Voting Station

Viktor Frankl

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Doctor

The Resume

    (March 26, 1905-September 2, 1997)
    Born in Vienna, Austria
    Psychiatrist, Holocaust survivor
    Specialized in the field of neurology
    Wrote 'Man's Search for Meaning' (1946)
    Survived the Nazi camps Theresienstadt, Kaufering and Türkheim
    Coined the term logotherapy ('the will to meaning')
    Also wrote 'The Doctor and the Soul (1955),' Psychotherapy and Existentialism (1967),' 'The Will to Meaning (1988),' and 'Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning (1997)'

Why he might be annoying:

    His methodologies have been scrutinized retrospectively.
    He was accused of misrepresenting/exaggerating his concentration camp experiences.
    By which is meant that other Holocaust survivors have pointed out his time in Auschwitz only amounted to a few days' time and even then was limited to a cordoned-off area outside the main camp.
    He performed Lobotomies on Jews and resistance partisan members under Nazi supervision.
    He was accused of promoting victim-blaming in his writings (that a 'positive attitude' increased a prisoner's chances of survival in the camps).
    He was ambivalent in later years about assigning any collective guilt to Germans and Austrians for their complicity in the Holocaust, making himself a polarizing figure within the Jewish community.
    He was frequently booed in his lectures by protesters, some of whom chanted 'Nazi Pig.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He lost both his mother and wife to the Nazi death camps - Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen.
    His book offers a detailed account of the concentration camp hierarchy.
    He was a breakthrough figure in existential therapy and humanistic psychology.
    The central theory of his writings is hopeful - it explains the basic human resilience to survive in seemingly impossible situations.
    As a young student, he carried on a correspondence with Sigmund Freud, who even asked his permission to publish some of his writings.
    A survey by the Library of Congress listed 'Man's Search for Meaning' as one of the ten 'most influential books in the United States.'
    He taught at the University of Vienna until 1990 and at a number of American universities.
    He was basically intimidated and arm-twisted into cooperating with the Nazis.

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


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Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 6 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 11 Votes: 81.82% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 12 Votes: 41.67% Annoying