Citation

Pytell T. J. Contemp. Hist. 2000; 35(2): 281-306+331.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/002200940003500208

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Viktor Frankl gained international recognition based upon his heroic survival of Auschwitz and his subsequent claim to have founded the third Viennese school of psychotherapy - logotherapy. This article revises this traditional view of Frankl by examining how logotherapy was actually developed under the auspices of the nazi-sponsored Goering Institute in the 1930s. In addition, his survival of Auschwitz is problematized by the questionable medical experimentation he performed in 1940-42 on Jews who had committed suicide in order to avoid deportation, and his limited (three-day) experience in Auschwitz. This new contextualization explains the mass appeal of Viktor Frankl as both a peculiar case of the Austrian burial of the 'ambiguous past' and the longing amongst Americans for an uplifting version of the Holocaust. Copyright © 2000 SAGE Publications.

Language: en