Viktor Frankl

(LOGOTHERAPY
)

VIKTOR FRANKL
A Jewish thinker who proves the will for
existence works admist various kinds of
crisis in life. He has proven that man can
surmount the different kinds of turmoils in
life.

INTRODUCTION TO
LOGOTHERAPY

Everybody has experienced pain, suffering

and frustration. All these factors are part
of our existence. They are inescapable.
Nobody can elude from these grim facts of
life. What we can do, then, is nothing else
but to accept and live with them. Frankl
can help us how.

LOGOTHERAPY
Comes from the Greek words logos and
therapy. The latter means cure which,
for Frankl, focuses on the meaning and the
search in human existence. The former
means meaning.
Simply, the definition of logotherapy as
mans search for the meaning of his
existence.

CONNECTION TO FREUD

Frankl also shows an attachment to

Freuds psychology. However, he
establishes a point of departure
from the Freudian concept of mans
nature to will for pleasure in his
concept of will to meaning in his
logotherapy.

FREUD VS FRANKL

MEANING OF LIFE

Three different perspectives: by

doing deed, by experiencing value,
and by finding meaning in
suffering.

Let us discuss this three perspectives.

BY DOING A DEED

A person can make his life

meaningful by making something as
his life-project. Frankl notes that it is
man himself, in his own existence,
who can satisfy his own will to
meaning. It is not others who will do
it for him; man has to do it for
himself.

The meaning of life differs from

man to man, from day to day,
and from hour to hour, that is
why, what matters is not the
meaning of life in general but
rather the specific meaning of a
persons life at a given moment.

BY EXPERIENCING VALUE

The second way to find the meaning

in life is through an experience of
value, Frankl remarks that value
neither drives nor pushes man, but
rather value pulls man.
In this view, the best way to explain
mans experience of value is found in
the realm of LOVE.

Indeed, love is a phenomenon

which is evidently pulling. We
are pulled by a person, or we
are pulled to do a particular
action, because of love.
Love is the ultimate and
highest goal (value) to which

FINDING MEANING IN
SUFFERING

Man can establish meaning in life is to

find meaning in suffering. The deepest
meaning man can make is to find
meaning in suffering. The fact that
nobody can eschew suffering. Needless
to say, suffering is part of existing. To
undergo suffering, as Frankl
implicity says, is the fate of man.

Suffering ceases to be suffering in

some way at the moment it finds a
meaning, such as the meaning of
sacrifice.
To sum it up, with his logotherapy,
despite all the different form of lifes
downs, we can still rise up and cast
a personal meaning to our existence.

SUMMARY
The meaning of human existence is
found in mans exercise of freedom
and responsibility under the scope of
mans individual and social
undertakings according to Sartre.
For Heidegger, the meaning of
human existence can only be
attained when man lives his life