Logotherapy is also known as the “third school of psychology in Vienna”. The first school of psychology was that of Sigmund Freud, the second was Adler’s and the third is the school founded by Viktor Frankl, which we will discuss below. Article.
Sigmund Freud defines man as a being oriented towards “pleasure”. Adler defined it as a “power-oriented” being. Frankl had the vision of man as a being directed towards “sense. “
- Historians of psychology agree that the study of psychoanalysis also allows us to know the life of Freud.
- Its founder; Similarly.
- We can say that by studying logotherapy we are approaching Viktor Frankl’s personal experiences.
- Since the development of The Third School of Psychology can hardly be understood without knowing the story of his creator’s life.
I found the meaning of my life helping others find the meaning of their lives.
Viktor Emil Frankl was born in Vienna on March 26, 1905; survived the experience of four concentration camps, including Auschwitz; from a very young age he became interested in the study of medicine and the natural sciences, but maintained a very critical view of reductionism. Positions.
His vocation began very early and his search for meaning began long before the Holocaust. During this period, he wrote his most famous book, “In Search of Meaning. ” V. Frankl was convinced that what makes us unique is the human spirit. life and nature to “nothing,” as many philosophers and psychiatrists of the time did, was not the most appropriate thought.
“Man can leave a trail of spiritual freedom and mental independence, even in terrible circumstances of psychological and physical tension. “
By the age of 19 he had already developed his two fundamental ideas: first, we must answer the question of the meaning of our lives, for we are responsible for our existence; second, this sense is beyond our comprehension and must remain so. It’s something we have to have faith in.
V. Frankl’s experience in concentration camps has allowed him to see that human beings have the ability to make sense, meaning in every circumstance of life, even in the most absurd and painful moments.
In his book “In Search of Sense,” V. Frankl wrote about his experiences in concentration camps (Turkhein, Kaufering, Theresienstad and Auschwitz), described the mistreatment of prisoners, but also wrote about the beauty of the human spirit. In short, the book explains how to transcend horror and make sense even in the most terrible circumstances.
V. Frankl died on September 2, 1997, at the age of 92, leaving a great legacy to humanity. Throughout his life and work, remember that we can all find a meaning that will help us in difficult times, and that anything that can be done, however small, so that this thread does not break, will have a great impact. Value.
Everything can be taken away from man except one thing: the last of human freedoms, the choice of personal attitude to a set of circumstances, to chart his own path.
As we said, logotherapy is recognized as the third Viennese school of psychotherapy and was founded by Viktor Frankl. He was known around the world in the 1940s. Logotherapy offers a method to overcome human conflicts that cause suffering.
Logotherapy allows us to make sense of difficult and painful situations, in this way they become opportunities for growth for the people who live them, this method, focused on experiences of values, allows us to make sense of all the facts of life, thus giving us the opportunity to live a full life.
In logotherapy, the realizations refer to “sense”, to “sense”, to something that human beings always seek in the circumstances of destiny. In this way, does logotherapy mean therapy through?or “meaning. “
The three basic principles or pillars of logotherapy are
Free will is used through a specific human skill known as “self-distance”. This human capacity refers to the possibility of seeing, accepting, adapting and visualizing. According to V. Frankl’s teachings, this frees us from three sources of influence:
The individual has these three sources, but they do not determine it, we are not predetermined or concluded, we are free from these three aspects. The human being is free from what conditions him and can exercise his freedom, every time a human being is freed from something is for some reason, that is the concept of responsibility. The individual is free to be responsible and is responsible because he is free.
From this existential analysis the individual is exposed as responsible for the realization of meanings and values, he is called to realize the meaning of his life and the values that give him meaning, before this call he is solely responsible.
The desire for meaning is intimately linked to the self-transcendence that characterizes the human being. The individual always points beyond himself, towards a meaning that he must first discover and whose fullness he must attain. Freud and Adler’s will for pleasure and will to power lead the individual to his immanence respectively. These concepts oppose self-transcendence and would make our existence fail.
For logotherapy, pleasure and power are the consequences of achieving a goal, not the goal itself, so people who seek pleasure and power come to a state of frustration in which, at the same time, they feel immersed in a great existential void.
The will of meaning does not seek to attain power, pleasure or even happiness. Your goal is to find a goal, a reason to be happy.
The two principles we have mentioned above speak of a person willing to stand before the circumstances of life, in total freedom, from a sense that summons him. This is the profile of the individual looking for meaning.
Life contains and maintains meaning. This meaning is special and original for each of us, so our duty as conscious and responsible beings is to discover the meaning of our lives.
Death can only sow terror among those who do not know how to occupy the time given to them to live.
This can be achieved in three fundamental ways, referring to three categories of values.
In any case, life will always retain, until the end, a hidden meaning and an indispensable and permanent call to its discovery and realization, are the three fundamental principles of Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy. As we have already seen, it is a humanist-existent vision of the human being that can be difficult to understand if we do not know existentialism, however, the truth is that effort is worth it when we think about how it can contribute to the structure of our lives.