For Viktor Frankl, suffering and tragedy were inevitable, but not so their transcendence to meaning. The ability to rise above suffering and the immediacy of personal need were the greatest challenges to being fully human and existing freely in the world. Appreciation of art, work, creativity, love and a will to live were attainable, but only through assiduous effort.
Frankl understood how the loss of purpose and a sense of future often derailed people into psychopathology, but this internal suffering could yield to a therapeutic process favoring purpose and dignity. While not encouraging therapists to abandon their therapeutic philosophy and techniques, he encouraged clinicians to teach their clients that each moment is irrepeatable and each person irreplaceable. In doing so, we can influence our own clients to live freely in the moment while thinking and acting beyond themselves.
Length of video: 1:25:07
English subtitles available
Group ISBN-10 #: 1-60124-581-5
Group ISBN-13 #: 978-1-60124-581-6
Viktor Frankl, MD, was an Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist, best known for his 1946 “Man’s Search for Meaning,” an existential volume based upon his experiences as a prisoner in the Nazi concentration camps during World War II. His break from traditional psychoanalysis in favor of an existential/humanistic orientation led to the development of Logotherapy. Frankl, primarily a clinician, was also a prolific internationally recognized author, speaker and teacher who viewed freedom of will, will to meaning and meaning in life as psychological and spiritual cornerstones of being fully human.