Viktor Frankl

Viktor Emil Frankl was born in Vienna on March 26, 1905; he died in the same city on September 2, 1997.

Viktor Frankl was Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at the University of Vienna. In addition, he was a guest lecturer at various universities in the United States. Frankl has received 29 honorary degrees from universities in all parts of the world.

From 1940 to 1942 Frankl was director of the Neurological Department of the Rothschild Hospital in Vienna.

Viktor Frankl gained international fame with his book The meaning of existence. In the first part, Frankl autobiographically reconstructs how he and his Jewish family were deported by the Nazis in 1942 to the German extermination camps in World War II. Frankl survived the Holocaust and found in the horrors and hardships he experienced, confirmation that his ideas about humans, mental health and therapy are viable.

After World War II, Frankl published his findings and returned to teaching at universities. From 1946 to 1970 he was director of the Vienna Neurological Clinic.

Frankl 's 32 book titles have been published in at least 26 languages. According to a study by the United States Library of Congress, Frankl 's book "Man's Search for Meaning" is one of the ten most influential books among lifetime readers in America today.

Viktor Frankl does not approach the patient as 'the sick person', but as a person with a disease. Behind the disease is an ultimately undamaged 'spiritual person'. In his "Ten Theses about the Person" Frankl accurately and concisely sketches his view of man (anthropology).

All over the world there are institutes that are engaged in research, training and education in the line of Viktor Frankl, Logotherapy and Existential Analytical Psychotherapy. The Viktor Frankl Zentrum is located in Vienna, where Frankl's spiritual legacy is preserved.

“It doesn’t really matter what we expect from life, what matters is what life expects from us” (Frankl, 1986)