Viktor Frankl

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Viktor Frankl, Vienna, 1965
Wikiversity: Frankl, Viktor (1947)  - course materials

Viktor Emil Frankl ( March 26, 1905 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary - September 2, 1997 ibid, Republic of Austria ) was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist . He founded the logotherapy , which is often also referred to as the "Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy". One of his best-known works is the one published in 1946 ... Saying yes to life anyway: A psychologist experienced the concentration camp , in which Frankl his experiences in four different concentration camps, includingDepicts Auschwitz , during World War II .

Life

Viktor Emil Frankl was born on March 26, 1905 in Vienna- Leopoldstadt , Czerningasse 6, as the second child of the ministerial official Gabriel Frankl and his wife Elsa. Lion born. In 1923 he passed the Matura, among other things, with a treatise on the psychology of philosophical thinking . (At that time his father was working in the Ministry of Social Affairs.)

He studied medicine, with depression and suicide becoming his main subjects. In addition to his medical dissertation in 1930, he submitted a philosophical dissertation with the title The Unconscious God in 1948/49 . He had personal contact with Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler , the founders of the first and second “Viennese School of Psychotherapy”. While Adler was concerned with the question of meaning for the prevention and prevention of damage that can arise from worries, hardships and complaints in mentally healthy people, Frankl put the question of meaning at the center of his work on suicide prevention .

1924/1925 Frankl was chairman of the socialist middle school students in Austria. In 1928 he founded youth counseling centers in Vienna (with Wilhelm Börner ). In 1930, at the time of the graduation, he organized an action to discourage students with bad grades from committing suicide.

From 1933 to 1937 he was in charge of the “suicide pavilion” in the psychiatric hospital in Vienna . As a senior physician , he cared for up to 3,000 women at risk of suicide every year.

After Austria's annexation in March 1938, he was forbidden to treat “Aryan” patients because of his Jewish origin. In 1940 he took over the management of the neurological department of the Rothschild Hospital , the only hospital in Vienna that still treated Jewish patients. Some of his reports from this period were intended to protect patients from falling victim to the National Socialist euthanasia program . In 1941 he was asked to appear at the US consulate in Vienna to issue the visa he had applied for. However, he preferred not to leave his parents alone and waived the visa.

The concentration camp memorial in Türkheim

In December 1941 he married Tilly Grosser. As Jews, he, his wife and his parents into the September 25, 1942 Theresienstadt ghetto deported . His father died there in 1943, his mother was in the gas chamber of Auschwitz murdered, just as his brother Walter, his wife died in Bergen-Belsen . Frankl was brought from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz on October 19, 1944, and a few days later to the Kaufering III concentration camp and on March 5, 1945 to the Türkheim camp , a satellite camp of the Dachau concentration camp . On April 27, 1945, he was liberated by the US Army in Türkheim.

He processed his impressions and experiences in the concentration camps in the book ... Say yes to life anyway (a psychologist experiences the concentration camp) . Shortly after the end of the war, he took the view that reconciliation , above all , could point a meaningful way out of the catastrophes of the World War and the Shoah . In 1946 he was appointed to the board of the Vienna Neurological Polyclinic and was this until 1971. In 1950 he founded the Austrian Medical Association for Psychotherapy and became its first and only president.

In 1947 Viktor Frankl married Eleonore Katharina Schwindt for the second time, who was not only his partner for over 50 years, but also supported him scientifically. They had a daughter together, Gabriele.

Vienna Central Cemetery, "Old Israelite Department": grave of Viktor Frankl

In 1948 Frankl assisted Heinz von Förster with the publication of his first important scientific publication (Das Gedächtnis. A quantum physical investigation) .

In 1955 Viktor Frankl received the title of professor for neurology and psychiatry at the University of Vienna , visiting professorships took him to the USA ( Harvard University , Dallas and Pittsburgh ). He was considered one of the greatest specialists in his field. Frankl wrote 32 books, which have appeared in 49 languages; he received 29 honorary doctorates worldwide .

Viktor Frankl was an enthusiastic mountaineer and alpinist; the Rax was his favorite mountain. Three difficult via ferratas were named after him. At the age of 67 he also got his pilot's license.

He is buried at the Vienna Central Cemetery in the "Old Israelite Department".

Appreciation

Frankl as a climber. Opening of the Frankl Museum, Vienna 2015

Viktor Frankl's work was recognized worldwide to the highest degree during his lifetime, while in his home country he was known almost only among academics. The former Federal President Rudolf Kirchschläger remarked during Frankl's lifetime (1994) that he was probably the greatest Austrian still alive. Only after his death was he given the broader public recognition he deserved in Austria.

