Viktor Emil Frankl, M.D., Ph.D. was Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at the University of Vienna Medical School. Frankl held lectures at 209 universities on all 5 continents. He was Visiting Professor at Harvard and at universities in Pittsburgh, San Diego and Dallas. The U.S. International University in California installed a special chair for logotherapy - this is the psychotherapeutic school founded by Frankl, often called the "Third Viennese School" (after Freud's psychoanalysis and Adler's individual psychology.) He received 29 honorary doctorates from universities in all parts of the world.
Frankl authored 39 books which to date (2016) have been published in 48 languages. His last two books are "Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning" and "Viktor Frankl - Recollections", both published in 1997. Up to 1997 the book "Man's Search for Meaning" had sold over nine million copies in the USA alone.
(Vesly,2016)
Phenomenology
t The science of phenomena as distinct from that of the nature of being.
- - an approach that concentrates on the study of consciousness and the objects of direct experience.
Existentialism
Existential Analysis can be defined as a phenomenological and person-oriented psychotherapy, with the aim of leading the person to (mentally and emotionally) free experiences, to facilitate authentic decisions and to bring about a truly responsible way of dealing with life and the world. Thus, Existential Analysis can be applied in cases of psychosocial, psychosomatic and psychological caused disorder in experience and behaviour.
The psychotherapeutic process takes place via phenomenological analysis of the emotions as the centre of experiences. Biographical work and empathic listening by the therapist contribute to an improvement in emotional understanding and accessibility.
Existential Analysis was conceived by Viktor E. Frankl in the 1930s as an anthropological theory of an existential school of psychotherapy. At the same time Frankl developed “Logotherapy” as a meaning-oriented form of counselling and treatment. (Existential...,2016)
Logotherapy teaches that it is not we who can ask life, "WHY, WHY, WHY...?" Rather, it is Life, who is the questioner. We have to respond to Life's questions! We answer to Life by listening for discernment of the meaning of the moment; then, by making responsible decisions within our available area of freedom. Our choices will be based on our values and guidance received from the voice of our conscience.
The lack of meaning in life results in an existential vacuum (Foord,2016)
The lack of meaning in life results in an existential vacuum (Foord,2016)
It is a method of counselling or helping in the quest for meaning.
The practical application of logotherapy as a meaning-oriented form of counselling and treatment consists primarily in assisting people who are not (yet) ill, but who suffer from a sense of loss of existential orientation. Thus, logotherapy is widely applicable in psychological, psychohygenic, social, preventive, caring, educational and pastoral fields. It contributes to the prophylaxis of disorders and to the prevention and treatment of feelings of meaninglessness and emptiness (“existential vacuum”). Its aim is to enhance the individual experience of meaning by leading to a freely chosen responsibility (“individual responsibility”).
Existential Analysis and Logotherapy consist of roughly a dozen specific methods and techniques to realise this conception. Leading a meaningful life means doing what one has sensed and recognized as being valuable. (Existential...,2016)
Basic assumptions of logotherapy:
1. Life has meaning under all circumstances.
2. People have a will to meaning.
3. People have freedom under all circumstances to activate the will to meaning and to find meaning. (Foord,2016)
1. Life has meaning under all circumstances.
2. People have a will to meaning.
3. People have freedom under all circumstances to activate the will to meaning and to find meaning. (Foord,2016)
Tragic Triad
The tragic triad is a term used in logotherapy, coined by Dr. Viktor Frankl. The tragic triad refers to three experiences which often lead to existential crisis/existential vacuum: guilt, suffering or death.
Religion
"You see,” he added, “I don’t shy away, I don’t feel debased or humiliated if someone suspects that I’m a religious person for myself . . . . If you call ‘religious’ a man who believes in what I call a Supermeaning, a meaning so comprehensive that you can no longer grasp it, get hold of it in rational intellectual terminology, then one should feel free to call me religious, really. And actually, I have come to define religion as an expression, a manifestation, of not only man’s will to meaning, but of man’s longing for an ultimate meaning, that is to say a meaning that is so comprehensive that it is no longer comprehensible . . . But it becomes a matter of believing rather than thinking, of faith rather than intellect. The positing of a supermeaning that evades mere rational grasp is one of the main tenets of logotherapy, after all. And a religious person may identify Supermeaning as something paralleling a Superbeing, and this Superbeing we would call God.” ("God in...,2010)
Conscience
The concept of conscience is at the heart of Logotherapy, the mechanism which enables a person to become attuned to that which is the “main concern” of a human being: meaning. It is to be distinguished from the Freudian concept of the superego, a dimension within the structure of the personality that is an amalgam of all the moralizing forces in a persons’ life, be they the person’s religious or ethical upbringing, and/or societal norms and mores. The superego, fully installed within the personality, exerts itself upon the ego to prevent the self from fulfilling drives that originate in the id, thereby bringing the self in line with these rules that have been “stored” there. The conventional wisdom refers to the superego as conscience, and therefore it is difficult to articulate Frankl’s idea of conscience without first teasing the concepts of “superego” and “conscience” apart, and establishing first that these concepts are not synonymous.
Frankl elsewhere makes clear that superego and conscience cannot be the same item, since there are occasions where a person, following the dictates of his or her conscience, has to take a stand against the moral messages of his or her superego, and actually betray his or her superego in order to obey his or her conscience. (Conscience Defined,2010)
Love
"Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality. No one can become fully aware of the essence of another human being unless he loves him. by his love he is enabled to see the essential traits and features of the beloved person; and even more, he sees that which is potential in him, which is not yet actualized but yet ought to be actualized. Furthermore, by his love, the loving person enables the beloved person to actualize these potentialities. By making him aware of what he can be and of what he should become, he makes these potentialities come true..." (Frankl,2006)
When we experience something—such as goodness, truth, or beauty, to use Frankl’s examples—we bring ourselves into relationship with that thing. The goodness, truth, and beauty that we see around us enter into us, and become a part of us. We are engaged with them, and they are engaged with us in their own way.
And of course, when we experience another human being we enter into a relationship with him or her. Frankl writes that the only way to grasp other human beings as they truly are at their innermost core is to love them. In Frankl’s psychotherapeutic system of “logotherapy,” love is as fundamental and powerful a force in human life as are the drives for sex and power.
Love, together with awareness and understanding, is what brings us into relationship with the people and things around us. In essence, love is relationship. - Essentially Love is one of the things that gives us meaning in life. (Woofenden,2016)
"Conscience Defined." Viktor Frankl's Logotherapy. Wordpress, 25 June 2010. Web. Nov. 2016.
Existential Analysis Society of Canada. "What Is Existential Analysis? | Existential Analysis Canada." Existential Analysis Canada RSS. Wordpress, n.d. Web. Nov. 2016.
Foord, Michael. "INTRODUCTION TO VIKTOR FRANKL'S LOGOTHERAPY." Introduction to Logotherapy and Viktor Frankl. N.p., n.d. Web. Nov. 2016.
Frankl, Viktor E. Man's Search for Meaning. Boston: Beacon, 2006. 111-15.Web.Nov.2016
"God in Viktor Frankl's Logotherapy 1995." Interview by Mathew Sculley. OneDaring Jew. Wordpress, 27 May 2010. Web. Nov. 2016.
Vesly, K. "VIKTOR FRANKL INSTITUT. Life and Work." VIKTOR FRANKL INSTITUT. Life and Work. IMAGNO, n.d. Web. Nov. 2016.
Woofenden, Lee. "Viktor Frankl on Meaning through Relationship: It’s All About Love and Understanding." Spiritual Insights for Everyday Life. Wordpress, 12 Dec. 2013. Web. Nov. 2016.
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