Purpose and Psychiatry in Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning”
In 1942, the Jewish Austrian psychologist Viktor Frankl was amongst those sent into concentration camps during the height of the Holocaust. His experiences in the camp, alongside the doctrine he would eventually come to name “Logotherapy,” were chronicled in the book, “Man’s Search for Meaning,” which would go on to sell over 10 million copies by 1997. In this book, both parts autobiography and scientific journal, Frankl chronicles his experiences and observations during his time in the concentration camp, both as a scientist and a prisoner. He would eventually go on to summarize those observations in a doctrine he titled the “Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy” ("Life of Viktor Frankl," 2020).
The Story
In one of the most well-known acts of mass genocide, the Holocaust, millions of Jewish people were taken from their homes and herded into concentration camps, many of whom died either by execution or by the sheer conditions of the camp. Among them was Austrian native Viktor Emil Frankl.
Born in Vienna, Frankl had taken to psychology as a teenager and even corresponded with Sigmund Freud, the founder of the First Viennese School of Psychotherapy. As a medical student, he set up youth counseling centers to help decrease teen suicide in Vienna. After gaining his doctorate in medicine, Frankl worked in several hospitals and married a nurse, Tilly Grosser, in 1941. Shortly after, Frankl and his family were sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in Bohemia. Transferred between 4 separate concentration camps, Frankl lost most of his family and, throughout his time, was motivated to live largely by the desire to complete his work (Frankl, 1997).
After returning, he wrote Man’s Search for Meaning, originally published anonymously but eventually under his own name. Frankl also obtained a doctorate in philosophy in 1948 and served as a professor teaching psychology and neurology at the University of Vienna., He continued to teach and write until his death in 1997.
Among the 39 books he published, “Man’s Search for Meaning” is by far his most enduring work. Divided into two parts, it chronicles his experiences in the camps and the observations he made amongst the prisoners, which he eventually develops in the second part of the book as a school of thought he would call logotherapy.
Logotherapy: What is it?
Derived from the Greek word “logos” (meaning), Frankl’s discourse centered around the idea of meaning. Examining his previous teachers, Freud and Adler, Frankl rejects the idea that people are driven by the will to pleasure, as the former said, or the will to power, as described by the latter. Rather, a man is driven by his search for meaning in his life, and several psychiatric dilemmas could, by this measure, be traced to a lack of meaning in the patient. Frankl characterized this form of therapy as “pertaining to the specifically human dimension,” and as such, classified the symptoms he would observe in these cases as “noögenic,” deriving from the Greek word for mind.
To that end, he coined the term “noö-dynamics,” another way of effectively describing the state of tension he wished to induce within his patients. Rebuking the idea that patients should be left “tensionless,” or simply content, he believed that logotherapy should create an impetus within the patient to pursue a meaning, after that meaning has been defined for them (Frankl, 1997).
Before we address the concept of meaning, we must first touch upon what Frankl dubbed “the existential vacuum.” In a psychiatric philosophy that can be likened to Camus or Nagel (Camus, 1955) in their description of the absurd, Frankl believed that the primary cause of noögenic neuroses was the existence of this “vacuum” where man encountered a form of boredom that stemmed from an ultimate lack of purpose. To that end, the patient, with guidance from their therapist, would be encouraged to find a meaning at that particular point in their life, rather than an overall meaning of life that would be broad and therefore directionless (Frankl, 1997). To any existentialist, this resembles Camus’s outlook in “The Myth of Sisyphus,” where he used the analogy of Sisyphus in hell pushing a rock to explain man’s search for meaning in every action in his life. (Camus, 1955).
The Meaning of Life and How to Find It
Frankl considered that to find an overarching meaning in life was abstract and therefore ineffective; rather, patients should search for a meaning at that particular point in their lives. Moreover, he believed that the very act of asking was the crux of logotherapeutic discourse, or as he stated, “Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who asked.” To this end, the logotherapist was responsible for helping the patient recognize that sense of responsibility that comes with a search for meaning, or, to use the author’s own language, to instill noö-dynamics within the patient (Frankl, 1997).
Frankl also espoused the idea that the actualization of one amongst the various “potentialities” in life is a choice man must repeatedly make, for life is transient. In other words, the very act of converting a thought into a reality is in itself the act of giving life meaning.
As for how this meaning was to be found, Frankl suggested that it was either through doing, experiencing, or suffering (Frankl, 1997). This third point is a standout in his discourse and his experiences as chronicled in the book, bringing us to the next point of this discussion.
The Importance of Suffering
Frankl quotes from Dostoevsky, “There is one thing I dread; not to be worthy of my sufferings.” (Frankl, 1997). This quote is an apt summary of Frankl’s perspective on suffering: that it is not only inevitable, but lays the groundwork for something far more significant in one’s life.
In the doctrine of logotherapy, one of the key ideas is to embrace the human condition, viewed through a more existential lens. This is what gave rise to the “existential vacuum,” or the concept of “existential frustration,” which also describes a dilemma arising from a lack of meaning. This love of humanity as a scientific idea formed Frankl’s views on suffering. Just as the therapist shouldn’t seek to resolve tension, the patient shouldn’t seek to pity themselves or reject their suffering, but embrace it as an achievement. Going back to his experiences in the concentration camp, Frankl recalls how, despite the grueling and brutal nature of their surroundings, he saw benevolence in his fellow prisoners and attributes it to them embracing their suffering as an achievement, rather than a possible reason for them to change.
Frankl also espouses how the present worldview has conditioned people to believe that happiness is an achievement, and, therefore, unhappiness is a failure. Those who are unhappy for a given cause find their despair compounded by knowing they have failed to be happy. To this, he suggests accepting suffering as a challenge, and doing so with courage. He goes so far as to recall another instance of his time in the concentration camps where he asked, “Has all this suffering, this dying around us, a meaning? For, if not, then ultimately there is no meaning to survival” (Frankl, 1997).
