K Viktor Frankl’s Search for Meaning L MAKING SENSE OF HISTORY Studies in Historical Cultures General Editor: Stefan Berger Founding Editor: Jörn Rüsen Bridging the gap between historical theory and the study of historical memory, this series crosses the boundaries between both academic disciplines and cultural, social, political and historical contexts. In an age of rapid globalization, which tends to mani- fest itself on an economic and political level, locating the cultural practices involved in generating its underlying historical sense is an increasingly urgent task. Volume 1 Volume 13 Western Historical Thinking: An Intercultural New Dangerous Liaisons: Discourses on Europe Debate and Love in the Twentieth Century Edited by Jörn Rüsen Edited by Luisa Passerini, Lilianna Ellena, and Alexander C. T. Geppert Volume 2 Identities: Time, Diff erence, and Boundaries Volume 14 Edited by Heidrun Friese Dark Traces of the Past: Psychoanalysis and Historical Thinking Volume 3 Narration, Identity, and Historical Consciousness Edited by Jürgen Straub and Jörn Rüsen Edited by Jürgen Straub Volume 15 A Lover’s Quarrel with the Past: Romance, Volume 4 Thinking Utopia: Steps into Other Worlds Representation, Reading Edited by Jörn Rüsen, Michael Fehr, and Ranjan Ghosh Thomas W. Rieger Volume 16 Volume 5 The Holocaust and Historical Methodology History: Narration, Interpretation, Orientation Edited by Dan Stone Jörn Rüsen Volume 17 Volume 6 What is History For? Johann Gustav Droysen and The Dynamics of German Industry: Germany’s the Functions of Historiography Path toward the New Economy and the American Arthur Alfaix Assis Challenge Volume 18 Werner Abelshauser Vanished History: The Holocaust in Czech and Volume 7 Slovak Historical Culture Meaning and Representation in History Tomas Sniegon Edited by Jörn Rüsen Volume 19 Volume 8 Jewish Histories of the Holocaust: New Remapping Knowledge: Intercultural Studies for a Transnational Approaches Global Age Edited by Norman J.W. Goda Mihai Spariosu Volume 20 Volume 9 Helmut Kohl’s Quest for Normality: His Cultures of Technology and the Quest for Representation of the German Nation and Himself Innovation Christian Wicke Edited by Helga Nowotny Volume 21 Volume 10 Marking Evil: Holocaust Memory in the Global Time and History: The Variety of Cultures Age Edited by Jörn Rüsen Edited by Amos Goldberg and Haim Hazan Volume 11 Volume 22 Narrating the Nation: Representations in History, The Rhythm of Eternity: The German Youth Media and the Arts Movement and the Experience of the Past Edited by Stefan Berger, Linas Eriksonas, and Robert-Jan Adriaansen Andrew Mycock Volume 23 Volume 12 Viktor Frankl’s Search for Meaning: An Historical Memory in Africa: Dealing with the Emblematic 20th-Century Life Past, Reaching for the Future in an Intercultural Timothy E. Pytell Context Edited by Mamadou Diawara, Bernard Lategan, and Jörn Rüsen V F ’ IKTOR RANKL S S M EARCH FOR EANING An Emblematic 20th-Century Life Timothy E. Pytell berghahn N E W Y O R K • O X F O R D www.berghahnbooks.com First published in 2015 by Berghahn Books www.berghahnbooks.com ©2015 Timothy E. Pytell All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pytell, Timothy, author. Viktor Frankl’s search for meaning : an emblematic 20th-century life / Timothy E. Pytell. — First edition. pages cm. — (Making sense of history ; volume 23) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-78238-830-2 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-78238-831-9 (ebook) 1. Frankl, Viktor E. (Viktor Emil), 1905-1997. 2. Psychologists—Austria— Biography. 3. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)—Psychological aspects. I. Title. BF109.F695P95 2015 150.19’5092—dc23 2015003131 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Printed on acid-free paper. ISBN: 978-1-78238-830-2 hardback ISBN: 978-1-78238-831-9 ebook Contents Preface vi Introduction. Viktor Frankl and Man’s Search for Meaning 1 Chapter One. The First Attempt to Find Meaning 15 Chapter Two. The Second Attempt to Find Meaning 25 Chapter Three. Frankl’s Ordination: From Theory to Praxis 46 Chapter Four. The Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy 61 Chapter Five. The Doctor Perseveres 81 Chapter