Logotherapy Term paper

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Logotherapy Logotherapy comes from the Greek word logos which means meaning . It focuses on the theory that man s primary motivational force is to find meaning. In Victor Frankl s book Mans search for meaning he describes this theory. This theory and therapy developed from Frankl s experiences in a Nazi concentration camp. Frankl states that man s search for meaning is not a secondary rationalization of instinct, but a primary motivation. Logotherapy contrasts to many other schools of thought in psychotherapy. Freudian psychoanalysis which has been widely studied centers on one s will to pleasure , and Adlerian psychology centers on man s will to power . Some call logotherapy the Third school of Psychotherapy . Frankl describes three ways one can find meaning in their life. The first way is by creating or doing work. Accomplishment of such task or chore can help one to find meaning. Secondly, finding meaning in life can be achieved through meeting someone or an experience. Finally, meaning can be found when one faces unavoidable suffering. The suffering must be unavoidable, for if it was avoidable one could simply remove the suffering. He gives an example concerning one of his clients, instead on confronting a man who just lost his wife he asks him the question What would have happened , if you had died first, and your wife would have had to survive you? The man answered that her suffering would have been great. Frankl pointed out that, by her passing first, she had been spared that suffering. This gave the man s suffering meaning and allowed him to deal with it. In some way, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice. The strive for meaning can cause severe frustration, which Frankl calls noogenic neurosis or an existential neurosis. People today that are lacking meaning are experiencing their lives as empty and meaningless. Existential frustration is in itself neither pathological nor pathogenic An American diplomat came to see Frankl for continued psychoanalysis. His previous therapist, of five years, had told him that difficulties with his father had leaded him to be discontented with his job. Frankl stated simply that the man was vocationally unhappy and urged him to find a new profession. The man did and had become contented. He describes that A man s concern, even the worthwhileness of life is a existential distress but by no means a mental disease. If meaning is what we desire, than meaninglessness is a hole in our lives. This vacuum that is left is often filled with other things. Frankl describes that in the twentieth century existential vacuums have become widespread. He argues that with the loss of many traditions & basic animal instincts, man doesn t know what to do or what he wishes to do. Man will seek out things to do, since man doesn t know what he wants to do, he often wants to do what others are doing. He would describe this as conformism. Totalitarianism is when man will do what other people want him to do. The existential vacuum manifest itself mainly in a state of boredom. People often go into a tailspin when they retire. All too often, we submerge ourselves every evening in passive entertainment. People often will take on other will to fill their hole in their lives, the will of pleasure or of power. Frankl believes that the existential vacuum is often filled with neurotic vicious cycles. Anticipatory anxiety is the idea that one may be so afraid of getting anxiety that the symptoms are inevitable. An individual, for example, who is afraid of blushing when he enters a large room and faces many people will actually be more prone to blush under these circumstances. Likewise, Frankl explains that a forced intention makes impossible what one forcibly...

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