Viktor Frankl
Viktor
Emil Frankl (26
March 1905 – 2 September 1997) was an Austrian neurologist, psychologist, philosopher,
and Holocaust survivor, who founded logotherapy, a school of psychotherapy that
describes a search for a life's meaning as the central human motivational
force. Logotherapy is part of existential and humanistic psychology theories.
Logotherapy
was promoted as the third school of Viennese Psychotherapy, after those
established by Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler. Frankl published 39 books. The autobiographical
Man's Search for Meaning, a best-selling book, is based on his
experiences in various Nazi concentration camps.
Man's Search for Meaning
While
head of the Neurological Department at the general Polyclinic Hospital, Frankl
wrote Man's Search for Meaning over a nine-day period. The book,
originally titled A Psychologist
Experiences
the Concentration Camp, was released in German in 1946. The English
translation of Man's Search for Meaning was published in 1959, and
became an international bestseller.[2]
Frankl
saw this success as a symptom of the "mass neurosis of modern times,"
since the title promised to deal with the question of life's meaningfulness.
Millions of copies were sold in dozens of languages. In a 1991 survey conducted
for the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club, Man's Search for
Meaning was named one of the ten most influential books in the US.
Logotherapy
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. 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:
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.
Socratic
dialogue and attitude modification: asking questions designed to help a client
find and pursue self-defined meaning in life.
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. Frankl's
work has also been endorsed in the Chabad philosophy of Hasidic Judaism.
Frankl
Bibliography
Man's
Search for Meaning. An Introduction to Logotherapy, Beacon Press,
Boston, 2006.
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
(https://books.google.com/books?id=cY3u6
N1zXIgC).
An Introduction to Logotherapy and Existential Analysis. Translated by
James M.
DuBois.
Brunner-Routledge, London & New York, 2004. ISBN 0415950295
Psychotherapy
and Existentialism (https://books.google.com/books?id=FgVsAAAAMAAJ).
Selected
Papers on Logotherapy,
Simon & Schuster, New York, 1967. ISBN 0671200569
The
Will to Meaning (https://archive.org/details/willtomeaningfou00fran_0).
Foundations and
Applications
of Logotherapy,
New American Library, New York, 1988 ISBN 0452010349
The
Unheard Cry for Meaning (https://archive.org/details/unheardcryformea00fran).
Psychotherapy
and Humanism Simon
& Schuster, New York, 2011 ISBN 978-1451664386
Viktor
Frankl Recollections: An Autobiography
(https://books.google.com/books?id=dHHVzd
O_SJoC); Basic Books,
Cambridge, MA 2000. ISBN 978-0738203553.
Man's
Search for Ultimate Meaning
(https://archive.org/details/manssearchforult0000fran).
(A
revised and extended edition of The Unconscious God
(https://archive.org/details/uncons
ciousgod00vikt); with a foreword
by Swanee Hunt). Perseus Book Publishing, New York,
1997;
ISBN 0306456206. Paperback edition: Perseus Book Group; New York, 2000;
ISBN
0738203548.
Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything.
Beacon Press, Boston, 2020. ISBN 978-0807005552.
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