Abstract:
The present paper aims at defining Victor Frankel's viewpoint on the answers to the following questions in terms of his basic principles of existential philosophy and (existential) psychology: what is man's essence? What are his genuine spiritual needs? According to Frankel, man's essence consists of body, mind, and spirit, the core of which is spirit, and utter patina being body and mind. The essential elements of man's spiritual realm are composed of spirituality, freedom, and responsibility; and talking about man's essence will be meaningless, deficient, and incomplete, if these elements are not considered. He explains man's most important spiritual needs in order to answer the second question, and categorizes them into six different needs: needs to the dynamism of thought, meaning, self-transcendence, eternity and immortality, religion, and gregariousness of emotion.