Viktor Frankl and Existentialism

Suffering in and of itself is meaningless, we give our suffering meaning by the way in which we respond to it. - Viktor Frankl, Mans Search for Meaning

Viktor Frankl was on of the founders of Existential Theory. He was born in Aurtria in 1905, and was a victim of the Nazi concentration camps. Surviving was a way of life for him. Ironicly, although he published many books in his career, "Mans Search for Meaning" which documented his experiences in the concentration camps as it effected his and others psyche, was his most famous and was also supposed to be publish as an annonomous author. Frankl did not want the recognition for his survival, but on the other hand he did not want to seem as though he was hiding from his experiences either. On the urging of friends, he ended up publishing the book under his name.

Frankl was led into Auschwitz, the most notorious and most feared concentration camp. The men were seperated from the women and children, brought out by other prisioners who were seemingly happy and well fed. It was a ploy, a way to work the prisioners into a false sense of hope. Once brought from the train, they had to form lines, and were told to go either to the right or left. A vast majority were led to the right, which was death. Frankl made it to the left line, and ended up spending 4 years of his life in this camp.

It was his experiences in these camps, and his ability to find meaning in his life regardless of his circumstances that helped him to form his theory of logotherapy, which broken down from greek actually means "Meaning" therapy. Existentialism is all about looking at the present and the future. Finding meaning in everything. Life and death, love and hate, meaning and nonmeaning, alone and togetherness. A person has to look within themselves to find the strengths to cope with and understand these basic concepts.

Frankl lost his entire family to the Nazi concentration camps. He endured experiences that would break most men. He suffered humiliations and punishments that would kill most men. But his will for meaning surpassed his suffering. He is an amazing figure within the psychological world and a person who I have found a great deal of meaning and strength from. You see, I have always believed that a person can overcome their circumstances with the right frame of mind and will. Existentialism is, to me, one of the most amazing and meaningful theories that we have studied in this course. I got my information about Frankl from his book "Man'sSearch for Meaning". I am in the process of readin it and look forward to getting the detailed experience from Frankl himself and how he developed his theory from these experiences.

Reference

Frankl, V. (2006). Man's Search for Meaning with a new forward by Harold S. Kushner. Boston,
Massachusetts: Beacon Press.