In Pursuit of Freedom
Victor Frankl
Mans Search For Meaning
Adolf Hitler
Leader of Nazi Party in Nazi
Germany.
As Dictator of Nazi Germany, he
initiated World War II in Europe.
Hitler aimed to eliminate Jews
from Germany and establish a
new order to counter what he saw
as the injustice of the post World
War I.
Jews, Gentiles and Gypsies were
sent to concentration camps.
Nazi regime was responsible for
the genocide of at least 5.5 million
Jews and millions of other victims.
He personifies evil in the world.
Victor Frankl (1905-1997)
One of the survivors during the
Nazi regime.
20th century psychiatrist who
founded the field of
Logotheraphy.
Born on Vienna, on March 26,1905.
Born into Jewish Family.
Gabriel Frankl (father); Elsa Frankl
(mother)
In high school, victor was actively
involve in the local young socialist
worker organization.
Finished his high school years with
a psychoanalytic essay on the
philosopher schopenhauer.
Victor Frankl (1905-1997)
1925
He met Sigmund Freud In
Person.
Alfred Adlers theory was more
to Franks liking.
1930
He earned
medicine.
his
doctorate
in
1933
He was put in charge of the
ward for suicidal women at the
psychiatric hospital with many
thousands of patients each other.
Victor Frankl (1905-1997)
One year later, Hitlers troops invade Austria.
He obtained a Visa to the U.S in 1939, but
concerned for his elderly parents, so he let it
expire.
1940
Head to the neurological department of
Rothschild hospital, the only hospital for Jews
in Vienna during the Nazi Regime. He made
False diagnoses of his patients in order to
circumvent
the
new
policies
requiring
euthanasia of mentally ill.
Frankl married in 1942, but in September of
that year, He, his wife his father, mother and
brother were all arrested and brought to the
concentration camps at Bohemia.
Victor Frankl (1905-1997)
His Father died there of starvation.
His mother and brother were killed at
Auschwitz in 1944.
His wife died at Bergen- Belsen in
1945.
Only his sister Stella would survive,
having managed to emigrate to
Australia a short while earlier.
After two more moves camps, Frankl
succumbed to typhoid fever. He kept
himself awake by reconstructing hi
manuscript on stolen slips of paper. In
April of 1945, Frankls camp was
liberated and he return to Vienna,
only to discover the deaths of his love
ones.
He finally reconstructed his book and
published it. In 9 days, he dictated
The Will to Meaning
WILL TO MEANING
The only way to survive in such an
inhuman
condition
in
the
concentration camp is to possess the
courage or the will to meaning.
Human beings are not only free, but
most importantly they are free to
something namely to achieve goals
and purposes.
WILL TO MEANING
Primary motivation of humans.
When a person cannot realize his or her
will to meaning in their lives they will
experience an abysmal sensation of
meaninglessness and emptiness.
Survival is a matter of will.
Going beyond the suffering experienced
by the physical state of ones existence,
thus, means holding on to the greater
truth or meaning of human life.
Life of meaning sees life in a spiritual way.
Transcendence
Experiential, creative and attitudinal
values are manifestations of something
much more fundamental, which he calls
supra- meaning or transcendence.
Supra meaning is the idea that there is, in
fact, ultimate meaning in life, meaning
that is not dependent on others, on our
projects or even our dignity. It is a
reference to God and spiritual meaning.
FRANKLS EXISTENTIALISM VS. JEAN PAUL SARTRE
Sartres and other
atheistic
existentialists
suggest that life is
ultimately
meaningless, and
we must find the
courage to face
that
meaninglessness.
Sartres says we
must endure
Frankls instead
says that we need
to learn to endure
our inability to fully
comprehend
ultimate
meaningfulness,
for Logos is deeper
than logic.
IN SEARCH OF MEANING
LOGOTHERAPHY
Derived from which is the Greek word for reason.
Focuses on the meaning of human existence as
well as on mans search for such meaning.
LOGOTHERAPHY is based on existential analysis.
Existential analysis can be defined as a
phenomenological and person- oriented
psychotherapy, with an aim of leading the person
to (mentally and emotionally) free experiences, to
facilitate authentic decisions and to bring about a
truly responsible way of dealing with life and
world.
