Who Was Viktor Frankl? Jewish Biography as History Dr. Henry Abramson

Viktor Frankl was a noted psychologist whose experience in the Holocaust formed the basis of logotherapy, his therapeutic approach to help people find meaning in suffering and in life.
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[@adrianecoutinho1]

One of the best and insightful lectures I have ever had. I have lived the lost of meaning and have known the feelings of suicide and have been treated by an antroposofic doctor. Today, I live with purpose, with meaning. The value of life has changed completely for better. Though I have some sad moments but my soul dances happily everyday and enlighten many others to their purpose and acceptance of who they are. Your lecture clarified how my doctor connected me to my purpose bringing me back to life. I will use your lecture wisely. Thanks so much.

[@dobishs]

This part of the book left a deep impression on me; "One day, a few days after the liberation, I walked through the country past flowering meadows, for miles and miles, toward the market town near the camp. Larks rose to the sky and I could hear their joyous song. There was no one to be seen for miles around; there was nothing but the wide earth and sky and the larks' jubilation and the freedom of space. I stopped, looked around, and up to the sky - and then I went down on my knees. At that moment there was very little I knew of myself or of the worlds - I had but one sentence in mind - always the same: "I called to the Lord from my narrow prison and He answered me in the freedom of space." How long I knelt there and repeated this sentence memory can no longer recall. But I know that on that day, in that hour, my new life started. Step for step I progressed, until I again became a human being."

[@lizzyvermaak8415]

♥️♥️♥️

[@Elijah01a]

For twenty years I worked as a skipper-trainer on a dutch sailing vessel, guiding young offenders, abused youngsters and young people with psychosocial difficulties. We did intensive 3-week training trips. Now I'm in the board. Victor Frankl inspires me beyond measure. You can't change the direction of the wind, but you can allways ajust the sails. It is always the question if what you are now is due to everything that has happened to you or if it id despite everything. It was always the question if we could make this claer to the young people, if they could hear their (inner) calling for meaning.

[@VivianWang.Realtor]

I just finished the book " Man's searching for meaning". It is one of the best books I have read so far. My own sufferings in the past has no comparison to lives in concentration camps, but I could not agree more with Frankl's theory . Having a meaning in life is like air and water to our body, without it, we could die in spirit and might as well in body. Your lecture here is very well elaborated and summarized of the book and Frankl's logo therapy philosophy! Thank you, Dr. Abramson for the additional information about Viktor Frankl and his work!

[@knockshinnoch1950]

Thanks for posting this video. I read "Man's search for meaning" 5 years ago during a most difficult period in my personal life. It is one of the most profound moving texts I've read. I would recommend it as required reading for all.

[@melodyiden2613]

Thank you for this history on Frankl. I just finished his book and believe it should be mandatory reading for all high school students. I certainly wish I had read it in my early life, it would have made a tremendous difference in my life choices.

[@FlyingOverTr0ut]

Good video. I think Frankl's teachings are more important than anything I was taught in school.

[@samtong0226]

Thank you for your introduction to Frankl. I am from Taiwan and I read his book 1 month ago. It was very inspiring and pointed me some directions for me.

[@hexagondun]

All the lectures I've listened to have been wonderful. Many thanks from a Catholic. God bless you.

[@hankiedave]

I'm from Philippines and frankles words helped me during my depression.... he is he best

[@sarahhussain7090]

hope u r feeling better

[@damienhudson8028]

I read Man's Search for Meaning" as a teenager and also at the same time had a strong interest in Buddhism. That final quote you gave is part of how I live my life. Just reading orher Frankl quotes on the web, I think this book (which I remember reading 35ish years ago) left a larger mark on me than I think and I must read it again. One quote I've always remembered from it was "How beautiful the world could be!” Thank for posting this and the many other presentations you have posted which I have watched.

[@reynoldklages6278]

Great job! You have a wonderful gift of being able to communicate interesting and relevant information about Jewish history. I always learn much when I watch any of your videos. Thank You.

[@lvlyjuliet]

I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed your lecture! I wish half of my professors were as good of an educator as you are, I was involved in the lecture the whole time, keep up what your doing, the world needs it. 8)

[@markjacobi3537]

Well done Dr Henry and crew, Yasher Koach from Melbourne Australia! I think Dr Viktor Frankl sister immigrated from Vienna to Australia. Also there have been conferences held even here in Australia about Dr Frankl's theories and life.

[@williamjayaraj2244]

Remarkable man . Yes. Dr. Vicki or Frankl is one of best human of 20th century.

[@QuanDavid]

I just completed reading Man's Search for Meaning, and this lecture about Frankl's biography is a great finishing. Thank you greatly 👏👏👏👏

[@philomath67]

I have only watched two lectures by you so far, but I am really enjoying them.

