Existential Psychotherapy (Logotherapy) : Bes3148 Theories of Personality Viktor Frankl

BES3148 THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
VIKTOR FRANKL
EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOTHERAPY (LOGOTHERAPY)

- Existential Psychology/Phenomenology represents a synthesis of philosophy and
psychology
- Difference between Existentialism and Humanism:
® While Humanists see people as basically good; Existentialist human nature as
amoral
® Whether the person becomes good or evil is a matter of personal choice
- Viktor Frankl already knew that he wanted to become a physician, even at the tender
age of four
- He earned a doctorate in medicine and then was in charge of a ward for the treatment
of female suicide candidates
- When the Nazis took power in 1938, Frankl was put in charge of the only Jewish
hospital in the early Nazi years
- He and his wife, along with his father, mother, and brother were all arrested and
brought to the concentration camp in Bohemia. His father died there of starvation
- His mother and brother were killed at Auschwitz in 1944. His wife died at Bergen-
Belsen in 1945
- In April 1945, Frankl was liberated and he returned to Vienna, only to discover the
deaths of his loved ones
- When he was moved to Auschwitz, his manuscript for “The Doctor and the Soul” was
discovered and destroyed
- After two more moves to two more camps, he finally succumbed to typhoid fever. He
kept himself awake by reconstructing his manuscript on stolen slips of paper
- Although nearly broken and very much alone in the world, he was given the position
of director of the Vienna Neurological Polyclinic, a position he held for 25 years
- He also wrote “Man’s Search for Meaning,” “The Unconscious God” (relation of
psychology and religion examined) & “Man’s Search for Ultimate Meaning.”
- Viktor Frankl’s theory & therapy grew out of his experiences in Nazi death camps
® Watching who did and did not survive, he concluded that the philosopher
Friedrich Nietzsche had it right: “He who has a why to live for can bear with
almost any how.”
VIKTOR FRANKL
- He saw that people who had hopes of being reunited with loved ones, or who had
projects they felt a need to complete, or who had great faith, tended to have better
chances than those who had lost all hope
- He called this as Logotherapy, from the Greek word logos, which denotes
“meaning.”
Meaning of the moment
- Choosing one’s attitudes in any given set of
circumstances by fulfilling the demands life places on us
Ultimate meaning
- A meaning we can never reach but just a glimpse at the
horizon
- It can be God or science as the search of truth or
evolution for those who do not believe in God
BASIC ASSUMPTIONS OF LOGOTHERAPY

- Life has meaning under all circumstances
- People have a will to meaning
® Kapag alam mo meaning ng buhay mo, kahit mag fluctuate happiness mo
alam mo pa rin purpose mo
- People have freedom under all circumstances to activate the will to meaning
- Tension is necessary
- People strive and struggle for a worthwhile goal
® This refers to noodynamics = “Noo” is Greek word which means “mind” or
“spirit.”
® It is existential dynamics in a polar field of tension where one pole is
represented by a meaning that is to be fulfilled and the other pole by the man
who has to fulfill it
MAJOR CONCEPTS OF LOGOTHERAPY

Conscience Existential Vacuum
- Core of one’s being and source of - Widespread phenomenon of the
one’s personal integrity 20th century
- Wisdom of the heart - Experiencing life as empty,
- The unconscious spirituality meaningless, futile purposeless,
- Intuitive and highly personalized aimless, boring
- Pre-reflective ontological self- - Attempts are made to fill the
understanding vacuum with ‘stuff’ with the hope
- The unconscious God is not the God that it will provide some, if not,
of the narrow mind, not the God of ultimate satisfaction as well
one denomination or an institution
VIKTOR FRANKL
Suprameaning or Transcendence Existential Anxiety/ Anxiety Neurosis

- Surpassing present condition and - The individual, not understanding
moving towards positive resolutions his anxiety is due to his sense of
- A reference to God and spiritual unfulfilled responsibility and lack of
meaning meaning, takes that anxiety and
- We need to learn to endure our focuses it upon some problematic
inability to comprehend ultimate detail in life
meaningfulness, for “logos” is deeper
than logic
- God is very much a God of the inner
human being, a God of the heart
Experiential Values
- Attained by experiencing something or someone
(relationship) we value
- Ex: the love we feel towards another
® Love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which
man can aspire
Creative Values
- Providing oneself with meaning by “doing a deed”,
becoming involved in a project, art, music, writing,
invention, etc.
Attitudinal Values
- Include such virtues as compassion, bravery, a good sense
of humor
- The most famous example is achieving meaning by way of
suffering
LOGOTHERAPY AS TECHNIQUE
Anticipatory anxiety Hyperreflection
- Characteristic of fear that it produces - A matter of thinking too hard
precisely that of which the patient is
afraid Paradoxical Intention
- It causes the very thing that is feared - In therapy, it is the matter of wishing the
very thing you are afraid of
Hyperintention
- Trying too hard, which itself prevents one
from succeeding at something
VIKTOR FRANKL
- Frankl: will to meaning = Freud: will to pleasure = Adler: will to power

- Frankl: self-actualization is an effect of finding meaning to life = Maslow: self-
actualization is attained when both the lower and higher needs are satisfied
- Frankl: experiential value (love) = Fromm: need for relatedness

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BES3148 THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOTHERAPY (LOGOTHERAPY)

BASIC ASSUMPTIONS OF LOGOTHERAPY

MAJOR CONCEPTS OF LOGOTHERAPY

Suprameaning or Transcendence Existential Anxiety/ Anxiety Neurosis

- Frankl: will to meaning = Freud: will to pleasure = Adler: will to power

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