Viktor Frankl (1905–97) was born in Vienna, the son of orthodox Jewish parents. he was educated at the university of Vienna, where he distinguished himself by earning doctorates in both philosophy and...

Viktor Frankl (1905–97) was born in Vienna, the son of orthodox Jewish parents. he was educated at the university of Vienna, where he distinguished himself by earning doctorates in both philosophy and medicine. in medical school, he initially trained in neurology, but found himself drawn to concerns about mental illness. in this sense, his training mirrored an earlier Viennese physician – sigmund Freud. like Freud, he faced a threat from the rise to power of the nazis, and in fact was granted a visa to go to the usa shortly before they entered world war ii. however, because his parents were still living in Vienna, and unable to emigrate with him, he chose to stay. consequently, he was imprisoned after the nazi takeover of austria, and spent three years struggling to survive in various concentration camps (primarily the notorious camps at auschwitz and dachau) until the end of the war. only one person in 28 survived in the camps, and the experience was to play a signifi cant role in Frankl’s later theorizing. after the war, he became a professor of neurology and psychiatry at the university of Vienna, where he spent the remainder of his career. Frankl died in 1997, having lived through almost the entire twentieth century.