27] Frankl's work has also been endorsed in the Chabad philosophy of Hasidic Judaism.[28]
Controversy
"Auschwitz survivor" testimony
In The Missing Pieces of the Puzzle: A Reflection on the Odd Career of Viktor Frankl, Professor of history Timothy Pytell of
Origins and implications of logotherapy
Frankl's doctrine was that one must instill meaning in the events in one's life, and that work and suffering can lead to finding meaning, with this ultimately what would lead to fulfillment and happiness. In 1982 the scholar and Holocaust analyst
Pytell later would remark on the particularly sharp insight of Langer's reading of Frankl's Holocaust testimony, stating that with Langer's criticism published in 1982 before Pytell's biography, the former had thus drawn the controversial parallels, or
The origins of logotherapy, as described by Frankl, were therefore a major issue of continuity that Pytell argues were potentially problematic for Frankl because he had laid out the main elements of logotherapy while working for/contributing to the Nazi-affiliated Göring Institute. Principally Frankl's 1937 paper, that was published by the institute.[42] This association, as a source of controversy, that logotherapy was palatable to Nazism is the reason Pytell suggests, Frankl took two different stances on how the concentration-camp experience affected the course of his psychotherapy theory. Namely, that within the original English edition of Frankl's most well known book, Man's Search for Meaning, the suggestion is made and still largely held that logotherapy was itself derived from his camp experience, with the claim as it appears in the original edition, that this form of psychotherapy was "not concocted in the philosopher's armchair nor at the analyst's couch; it took shape in the hard school of air-raid shelters and bomb craters; in concentration camps and prisoner of war camps." Frankl's statements however to this effect would be deleted from later editions, though in the 1963 edition, a similar statement again appeared on the back of the book jacket of Man's Search for Meaning.
Frankl over the years would with these widely read statements and others, switch between the idea that logotherapy took shape in the camps to the claim that the camps merely were a testing ground of his already preconceived theories. An uncovering of the matter would occur in 1977 with Frankl revealing on this controversy, though compounding another, stating "People think I came out of Auschwitz with a brand-new psychotherapy. This is not the case."[44]
Jewish relations and experiments on the resistance
In the post war years, Frankl's attitude towards not pursuing justice nor assigning
In 1988 Frankl would further "stir up sentiment against him" by being photographed next to and in accepting the
In his "Gutachten" Gestapo profile, Frankl is described as "politically perfect" by the Nazi secret police, with Frankl's membership in the Austro-fascist "Fatherland Front" in 1934, similarly stated in isolation. It has been suggested that as a state employee in a hospital he was likely automatically signed up to the party regardless of whether he wanted to or not. Frankl was interviewed twice by the secret police during the war, yet nothing of the expected contents, the subject of discussion or any further information on these interviews, is contained in Frankl's file, suggesting to biographers that Frankl's file was "cleansed" sometime after the war.[48][49]
None of Frankl's obituaries mention the unqualified and unskilled brain
Response to Timothy Pytell
Timothy Pytell's critique towards Viktor Frankl was used by Holocaust denier Theodore O'Keefe, according to Alexander Batthyány. [53] Alexander Batthyány was a researcher and member of staff of the Viktor Frankl Archive in Vienna. Throughout the first chapter of his book "Viktor Frankl and the Shoah", he reflects on Timothy Pytell's work about Viktor Frankl, and the flaws in it. Batthyány points out that Pytell never visited the archive to consult primary sources from the person about whom he was writing. Batthyány also critiques Pytell for not interviewing Viktor Frankl while Frankl was still alive. Pytell even explains in his book on Frankl that he had the opportunity to meet him – as a friend offered it, yet he decided that he could not meet Frankl.
