{"id":31046,"date":"2021-04-04T16:47:50","date_gmt":"2021-04-04T20:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=31046"},"modified":"2021-04-11T17:06:47","modified_gmt":"2021-04-11T21:06:47","slug":"victor-frankl-logotherapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/victor-frankl-logotherapy\/","title":{"rendered":"Victor Frankl’s Logotherapy: Guiding Towards Meaning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is logotherapy<\/a>? What is the premise behind Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy approach to finding meaning? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Logotherapy is a meaning-based and purpose-centered psychiatric therapy developed by neurologist and Holocaust survivor<\/a> Victor Frankl. Logotherapy offers a highly specific understanding of \u201cmeaning.\u201d It says we don\u2019t create <\/em>our life\u2019s meaning. Instead, we discover it. Logotherapy says each person has a unique meaning, which evolves throughout life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep reading to learn about Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy approach to finding meaning in life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

What Is the Premise Behind Victor Frankl’s Logotherapy<\/strong>?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Logotherapy is unique among Western forms of psychotherapy because it focuses explicitly on helping people find <\/strong>meaning<\/em><\/strong>.<\/strong> Its purpose is to break the hold of your neuroses and enable you to face challenges effectively by helping you find a reason to live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Viktor Frankl, logotherapy’s creator, was a prisoner under the Nazis in various German concentration camps. From this experience, he famously declared that you can take away literally everything from a person except their ability to choose their attitude. Frankl also said a clear life purpose<\/a> enables a person to overcome virtually any challenge and endure virtually any conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frankl\u2019s own biography demonstrates the reality of logotherapy\u2019s core assumptions and existential value. During his imprisonment in the Nazi concentration camps, his captors took away the manuscript he brought with him that contained all of his initial writings about life purpose and psychological health\u2014the precursor of logotherapy, his life\u2019s work as a psychologist. He spent the rest of his time in the camps rewriting that manuscript. His drive for a purpose helped him survive such awful conditions. When he got out of the camps, he created logotherapy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What follows is a description of how logotherapy is formally practiced, but bear in mind that you can derive many of its benefits on your own by reading Frankl\u2019s classic book, Man\u2019s Search for Meaning<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The formal practice of logotherapy takes place in five steps or stages:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Someone feels empty or anxious.<\/li>
  2. A therapist helps the person realize that her negative feelings are really the desire for a meaningful life.<\/li>
  3. The patient discovers her life\u2019s purpose, relative to that moment in time.<\/li>
  4. The patient freely accepts that purpose. (It\u2019s also possible for the patient to reject<\/em> that purpose, in which case the therapist leads the patient to figure out why she feels that way.)<\/li>
  5. With her newfound passion for life, the patient now overcomes her problems and sorrows.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Differences From Psychoanalysis<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Logotherapy differs significantly from the more widely familiar psychotherapeutic approach of psychoanalysis.<\/strong> The differences show the fundamental value of logotherapy over psychotherapy for finding happiness<\/a> through discovering your purpose<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n