Viktor E. Frankl
Viktor E. Frankl
Viktor Emil Frankl was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor. Frankl was the founder of logotherapy, which is a form of existential analysis, the "Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy". His best-selling book Man's Search for Meaningchronicles his experiences as a concentration camp inmate, which led him to discover the importance of finding meaning in all forms of existence, even the most brutal ones, and thus, a reason to continue living. Frankl became one of the...
NationalityAustrian
ProfessionPsychologist
Date of Birth26 March 1905
CountryAustria
Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life . . . Therein he cannotbe replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus, everyone's task is as unique as ishis specific opportunity to implement it.
There is nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one's life.
Human kindness can be found in all groups, even those which as a whole it would be easy to condemn.
I do the unpleasant tasks before I do the pleasant ones.
It is not freedom from conditions, but it is freedom to take a stand toward the conditions.
No one can take away my freedom to choose how I will react.
Happiness must ensue. It cannot be pursued
And I quoted from Nietzsche: That which does not kill me, makes me stronger.
There are some authors who contend that meanings and values are "nothing but defense mechanisms, reaction formations and sublimations." But as for myself, I would not be willing to live merely for the sake of my "defense mechanisms," nor would I be ready to die merely for the sake of my "reaction formations.
Having been is also a kind of being, and perhaps the surest kind.
To the European, it is a characteristic of the American culture that, again and again, one is commanded and ordered to 'be happy.' But happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue. One must have a reason to 'be happy.' Once the reason is found, however, one becomes happy automatically. As we see, a human being is not one in pursuit of happiness but rather in search of a reason to become happy, last but not least, through actualizing the potential meaning inherent and dormant in a given situation.
Woe to him who saw no more sense in his life, no aim, no purpose, and therefore no point in carrying on.
I do not forget any good deed done to me & I do not carry a grudge for a bad one.
Now, it is my contention that the deneuroticization of humanity requires a rehumanization of psychotherapy.