The Holocaust, Meaning in

Life, & Man’s Search For

Meaning
Dr. Viktor Frankl
 Background of Dr. Frankl
• VIKTOR EMIL FRANKL, M.D., PH.D.
was Professor of Neurology and
Psychiatry at the University of Vienna
Medical School
• 1940-42 Frankl was director of the
Neurological Department of the
Rothschild Hospital
 Background of Dr. Frankl
• VIKTOR EMIL FRANKL, M.D., PH.D.
• 1946-70 he was director of the Vienna
Neurological Policlinic
• During World War II he spent 3 years at
Auschwitz, Dachau and other concentration
camps
• 29 universities have conferred Honorary
Doctor degrees upon him
 Background of Dr. Frankl
• VIKTOR EMIL FRANKL, M.D., PH.D.
• Frankl has authored 32 books which were
published in 32 languages
• His last two books are “Viktor Frankl –
Recollections” and “Man's Search for
Ultimate Meaning”, both published in 1997
 Background of Dr. Frankl
• VIKTOR EMIL FRANKL, M.D., PH.D.
• Man's Search for Meaning has sold over five
million copies in the USA alone. According
to a survey conducted by the Library of
Congress and the Book-of-the-Month Club it
belongs to “the ten most influential books in
America.” (New York Times, November 20,
1991)
 Nazi Germany

The Nazis believed that individual people

did not matter. What was important, they believed,
was a strong central government.
 Nazi Germany
• Individuals were forced to accept the roles given
to them in society - women should be educated to
become housewives and mothers, men should be
educated to become workers and soldiers.
Below, Adolph Hitler.
 The Holocaust
• Holocaust is the name given to the period of
persecution and extermination of European Jews by
Nazi Germany. Although anti-Semitism in Europe has
a long history, persecution of German Jews began with
Hitler's rise to power in 1933.
• Jews were disenfranchised, then terrorized in anti-
Jewish riots, forced into the ghettos, their property
seized, and finally were sent to concentration camps.
 The Holocaust
• After the outbreak of World War II, Hitler established
death camps to secretly implement what he called “the
final solution of the Jewish question.” Extermination
squads were everywhere in Germany.
• The main Jewish resistance was spiritual: observing their
religion and refraining from suicide, while Zionists
evacuated some to Palestine.
• By the end of the war 6 million Jews had been
systematically murdered.
 The Holocaust
• …6 million Jews had been systematically murdered…
 The Holocaust
• …6 million Jews had been systematically murdered…
 The Holocaust
• …6 million Jews had been systematically murdered…
 The Holocaust
• An overview of Krema IV in Auschwitz. The gas
chambers are in the back; in the foreground, the morgue
and the crematorium. Source: Auschwitz: Technique and
Operation of the Gas Chambers, J.C. Pressac, the Beate
Klarsfeld Foundation, New York, 1989.
 The Holocaust
• Soldiers of an unidentified German unit execute a group
of Soviet civilians kneeling by the side of a mass grave.
• Source: National Archives, National Archives, College
Park, Maryland.
 The Holocaust
• Jewish women were stripped of clothing and marched off
to be executed, then laid in mass graves.
• Source: National Archives, National Archives, College
Park, Maryland.
 Dr. Frankl’s Contribution
• Viktor Frankl, whose life spanned almost the entirety of
the 20th century. It is true that Frankl is known to many
readers from his book, Man's Search for Meaning, the
gripping story of his survival in Nazi concentration
camps. Not equally well known is the school of
psychotherapy that he founded which was validated by
that harrowing experience. In the midst of his
overwhelming suffering he had an insight into the
creative capacity of the human spirit in time of crisis.
 Dr. Frankl & Logotherapy
• A major difference between logotherapy
and psychoanalysis is that both Freud and
Adler focus on the past, while
“Logotherapy focuses rather on the future,
that is to say, on the meanings to be
fulfilled in his future” (Frankl, 1984,
p.120).
 Dr. Frankl & Logotherapy
• The main objective of logotherapy is to facilitate
clients’ quest for meaning and empower them to
live meaningfully, responsibly, regardless of
their life circumstances.
• “This was the lesson I had to learn in three years
spent I Auschwitz and Dachau: those most apt to
survive the camps were those oriented toward
the future, toward a meaning to be fulfilled by
them in the future.” (Frankl, 1985b, p.37).
 Dr. Frankl & Logotherapy
• It is not possible to practice logotherapy without
understanding the human spirit or the spiritual
dimension of human existence.
• According to Frankl’s philosophy, human beings
exist in three dimensions -- somatic, mental and
spiritual.
• Spirituality is the uniquely human dimension.
However, these different dimensions must be
understood in their totality, because a person is a
unity in complexity.
 Dr. Frankl & Logotherapy
• “According to logotherapy, we can discover this
meaning in life in three different ways:
• (1) by creating a work or doing a deed
• (2) by experiencing something or encountering
someone; and
• (3) by the attitude we take towards unavoidable
suffering” (Frankl, 1984, p.133).
 Finally…
• He also postulates four types of fundamental human
motivations:
• (1) The question of existence: I am, but can I become a
“whole” person? Do I have the necessary space, support
and protection?
• (2) The question of life: I am alive, but do I enjoy it? Do I
find it fulfilling? Do I experience a sense of abundance,
love, and realization of values?
• (3) The question of the person: I am myself, but am I free
to be myself? Do I experience validation, respect and
recognition of my own worth?
• (4) The question of existential meaning: I am here, but for
what purpose, for what good?