Man’s Search for Meaning
Viktor Frankl
Dr. Viktor Frankl
• 1905-1997
• 3 years of his life in
concentration camps
• 1942-1945
• Professor of both
neurology and psychiatry
• Specialized in
treatment of depression
and suicide
• Wrote 32 books, translated
into 23 languages
Logotherapy
• Frankl created the 3rd Viennese School of
Psychology
• Freud: Psychoanalysis
• Adler: Individual Psychology
• Frankl: Logotherapy
• logos = reason/word
• therapy = heal
Man’s Search for Meaning
• Originally published in 1959 under the title
From Death-Camp to Existentialism
• Premise: “I will try to answer this question:
How was everyday life in a concentration
camp reflected in the mind of the average
prisoner?” (Frankl 21)
Man’s Search for Meaning
• “I had wanted simply to convey to the reader by
way of a concrete example that life holds a
potential meaning under any conditions, even the
most miserable ones. And I thought that if the
point were demonstrated in a situation as extreme
as that in a concentration camp, my book might
gain a hearing. I therefore felt responsible for
writing down what I had gone through, for I
thought it might be helpful for people prone to
despair.” (Frankl 16)
• “An abnormal reaction to an
abnormal situation is normal
behavior.” (Frankl 38)
• “Let one attempt to expose a number
of the most diverse people uniformly to
hunger. With the increase of the
imperative urge hunger all individual
differences will blur, and in their stead
will appear the uniform expression of
the one unstilled urge” (Freud)
• “That which does not kill me,
makes me stronger.”
(Nietzsche)
GROUP WORK
• On the block paper, please do the following:
• Draw the spectrum of philosophy and place
Frankl on it
• Please also place each group member on the
spectrum as well
• According to your assigned school of
philosophy, record at least 5-10 examples of
how that philosophy was manifested by the
behavior in the camps