Logotherapy: Viktor Frankl's Theory of Meaning

Humans normally function on primal reactions like negative self-talk, emotional outbursts and irrational actions based on outside events and circumstances. The lost ‘spiritual’ dimension of meaning is brought forward by Logotherapy.

• Freedom Of Will: Human beings can freely choose their response to the outward circumstance.
• Will To Meaning: Human beings are completely free to achieve their goals and purposes in life, with the search for meaning being the primary motive, even forsaking pleasure for pain in the process.
• Meaning In Life: Meaning is an objective reality, and is not an illusion or a personal perception. Humans have the responsibility to be at their best possible selves by extracting meaning from every moment.

Logotherapy looks at all the three dimensions of an individual:

• Psychological: Using paradoxical intention and de-reflection techniques to handle phobias, anxiety and compulsive disorders
• Physiological: Coping with suffering and physical pain or loss.
• Spiritual: Answer to people with an existential vacuum, manifested in boredom, emptiness and depression.

It is an effective therapy for PTSD, acute stress, alcohol and drug treatment, anxiety, depression and group behaviour/dynamics.

• De-reflection: Individuals distance themselves from the negative aspects, obstacles and problems, and shift their focus onto something positive.
• Paradoxical Intention: Eradication or reduction in fear using humor, ridicule, and imagination.
• Socratic Dialogue: Often used in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), this technique breaks down the thoughts, going into the root cause, and the primal fear, pointing towards solutions already present.