[@kateweisman4656]

Thank you for this informative and meaningful post. You have helped me prepare for a discussion of Victor Frankl's book Man's Search for Meaning tomorrow in my Spiritual Literacy Group in Hong Kong.

[@stefanreischl2205]

Thank you for the great talk. Learned about Frankl in University, fascinating person. Greetings from Austria!

[@thechetpicker]

I found this lecture fascinating. Thank you for the upload so it could be shared.

[@simosc2]

Henry Abramson...thank you for this very well presented biography of Dr Frankl...I just discovered him today and am eager to know more of his teachings...YHVY bless you and all who watch this video

[@barunmitra8778]

Thank you. Viktor Frankl's speech in Vienna in 1988, to mark the the 50th year after Hitler took over Austria in 1938, is remarkable. In it he explains why he has remained in Vienna and that he does not believe in collective guilt because in the darkest times he had seen glimpses of humanity. His experiences at the concentration camp greatly reinforced his search for meaning within, and consequently he didn't seem to have any bitterness towards those who perpetrated such horrors, no sense of enmity.

[@SpilledMyBeans]

That was AWESOME. Thank you so much for posting all of this free knowledge. I love hearing biographies but hate going to school. This helped me a lot.

[@underfellgirlsans514]

Agreed! Most things are. It's nice to be able to reply though.

[@chriswolfe7830]

I just noticed the date on this video and it's five months old. I really have enjoyed your "Jewish Biography as History" and am hoping there will be more video's to come. You have a real gift for bring your subject to life. Your video's are much appreciated!

[@chriswolfe7830]

That made my day! Thank you very much for the reply! You do great work! I look forward to your videos. Be well.

[@td5978]

Exceptional Video and Overview of Viktor Frankl and his works. Thank you for holding this lecture and for sharing it and making it available.

[@UATU.]

Wonderful lecture. I just discovered Dr. Frankl's books and Logotherapy and it has helped me tremendously. Thank you for sharing this.

[@mariamccormick5550]

I have just read the text again. The first time was over fifteen years ago. Each reading I come away with something different. Thank you for the lecture. Maria McCormick

[@patriciaashley3768]

l Really Respected Vickle Frankl, Help A lot Of People. What You Are Teaching Is Good. I Love The Jews. May His Work Resurface.

[@skyblue-lb9kr]

Stellar lecture! Thank you so much for posting!

[@timpostma1001]

Great video Dr Abramson. Informative as usual.

Great lecture, thank you. I have read two books - Man's Search for Meaning and Psychotherapy For The Layman. Second one is a transcript Frankl´s lectures broadcasted in public radio in Vienna. I read it in Slovak and I do not know if it was translated to English but if you understand German, it is called Psychotherapie für den Laien: Rundfunkvorträge über Seelenheilkunde. I strongly recommend to read it.

[@DaiBato]

Good lecture on Frankl...he was an interesting and influential man...

[@nancyhope2205]

Thank you for your very interesting lectures. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn about Jewish history and Judaism. Agnostic myself, but interested in people and their histories.

[@ferdelance2299]

I must learn more about him and his logotherapy!

[@gbaviere]

Great lecture. Thank you for posting.

[@BuckthornStudios]

Thanks! [Goes perfect with parsha Balak this week. HaShem pronounces great attributes over Israel, and sets a great future (trajectory) for them, while they had not yet risen to those heights.] This is my first intro to Viktor Frankl (where have I been, right? but HaShem's timing is perfect), thank you for making it such a great lecture.

[@yellewwossenmoghes1643]

Very good lecture. Gives a deeper dimension to Frankl's background. I appreciate the effort.

[@atillanagy6118]

Thank you for uploading, hope you keep uploading rel exemplar!

[@katrinpetrova7602]

Thank you for the amazing lecture!

[@seehumor2647]

I appreciate the video - Viktor Frankl is a major inspiration for my channel actually! His mindset of using humor through adversity is so powerful.

[@HenryAbramsonPhD]

Enjoy in good health!

[@seehumor2647]

@@HenryAbramsonPhD Thanks!

[@fernandopimentel2940]

Bravo! Great lecture!!!

[@motorhead6763]

He met with Lubavitch rebbe who encouraged him to continue his work...which led to Logos method.Listen to his complete memoirs on you tube.It helps me over come my personal problems...now I live to help others ...even though I am not drum.Shalom

[@SeanWasserman]

Fantastic. I really enjoyed the beginning of "man's search for meaning", but the logo therapy part is very laborious to read. I have yet to finish it. Also FYI the final ten minuets of the video are just blank screen-time.

[@knockshinnoch1950]

Sam g agree Sam, I found the first part of the book one of the most profound texts I have read. I also agree that the logo therapy section is heavy going!

