Logotherapy in a Nutshell

1
Logotherapy in a Nutshell

• Mans Search for Meaning
• By
• Victor E. Frankl

2
Literally, logotherapy means 'therapy through
meaning'. It's an active-directive therapy aimed
at helping people specifically with meaning
crises, which manifest themselves either in a
feeling of aimlessness or indirectly through
addiction, alcoholism or depression. Logotherapy
also employs techniques useful for phobias,
anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorders and
medical ministry. Other applications include
working with juvenile delinquents, career
counselling and helping all of us find more
meaning in life.
3
The Existentialist Framework

• It's existentialist because it emphasises the
  freedom of the will and the consequent
  responsibility.
• It also asserts the importance of the meaning of
  life.
• Freud said human's have a will to pleasure and
  Adler the will to power, Frankl says we have a
  will to meaning. If it is frustrated, spiritual
  (noogenic) neuroses result.
• Frankl argued that the spiritual (noetic)
  dimension of man should be added to the physical
  and psychological dimensions.
• For Frankl, ultimate meaning does exist and is
  unique to each person and each situation. Each
  moment offers 'a sequence of unrepeatable
  situations each of which offers a specific
  meaning to be recognized and fulfilled'.
• Meaning cannot be invented but must be
  discovered.

4
The Stoic Connection

• No matter what the state of the world, our
• attitude can always help us.
• The Stoic, Epictetus held that 'Men are not
• moved by events but by their interpretations'.
• Even in facing death and suffering, by showing
• courage we can turn a situation into a supremely
  
• meaningful one. 

5
The Meaning of Life

• It differs from person to person from day to
  day from hour to hour
• It isnt about the general meaning of life
• It is about the meaning of persons life at any
  given moment
• Frankl argues that one shouldnt ask What is the
  meaning of life?
• It is, rather, life asking us to speak for our
  own lives
• We can only respond by being responsible

6
The Essence of Existence

• Live as if you were living already for the
  second time and as if you had acted the first
  time as wrongly as you are about to act now
• Imagine that the present is past and that the
  past may yet be changed
• Human beings are charged with the responsibility
  of actualizing their own potential meaning in
  life
• The only true meaning in life is to be discovered
  in the world and not in the human psyche
• This is known as the Self-transcendence of human
  existence

7
Self Actualization

• The more one forgets ones own self, the more
  human the person becomes
• One cannot attain self-actualization. Rather,
  self-actualization is a side effect of
  self-transcendence
• This is achieved in one of three ways
• By doing some work or deed
• By experiencing something or encountering someone
• By the attitude we take toward unavoidable
  suffering

8
The Meaning of Love

• Love is the only way to grasp another human being
  in the innermost core of ones personality
• In order to become fully aware of another, one
  must love that person
• Love enables one to see the essential traits and
  features in the beloved
• It allows one to see the potential in the other
• Furthermore, the loving person helps the other
  achieve those potentialities
• In some cases, sexual expression is a side effect
  of that love

9
The Meaning of Suffering

• Suffering provides for one to bear witness to the
  human potential at its best
• We transform personal tragedy into triumph
• Suffering, however, is not necessary to finding
  meaning in life
• Meaning is possible in spite of suffering if
  the suffering is unavoidable
• Frankl is speaking of the attitude one takes
  towards ones fate and the potential to see a
  meaning in ones suffering