Logotherapy By Viktor Frankl: 3 Basic Principles

Logotherapy is also known as “the third psychological school of Vienna”. The first psychological school was that of Sigmund Freud, the second that of Adler and the third is the school founded by Viktor Frankl, and it is the one we will talk about in this article.

Sigmund Freud defined man as a being directed towards “pleasure”. Adler called it “power oriented”. V. Frankl saw man as a being directed towards “meaning”.

Historians of psychology agree that the study of psychoanalysis also allows us to know the life of Freud, its founder. Similarly, it can be said that through the study of logotherapy we approach the personal experiences of V. Frankl, since the development of the third psychological school can hardly be understood without knowing the life of the person who founded it.

Viktor Frankl

Viktor Emil Frankl was born in Vienna on March 26, 1905. He survived four concentration camps, including Auschwitz. From an early age he had shown interest in the study of medicine and natural sciences, but he maintained a very critical spirit in the face of reductionist positions.

His calling came too soon and his search for meaning began long before the holocaust took place. During this last period, his best known book, “A psychologist in the concentration camps”, came to light. V. Frankl was convinced to make us unique is the human spirit. Reducing life and human nature to “nothing”, as did many philosophers and psychiatrists of the time, was not the most appropriate vital thought.

At 19 he had already developed two fundamental ideas. The first is that we must answer the question that life asks us about the meaning of our existence, because we are responsible for it. Second, that the ultimate meaning is beyond our understanding and must remain so. It is something we must have faith in as we pursue it.

V. Frankl’s experience in the concentration camps allowed him to see that the human being is capable of finding a meaning, a sense in all the circumstances of life, even in the most absurd and painful moments.

A psychologist in the concentration camps

In his work “A psychologist in the concentration camps”, V. Frankl writes about his experiences in concentration camps (Türkhein, Kaufering, Theresienstad and Auschwitz). He describes the mistreatment that prisoners received, but also writes of the beauty of the human spirit. In short, the book is about how to transcend horror and find meaning, even in the most dire of circumstances.

V. Frankl died on September 2, 1997, aged 92, leaving a great legacy to humanity. Through his life and work he reminds us that we can all develop a sense that saves us in difficult times and that whatever we do, no matter how small, so that this thread does not break, will have great value.

Logotherapy

As mentioned, logotherapy is recognized as the third Viennese school of psychotherapy and was founded by V. Frankl. It became known to the whole world in the 1940s. Speech therapy is a method of overcoming human conflicts that create suffering.

It allows us to make sense of difficult and painful situations. In this way, they become opportunities for growth for those who live them. This method, which focuses on the experiences of values, allows us to make sense of all life events, thus giving us the opportunity to live a full life.

In logotherapy, logos refers to “sense”, to “meaning” something that the human being always seeks in the face of the circumstances of destiny. In this way, logotherapy means therapy through “sense” or “meaning”.

The 3 basic principles of speech therapy

The three basic principles or pillars of logotherapy are as follows:

• Freedom of will.
• Will of meaning.
• Meaning of life.

Freedom of will

Freedom of will is implemented through a specifically human capacity known as “self-estrangement”. This human capacity is understood as the possibility of seeing oneself, accepting oneself, regulating oneself and visualizing oneself. According to the teachings of V. Frankl, this gives us freedom from three sources of influence:

• Instincts.
• Inheritance.
• Environment.

Man possesses them, but they do not affect him. They are not predetermined or finalized. We are free to address these three aspects. The human being is free from what conditions him and can exercise his freedom. Whenever man gets rid of something, it is for something. Here we find the concept of responsibility. Man is free to be responsible and he is responsible because he is free.

From this existential analysis it follows that man is responsible for the realization of meaning and values. Man is called to realize the meaning of life and the values ​​that give meaning to it. He is the only responsible.

Will of meaning

The will to sense is closely linked to the self-transcendence typical of the human being. Man always points beyond himself, towards a meaning that he must first discover and of which he must reach the fullness. The will to please and the will to power, respectively of Freud and Adler, lead man to immanence. These concepts are opposed to self-transcendence and frustrate our existence.

For speech therapy, pleasure and power are the consequences of an end and not an end in itself. It is for this reason that people who pursue pleasure and power reach a state of frustration, in which they in turn feel immersed in a great existential void.

The will to sense does not seek to achieve power or pleasure, or even happiness. Its goal is the meeting of a topic, a reason to be happy.

Meaning of life

The two preceding principles speak of a person willing to take a position on the circumstances of life, in total freedom, starting from a sense that he attributes to them. This is the profile of a man in search of meaning: the same man who, finding a value and realizing it, constitutes himself in himself.

Life holds and retains meaning. That sense is peculiar and original with respect to each of us. Our duty as conscious and responsible beings, therefore, is the discovery of the meaning of our life.

This objective will be achieved through three fundamental ways which refer to three categories of values. Sometimes it leads us to the realization of creative values. Other times it makes us collide with an experience, such as when we watch a sunset or someone gives us a caress. Other times it confronts us with the limits of life itself (death, suffering…).

In any case, life will always keep a hidden meaning until the end and a pressing and permanent invitation for this to be discovered and realized. These are the three basic principles of Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy. As we have seen, it is a humanistic-existential vision of the human being that can be difficult to understand if you are not familiar with the vision of existentialism.

Bibliographical references

Frankl, V. (2009). A psychologist in the concentration camps. Ares.

Frankl, V. (2015). The suffering of a meaningless life. Psychotherapy for today’s man. Ugo Mursia Publisher.