Beginning
of Logotherapy
| At
the age of 14, Frankl wrote a school paper, “We and the World Process”.
In this he expressed the idea that there must exist a universal
balancing principle. At age 15, he attended night classes in the
people’s college even though he was still in high school. He took
courses in applied Psychology and experimental Psychology. This course
work motivated Frankl to write to Sigmund Freud. After Freud replied, a
correspondence developed. During this time Freud accepted Frankl’s
article Internationale Zeitschrift fur Psychoanalyse, for publication.
However, by the time this article was published, Frankl had come under
the influence of Alfred Adler and Individual Psychology. At the age of 17, Frankl gave a lecture at the people’s college, for a philosophy seminar. His topic was The Meaning of Life. From this lecture he developed two main points for his future theories. The first was that life does not answer our questions about the meaning of life but rather puts those questions to us, leaving it for us to find the answers by deciding what we find meaningful. The second point was that the ultimate meaning of life is beyond the grasp of our intellect, but is something we only can live by, without ever being able to define it cognitively. After the First World War, there were years of great soul-searching in Austria. Existential questions were on everyone’s mind and they all dealt with the meaning of life. It was at this time that Adler established a school of psychology that searched for concepts that would allow individual freedom. This attracted Frankl and the man who had once followed Freud’s theories began to form new concepts. He became a Social Democrat and in 1925 published Internatinale Zeitschrift fuer Individualpsychologie. Frankl became well known and well liked in this group. He soon began to develop ideas that were outside the traditional framework of Adler’s system of thinking. However, even until his death, Frankl felt an attachment to Adler’s Individual Psychology. The main difference in Logotherapy and Individual Psychology are views concerning the meaning of life. In the 1930’s, Frankl developed new concepts and coined new terms. The term Logotherapy was first used in 1926 when Frankl presented a lecture at the Academic Society for Medical Psychology. He later used the term Existenzanalyse, (existential analysis) but this was later found to be confused with Binswanger’s Daseinsanalyse and Frankl went back to the term Logotherapy. With the rise of Hitler, Frankl was taken to a concentration camp. Although he was stripped of everything, during this time he managed to write his book Aerztliche Seelsorge, later published in English as The Doctor and the Soul. This book contained the essence of Frankl’s thoughts and theories. Frankl considered this experience a validation of the concepts on which Logotherapy is based. The three tenets of Logotherapy were tested in the camps. After being released from the concentration camps, Frankl became the head of the neurological department at the Poliklinik Hospital in Vienna. This time proved to be important in the development of Logotherapy. Frankl was able to practice and refine the methods of Logotherapy on thousands of patients. During the fifteen years after his release, Frankl continued to write and in the process refine, polish, strengthen and expand Logotherapy. According to Frankl, the original term “Logotherapy” is derived from the Greek word, “logos”, which is defined as “meaning”. The word “therapy” deals with the treatment for disorders and maladjustment. Frankl’s concept is based on the premise that our primary motivational force is to find a meaning in our life. |