Viktor Frankl, a neurologist and psychiatrist, believed that between stimuli and response, there is a personal volition and will. From his experiences in Nazi death camps, Frankl came to believe that people cannot avoid pain, however they can choose how to respond to that pain. His theory of logotherapy is that man, rather than being motivated by pleasure, is the pursuit of meaning. Further, Frankl believed that man is not wholly dependent on the circumstances for his or her actions, instead having a choice. “Man is not fully conditioned and determined but rather he determines himself whether he give in to conditions or stands up to them. In other words, man is self-determining. Man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become in the next moment.” (Man’s Search for Meaning, p. 131 to 134)
