William James would have considered this life changing event to be a “crisis of meaning.” Logotherapy During his time there, he found that those around him who did not lose their sense of purpose and meaning in life were able to survive much longer than those who had lost their way. His most popular book, Man’s Search for Meaning, chronicles his experience in the camp as well as the development of logotherapy. The years spent there deeply affected his understanding of reality and the meaning of human life. Logotherapy developed in and through Frankl’s personal experience in the Theresienstadt Nazi concentration camp. Viktor Frankl was an Austrian neurologist and psychologist who founded what he called the field of “Logotherapy”, which has been dubbed the “Third Viennese School of Psychology” (following Freud and Alder). What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.” “ What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. Some may also strive for Suprameaning, the ultimate meaning in life, a spiritual kind of meaning that depends solely on a greater power outside of personal or external control. Without meaning, people fill the void with hedonistic pleasures, power, materialism, hatred, boredom, or neurotic obsessions and compulsions. He went on to later establish a new school of existential therapy called logotherapy, based in the premise that man’s underlying motivator in life is a “will to meaning,” even in the most difficult of circumstances.įrankl pointed to research indicating a strong relationship between “meaninglessness” and criminal behaviors, addictions and depression. His famous book, Man’s Search for Meaning, tells the story of how he survived the Holocaust by finding personal meaning in the experience, which gave him the will to live through it. Victor Emil Frankl (1905 – 1997), Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, devoted his life to studying, understanding and promoting “meaning.” He points to studies where there is marked difference in life spans between “trained, tasked animals,” i.e., animals with a purpose, than “taskless, jobless animals.” And yet it is not enough simply to have something to do, rather what counts is the “manner in which one does the work” (Frankl 1986, p. 118).įrankl famously stated that: “ Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it.” Though for Frankl, joy could never be an end to itself, it was an important byproduct of finding meaning in life. While the third is not necessarily in the absence of the first two, within Frankl’s frame of thought, suffering became an option through which to find meaning and experience values in life in the absence of the other two opportunities (Frankl 1992, p. In the pursuit of meaning, Frankl recommends three different kinds of experience: through deeds, the experience of values through some kind of medium (beauty through art, love through a relationship, etc.) or suffering. While Frankl rarely touches on the topic of the pursuit of happiness, he is very concerned with satisfaction and fulfillment in life. We can see this in his preoccupation with addressing depression, anxiety and meaninglessness. Make a Difference: Change the World, Change Yourself.Symptoms of Anxiety & Anxiety Prevention with Science of Happiness.Top 10+ Coping Skills for Depression You Must Know.Why You may Feel Depressed for No Reason & How to Be Happier.Symptoms of Depression & Depression Prevention with Science of Happiness.High School Happiness and Wellbeing Curriculum.Annotated Bibliography – Mindfulness & Positive Thinking.Review of Key Studies on Mindfulness & Positive Thinking.The Philosophy & Science of Mindfulness.Psychobiotics and the Pursuit of Happiness.
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