Six. Surviving and Working Through to Redemption 100 Chapter Seven. The Flight into the Spiritual 131 Chapter Eight. Forgetting, Reconfi guring, and Vergangheitsbewältigung 146 Chapter Nine. Frankl in America: Transcending the Angel Beast 158 Postscript 182 Sources Consulted 186 Index 199 Preface The origins of this book stem from my attempt to understand how Western culture went from Freud’s postulation of a death instinct in 1922 to the con- temporary Kervorkianism or medicalization of death. Infl uenced by the French philosopher Michel Foucault, I originally aspired to write a genealogy of the last of the human sciences—thanatology. My friend, the late Lawrence Birken, suggested I investigate Viktor Frankl. Since Frankl had been infl uenced by Freud, and late in his life had made critical comments on Kervorkian, I thought his intellectual production might be the anchor for the study that I was then formulating as the desublimation of the death instinct in Western civilization. Although embers of that initial quest remain, I quickly realized that an intellec- tual biography of Viktor Frankl was an ideal stand-alone topic. This book project has left me indebted to a plethora of family, friends, and institutions. It is impossible to acknowledge them all so I will attempt a short list. I am grateful to Günter Bischopf for suggesting I contact Marion Berghahn. The good people of Berghahn Books are producing top-notch and groundbreaking historical works. I am honored to be a part of the team. Over the years I have received a great deal of institutional support. A Mellon Foundation grant provided initial seed money. Social science research grants provided by Colorado College allowed me to further my understanding of Holocaust survival issues. I presented my initial research to the Richardson History of Psychiatry Seminar at Cornell University in New York, and I am particularly grateful to George Makari, Aaron Esman, and Joseph Reppen for both the opportunity and feedback. Participation in the Silbermann Seminar and participation in the Hess Seminar at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum led by Mark Roseman, Jurgen Matthaus, Donald Bloxham, and John Roth were the most profoundly rewarding professional development experi- ences of my career. The museum’s mission of Holocaust education, genocide prevention, and advanced research is being achieved at the highest level because of the exceptional people working there. The world owes them gratitude. Preface vii For the last twelve years my home institution of California State University San Bernardino has provided both fi nancial support and a working environ- ment that was central in bringing the book to fruition. I am especially apprecia- tive of the warm welcome off ered by Professor Lawrence “Laurie” Baron upon my arrival in California and subsequent support and friendship over the years. I also owe my “immediate” family a word of gratitude. My mother Honora and her late husband Wayne Anzick opened their home for the initial writing. Sim- ilarly, my sister and brother-in-law, Katie and Mike Boone, loaned their alpine retreat, and also discussed issues relating to the history of psychology. Finally my great friend John Rice provided recreation time as we four-wheeled and biked around Colorado when I was taking breaks from writing. For the last twelve years my wife Lucy and our two children Alexandra and Sebastian have kept life full of reward and emotion. Thanks for giving me the time away to fi nish this project! I owe a special acknowledgement to Alexander Batthyány. In the famous Viennese cafés “Sperl” and “Schwarzenberg,” amid coff ee and clouds of smoke, Alex took me through a page by page critical reading of my manuscript. I did my very best to incorporate his opinions and criticisms, and the manuscript is the better for it. Although his training as a philosopher and Logotherapist, in contrast with my training as a European intellectual historian, led us to some perhaps “irreconcilable” disagreements, I appreciate his good humanity and his willingness to agree to disagree. My circle of close comrades in Vienna, Wolfgang Maderthaner, Siegfried Mattl, Karl Fallend, and Gerhard Benetka, made this book