Decorations and awards
- 1956: Promotion Award for Public Education of the Ministry of Education, Austria
- 1962: Cardinal Innitzer Prize, Austria
- 1969: Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class
- 1976: Prize of the Danubia Foundation
- 1980: Honorary Ring of Vienna, Austria
- 1981: Austrian Decoration for Science and Art
- 1985: Oskar Pfister Award, US
- 1986: Honorary doctorate from the University of Vienna, Austria
- 1986: Honorary member of the association Bürgervereinigung Landsberg im 20. Jahrhundert
- 1988: Great Silver Medal with Star for Services to the Republic of Austria
- 1995: Hans Prinzhorn Medal
- 1995: Honorary Citizen of the City of Vienna
- 1995: Great Gold Medal with Star for Services to the Republic of Austria
Personal life
In 1941, Frankl married Tilly Grosser, who was a station nurse at Rothschild Hospital. Soon after they were married she became pregnant, but they were forced to abort the child.[54] Tilly died in the Bergen Belsen concentration camp.[2][1]
Frankl's father, Gabriel, originally from Pohořelice, Moravia, died in the Theresienstadt Ghetto concentration camp on 13 February 1943, aged 81, from starvation and pneumonia. His mother and brother, Walter, were both killed in Auschwitz. His sister, Stella, escaped to Australia.[2][1]
In 1947, Frankl married Eleonore "Elly" Katharina Schwindt. She was a practicing Catholic. The couple respected each other's religious backgrounds, both attending church and synagogue, and celebrating Christmas and Hanukkah. They had one daughter, Gabriele, who went on to become a child psychologist.[2][4][55] Although it was not known for 50 years, his wife and son-in-law reported after his death that he prayed every day and had memorized the words of daily Jewish prayers and psalms.[2][page needed][28]
Frankl died of heart failure in Vienna on 2 September 1997. He is buried in the Jewish section of the Vienna Central Cemetery.[56]
Bibliography
His books in English are:
- ISBN 978-0807014271(English translation 1959. Originally published in 1946 as Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager, "A Psychologist Experiences the Concentration Camp")
- The Doctor and the Soul, (originally titled Ärztliche Seelsorge), Random House, 1955.
- On the Theory and Therapy of Mental Disorders. An Introduction to Logotherapy and Existential Analysis. Translated by James M. DuBois. Brunner-Routledge, London & New York, 2004. ISBN 0415950295
- Psychotherapy and Existentialism. Selected Papers on Logotherapy, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1967. ISBN 0671200569
- The Will to Meaning. Foundations and Applications of Logotherapy, ISBN 0452010349
- The Unheard Cry for Meaning. Psychotherapy and Humanism Simon & Schuster, New York, 2011 ISBN 978-1451664386
- Viktor Frankl Recollections: An Autobiography; Basic Books, Cambridge, MA 2000. ISBN 978-0738203553.
- Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning. (A revised and extended edition of The Unconscious God; with a foreword by Swanee Hunt). Perseus Book Publishing, New York, 1997; ISBN 0738203548.
- ISBN 978-0807005552.
See also
- List of logotherapy institutes, many named after Frankl
- Meaning-making
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0738203553. Archivedfrom the original on 22 March 2015. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
- ^ ISBN 978-0385500364. Archivedfrom the original on 23 March 2017. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
- ^ Längle, Alfried (2015). From Viktor Frankl's Logotherapy to Existential Analytic psychotherapy; in: European Psychotherapy 2014/2015. Austria: Home of the World's Psychotherapy. Serge Sulz, Stefan Hagspiel (Eds.). p. 67.
- ^ ISBN 978-0618723430. Archivedfrom the original on 22 March 2017. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
- ^ Corey, G. (2021). Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy (10th ed.). Cengage.
- ^ "Viktor Frankl – Life and Work". www.viktorfrankl.org. Viktor Frankl Institute Vienna. 2011. Archived from the original on 14 May 2020. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
- ^ a b Schatzmann, Morton (5 September 1997). "Obituary: Viktor Frankl". The Independent (UK). Archived from the original on 1 September 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
- ^ "Viktor Frankl | Biography, Books, Theory, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 16 June 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
- ^ Hatala, Andrew (2010). "Frankl and Freud: Friend or Foe? Towards Cultural & Developmental Perspectives of Theoretical Ideologies" (PDF). Psychology and Society. 3: 1–25. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
- ^ "List of books and articles about Viktor Frankl". Archived from the original on 18 July 2019.
- ^ a b Pytell, T. (2000). The Missing Pieces of the Puzzle: A Reflection on the Odd Career of Viktor Frankl. Journal of Contemporary History, 35(2), 281–306. doi:10.1177/002200940003500208
- ^ a b "Viktor Frankl Biography". Viktor Frankl Institute Vienna. Archived from the original on 13 May 2020. Retrieved 24 April 2020.
- ISBN 978-3319805689.
