About Viktor Frankl and Logotherapy
Viktor Frankl's Biography
Last Updated on Tuesday, 24 November 2009 16:39
Background
In September of 1942, a young doctor, his new wife, his mother, father, and brother, were arrested in Vienna and taken to a Nazi concentration camp. The events that followed led the young doctor to discover the significance of meaning in one's life. That man, prisoner 119,104, was Viktor Emil Frankl.
He was born in Vienna, Austria on March 26, 1905 as the second of three children. His mother, Elsa, was from Prague and his father, Gabriel, from Suedmaehre. Frankl grew up in Vienna, the birthplace of modern psychiatry and home of the renowned psychiatrists, Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler. A brilliant student, Frankl was involved in Socialist youth organizations and it was his interest in people that led to his fascination with psychiatry.
Franklian Theory
Last Updated on Thursday, 19 November 2009 16:04
Franklian Philosophy
- The belief in a healthy core is the basis of Franklian Psychotherapy and,
- The principle goal is to help the person become aware of the resources of their healthy core and to help them use these resources.
- Life does not owe you happiness, it offers you meaning.
Awards and Achievements
Last Updated on Thursday, 19 November 2009 16:21
About Logotherapy
Last Updated on Saturday, 21 November 2009 15:30
Logotherapy is based on the works of Viktor Frankl, a famous existentialist philosopher, psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of the best-seller: Man's Search for Meaning, which records his experiences in the Nazi concentration camps. Although Frankl initially was a personal student of Freud, he formed his own theory of human behaviour called logotherapy and had formulated many of his ideas before being imprisoned. Logotherapy is described as a meaning-centred psychotherapy. The word 'logos' is a Greek word which also denotes 'meaning'. The word 'therapy' originates from the Greek word 'therapia' which literally means 'service'. Thus, logotherapy is a therapy through which one can be helped to find meaning – the meaning of one's own life as many people feel that their lives are void of any meaning.
Meaningful quotes
Courage, it would seem, is nothing less than the power to overcome danger, misfortune, fear, injustice, while continuing to affirm inwardly that life with all its sorrows is good; that everything is meaningful even if in a sense beyond our understanding; and that there is always tomorrow. Dorothy Thompson |