Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning


Viktor Frankl (1905-1997); C. G. Jung (1875-1961); Friedrich Nietzsche (1875-1900); Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

Viktor Frankl was a Jewish psychologist who was captured by the Nazis and sent into the concentration camps. In the most horrific circumstances that seemed to be completely meaningless, he nevertheless found meaning. He went on to found a school of thought or philosophy as well as psychotherapy he came to call Logotherapy ("meaning therapy").

Frankl continues to further develop the Existentialist emphasis on the unique significance of the individual's life or existence. For him, each person can find meaning in his or her life that is distinct to his or her own existence. What Frankl means by a "meaningful life" is inextricably bound up with moral meaning.
Further themes of Man's Search for Meaning:

Comparisons


Kierkegaard: faith and doubt; sin and redemption; good and evil
Krishna, Arjuna, and the Bhagavad Gita: karma and liberation (moksa); delusion and knowledge (jnana; gnosis)
Jung: conscious and unconscious; the shadow, complexes, and archetypes; the healing power of the Self (vs ego-consciousness)
Frankl: meaning and meaninglessness