Viktor Frankl was a Psychologist who developed a form of therapy different from the other forms of his era His iherapy is called, Logoiherapy, which emphasizes a will to meaning as the root of all human motivation, while other psychologists were focusing on therapies that postulated a will to pleasure or a will to poweri What made Frankl’s views unique is that he tried to balance the physiological view with a spiritual perspective This unique perspective brings relevance to those of faith as well as potential therapeutic usefulness As mentioned earlier Logotherapy is a therapy that focuses on the meaning of a person’s life. Frankl‘s inspiration for this new form of therapy came from his experience in the Nazi concentration camps Watching who did and did not survive in the camps, Frankl decided that he agreed with Friedrich Nietzsche’s statement, “He who has 3 why to live for can bear with almost any how”.
Frankl’s “why” was to rewrite his manuscript, which he had to give up, when he went to Auschwitz, He states, “Certainly my deep desire to write this manuscript anew helped me to survive the rigors of the camps l was in” (pg 104) What gave him hope during this horrible time was his desire to rewrite his manuscript. What kept other prisoners alive was hope in being reunited with family or having their occupation to go back to etci Frankl goes on to mention that people can be frustrated during this search for meaning and this frustration can lead to noogenic neurosis, meaning they feel like there life has no purpose. These people need to find meaning, but it is important to recognize that, “What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment”.
According to Frankl, we can discover this meaning to life in three different ways, “by creating a work or doing a deed; by experiencing something or encountering someone; and by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering” What makes Frankl’s perspective so unique is that it brings spiritual things into account in psychology, which makes it possible for people of faith to find relevance in his therapy, One important religious aspect that Frankl mentions is that we have free agency, we have the ability to choose, “everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms-to choose one‘s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
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This ability to choose ones own way is important in finding meaning in life As mentioned earlier, there are three ways in which we can find meaning, one of which is by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering. There will be times in our lives when we find ourselves in pain or suffering, but what we need to realize is that it suffering, ”gives man an opportunity to grow spiritually beyond himself” , We can grow spiritually from our pain by making the best out of our situation It is easier to have a good attitude toward our suffering after we find meaning in our suffering, Frankl also mentions that there is ultimate meaning in life, supermeaning, which is a reference to God and spiritual meaning. People of faith, who recognize that there is an ultimate meaning in life, find hope and meaning in their own lives. For the people having trouble finding meaning in their own lives there is hope.
Logotherapy is indeed a therapy with potential therapeutic usefulness, There are three separate issues that people suffer from that Logotherapy is able to remedy. The first is anticipatory anxiety, which is when you get so scared that something is going to happen that it actually does happen. There is also l’hyper—intension” which is when, ”a forced intention makes impossible what one forcibly wishes” (Frankl, pg, 122). This problem is most often seen in people with sexual neurosis. One partner tries to so hard to please the other that they end up not being able to please them at allt In addition to hyper-intension there is also ”hyper-reflection” which is similar to self-fulfilling prophecy, The first technique used to help cure people of these disabilities is paradoxical intention, which is when you wish for the very thing that you are afraid of.
Frankl gives us an example of a boy who sweats profusely in social situations. Frankl tells the boy to try to sweat more than before The boy did this and his sweating issues were solved A second technique for solving these issues is called dereflection. This is when you shift attention away from your own problems and focus more on the needs of others When you do this, your own problems often disappeari Viktor Frankl developed a psychological perspective, which deviated from others of the same period. This perspective called, logotherapy, focuses on man’s search for meaning. We all have a purpose in life and it is our responsibility to find that purpose. We can find that meaning through love, or unavoidable sufferingi Logotherapy has a spiritual side to it that can help people of faith.
