Viktor Frankl

 Viktor Emil Frankl (Vienna, Austria, March 26, 1905–September 2, 1997), known as Viktor Frankl, was an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist and philosopher, founder of logotherapy and existential analysis.


Early years

He was born in the Austrian capital into a family of Jewish origin. His father was a parliamentary stenographer until he became minister of Social Affairs.

He studied medicine at the University of Vienna, specializing in neurology and psychiatry. From 1933 to 1937, he worked at the Vienna General Hospital. From 1937 to 1940, he practiced psychiatry privately. From 1940 to 1942, he headed the neurology department of the Rothschild Hospital (the only hospital in Vienna where Jews were admitted).

Deportation: concentration camps

In September 1942, he, his wife, and his parents were deported to Theresienstadt, a concentration camp near Prague. From 1942 to 1945, he was in four concentration camps, including Auschwitz, known as the death camp. What he experienced in those years is unimaginable. He managed to survive; Not so his wife, his parents as, his brother, his sister-in-law, and many colleagues and friends.

After his release, he spent several weeks in Munich trying to find out which of his relatives had survived. Little by little he found out that no one had made it and he experienced deep pain, loneliness and emptiness. On his return to Vienna, he was assigned an apartment in the ninth district in which he lived for the rest of his life. From that experience, he wrote the best-selling book Man's Search for Meaning (1946).

He was appointed head of the Department of Neurology at the Vienna Polyclinic, a post he held for 25 years. He was a professor of both neurology and psychiatry at the University of Vienna.

Teaching work

He directed the Vienna neurological polyclinic until 1971. In 1949, he received a doctorate in philosophy. In 1955, he was appointed professor at the University of Vienna. Beginning in 1961, Frankl held five teaching positions at universities in the United States: Harvard, Stanford, Dallas, Pittsburgh, and San Diego. He continued to teach at the University of Vienna until he was 85 years old on a regular basis. He gave courses and lectures all over the world.

Acknowledgments

He won the Oskar Pfister Award from the American Psychiatric Association, as well as other awards from different European countries. He received 29 honorary doctorates from different universities.




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