In Austria, his work is conveyed to future psychotherapists by the Training Institute for Logotherapy and Existential Analysis (ABILE). There are many training and therapy institutes in Germany. Scientists and authors around the world, including Elisabeth Lukas , Eugenio Fizzotti, Claudio Garcia Pintos, and Katsutaro Nagata, continue Frankl's work.

In 1970 an international professorship for logotherapy was established especially for him at the US International University in San Diego ( California ).

Frankl's best-known book is Man's Search for Meaning, the American edition of his book … Say yes to life anyway . It has been sold nine million times - the Library of Congress calls it "one of the ten most influential books in America". The meaning of life is a theme in many of his books. The last two, published during his lifetime, are the autobiography What Isn't In My Books and Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning .

In cooperation with the Viktor Frankl Institute , the City of Vienna awards the Viktor Frankl Prize every year .

The first Viktor Frankl Museum opened in Vienna on March 26, 2015 . On February 13, 2019 Austrian Mint dedicated the third and, at the same time, the last edition of the Austrian 50-euro gold coin series “Viennese Schools of Psychotherapy” to the world-famous psychologist Viktor Frankl.

Therapy elements

In logotherapy and existential analysis , the central terms are self-transcendence and self-distancing . The former means the high ethical value of devotion to a task or person, the latter the humorous disregard of oneself. Two very useful techniques derived from self-distancing for dealing with physical symptoms are paradoxical intention and dereflection . Both techniques prevent a secondary psychological affection from becoming superimposed on the primary somatic one.

  • On the paradoxical intention: Neurological failures - for example, the memory of names often leaves you in the lurch - are countered by resolving to become world champion in this discipline, here world champion in forgetting names. And most of the time, as a paradoxical effect of this intention, the neurological failure does not occur after all, you remember the name. Paradoxically, under psychotherapeutic guidance, the patient wishes for exactly what he is afraid of.
  • Dereflection, on the other hand, asks one to ignore the disturbing symptom as much as possible, to think past it, to stay focused on a better, more worthwhile goal - and, lo and behold, the symptom disappears.

The therapeutic element of paradoxical intention , which is often confused with paradoxical intervention , has been adopted from other schools, as well as a. the de-reflection, the change of attitude, the logo drama, the existential analysis of dream interpretation, the Socratic dialogue .

In general, logotherapeutic ideas help u. a. To endure sad experiences in patience and courage:

“Suffering and need are part of life, like fate and death. All of them cannot be separated from life without actually destroying its meaning. To detach distress and death, fate and suffering from life would mean taking shape and form from life. Only under the hammer blows of fate, in the white heat of suffering in it, does life take shape and form. "

- Medical pastoral care, p. 118

“The answer that the suffering person gives through the how of suffering to the question of the purpose of suffering is always a wordless answer; but it is the only sensible answer. "

- The suffering man, p. 241

Both quotations, as well as many other passages in Viktor Frankl's work, clearly show that unavoidable suffering borne with dignity is an achievement that characterizes a person, is his own.

Scientific reception

Viktor Frankl's work on self-transcendence was received by the American scientist Robert Cloninger . Cloninger integrated self-transcendence in addition to self-control and the ability to cooperate in his model as the third dimension of character .

Honors

Viktor Frankl has received numerous honors and awards, including various professorships and 29 honorary doctorates.

Quotes

“Making sense would amount to moralizing. And morality in the old sense will soon be played out. Sooner or later we will no longer moralize, but ontologize morality - good and bad will not be defined in the sense of something that we should or may not do, but what the fulfillment of what is assigned to a being will seem good to us and promotes the required sense, and we will regard as evil that which hinders such fulfillment of meaning. Meaning cannot be given, it has to be found. "

"Meaning must be found, it cannot be generated."

"There's no shame in not reaching your goal, but it's a shame not to have a goal!"

“Since Auschwitz we have known what a person is capable of. And since Hiroshima we have known what is at stake. "

“Do you have to put up with everything? Can't you be stronger than fear? "

“National Socialism brought about the racial madness. In reality there are only two races of human beings, namely the 'race' of decent people and the 'race' of indecent people. And 'racial segregation' runs across all nations and across all parties within each individual nation. "

Works

Frankl's work appears to be published extensively and inconsistently: articles, lectures, monographs and anthologies, which often overlap. It can be roughly divided into three periods:

  1. until approx. 1960, works in German, published by Verlag Franz Deuticke, Vienna, mostly out of print;
  2. until about 1970, works in English;
  3. New editions, more recent works as well as anthologies of older essays and lectures, in German, mostly published by the publishers Hans Huber, Bern, Kösel and Piper, both Munich.

