Viktor Frankl
Article
Viktor Frankl is a recurring person in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between June 23, 2022 and June 10, 2023. The archive places it in contexts such as “Shellenberger follows Viktor Frankl, the humanist psychotherapist”; “Viktor Frankl’s physical survival in”; “Viktor Frankl’s physical survival in the camp was a product of many factors”. It most often appears alongside 1978, 2016 essay, A Poet in Paradise.
Metadata
- Category: People
- Mention count: 2
- Issue count: 2
- First seen: June 23, 2022
- Last seen: June 10, 2023
Appears In
Related Pages
-
- 1978 (1 shared issues)
-
- 2016 essay (1 shared issues)
-
- A Poet in Paradise (1 shared issues)
-
- Abbott (1 shared issues)
-
- Abstracted Will Of The American People (1 shared issues)
-
- ACLU (1 shared issues)
-
- Agrippa d’Aubigné (1 shared issues)
-
- Alabama (1 shared issues)
-
- Albert Einstein (1 shared issues)
-
- Alfred Adler (1 shared issues)
-
- Alyssa (1 shared issues)
External Links
Source Context
Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.
The list of Claims above doesn’t showcase this, but aside from social science and political history, this is also a book of moral philosophy. Shellenberger follows Viktor Frankl, the humanist psychotherapist who wrote about the search for personal meaning (also the guy credited with the quip about a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast to match the Statue of Liberty on the East). There’s a lot of writing on Victimology (capital V, presented as a religion) and how it contrasts with Frankl’s ethos of meaning and responsibility.
Viktor Frankl’s physical survival in the camp was a product of many factors: he was a doctor, and therefore useful to the camp administration, he was cautious and had good instincts, and could avoid the most dangerous moments, he was helped by those around him, ultimately, he was just lucky, as blind chance played a huge role in a prisoner’s everyday life. But his spiritual, mental survival was a result of his teaching that he himself was forced to test in the most extreme conditions imaginable.
There are a lot of people, both outside and inside of Russia, that do answer these challenges. Even in Kirill’s 100,000-people town some do gather on the main square and protest, knowing fully well they will be arrested, possibly beaten, possibly sent to prison. Maybe there are hundreds of them, maybe tens. Maybe not enough. More people write something on social media, which is dangerous in its own right. Some people sit quietly and secretly send money to Ukrainian charities. Many people are still in shock, in the perpetual stage one of prisoner’s life. Maybe their efforts and indeed their meaning can be utilized, as Viktor Frankl’s was, finding meaning for Kirill and many others like him.