- )
- ISBN 978-3205993254.
- ^ Boeree, George. "Personality Theories: Viktor Frankl." Archived 3 November 2019 at the Wayback Machine Shippensburg University. Accessed 18 April 2014.
- ^ Lantz, James E. "Family logotherapy." Contemporary Family Therapy 8, no. 2 (1986): 124–135.
- ^ ISBN 978-0738203546. Archivedfrom the original on 22 March 2017. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
- ^ "The Life of Viktor Frankl". Viktor Frankl Institute of America. Archived from the original on 6 August 2020. Retrieved 24 April 2020.
- ISBN 978-0874627589.
- ^ Fein, Esther B. (20 November 1991). "New York Times, 11-20-1991". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 28 April 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
- ^ ISBN 978-0142181263.
- ^ a b "What is Logotherapy/Existential Analysis". Archived from the original on 13 May 2020. Retrieved 24 April 2020.
- ISBN 978-0525567042.
- doi:10.1037/h0086434.
- PMID 24000857.)
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ Viktor Frankl’s Meaning-Seeking Model and Positive Psychology Archived 19 July 2021 at the Wayback Machine Chapter from book 'Meaning in Positive and Existential Psychology' (pp. 149–184)
- ^ a b Biderman, Jacob. "The Rebbe and Viktor Frankl".
- .
- ^ Szasz, T.S. (2003). The secular cure of souls: "Analysis" or dialogue? Existential Analysis, 14: 203-212 (July).
- ^ [Viktor Frankl's Search for Meaning: An Emblematic 20th-Century Life By Timothy Pytell pg 104]
- ^ List of inmates who were transferred to Kaufering III camp, 11/07/1944-16/04/1945
- ^ See Martin Weinmann, ed., Das nationalsozialistische Lagersystem (Frankfurt: Zweitausendeins, 1990), pp.195, 558.
- ^ [Suicide Prohibition: The Shame of Medicine By Thomas Szasz. pg 60-62]
- ^ [Suicide Prohibition: The Shame of Medicine By Thomas Szasz pg 62]
- ^ [Lawrence Langer, Versions of Survival: The Holocaust and the Human Spirit (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1982), p.24. [End Page 107]]
- ^ Lawrence Langer, Versions of Survival: The Holocaust and the Human Spirit (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1982) As "So nonsensically unspecific is this universal principle of being that one can imagine Heinrich Himmler announcing it to his SS men, or Joseph Goebbels sardonically applying it to the genocide of the Jews!"
- ^ Austrian Lives By Günter Bischof pg 241-242
- ^ Viktor Frankl's Search for Meaning: An Emblematic 20th-Century Life By Timothy Pytell pg 70-72, 111
- ^ Austrian Lives By Günter Bischof pg 242
- ^ Austrian Lives By Günter Bischof p.255
- ^ a b "What is perhaps most impressive about Langer's reading is that he was unaware of Frankl's 1937 article promoting a form of psychotherapy palatable to the Nazis".
- ^ "Is There a Fascist Impulse in All of Us? | Psychology Today".
- ISSN 1476-7937.
- ^ Austrian Lives By Günter Bischof p.255
- ^ "Psychotherapie: Wille zum Sinn - Viktor Frankl wäre am 26. März 100 geworden". 5 March 2005.
- ^ a b [Freud's World: An Encyclopedia of His Life and Times, By Luis A. Cordón. pg 147]
- ^ "Austrian Jews Respond to Nazism, Part 2 | Psychology Today".
- ^ Pytell, Timothy (2015). Viktor Frankl's Search for Meaning: An Emblematic 20th-Century Life. Berghahn Books. p. 62.
- ISSN 1476-7937.
- ^ Austrian Lives By Günter Bischof 241 to 255
- ^ [Suicide Prohibition: The Shame of Medicine By Thomas Szasz. pg 60-62]
- S2CID 244573650.
- PMID 35136443.
- ^ Scully, Mathew (1995). "Viktor Frankl at Ninety: An Interview". First Things. Archived from the original on 1 May 2012.
- ^ Noble, Holcomb B. (4 September 1997). "Dr. Viktor E. Frankl of Vienna, Psychiatrist of the Search for Meaning, Dies at 92". The New York Times. p. B-7. Archived from the original on 12 October 2009. Retrieved 6 September 2009.