Viktor Frankl

c. 1950–1997

Their wordsThe counter-concept to utility value is dignity; dignity, however, belongs to the person alone and is, by its very nature, independent of all vital and social utility.

↗Ten Theses about the Person (Salzburg lecture of 1950, as later published; tr. Franz Vesely and David Nolland)viktorfrankl.org 1st of 8 in this piece

c. 1950–1997

Their wordsOnly those who overlook or forget this can consider euthanasia to be justifiable. Anyone, on the other hand, who recognises the unconditional dignity of every single person will also have unconditional reverence for the human person—for the sick, for the incurable, and even for those with incurable "mental illnesses."

↗Ten Theses about the Person (Salzburg lecture of 1950, as later published; tr. Franz Vesely and David Nolland)viktorfrankl.org 2nd of 8 in this piece

c. 1950–1997

Their wordsIn truth, there are no "mental" illnesses in the sense of illnesses of the spirit. For the "spirit", the spiritual person itself, cannot become ill, and remains present behind the psychosis, even if hardly visible to the psychiatrist.

↗Ten Theses about the Person (Salzburg lecture of 1950, as later published; tr. Franz Vesely and David Nolland)viktorfrankl.org 3rd of 8 in this piece

c. 1950–1997

Their wordsBeing human is, as I myself repeatedly describe it, in the deepest and ultimate sense being responsible. This also means that it is more than merely being free: responsibility includes the what for of human freedom—what the human being is free for, what they decide for or against.

↗Ten Theses about the Person (Salzburg lecture of 1950, as later published; tr. Franz Vesely and David Nolland)viktorfrankl.org 4th of 8 in this piece

c. 1950–1997

Psychodynamic therapy

Their wordsThus, contrary to the psychoanalytic view, the person, as understood by the existential analysis I have attempted to outline, is not drive-determined but meaning-oriented; from the point of view of existential analysis, the person does not strive for pleasure but for value.

↗Ten Theses about the Person (Salzburg lecture of 1950, as later published; tr. Franz Vesely and David Nolland)viktorfrankl.org 5th of 8 in this piece

c. 1950–1997

Psychotherapy

Their wordsIt follows that psychotherapy is ultimately concerned not with affect-dynamic and drive-energetic transformations, but with an existential reorientation.

↗Ten Theses about the Person (Salzburg lecture of 1950, as later published; tr. Franz Vesely and David Nolland)viktorfrankl.org 6th of 8 in this piece

c. 1950–1997

Their wordsYet I am not driven to faith in God or to God himself; I must decide for or against him. Religiosity is ego-like, or it is nothing at all.

↗Ten Theses about the Person (Salzburg lecture of 1950, as later published; tr. Franz Vesely and David Nolland)viktorfrankl.org 7th of 8 in this piece

c. 1950–1997

Their wordsWhether one wants to or not, whether one acknowledges it or not, the human being believes in meaning for as long as it breathes.

↗Ten Theses about the Person (Salzburg lecture of 1950, as later published; tr. Franz Vesely and David Nolland)viktorfrankl.org 8th of 8 in this piece

c. 1992

Their wordsDon't aim at success - the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it.

↗Man's Search for Meaning (Beacon Press, 2006 edition; Part One tr. Ilse Lasch)books.google.com All 21 from this book

c. 1946–1992

Their wordsThe salvation of man is through love and in love.

↗Man's Search for Meaning (Beacon Press, 2006 edition; Part One tr. Ilse Lasch)books.google.com All 21 from this book

c. 1946–1992

Their wordsHumor was another of the soul's weapons in the fight for self-preservation.

↗Man's Search for Meaning (Beacon Press, 2006 edition; Part One tr. Ilse Lasch)books.google.com All 21 from this book

c. 1946–1992

Their wordseverything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

↗Man's Search for Meaning (Beacon Press, 2006 edition; Part One tr. Ilse Lasch)books.google.com All 21 from this book

c. 1946–1992

Their wordsFundamentally, therefore, any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him - mentally and spiritually. He may retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp.

