Viktor Emil Frankl M.D., Ph.D., was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor. Frankl was the founder of logotherapy, which is a form of Existential Analysis, the "Third Viennese School" of psychotherapy.
The book Man's Search for Meaning is a 1946 book by Victor Frankl chronicling his experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, and describing his psychotherapeutic method, which involved identifying a purpose to each person's life.
In September of 1942, a young psychiatrist found himself standing in line just outside of a Nazi concentration camp. At the time, nobody knew the extent of the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime. Prisoners, who at first thought they were entering a temporary holding camp, quickly realized the hopelessness of their situation. Their personal items were taken, their heads shaved, their arms tattooed with a serial number—everything about their previous life became irrelevant and seemingly lost. The young psychiatrist, despite his condition of hopelessness and misery, managed to find meaning in the suffering.
Viktor Frankl coined the term logotherapy based on his belief that the search for meaning, even amidst suffering, can constitute a potential solution to human suffering. Logotherapy holds that finding meaning in life is a primary motivational force for individuals. It emphasizes that life can have a purpose even in the face of suffering and that individuals can find meaning through their attitudes, choices, and actions. The primary goal of logotherapy is to help individuals discover and pursue their unique sense of meaning and purpose in life.