The following is only an incomplete selection. In some recent books there is a selection from the literature on logotherapy and existential analysis , compiled by Eugenio Fizzotti , with over 100 entries from Frankl's books (including translations). For a cross-sectional first overview, the Piper book Man Before the Question of Meaning is ideal . The 14-volume edition of Viktor Frankl's Collected Works, edited by Alexander Batthyany , Karl-Heinz Biller and Eugenio Fizzotti, has been published since 2005. This is the first time that Frankl's numerous publications are systematized thematically and processed in terms of the history of the work. In addition to already known book titles, the individual volumes also contain unpublished or long out of print texts from Frankl's private archives.

German

  • Medical counseling. Basics of logotherapy and existential analysis. Deuticke, Vienna 1946; Fischer TB 42302, Frankfurt am Main 1997; New edition; In this edition supplemented for the first time by: Ten theses about the person. Deuticke, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-552-06001-4 .
  • ... say yes to life anyway. Three lectures. Deuticke, Vienna 1946.
  • Psychotherapy in practice. A casuistic introduction for doctors. Franz Deuticke, Vienna 1947, DNB 573369836 .
  • The unconscious god. Psychotherapy and religion. Kösel, Munich, 1948-2004 ( ISBN 3-423-35058-X ); and dtv 35058, Munich ISBN 3-466-20302-3 .
  • The unconditional man. Metaclinical lectures. Deuticke, Vienna 1949, DNB 57336981X .
  • Pathology of the Zeitgeist. Radio lectures on psychology. Deuticke, Vienna 1955, DNB 451344790 .
  • Theory and Therapy of the Neuroses. Introduction to logotherapy and existential analysis. Reinhardt, Munich / Basel 1956; (= UTB . Volume 457) 9th edition, 2007, ISBN 978-3-497-01924-3 .
  • Psychotherapy for the layperson. Radio lectures on psychology. (Revised and expanded new edition of Pathology of the Zeitgeist ). Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1971; 5th edition 1975, ISBN 3-451-01887-X .
  • Man in search of meaning. Klett, Stuttgart 1972, ISBN 3-451-01930-2 .
  • The will to meaning. Selected lectures on logotherapy. Huber, Bern 1972, 3rd, ext. Edition, ISBN 3-456-81165-9 ; 5th edition 2005, ISBN 3-456-84173-6 ; Licensed edition: Piper series, Munich / Zurich 1994, ISBN 3-492-11238-2 .
  • The suffering person. Anthropological foundations of psychotherapy. Huber, Bern 1975-2005, ISBN 3-456-84214-7 .
  • Suffering from meaningless life. Psychotherapy for today. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1978-2006, ISBN 3-451-04859-0 .
  • The human being faced with the question of meaning. A selection from the complete works. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1979-2006, ISBN 3-492-20289-6 .
  • The question of meaning in psychotherapy. Piper, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-492-00514-4 .
  • Logotherapy and Existential Analysis. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1987, ISBN 3-492-03113-7 ; New edition: Psychologie Verlags Union, Weinheim 1998; Paperback edition: BELTZ Taschenbuch 129, Weinheim 2005, ISBN 3-407-22129-0 .
  • Mountain experience and sensual experience. Tyrolia, Innsbruck 1992; 7th, newly designed edition 2013, ISBN 978-3-7022-3297-9 .
  • What is not in my books. Life memories. Beltz, Weinheim 2002, ISBN 3-407-22757-4 .
  • with Pinchas Lapide: search for God and question of meaning. A conversation. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2005, ISBN 3-579-05428-7 .
  • Early writings 1923–1942. Edited by Gabriele Vesely-Frankl. Maudrich, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-85175-812-9 .
  • Collected Works, Volume 2: Psychology of the Concentration Camp / Synchronization in Birkenwald / Selected Texts 1945–1993. Edited by Alexander Batthyany, Karl-Heinz Biller and Eugenio Fizzotti. Böhlau, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-205-77390-X .
  • Collected Works, Volume 3: Psychotherapy in Practice and Selected Texts on Applied Psychotherapy Edited by A. Batthyany, K.-H. Biller and E. Fizzotti. Böhlau, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-205-77664-2 .
  • The day will come when you will be free. Unpublished texts and speeches. Edited by Alexander Batthyány. Kösel, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-466-37138-9 .
  • Who has a why to live. Meaning in life and resilience. Beltz, Weinheim 2017, ISBN 978-3-407-86492-5 .