[@artursarturs9783]

Very interesting video. Toda!!!

[@jdkarten]

Love your videos! I am an IDF soldier at the moment and at times, unfortunately, I find myself with a thirst for intellectual stimulation... listening to these in my spare time has really helped :) P.s. - I think you may have missed Chelmno in your listing of death camps.

[@jdkarten]

Thanks for the link!

[@sarahhussain7090]

off to find his work

[@776281]

Such an important message. The value of usefulness, of purpose.

[@julianatto]

It is a good presentation, Henry Abramson spoke well and very clear in a way anybody can understand and assimilate the message. The video focus on early life of Viktor Frankl until the concentration camp. At 29 minutes starts the part of his work and career after the WW 2 in 1945. At the end of the video I had an empty feeling which I am trying to describe by saying I wish more details were giving about his studies and books.

[@Ishijah1]

I'm looking forward for reading some of his books.

[@christopherk222]

Great story / history / information on a great man ! - Thank you !

[@johnhaase28]

Excellent.... thank you.

[@Jim-sb7dt]

His book mans search for meaning" was a big help to me at an important time in my life.

[@HenryAbramsonPhD]

Me too!

[@bingeltube]

Very recommendable! Viktor Frankl, a very remarkable individual

[@tautvydasskr5716]

Great video. What was the name of the movie you mentioned?

[@pragersowell]

Excellent!

[@alephotography7648]

so good thank you.

[@pjhoyer]

thanks for a great lecture from this outstanding and most inspiring man

[@davidsavage6324]

on Frankl finding consolation in simple contemplation of his wife; I think this is essence of the theme of divineness of the Halakha, is in thinking of Others, thinking empathetically in a circumspect manner. Frankl's view of alchemically transmuting suffering into meaning is very central to me as well, being grateful for the understanding that suffering anoints us with that can lead to wisdom. like Cervantes said Experience is the mother of knowledge. But it requires our creative intellect to apply that knowledge as wisdom and so enchant our lives with peace, enthusiasm, harmony.

[@ttchamma]

Thank so much

[@annmccaffrey4227]

Great lecture, Than you

[@shardanorman]

This book has changed my life. For when we have a " why to live we can go through any "how", profound!! The POWER to "redirect your thoughts and see things differently..... is absolutely amazing and true. I've done this before when my life was going through a terrible season. And today three of four of those things has happened, three fourth has happened in a way but not fully. It is definitely what hippy focus on that gives life to your life. It's here that this scripture came to mind. 2 Timothy 1:7New King James Version (NKJV) For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. What ever we are faced with, it's our soundness of heart in the situation can helps us to stay focus on what is our reason to be here. As we have read, it's not what live has for us but what we have to give loive to. POWERFUL. MY LIFE HAS CHANGED!!!! THANK YOU LORD GOD ALMIGHTY FOR THE LIFE OF THIS POWERFUL MAN.

[@liulep]

Does 'logos' mean word or meaning?

[@judithortiz-velazquez4992]

Three schools of psychotherapy; Freud = pleasure, Nietze = pleasure, Frankl = meaning. The most “meaningful” of the three is Frankl’s. I read Frankl’s book during my first or second year in college. It is a book that I reread periodically and gift to others when I feel it appropriate. I am glad I discovered Frankl on KZbin.

[@HenryAbramsonPhD]

Me too!

[@judithortiz-velazquez4992]

@@HenryAbramsonPhD I subscribed to your channel.

[@jad1714]

The search for meaning or the feeling of the lack of meaning is the biggest issue in western society nowadays

[@HenryAbramsonPhD]

Very Frankl-like sentiment.

[@maxi4182]

According to rabbi Joseph telushkin in the book rebbe dr Frankel put teffilin on during the end of his life

[@HenryAbramsonPhD]

Interesting

[@user-te7pz6ip8g]

it is so interesting, but has been cut for ads every few minutes - really horrible and disrespectful!

[@MitzvosGolem1]

Chabad Rebbe inspired him to write his books.

[@kenlawrence1530]

Which school was Jung?

[@mitzvahgolem8366]

He suffered through so much yet sought to help others...and even kept his sense of humor..