possible. Thank you! My research was also enhanced by Wolfgang Neugebauer, Elisabeth Klamper, Gerhard Botz, Oliver Rathkolb, Karin Holzer, Joachim Widder, Wilfried Po- totsnig, Ernst Kreishler, Richard Mitten, Walter Manoschek, Rüdiger Stix, Judy Podilipnik, Peter Malina, Karl Pfeifer, Ernest Seinfeld, Lydia Marinelli, Helwig Leibinger, Anna Hájková, Camilla Nielsen, Peter Mauer, and Herbert Kuhner. In New York, my colleagues at New York University, Ed Zupcic, Nicole Dom- browski-Risser, and John Savage helped me survive the ups and downs of grad- uate school. At Cooper Union, Peter Buckley and David Weir kept my spirits and humor up while I was working as an adjunct. Along with being a great friend, Mark Durkin provided generous editorial assistance with my writing. Other close friends and patrons in New York include Roger Mullarkey, Tom Howes, Scott Driggers, Andrew Collins, Barry Pailet, and Rob Morea, along with Barbra Dixon, Tom and Jeanne Hill, Alice Geller, Lorig Yekhairparin, and David Rentschler. So many others have had a profound impact on my life. Thanks for enhancing the ride. The stars literally aligned for me at NYU in the late 1980s and early 1990s. NYU already had an excellent faculty that included Molly Nolan when three outstanding European intellectual historians, the late Tony Judt, Anson Rabin- bach, and Jerrold Seigel, arrived on the scene. Each in their own unique way viii Preface made a profound impact on me, and made my life so much more worth liv- ing. Early on I came in contact with the work of Geoff rey Cocks. We became friends and the reader will easily see the debt I owe him. The late Lawrence “Larry” Birken spent countless hours discussing not only Frankl but intellec- tual life in general and was a great “intellectual” friend to me. I miss him. I am deeply appreciative of the direction of Jerry Seigel. He forced me to become a better writer, thinker, and scholar. Finally I owe my greatest debt to Andy Rabinbach. I learned to teach under his tutelage at Cooper Union, he estab- lished all my initial contacts in Vienna that made the research for this book possible, he read the initial draft, and most importantly he has been the ideal mentor, steady, inspiring, and the epitome of a “gut mensch.” He has my and many other students’ deepest admiration and appreciation. It has been my great fortune in life to have encountered exceptional teach- ers. From the nuns in my grammar school that fi rst sparked my interest in the past, to the exceptional group of extraordinary professors at Colorado College that gave me the foundation and confi dence to pursue a Ph.D., to the brilliant minds I encountered at NYU, I owe my deepest gratitude. The oft-quoted line from Yeats that “Education is not the fi lling of a pail, but the lighting of a fi re” is undoubtedly true. But to teach is in essence nurturing and coaxing that “fi re” into form through writing, speaking, and critical thinking. Subsequently, to the teachers and especially “Susan” Ashley at Colorado College, who taught me to never stop asking “so what,” this book is dedicated. Finally for those who fi nd Viktor Frankl’s Search for Meaning disturbing for any reason I off er “all apologies.” Timothy Pytell So-Cal February 2015 Introduction Viktor Frankl and Man’s Search for Meaning Viktor Frankl was born on 26 March 1905 in the Jewish district of Leopold- stadt in Vienna. After living a remarkable life that was shaped by the major intellectual and cultural trends of the twentieth century, he died at the age of ninety-two of heart failure on 2 September 1997 in Vienna. Frankl is best known for writing the highly acclaimed Holocaust testimony Man’s Search for Meaning, and he is also recognized as the founder of his own school of psychotherapy— logotherapy. As the proclaimed successor to Freud’s psychoanalysis and Adler’s individual psychology, logotherapy is promoted as the “third Viennese school of psychotherapy.”1 Defi ned succinctly, logotherapy is a form of existential psychotherapy that is conceived as “therapy through meaning.”2 Frankl’s third school of Logotherapy therefore complements the Freudian will to pleasure, and the Adlerian will to power, by considering the primary motivational force in humans