The character arc of Viktor Frankl
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 26 March 1905 in Vienna, the second of three children of a civil servant and his wife, in a Jewish family. Between then and his death sit night classes in applied psychology begun at school, a teenage correspondence with Sigmund Freud who asked to publish one of his papers, medicine at the University of Vienna, a first scientific paper at nineteen, a marriage in 1941, deportation with his family in 1942, the deaths of his father, mother, brother and wife, liberation in 1945, a manuscript rewritten from memory, thirty nine books, and the founding of a school of psychotherapy. The line below draws the whole story.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who was Viktor Frankl?
They took the manuscript. He wrote it again from memory.
He was the second of three children in a Jewish family in Vienna, the son of a civil servant in the ministry of social service. His interest in psychology began at school, in night classes on applied psychology taken while he was still a junior high school pupil. As a teenager he began a correspondence with Sigmund Freud, and Freud asked his permission to publish one of his papers, which is an extraordinary thing to happen to a schoolboy. He studied medicine at the University of Vienna from 1923 and published his first scientific paper in 1924, at nineteen.
In 1941 he married Tilly Grosser, a nurse at a Vienna hospital. She became pregnant soon afterwards, and they were forced to end the pregnancy. Nine months after the marriage, in 1942, he and his family were deported to Theresienstadt. His father died there of starvation and pneumonia. In 1944 he and his surviving relatives were transported onward. His mother and brother were killed. Tilly died at Bergen Belsen. He was held until 1945, and of his immediate family he came out alone.
He had been writing a book before the deportation, his first on the therapy he was developing, and he carried the manuscript into the camps hidden in the lining of his jacket. It was taken from him on transfer. After the war he wrote it again from memory, which is the single most characteristic act of his life.
What he founded is logotherapy, a school of psychotherapy holding that the search for a life's meaning is the central human motivational force, and it was promoted as the third school of Viennese psychotherapy after those of Freud and Adler. His doctrine was that a person must instil meaning in the events of their own life, that both work and suffering can lead to finding it, and that this leads in the end to fulfilment.
He wrote thirty nine books. The best known is his autobiographical account of the camps, which has been read by tens of millions of people. A historian has surveyed discrepancies and omissions in his account of Auschwitz specifically, and the record notes that the book itself does not suggest long term detention there. He died in Vienna on 2 September 1997, at ninety two.
The moments
Viktor Frankl's timeline.
The 1910s
Night classes at school
Milestone, and it changed his direction. A schoolboy going to night classes in psychology, on his own initiative.
The 1920s
Freud writes back
Milestone, and it changed everything. He wrote to Freud as a teenager, and Freud asked to publish him.
Medicine in Vienna
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Medical school at eighteen, and a published paper at nineteen.
The 1940s
He marries Tilly
Milestone, and it changed everything. A marriage, in Vienna, in 1941.
Deported with his family
Setback, and it changed everything. Nine months married, and the whole family was taken.
His father dies
Setback, and it changed everything. His father, dead in the first camp.
Transported onward
Setback, and it changed everything. Moved on again, and they took the book out of his coat.
His mother, brother and wife
Setback, and it changed everything. Of the whole family, he was the one who came out.
Rebuild the book, or let it go
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: write it again, taken, or start something else. He rebuilt the book and wrote thirty eight more, and founded a school of psychotherapy.
He writes it again
Milestone, and it changed everything. They destroyed the book, so he wrote the whole thing again.
Man's Search for Meaning
Milestone, and it changed everything. The book he is known for, written in the first year after liberation.
The 1950s
The third Viennese school
Milestone, and it changed everything. A third school of psychotherapy, after Freud and Adler.
The 1980s
A historian questions the account
Setback, and it changed his direction. A historian questioned parts of the account. The deportation and the deaths are not in question.
The 1990s
He dies at ninety two
Milestone, and it changed everything. Ninety two years old, fifty two of them after liberation.
The book is still handed to people in the worst week of their lives, eighty years on. What he set moving is one sentence really, that a person can be stripped of everything except the choice of what to make of it, written by somebody who had been stripped of everything and then had to prove it.
Your turn
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His lost everything a person can lose and he rebuilt the book from memory. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Viktor Frankl: frequently asked questions
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Did Viktor Frankl correspond with Freud?
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Has Viktor Frankl's account been questioned?
Where does this timeline of Viktor Frankl's life come from?
More character arcs
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Sources
- Viktor Frankl, English Wikipedia biography.
- His own autobiographical account of the camps, and the historical survey of discrepancies in it, as that biography records both.
- University of Vienna records for his medical studies from 1923.
- His youth political involvement is deliberately left off this page.