[@bell1095]

Whatever Frankl tought of applicable wisdom and what we recognise as "jewish", he took from Spinoza litteraly, however he omitted quotings. Why ? He was not a follower of Freud - but a contributing member of the contemporary counter-Freudian „Nazi-Goering-Psycho-Society“ in Vienna. He acted from 1938 until 1942 as a confidental medic-agent of anti-suizidal-policy enforcement for the Nazis. Targeting their policy, that jews should not be free to choose their death on their own will, in order to escape deportation. Frankl, as a counter-Suicide-specialist, pulled them from overdosed back to "live" and handed them over straight from hospital to the hands of gestapo for further deportation. Frankl himself enjoyed to be exempted by "Deportationsschutz" until 1942. The price ? Loyalty to Gestapo. So as his consecuting "brain research" (not by autopsy only!) for the Wehrmacht in Theresienstadt as "Nerven-Göbbels". Pls add a less euphemic and a more reality correcting video about Frankl and his relation to the Nazis. Their Herrenmensch-Ideology he successfuly transformed after Liberation from Lager-detention. See his latest "confessions" about "what he did not write in his books solong". I am far from judging a jew fellow in an extreme historic constellation. A Josephus Flavius of our days.

[@benrifkin1981]

Advertisements every 7 or 8 minutes is really taking me out of it, incredibly unfortunate, great video overall though

[@wellingtonking4344]

I have enjoyed listening to several "Jewish Biography as History" lectures. Please forgive and correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that you made a mistake in the German around 15:30. I heard you say "Konzentrationsläger" and "Vernichtungsläger." I believe the correct German plural forms of "Konzentrationslager" and "Vernichtungslager" are "Konzentrationslager" and "Vernichtungslager." They are the only forms listed in the Duden (www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Konzentrationslager and www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Vernichtungslager). "Läger" is a correct plural form of some senses of "Lager," but not in the sense of "Konzentrationslager" (www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Lager#Bedeutung1c). Thank you.

[@bonnielee7134]

So I googled if it were true that Holocaust victims were skinned. I can’t find any definitive answer on that. It seems to be lore. It seems to be myth, even though there is no truth for it and no truth against it. It does seem however that people felt the need to horrify the incidents of what went on in that time period. They felt that people in general had cognitive dissonance towards the horror of that time. In other words, they believed that people didn’t care because it’s something that happened over there and and not here. They worried that they would feel no concern so they made up myths and stretched the truth to get people to feel something. Well that’s just weird. I took an Adult ed class on U.S. history and our teacher covered this subject thoroughly. We watched films and saw all of the horrors in its natural form. I didn’t need to be told any additional sensationalized myths to convince me that this was an atrocity. The host of this video did a good job. But seeing that he himself stretched the truth, implying that they were skinned alive and the fat was rendered and THEN they were sent to the gas chambers, plus it being on top of a myth, discredits him. Human beings are like children playing games with others and on themselves being misled in their own self denial, when interpreting and living life. Just speak the truth. Plain and simple.

[@abentco]

If it sounds like it's out of a Hollywood movie, it's a story told to condition you.

[@veaudor]

At the risk of showing some negative bias toward this person who is so obviously admired, I wonder if Frankl ever regretted his decision to put his wife and his unborn children at risk when he declined the opportunity to leave his country. Mmmm, something for me to explore ....

[@footagefinder6983]

veaudor This is one tiny error in Dr. Abramson's talk: at that time Frankl had not met Tilly Grosser yet. Otherwise, thank you Dr. Abramson! Franz Vesely, Viktor Frankl Institute and Archive, Vienna

[@footagefinder6983]

***** You are most welcome!

[@BeverleyPriceJewellery]

Appropriate for our corona time.Lock down is not Auschwitz nor the Warsaw Ghetto but the planet has a taste of what the loss of freedom is like from a cause that is outside of our control.

[@spamjujuju]

Great "Vortrag" :) Frankl was amazing! You got a really nice voice for speaking. But please learn pronouncing words you don't know how to say, as a native German speaker this is really off putting whilst listening. No offence. It's konzentrATIONslager, TherEsienstadt, etc, totally different melody. Your "Aussprache" is not too bad, mainly the melody in which it is said. The sentences you said I could unfortunately no more understand. Hope this doesn't sound too rude, I loved listening to your talk besides that!

[@spamjujuju]

Hello dear Henry Abramson - perhaps I could send you audios of how it is said in German? You clearly seem passionate about saying the expressions/names/etc in German and so I thought maybe you're into languages and this could be fun? I can send it via email I think? I hope you don't think I'm "meschugge" (a jewish-German word meaning "crazy" in a more sweet kind of way, still often used today, and one of my favourite words :P) I will send you my email via pm! And then maybe also tons of questions about stuff you may know much better than me and you teach me about those things? :D I'd be super excited!

[@matthewariel8331]

Christ died for our sins, was raised the third day and afterward seen by the 12 and as many as 500 at one time.

[@johnshredder7078]

This is an idiotic view of the great Viktor Frankl. Frankl was primarily secular.

[@djinntoy]

What's that weird judaism preachy tangent at 4:00? Just tell the story.. no one cares about your weird attempt to connect your views to him.

[@timpostma1001]

Great video Dr Abramson. Informative as usual.