On the Theory and Therapy of Mental Disorders

Viktor E. Frankl was a man who persevered in living, writing, and helping people, despite suffering for years at the hands of the Nazis. He was born in Vienna on March 26, 1905, and received his doctorate of medicine in 1930. As a psychiatrist, he supervised a ward of suicidal female patients, and later became chief of the neurological department at Rothschild Hospital in Vienna.

Frankl's successful career was halted temporarily in 1942 when he was deported to a Nazi concentration camp. In Auschwitz and other camps, he witnessed and experienced daily horrors until 1945. Although he survived, his parents and many other family members did not. Returning to Vienna in 1945, he resumed his work, becoming head physician of the neurological department at the Vienna Polyclinic Hospital.

Frankl wrote more than 30 books, the most famous being Man's Search For Meaning. As a professor, he taught at many American universities, including Harvard and Stanford. He is credited with the development of logotherapy, a new style of psychotherapy.

He died in Vienna in 1997.

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