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Image:Viktor_Frankl.jpg|thumb|180px|right|Viktor
Frankl
Image:1frankl-book.JPG|thumb|180px|right|Man's
search for meaning

Viktor Emil Frankl, M.D., Doctor of
Philosophy|Ph.D., (March 26, 1905 - September 2,
1997) was an Austrian neurology|neurologist and
psychiatry|psychiatrist. Frankl was the founder of
logotherapy and Existential Analysis, the "Third
Viennese School" of psychotherapy. His book Man's
Search for Meaning (first published in 1946)
chronicles his experiences as a concentration camp
inmate and describes his psychotherapeutic method
of finding a reason to live. He was one of the key
figures in existential therapy.

==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 pavillion) 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 of time this
hospital was the only one left in Vienna where
Jews were admitted). 

In 1942 he married Tilly Grosser. In the same year
he, his wife and his parents were deported to the
concentration camp of Concentration camp
Theresienstadt|Theresienstadt. In 1944 he was
transported to Auschwitz and later to Kaufering
and Türkheim, two concentration camps adjuncted
to the KZ Dachau_concentration_camp|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 (of his immediate relatives only his sister,
who had emigrated to Australia, survived the
Holocaust). It was due to his (and others')
suffering in these camps that he came to the
conclusion that everybody needs a strong goal in
life to overcome the worst tidal waves of faith.
In addition his theses that even in the most
absurd, painful and dehumanised situation life has
meaning and therefore even suffering is meaningful
served as a strong basis of Frankl's later
creation of logotherapy.

==Life after 1945==
Liberated after 3 years of life in concentration
camps he returned to Vienna. Already during 1945
he wrote his world famous book titled "Ein
Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager"
(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. 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 greek word for sense). He
gave guest lectures and seminars all over the
world and received 29 honorary doctor degrees. 

Frankl died September 2nd, 1997, in Vienna.

==Miscellaneous==
* He often said that even within the narrow
boundaries of the concentration camps he got to
know only two kinds of men: decent and non-decent
ones.

* Frankl once recommended the Statue of Liberty be
complemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the
west coast.

== Quote ==

*Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of.
And since Hiroshima we know what is at stake.

*We must remain aware of the fact that as long as
absolute truth is not accessible to us (and it
never will be), relative truths have to function
as mutual correctives.  Approaching the one truth
from various sides, sometimes even in opposite
directions, we cannot attain it, but we may at
least encircle it.

*"Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning
of his life is, but rather must recognize that it
is he who is asked. In a word, each man is
questioned by life; and he can only answer to life
by answering for his own life; to life he can only
respond by being responsible.

*We who lived in concentration camps can remember
the men who walked through the huts comforting
others, giving away their last piece of bread.
They may have been few in number, but they offer
sufficient proof that everything can be taken from
a man but one thing: the last of the human
freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given
set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

== Bibliography ==

* Viktor E. Frankl; Man's Search for Meaning;
Washington Square Press; ISBN 0-67102-3373
(Softcover, December 1997)

==See also==
*List of Austrian Scientists
*List of Austrians

== External links ==
*
http://logotherapy.univie.ac.at/e/lifeandwork.html
 Biography at Vienna University
* http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/frankl.html
Biography at Shippensburg University
*
http://www.tamilnation.org/sathyam/west/frankl.htm
Few quotes from Viktor Frankl