Perhaps the root belief at the core of this fairly romantic ideology can be summarized by Gordon Allport, the eminent psychologist who contributed this to the preface in the 1969 edition: “To live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering. If there is a purpose in life at all, there must be a purpose in suffering and in dying.” ("Famous misquotations: To live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in suffering," 2022).
Indeed, this draws heavy parallels to Nietzsche, who in the “Genealogy of Morality” said, “Man, the bravest animal and most prone to suffer, does not deny suffering as such: he wills it, he even seeks it out, provided he is shown a meaning for it, a purpose of suffering.” (Nietzsche, 2023). Frankl often quotes Nietzsche throughout the book, providing some insight as to one of the foundational aspects of logotherapy; it is based in existentialist philosophy, and is, therefore, uniquely human (Arkell, 2024).
Logotherapy in Practice
Rather than directly addressing a patient’s neuroses, logotherapy targets an observed symptom that always emerges: anticipatory anxiety. Frankl targets excessive intention and excessive reflection as consequences of this anxiety, that is, the forcing of one’s self to do something, or the constant reflection upon a particular belief, that can incapacitate a patient. To that end, logotherapy suggests paradoxical intention, wherein the patient attempts to consciously wish for themselves the opposite of their desired reaction in an attempt to free themselves from the anticipatory anxiety. Frankl cites the case of a physician who would often sweat excessively and more so when he feared it would happen. To remedy it, Frankl suggested that he wish for himself to sweat as much as he possibly could, and in doing so, he was able to cure himself of his excessive perspiration.
Frankl goes on to cite a number of instances in which paradoxical intention was effective: sleeplessness, psychosomatic conditions, and conditions presenting multiple symptoms. He coupled this with a term he titled “dereflection,” which was to remove the patient’s focus from their source of anxiety. However, he reiterates that some cases also stemmed from an existential vacuum, and therefore, paradoxical intention would not work if the patient were ultimately missing meaning in their life.
Additionally, Frankl rebuked the concept he dubbed “pan-determinism,” which states that the person is a product of their biological and social circumstances, in other words, incapable of change. He then goes on to cite the example of a German doctor who worked alongside Frankl at the Steinhof hospital in Vienna and who was responsible for enforcing the Nazi’s euthanasia program there, a man who Frankl describes as “Mephistophelean.” However, upon his capture by the Russians, he was said to have been a paragon of moral conduct and an inspiration to his fellow prisoners (Frankl, 1997). Further reading would uncover the identity of this man as Erwin Jekelius, who was responsible for the mass killings of handicapped children under Hitler’s government ("10 diagnosis: "Useless"," n.d.).
Frankl uses this example to enforce the critical idea of freedom in determining a man’s character and reiterates that despite being a professor of neurology, his experiences in concentration camps taught him the extent to which man is capable of rising above his circumstances. Once again, a parallel can be seen between Frankl’s doctrine and eminent existential works; in this case, that of Jean-Paul Sartre, who said in his book “Existentialism and Human Emotions,” “Man is condemned to be free. Condemned, because he did not create himself, in other respect is free; because, once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.” (Sartre, 1957)
Criticisms of Logotherapy
Logotherapy has been criticized on two primary grounds, the first of which was the idea that it was “authoritarian.” This was suggested by a fellow proponent of existential psychoanalysis, Rollo May, who argued that when a patient struggled to find a meaning, Frankl’s philosophy essentially suggested that the psychiatrist supplement the patient with one, thereby diminishing their role in their own recovery and giving the psychiatrist undue control. Moreover, May used Rabbi Reuven Bulka’s study of Frankl’s work as grounds for an argument that logotherapy and religion were both formed on authoritarian grounds. Frankl responded to the criticism with the argument that doctors are entrusted with delivering their prognosis in an authoritative manner. Still, a patient’s faith in the prognosis was a factor out of his control (Pytell, 2016). May’s criticism raises questions about the role of logotherapy and religion; there are many times Frankl notes the role of spiritual powers or religious faith as a catalyst in man’s search for meaning, so the question arises: is logotherapy nearly as effective as Frankl would suggest in patients that are atheistic or without faith?
A second criticism arose in a 2007 paper by Timothy Pytell, who compared Frankl’s accounts with that of fellow psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Bruno Bettelheim and accounts of the camps to examine the basis for the therapies they derived. Pytell’s criticism raises the concern that Frankl’s philosophy arose from his own psychological need to rise above his circumstances, and as such, logotherapy is little more than Frankl’s worldview. There is also criticism in the paper that Frankl was simply projecting a series of feelings onto the prisoners' psyches, which the author describes as “vacuous” (Pytell, 2007). There is evidence in Frankl’s own summary of logotherapy in the book that he draws several times from patients who were not suffering from major psychiatric conditions in order to describe certain phenomena, and within the context of his description of Dr. Erwin Jekelius, the question of Frankl’s own character and the extent to which his and the collective psyche of his prisoners were “enlightened” leaves much to be desired.
Conclusion
Viktor Frankl’s philosophy, along with his experiences in concentration camps, is what made his book “Man’s Search for Meaning” his best known, leading it to sell over 10 million copies and be translated into 24 languages. Despite prominent criticism and what can be described as fairly vague tenets, logotherapy has gained eminence in a number of countries, such as through the Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy, established by Joseph Fabry in 1978, and several institutions across the world (Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy, n.d.). Readers who might want to explore this further can also study the prominent works of Nietzsche, Camus, or Sartre, as referenced in this article, amongst many other notable existentialists, to gain a firm grasp of some of the foundational philosophies behind Frankl’s approach.
Works Cited
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