VIKTOR FRANKL AND LOGOTHERAPY

• Biography

• Man´s Search for Meaning

• Basic Tenets of Logotherapy

• Logotherapy and Other Psychological Schools

VIKTOR E. FRANKL, M.D., PH.D.

(1905- 1997)

Neurologist and psychiatrist Founder of Logotherapy and

Existential Analysis

Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at the University of Vienna Medical School.

Director of the Neurological Department of Rothschild

Hospital. (1940-42)

Director of the Vienna Neurological Policlinic.

(1946-70)

Recipient of 29 honorary doctorates from universities in all parts of the world.

Distinguished Professor of Logotherapy, U.S. International University, San Diego, California University of Pittsburgh

University of Dallas, Texas Harvard University, Cambridge

Man's Search for Meaning(a.k.a.: From Death-Camp to

Existentialism)1946

According to a survey conducted by the Library of Congress (1991) it

belongs to "the ten most influential books in America."

Analysis of Frankl´s experiences in the

concentration camps

* Decent and Indecent Human Beings

* Falsifiability

* Equation of Despair = S – M

* Counselor in a concentration camp

PART ONE:

Introduction to Frankl´s ideas of meaning and theory of Logotherapy

* Tragic Triad of Human Existence

* Finite Freedom

* Hyper- intention

PART TWO:

What´s the meaning of life?

The meaning of life differs from person to person, from day to day and from hour to hour.

Logotherapy, keeping in mind the essential transitoriness , of human existence, is not pessimistic but rather activistic.

At any moment, man must decide, for better or for worse, what will be the monument of his existence.

Existential Vacuum Depression Aggression

Addiction

Mass neurosis of the present time.

Private and personal form of nihilism (contention that being has no meaning)Such a view of man makes a neurotic believe that he is the pawn and victim of outer influences or inner circumstances.

According to Logotherapy, we can discover our meaning in life in three

different ways:

(1) by creating a work or doing a deed

(2) by experiencing something (goodness, truth, beauty, nature and culture) or

encountering someone (by experiencing another human being in his very

uniqueness; by loving him)

(3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering.

LOGOTHERAPY AND OTHER SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT

Behaviourism

Existentialism (Sartre)

Psychoanalysis-Self-centeredness-Pleasure-seeking

-Past-oriented- Instinctive drives

-Discharge of tension

Logotherapy

* Focus on the world outside of oneself

* Will to meaning* Present / Future-oriented

* Ideals and values * Tension between what one has

already achieved and what one still ought to

accomplish* Self-determinism rather than

Pan-determinism* Self-actualization is possible only

as a side-effect of self-transcendence.

Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness.

Works CitedFrankl, Viktor. Man´s Search for Meaning. Boston: Beacon Press, 1992. Print. “Life and Work.” Viktor Frankl Institute. Web. 26 October 2010.

“Life and Works of Viktor Frankl.” Logotherapy Institute. Web. 25 October 2010.

“Logotherapy.” Viktor Frankl Institute. Web. 26 October 2010.

“Tenets.” Logotherapy Institute. Web. 25 October 2010.

Works Consulted

Redsan, Anna. Viktor Frankl. A Life Worth Living. New York: Clarion Books, 2006. Print.