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.

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.

Man

can make his existence

 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 man can
aspire.

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
authentically.