Viktor Frankl - the one thing that cannot be taken

Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl speaking of the last freedom that cannot be taken from a person after all else has been taken away, the freedom to choose how to respond to circumstances. Frankl was a Holocaust survivor who who prior to the Holocaust beginning in German-annexed Austria had been a psychiatrist. From 1942 to 1944 he was interned at the Theresienstadt concentration camp, he was interned and worked as a forced labourer at the Kaufering subcamp of the Dachau concentration camp from October 1944 to March 1945, from March to April 1945 he was interned at the Turkheim subcamp of Dachau where he worked as a physician until 27 April 1945 when American soldiers arrived at Dachau and the internees were freed. His experience at Dachau shaped his approach to psychotherapy after the war.

Due to his background as a psychiatrist he noticed how fellow inmates coped with the situation they faced. He noticed that those who had some goal of attaining with the hope of getting free from the camp managed to live longer with a number surviving the camp as opposed to those who had no goal became hopeless and lived shorter in the camp.

After World War II ended, based on his experience he wrote his famous work Man's Search for Meaning, in it he refers to existentialist philosophers' view on the meaning of life, he agrees with a number of the perspectives that German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche adhered to, but in quoting Nietzsche himself claims that Nietzsche's support of the will to power (that is self-empowerment, mastery of talent, and overcoming of life's obstacles including suffering) requires the importance of meaning in the ability to overcome suffering. From this Frankl ascribes that the will to meaning, especially as regards to finding a meaning to endure suffering in life, is what gives people the ability to overcome difficulties in life. From this Frankl developed logotherapy, a psychiatric therapy focused on helping a person find meaning in their life that will help them be able to overcome obstacles in life through having a sense of purpose and direction.