Viktor Frankl and Meaning in Suffering

In 1930s Vienna, a young psychiatrist named Viktor Frankl challenged the giants of his field. While Freud focused on a ‘will to pleasure’ and Adler on a ‘will to power’, Frankl proposed a different primary drive: the ‘will to meaning’. He put his theory into practice, establishing free youth counseling centers across the city. His approach, which he called Logotherapy, was remarkably effective. The year after he launched the program, the student suicide rate in Vienna dropped to zero. Working at the Am Steinhof psychiatric hospital, he continued to refine his ideas, forming what would become known as the Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy. His work was just beginning, but it would soon face an unimaginable test.