Viktor Frankl on existential freedom

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:01]Victor Frankle on existential freedom in my series on existential freedom for the publication of my book beginning to live the art of existential freedom.

[00:00:14]Victor Frankl was a psychiatrist and famously a Holocaust survivor who created logo therapy, a form of existential therapy and his view on existential freedom whilst much inspired by Martin Buber's work. see my video on Martin Buber is a bit beyond Martin Buber's work in that it isn't just a philosophical theory for Franco. Existential freedom was a survival mechanism tested and tried under pressure.

[00:01:02]He argued that he discovered in the concentration camp that even in the most dehumanizing conditions, we can still find a core of freedom inside of us that nobody can take away from us. He called it the last of human freedoms.

[00:01:28]And while the guards could control his movements, take his clothes, take his dignity, dictate his poor diet, they could not control his inner life. He also became aware that those people in the camps gave up and who felt that they had no freedom left would die very quickly.

[00:01:57]Whereas those who created this space inside of themselves where they could feel free to create new meaning would actually survive much better.

[00:02:14]He said the last of the human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances to choose one's own way that is existential freedom for Frankle. Freedom starts with the realization that between the stimulus of what is happening to us out in the world and to our response, how we act on that is very important. In that space lies our existential freedom. In that space lies our happiness. In that space lies our meaning, lies our development.

[00:03:04]Frankle spoke a lot about freedom versus responsibility and he took the idea of booers that responsibility is very important counterpart to freedom. He even proposed that there should be a statue of responsibility on the west coast. Responsibility is about to what and for what we are free.

[00:03:39]Freedom becomes paralyzed if you don't use it in a meaningful way.

[00:03:47]If you are free but have nothing to live for, you fall into what he called an existential vacuum, a state of boredom, apathy, depression, not caring, nonchalance, cynicism.

[00:04:04]The way out of that is to remember that there are three pillars of meaning.

[00:04:11]In logootherapy they recognize that we make meaning one by our creative values. What we give to the world through our work, through art, through our deeds.

[00:04:27]Two, our experiential values, what we take from the world by watching nature, enjoying culture, enjoying love experiences.

[00:04:39]And three and most importantly through our attitudinal values. How we face the difficulties in our life and specifically how we face unavoidable suffering.

[00:04:55]This for Frankle was the highest expression of freedom to realize that when we can no longer change a situation in a terminal illness, in a war or in another tragedy, we are challenged to change ourselves.

[00:05:16]Frankl championed the idea of coming to a tragic optimism to feel that we have the freedom to say yes despite pain, guilt and death. And there was some Yasper's influence there as well. He argued that being truly free is to have the capacity to turn human suffering into a true achievement. To derive the incentive to take responsible action even when everything seems transitory.

[00:05:56]And to use your sense of guilt and suffering as an opportunity to change yourself into something and someone better who still has the power to say yes to life despite all your difficulties and all your troubles.

[00:06:23]It is a practice, an application of a lot of the existential thoughts in this series.

[00:06:34]And since he proved this practice alongside many others like Edith Eager or Anne Frank since he proved that this attitude is what matters when we are under pressure.

[00:06:55]It is well worth rereading Victor Franco.