Life before 1945

Frankl was born in Vienna. Frankl's interest for psychology surfaced early in his life. For the final exam (Matura) in high school he wrote a paper on the psychology of philosophical thinking. After he graduated from high school in 1923, he studied medicine at the University of Vienna and later specialized in neurology and psychiatry. From 1933 to 1937 he headed the so-called "Selbstmörderpavillon" (suicide pavilion) of the General Hospital in Vienna and from 1937 to 1940 he privately practiced psychiatry. From 1940 to 1942 he headed the neurological department of the Rothschild hospital. At this point in time this hospital was the only one left in Vienna where Jews were admitted.

In December 1941 he married Tilly Grosser. In Autumn 1943 he, his wife and his parents were deported to the concentration camp of Theresienstadt. He had been working there [1], being helped by Dr. Leo Baeck and Regina Jonas. In 1944 he was transported to Auschwitz and later to Kaufering and Türkheim, two concentration camps adjunct to the KZ Dachau. He was liberated on April 27th 1945 by the US Army.

Frankl survived the Holocaust, but his wife, father and mother were murdered in concentration camps. Among his immediate relatives, only his sister, who had emigrated to Australia, survived. It was due to his (and others') suffering in these camps that he came to the conclusion that even in the most absurd, painful and dehumanised situation, life has potential meaning and therefore even suffering is meaningful. This conclusion served as a strong basis of Frankl's later creation of logotherapy.


Life after 1945

Liberated after three years of life in concentration camps, he returned to Vienna. During 1945 he wrote his world-famous book titled Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager (literal translation: "A Psychologist Experiences the Concentration Camp"; English title: Man's Search for Meaning), wherein he tried to objectively describe the life of an ordinary concentration camp inmate from the perspective of a psychiatrist and which he originally intended to be published anonymously under his camp number and not his name. In 1946 he was appointed to run the Vienna Poliklinik of neurologics, where he worked until 1971.

In the post-war years Frankl published more than 30 books and is most notably known as the founder of logotherapy. (Logos is Greek for word, reason, principle; therapy comes from Greek Θεραπεύω, I heal.) He gave guest lectures and seminars all over the world and received 29 honorary doctorate degrees.

Frankl died September 2nd, 1997, in Vienna.


 Miscellaneous

Frankl often said that even within the narrow boundaries of the concentration camps he found only two races of men to exist: decent and non-decent ones. These were to be found in all classes, ethnicities, and groups.
Frankl once recommended the Statue of Liberty on the east coast be complemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the west coast.
In Theresienstadt, he worked as a general practitioner in a clinic until his skill in psychiatry was noticed and he was asked to establish a special unit to help newcomers to the camp overcome shock and grief. He later set up a suicide watch unit, and all intimations of suicide were reported to him. To maintain his own feeling of being worthy of his sufferings in the dismal conditions, he would frequently march outside and deliver a lecture to an imaginary audience about "Psychotherapeutic Experiences in a Concentration Camp", believing that by fully knowing the emotion of suffering through objectivity, he thereby ended it.

Books

Man's Search for Meaning. An Introduction to Logotherapy, Boston: Beacon, ISBN 0-8070-1426-5; and Random House / Rider, London 2004, ISBN 1-84413-239-0; also: Washington Square Press; ISBN 0-671-02337-3 (Softcover, December 1997)
On the Theory and Therapy of Mental Disorders. An Introduction to Logotherapy and Existential Analysis, Translated by James M. DuBois. Brunner-Routledge, London-New York 2004. ISBN 0-415-95029-5
Psychotherapy and Existentialism. Selected Papers on Logotherapy, New York: Simon & Schuster
The Will to Meaning. Foundations and Applications of Logotherapy, New York: New American Library, ISBN 0-452-01034-9
Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning. (A revised and extended edition of The Unconscious God; with a Foreword by Swanee Hunt). Perseus Book Publishing, New York, 1997; ISBN 0-306-45620-6. Paperback edition: Perseus Book Group; New York, July 2000; ISBN 0-7382-0354-8.