↗Man's Search for Meaning (Beacon Press, 2006 edition; Part One tr. Ilse Lasch)books.google.com All 21 from this book

c. 1946–1992

Their wordsThe prisoner who had lost faith in the future - his future - was doomed.

↗Man's Search for Meaning (Beacon Press, 2006 edition; Part One tr. Ilse Lasch)books.google.com All 21 from this book

c. 1946–1992

Their wordsLife ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.

↗Man's Search for Meaning (Beacon Press, 2006 edition; Part One tr. Ilse Lasch)books.google.com All 21 from this book

c. 1946–1992

Their wordsit did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life - daily and hourly.

↗Man's Search for Meaning (Beacon Press, 2006 edition; Part One tr. Ilse Lasch)books.google.com All 21 from this book

c. 1962–1992

motivation

Their wordsMan's search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life and not a “secondary rationalization” of instinctual drives.

↗Man's Search for Meaning (Beacon Press, 2006 edition; Part One tr. Ilse Lasch)books.google.com All 21 from this book

c. 1962–1992

Their wordsmental health is based on a certain degree of tension, the tension between what one has already achieved and what one still ought to accomplish, or the gap between what one is and what one should become.

↗Man's Search for Meaning (Beacon Press, 2006 edition; Part One tr. Ilse Lasch)books.google.com All 21 from this book

c. 1962–1992

Their wordsFor the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour.

↗Man's Search for Meaning (Beacon Press, 2006 edition; Part One tr. Ilse Lasch)books.google.com All 21 from this book

c. 1962–1992

Their wordsEveryone has his own specific vocation or mission in life to carry out a concrete assignment which demands fulfillment.

↗Man's Search for Meaning (Beacon Press, 2006 edition; Part One tr. Ilse Lasch)books.google.com All 21 from this book

c. 1962–1992

Their wordsIn other words, self-actualization is possible only as a side-effect of self-transcendence.

↗Man's Search for Meaning (Beacon Press, 2006 edition; Part One tr. Ilse Lasch)books.google.com All 21 from this book

c. 1962–1992

Their wordsThe more one forgets himself—by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love—the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself.

↗Man's Search for Meaning (Beacon Press, 2006 edition; Part One tr. Ilse Lasch)books.google.com All 21 from this book

c. 1962–1992

Their wordsIt is one of the basic tenets of logotherapy that man's main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life.

↗Man's Search for Meaning (Beacon Press, 2006 edition; Part One tr. Ilse Lasch)books.google.com All 21 from this book

c. 1962–1992

Their wordsIn some way, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice.

↗Man's Search for Meaning (Beacon Press, 2006 edition; Part One tr. Ilse Lasch)books.google.com All 21 from this book

c. 1962–1992

Their wordsMan is not fully conditioned and determined but rather determines himself whether he gives in to conditions or stands up to them. In other words, man is ultimately self-determining.

↗Man's Search for Meaning (Beacon Press, 2006 edition; Part One tr. Ilse Lasch)books.google.com All 21 from this book

c. 1962–1992

Their wordsIn fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.

↗Man's Search for Meaning (Beacon Press, 2006 edition; Part One tr. Ilse Lasch)books.google.com All 21 from this book

c. 1962–1992

Their wordsAfter all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips.

↗Man's Search for Meaning (Beacon Press, 2006 edition; Part One tr. Ilse Lasch)books.google.com All 21 from this book

c. 1984–1992

Their wordsBut happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue.

↗Man's Search for Meaning (Beacon Press, 2006 edition; Part One tr. Ilse Lasch)books.google.com All 21 from this book

c. 1984–1992

Their wordsAs to the causation of the feeling of meaninglessness, one may say, albeit in an oversimplifying vein, that people have enough to live by but nothing to live for; they have the means but no meaning.

↗Man's Search for Meaning (Beacon Press, 2006 edition; Part One tr. Ilse Lasch)books.google.com All 21 from this book