Student slideshow for Mr. Stennett's Human Development class, Fall 2014

1. Man’s Search For
Meaning by Viktor
Frankl
Chelsea Potter
Developmental Psychology

2. Viktor Frankl (1905-1997)
Successful neurologist
and psychologist
Holocaust survivor
-deported to camp in 1942
-lost his wife & family
 Writer of ‘Man’s Search
For Meaning’

3. Man’s Search For Meaning
• He found personal meaning in surviving the Holocaust
• “We cannot avoid suffering, but we can choose how to
cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with
renewed purpose” -Frankl
• Devoted his life to telling his story and teaching his
strategies for survival

4. Logotherapy
Form of psychotherapy
focused on helping patients
find meaning in life in three
ways:
• Work and hobbies
• Experiencing life and people
(love)
• Developing a positive
attitude!
His Holocaust experience
confirmed his theories

5. Traumatic experiences
• Not necessary for
development, but potentially
beneficial
• Mentally stronger
• Suffering brings
understanding of life’s
meaning
• Higher level of maturity
development
• More adaptable

6. Mental Survival
• Credits his survival to holding onto vision of the future
• Observed who did & did not survive- the difference
between the two was meaning and hope for the future
(mental sense of control > physical strength).
• People have the ability to develop emotionally,
cognitively, and socially in order to adapt and survive
(Evolutionary Developmental approach)
• “He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any
how” –Frankl

7. The Existential Vacuum
• Concept he developed while in
concentration camps
• Psychological condition of the
feeling of meaninglessness
• Boredom is the major symptom
• We try filling our vacuums
with satisfaction- overeating,
promiscuity, drinking, passive
entertainment, etc.

8. “Mass Neurotic Triad”

9. Finding Meaning
Through Logotherapy (work,
love, attitude)
• Psychoanalyzed prisoners
around him, taking notes,
helping other prisoners
• Thoughts and hope of his
wife
• Staying optimistic- turning
his suffering into an
‘achievement’

10. • Frankl’s stimulus-concentration
camp,
isolation from loved ones
• Response- logotherapy

11. Meaning in Suffering?
• “Has all this suffering, all this dying around us, a
meaning? For, if not, then ultimately there is no meaning
for survival”
• Frankl didn’t deny his feelings of suffering
• He encourages us to acknowledge our feelings

12. Frankl’s Theory
• “Meaning in life is the major motivational factor to live”
• Learned through the Holocaust that pleasure wasn’t as
important as meaning
• His current situation was full of pain- focused on
meaning of being there through helping others and
staying optimistic about future

13. Freud’s Theory
• Major driving force is
pleasure and conscience
• Strive to achieve pleasure
and satisfaction within
limits of values and morals
• Society motivated

14. Frankl vs. Freud

15. Frankl’s Message
• “Even in the most painful, dehumanizing situations, life
can be given meaning, and so too can suffering”
• His experience at a concentration camp taught him that
our main motivation in life is neither pleasure (as Freud
had thought) or power, but meaning.
• “We cannot avoid suffering, but we can choose how to
cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with
renewed purpose” -Frankl