Viktor Frankl’s Critical Perspectives in Psychiatry and Mental Health: A self-paced eLearning Workshop Logotherapy © 2007, Alex Drossos. Prepared for the OISE/UT course, TPS1820: The Healing Teacher
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Overview About Viktor Frankl Childhood and Youth The Concentration Camps Post-World War II Man’s Search for Meaning Logotherapy
About Viktor Frankl VIKTOR E. FRANKL, M.D., PH.D. Neurologist and Psychiatrist Founder of Logotherapy and Existential Analysis Widowed (from Tilly Grosser); second marriage with Eleonore Schwindt; daughter Gabriele; 2 grandchildren, Katharina and Alexander; great-granddaughter Anna Viktoria Born: March 26, 1905, Vienna Died: September 2, 1997, Vienna
Childhood and Youth For his high school final exam he wrote a paper on the psychology of philosophical thinking His medical training concentrated on depression and suicide From 1933 to 1937 he headed the "suicide pavilion" of the General Hospital in Vienna Starting in 1938, he was prohibited from treating Aryan patients due to his Jewish ethnicity
The Concentration Camps In fall of 1942 he and his wife and parents were deported to the Theresienstadt camp; his father died there a year later In 1944 he moved to Auschwitz where his mother died; then to Türkheim later the same year; his wife also died that year While at the camps he worked as a general practitioner and then later to counsel new arrivals and those with suicidal dendencies Frankl was liberated on April 27, 1945
Post-World War II Moved back to Vienna after liberation Headed the Vienna Poliklinik of Neurologics from Prof at U of Vienna in Psych and Neuro; visiting prof at Harvard Published more than 32 books Received 29 honorary doctorate degrees
Man’s Search for Meaning An account of his life in the concentration camps Dictated it in only 9 days Translated into more than 20 languages Sold over 12 million copies worldwide
Logotherapy Known as the Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy (after Freud’s and Adler’s) Logos, λόγος, is Greek for word, reason, principle; therapy, Θεραπεύω, means “I heal” Based on three philosophical and psychological concepts: –Freedom of Will –Will to Meaning, and –Meaning in Life
Frankl’s Description of Logotherapy From the Viktor Frankl Institute website: