Note this is an extract from part ii of mans search for meaning that is viktor frankls introduction to logotherapythe central concept of logotherapy is meaning and the search for it in order to have the strength to surmount even the most difficult occurrences in life like for example that experienced by the author who had to endure three years in a nazi concentration camp. From the author of mans search for meaning one of the most influential works of psychiatric literature since freud holocaust survivor viktor e frankl is known as the founder of logotherapy a mode of psychotherapy based on mans motivation to search for meaning in his life. Viktor e frankl conceptualizes the foundational explanation as the setting forth of the basic assumptions and tenets that underlie logotherapy as a system as frankl suggests logotherapy is founded on three concepts 1 the freedom of the will 2 the will to meaning and 3 the meaning of life frankl 1988 p vii. Victor frankls will to meaning the feeling of meaninglessness or the despair over the apparent meaninglessness of life is in no way a neurosis questing for a meaning to lifequestioning doubtingis rather a human achievement than a neurotic symptom no animal will ever raise the question of whether or not its existence has a meaning