Viktor Frankl was an existential psychologist born in Vienna in 1905.(3) Frankl believes that man needs to find meaning in the chaos of life. The key to life as Frankl saw it was to find something above and beyond one’s reach to aspire toward.
Frankl developed his ideas based on his experience in World War Two. During this time Frankl spent three years in various concentration camps throughout Europe. He experienced the worst suffering imaginable and lived to tell about it. He recalls fellows prisoners losing sight of the meaning of their existence. These prisoners would lay down refusing to move and no blows or threats had any effect on them.(2 pg 82) Frankl took this knowledge and argued that the opposite must then be true. For if man is willing to waste away when he has lost meaning, then the path to a good life includes having something to live for, a meaning.
Frankl’s research after the war found that 29 percent of all Vienna felt they lost meaning in their lives and these numbers were similar in the US.(2 pg 142) Frankl termed this loss of meaning the existential vacuum. He then developed logotherapy as a way of making people see the meaning in their lives. In fact “Logos” comes from Latin referring to meaning and spirit.(1 pg 74) This form of therapy then involves assisting the patient to find meaning in his life.
This theory is used mostly in cases of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, phobias and anxiety. The most common method of treatment is the use of paradoxical intention. The best way to describe this method is through the following example. A young doctor approached Frankl because of a problem he had with profuse sweating. Frankl suggested that the next time the man felt himself begin to sweat he should attempt to sweat as much as possible. When the man found that he could not make himself sweat his problem went away.(1 pg 127) Paradoxical intention invites the patient to do what it is they fear most. The hope is that the patient will see their problem in a new way and be able to laugh at it.
Frankl’s theory is excellent in treatment of neurotic disorders and the existential vaccum. The common neurotic disorders Frankl treats are phobias, O.C.D. and anxiety. The use of paradoxical intention seems to be a miracle cure for these disorders. This miracle cure only works if their is no underlying existential vaccum.(1 pg 131)The existential vaccum requires logotherapy to be used. Logotherapy often takes more time and can be stressful on the patient. This method of treatment applies to people who are financially well off but, have lost meaning in their life. Logotherapy, according to Frankl, has made improvement in these people’s lives by helping them find meaning.
Personally, this theory makes a great deal of sense. I do not agree with Frankl when he says that a doctor must believe in God to administer this type of treatment. Frankl argues that one must believe in a higher power to help others find something to aspire to. I think that devotion to a loved one or cause other than religion is acceptable for both doctor and patient. I do agree with Frankl’s idea that the best way to improve people’s lives is to help them find meaning.
I would recommend paradoxical intention for anyone suffering from anexiety, phobias or O.C.D. This method has to be the “quickest fix” for mental disorders. I would again recommend logotherapy to a friend who is suicidal or addicted to drugs. Frankl has shown these problems are the most common when man has lost meaning.
Most of Hemmingway’s characters would do better with logotherapy. Logotherapy seeks to treat the disillusiment felt by these characters. Jake Barnes from The Sun Also Rises exhibits the signs of the existential vaccum. He drinks like a fish and sees no future for himself. On the other hand Howard Roark from Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead exemplifies a man who has no need for logotherapy. Roark seemed to be born with a burning desire to be an architect and put all his effort into that goal.
My friends have been using logotherapy for as long as I’ve known them without knowing it. They help me to see problems from different points of view. Any time one of my friends has a problem the rest of us can make him see it in a new light. I do think I could use logotherapy to find meaning in my life. I do not think that I suffer from this lack of meaning that much. However, after reading Frankl’s work I wonder how much finding meaning would help.

-Page 2-