LOGOTHERAPHY
Postulates a will to meaning.
In this type of therapy, the patient is not
taught or lectured on the meaning of life.
Rather, it guides the patient to a life of
meaning, helping him find his reason for
living.
will to live.
According to logotheraphy, this this
striving to find a meaning in ones life is
the primary motivational force in man.
Finding Meaning
How do we find meaning?
Frankl discusses three broad
approaches;
EXPERIENTIAL VALUE
That is experiencing something or
someone we value.
Ex.
The love we feel towards another.
Finding Meaning
How do we find meaning?
CREATIVE VALUES
By doing a deed.
Traditional existential idea of
providing oneself with meaning by
becoming involved in ones project or
better, in the project of ones own life.
Finding Meaning
How do we find meaning?
ATTITUDINAL VALUES
Includes such virtues as compassion,
bravery, a good sense of humor, and
so on.
Ex. Suffering
A doctor whose wife had died
mourned her terribly. Frankl ask him,
if you died first, what would it have
LOGOTHERAPHY
For Frankl, this meaning is unique and
specific that it must be fulfilled by him alone
only then does it achieve a significance
which will satisfy his own will to meaning..
Defies all the dangers and all despair that
we face in life.
Frankl writes; Ultimately, man should not
ask what the meaning of his life is, but
rather he must recognize that it is he who is
asked.
LOGOTHERAPHY
Person must hold on to human life.
Thus, beyond the need to survive,
man must take a hold of the very
purpose of living, which is to give
something back to life.
In logotheraphy the bold task therein
is to make the patient fully aware of
his own life, to be responsible for it.
LOGOTHERAPHY
Frankl add that there are situations in
which one is cut off from the
opportunity to do ones life; but what
can never be ruled out is the
unavoidability of suffering. In
accepting this challenge to suffer
bravely, life has a meaning up to the
last moment.
READING: Mans
Search For Meaning
READING: Mans Search for Meaning
Everything can be taken from a man
but one thing: the last of the human
freedoms to choose ones attitudes
in any given set of circumstances, to
choose ones own way.
If there is a meaning in life at all, then
there must be a meaning in suffering.
READING: Mans Search for Meaning
A man who could not see the end of
his provisional existence was not
able to aim at an ultimate goal in life.
Nietzsche's words, He who has a
why to live for can bear with almost
any how could be the motto for all
the prisoners.
READING: Mans Search for Meaning
What was really needed was a
fundamental change in our attitude
toward life.
The meaning of life, differ from man to
man, and from moment to moment.
Thus it is impossible to define the
meaning of life in general way.
READING: Mans Search for Meaning
Based on his imprisonment and his
training in Psychiatry, Frankl identifies
three significant periods for a prisoner:
1. Following admission into the camp.
2. When well entrenched in camp
routine.
3. Following release and liberation
READING: Mans Search for Meaning
The most complex psychological
reactions are those that occur after
being released from the concentration
camps. First, the prisoner cannot
understand what it means to be free,
and cannot feel pleasure. The body
breaks out of this limbo first, engaging in
voracious eating, fevered sexual
congress, and long bouts of sleep. The
mind soon follows.
READING: Mans Search for Meaning
In the second stage of re-assimilation,
as the pressure of constant obedience
and fear of death is removed, the mind
can be unbalanced, much like a deepsea diver returning too quickly to the
surface suffers the bends. Some people
may become obsessed with visiting the
same brutality on their former captors
that they had inflicted upon them.
READING: Mans Search for Meaning
Finally, upon returning home, bitterness
and disillusionment were the final stages
of adaptation: bitterness at the outside
world's lack of response to their plight,
and disillusionment upon the realization
that the vision of freedom and glory that
sustained them throughout their years in
the camp was a false one; the world
outside is still the same world that held
them before.
READING: Mans Search for Meaning
In spite of his horrific experience in the
concentration camp, Viktor Frankl is
determined not to lose heart and
succumb to the cruelty of his captors.
He most profound positive impact,
Frankl states, is his deep understanding
that he had literally nothing to fear
from this world any longer.
