Viktor Frankl
Neurologist, psychiatrist and logotherapy founder
Viktor Frankl was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who founded logotherapy, a school of psychotherapy built around the search for meaning.
1 summary 16 min of listening
Austrian Born 1905 in Vienna, Austria Died 1997
About Viktor Frankl
Viktor Frankl was born in Vienna on 26 March 1905 and died on 2 September 1997. He earned doctorates in medicine and philosophy at the University of Vienna, and later became a professor of neurology and psychiatry at its medical school. He also held visiting professorships at Harvard, Duquesne and Southern Methodist Universities. Frankl founded logotherapy, which holds that the search for meaning in life is the main motivating force in people. It was presented as the third Viennese school of psychotherapy, coming after the work of Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler. During World War II he spent three years in concentration camps, including Auschwitz and Dachau. His best-selling book Man’s Search for Meaning draws on his experiences in the Nazi camps.