to be the will to meaning. In Freudian and Adlerian therapies the focus is on personal introspection, uncovering character structures, and remem- bering signifi cant (often traumatic) events in the past. In contrast, logotherapy focuses on concrete life conditions and guides the patient to fi nd what is con- sidered the unique and specifi c meaning to their existence. Since his death, three biographies of Frankl have been published. In Vi- enna, Frankl’s disciple Alfred Längle published Viktor Frankl Ein Porträt in 1998. Längle, the head of the International Society for Logotherapy and Existential Analysis, was Frankl’s right-hand man from 1982 until 1991. In 1991 Frankl severed ties with Längle over the latter’s psychotherapeutic revisions that incor- porated elements of depth psychology, personal introspection, and signifi cant Notes for this section begin on page 12. 2 Viktor Frankl’s Search for Meaning experiences. According to Frankl, these revisions were “anti-logo-therapeutic.”3 Despite the rejection, Längle’s biography is full of praise and admiration. This is not surprising since Längle conceived of Frankl as a “fatherly friend” during their association and claimed that he was one of only two friends Frankl had in his life, and the “one who knew him best.”4 This intimate friendship allowed Längle to rely on personal stories and anecdotes, along with an extended ver- sion of Frankl’s autobiography that Frankl had entrusted to him, to paint a glowing portrait. The second biographer, the American psychologist Haddon Klingberg, Jr., was a professor of psychology at North Park University in Chicago. Klingberg originally studied with Frankl in Vienna in 1962. Although they had little to no contact over the years, Frankl chose Klingberg in the early 1990s to become his offi cial biographer. Based on hundreds of hours of interviews Klingberg pro- vides an “unabashedly sympathetic rendering of their story as Viktor and Elly [Frankl’s second wife] told it to me.”5 Similar to Längle’s, Klingberg’s book is conceived in a hagiographic mode that is profoundly fl attering. I published the third biography, Viktor Frankl: Das Ende eines Mythos? in 2005. The objective of my biography was to provide a critical refl ection that focused on Frankl’s intel- lectual struggle for meaning. This substantially revised English version includes two chapters not originally published in German, and also incorporates the insights of Längle and Klingberg. In addition I respond to criticisms that head of the Frankl archive and university Professor Alexander Batthyány expressed in his response to my critical view of Frankl, entitled Mythos Frankl? Geschichte der Logotherapie und Existenzanalyse 1925-1945, Entgegnung auf Timothy Pytell. All biographers agree that Frankl’s biography is fascinating. In his long and productive life Frankl wrote over thirty books and dozens of articles. As a neurologist and self-proclaimed founder of existential analysis, Frankl addressed in his writings subjects ranging from therapeutic and social concerns to scien- tifi c research.6 His renowned Holocaust memoir, Man’s Search for Meaning, is a worldwide best seller, and was once ranked by “Library of Congress in Wash- ington … as one of the ten most infl uential books in America.”7 Man’s Search for Meaning has also sold millions of copies in the English version alone, and has been chosen fi ve times by American colleges as “the book of the year.”8 Indeed, the impact of the book has been global because it has been translated into twenty languages, including Chinese and Japanese, and sold over ten mil- lion copies worldwide. Touting his success to Robert Leslie, the curator of the Viktor Frankl Library and Memorabilia in Berkeley, Frankl proclaimed, “Man’s Search for Meaning was Number One on a new list called Longseller. This list refers to those bestsellers which throughout decades, do not stop bestselling.”9 The success of Man’s Search for Meaning has also served to promote logo- therapy because Frankl included a theoretical synopsis of his brand of analysis as a postscript. The synopsis, entitled “Logotherapy in a Nutshell,” was included at the suggestion of the renowned Harvard psychologist, Gordon Allport. Allport