English

  • 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 .
  • Man's Search for Meaning. An Introduction to Logotherapy. Simon & Schuster, New York / Beacon, Boston, ISBN 0-8070-1426-5 ; Random House / Rider, London 2004, ISBN 1-84413-239-0 .
  • Psychotherapy and Existentialism. Selected Papers on Logotherapy. Simon & Schuster, New York 1967, ISBN 0-671-20056-9 .
  • The Will to Meaning. Foundations and Applications of Logotherapy. Penguin, New York 1988, 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 .
  • The Question Of God. Experiences in a Concentration Camp.

literature

Web links

Wikiquote: Viktor Frankl  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Viktor Frankl: ... to say yes to life anyway. Three lectures. Deuticke, Vienna 1946.
  2. ↑ Morton Schatzman: Obituary: Viktor Frankl In: independent.co.uk. September 4, 1997, accessed January 15, 2018. (English)
  3. ↑ a b Susanne Mauthner-Weber / kurier.at, March 26, 2015: "Frankl saved my life" . Retrieved October 18, 2017
  4. ↑ Alfred Adler: Why do we live? 1931 ( What life should mean to you ) (= Fischer-Taschenbücher, Vol. 6708, Bücher d. Wissens ). German first edition. With an introduction by Wolfgang Metzger . From the American by Elisabeth and Wolfgang Schmidbauer . Fischer Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1979, ISBN 3-596-26708-0 ; 31.-32. Th., 1994.
  5. ↑ Viktor Frankl: A stumbling block. In: Context - Church newspaper of the Caritas community. Vienna, No. 74, December 2014 [erroneously dated 2015], p. 15.
  6. ↑ Elly Frankl: Viktor Frankl, Vienna IX - Experiences and encounters at Mariannengasse 1; a biography in pictures. Tyrolia-Verlag, Innsbruck 2005, ISBN 3-7022-2633-8 , p. 32.
  7. ^ List of speakers in the Theresienstadt ghetto
  8. ^ Alois Epple: Concentration Camp Türkheim. The Dachau subcamp Kaufering VI. Lorbeer, Bielefeld 2009, ISBN 978-3-938969-07-6 .
  9. ↑ See Elly Frankl, 2005, pp. 89-99.
  10. ↑ ORF Interview, March 13, 1994, accessed on January 15, 2018 [1]
  11. ^ Inge Patsch: On the 20th anniversary of Viktor Frankl's death [2]
  12. ^ Translation: "One of the Ten Most Influential Books in America".
  13. ^ Opening of the world's 1st Viktor Frankl Museum in Vienna . Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  14. ↑ Vienna Schools of Psychotherapy .
  15. ↑ Lexicon of Psychology. Self-transcendence. Spectrum of Science , 2000, accessed October 13, 2015 .
  16. ↑ Lexicon of Psychology. Dereflection. Spectrum of Science , 2000, accessed October 13, 2015 .
  17. ↑ Viktor Frankl u. a .: Theory and Therapy of Neuroses.
  18. ↑ Finally a Viennese prize for Frankl . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung , November 10, 1976, p. 11, bottom right.
  19. ↑ a b List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
  20. ↑ DGPA.
  21. ↑ a b c Viktor Frankl: Man before the question of meaning. A selection from the complete works . 19th edition. Piper, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-492-20289-3 , p. 155.
  22. ↑ Joseph B. Fabry, Viktor Frankl, Elisabeth Lukas : On the traces of the logos. Correspondence with Viktor E. Frankl . Quintessenz, Berlin / Munich 1995, ISBN 3-86128-325-5 , p. 147.
  23. ↑ Viktor Frankl: Mountain experience and sense experience . 7th edition. Tyrolia, Innsbruck 2013, ISBN 978-3-7022-3297-9 , back of the book.
  24. ↑ Speech on March 10, 1988 on Vienna City Hall Square “in memoriam 1938”. In: Logotherapy and Existential Analysis: Texts from Six Decades. Beltz, Weinheim 2003, p. 299.
  25. ↑ Text excerpt from The Unconscious God, Psychotherapy and Religion.
  26. ↑ Michael Schornstheimer : When life is questioned. Deutschlandradio Kultur , November 29, 2005, accessed on November 3, 2007 .
personal data
SURNAME Frankl, Viktor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Frankl, Viktor Emil (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, founder of logotherapy and existential analysis
DATE OF BIRTH March 26, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH September 2, 1997
Place of death Vienna