Viktor Frankl's Theme of Meaning Already from the titles of Frankl's books and reports, it becomes clear what topics his thoughts circle around: "The Question of Meaning in Psychotherapy", "In the Beginning There Was Meaning", "Man in Search of Meaning", "The Will to Meaning". Frankl writes: "We realize the meaning of being - we

MAGNETIC DREAM AND VICTOR'S SISTER At the end of 1783, Armand-Marc-Jacques Chastanet, Marquis de Puysegur (1755–1825), one of the largest landowners in France, found himself on his estate in Buzancy near Soissons. Artillery regiment officer

Chapter 6. Existential criterion in the theory of personality by V. Frankl We will begin the presentation of V. Frankl's theory of personality by considering his general ideas about human nature. According to him, human nature is characterized by a variety of heterogeneous forms of being, which

The more progressive and civilized the world becomes, the bigger and more miserable people become. Surprisingly, people try to create a society that will allow everyone to live for their own pleasure, but in the end it turns out that each person lives even poorer. Psychosis, neurosis, and other neurotic conditions are proposed to be eliminated with the help of Frankl's logotherapy, which puts forward its goals, principles, techniques and methods.

Frankl's logotherapy is a type of psychotherapy that offers its own unique method to eliminate various disorders in a healthy human body. When translated from Greek, “logos” should be defined as “meaning” (and not as “word”). Only in this case it becomes clear what the therapy is.

Viktor Frankl considers human life to be an eternal search for its meaning. If a person does not know what he lives for, what is his meaning of life, then he becomes insane. He begins to get lost in all the expanses of his life, some people can not stand it and commit suicide.

For the treatment of any deviations and neuroses, the psychiatrist offered to conduct a conversation with the client in such a way that he would find his own meaning in life. There is no need for persuasion, instructions and the introduction of various dogmas. A person decides for himself what is his meaning of life, which helps him get out of a negative state.

What is logotherapy?

Logotherapy is a direction of psychotherapy, which implies a cure by finding one's meaning in life and giving it super importance. Each person has his own meaning of life. Some call it a purpose, a mission. We're just going to talk about the meaning of life. When a person has the meaning of life, then he does not have a feeling of loss and emptiness. When a person does not know what he lives for, then existential frustration arises, which is why disorders and psychoses develop.

The goal of the Frankl psychotherapist is to find, together with the client, the meaning of his life and give it significance. Moreover, a person should really feel that this is important for him, without this his life will be miserable. When the meaning of life is found, then a person recovers.

The meaning of life is found through conversation, when it is not the psychotherapist who finds it, but the client himself. At the same time, the therapist only directs the conversation in the right direction. The client should not pay attention to the difficulties and problems in his life in order to search for the bright and good, and not dwell on the negative.

For some people, the meaning of life lies in religious belief. This happens especially after tragic events when a person loses loved one, loses large sums money, favorite work or housing. When a person has nothing that he previously appreciated, then he becomes lost. And here people come to the rescue who offer friendship, help, support, even a roof over his head, if he begins to believe in what they believe.

However, you can create your own faith. Here we will talk about goals. Goals are different: public, group, individual. But sometimes it doesn’t matter what goals a person chooses, the main thing is that they exist, because thanks to them a person can fulfill some of his functions and have the meaning of life.

It is very important for a person to have a goal in life, as this creates a certain belief in something for him. When a person believes, it is easier for him to move through life than when he has no goal at all. This is similar to the meaning of life - until a person determines it personally for himself, he will not be able to go in any direction. Although the purpose and meaning of life are completely different things, they are similar to each other: they have their own definition, in which a person believes and moves towards it.

The goal helps a person to belong to something, to some society and to determine himself and his actions. Having a goal, a person has a direction, a flow through life - and there is no need to talk about the correctness of his choice here, the most important thing is that he has at least some choice that will lead to something. With the help of a goal, a person flows either with other people and in the same direction, if he chooses generally accepted rules and concepts, or flows in his own direction and with a maximum of 2-3 people who sincerely share his views.

The presence of a goal and a clear definition of it helps to quickly achieve the intended. Thus, it is much easier for a person to achieve personal growth, self-development, the fruits of his labors and other things that were included in the plans. This is much more effective than just wanting what everyone wants, or not setting any goals at all. In the first case, a person simply does nothing, because in principle he does not need what he thinks about. In the second case, the individual does nothing and does not even know what to do, because he did not set himself a direction vector where to go.

A person cannot live meaninglessly and without a goal, because otherwise he would just sit and do nothing, which would lead straight to death. Setting aspirations is not based on the principle of "Make the right decision." The main thing is that there is a goal, and the correctness of it is determined by the person himself, who, having reached the desired end point of his path, will understand what he did right choice or not.

Thus, the meaning of life is the presence of a goal in a person that inspires him, causes inner uplift, energy. At the same time, the person feels happy. The meaning of life is actually invented by man. At first, he lives in order to survive, and then he begins to set goals for himself - what will he spend his energy, strength, money, attention and other resources on, which in the end should make him a happy person.

If what a person has achieved remains unattained or was missed, a person feels as if he has lost the meaning of life. And in this case, you can seek the help of a psychotherapist on the site site, which will offer:

1. try again to achieve his goal (which is his meaning of life);
2. find new goals that are just as meaningful and inspiring.

It is important that the goal (the meaning of life) be very significant, the person needed it, did not think that he could refuse it. It's like an addiction to air, when if you refuse oxygen, you will die.

Frankl's logotherapy includes principles, methods, goals and techniques based on finding the meaning of life, the manifestation of the will and desire for freedom. The psychiatrist considered a person to be free. Despite the fact that society creates its own framework, beliefs, traditions, rules, a person continues to remain free inside. It is up to him to decide how to live and what to move towards, how to act and what results to face. However, many people get lost as they begin to live according to social rules, giving up their ability to independently decide how to live.

Frankl's logotherapy uses the following principles:

1. Free will - when a person is free to choose and make decisions independently. If all this is backed up with the strength to defend one's position, despite the fact that someone will not like the person's decisions, then the person really becomes healthy.
2. The will to meaning – freedom itself is meaningless. A person gains meaning when he begins to see the goal and strive for it.
3. Meaning of life.

Frankl's logotherapy techniques are:

• Dereflection. Here a person switches from the need to control himself and meet someone else's expectations, switching to his partner.
• Logoanalysis. A scale of values ​​is compiled, discussing the whole life of a person, where he talks about things that are important to him. This allows a person to see that his life still has a meaning and value that lie outside the problem that caused him to become neurotic ill.
• paradoxical intention. A person is afraid of a certain situation, therefore avoiding it, which creates fear and anxiety, especially if it can arise again. To eliminate the vicious circle, you need to change your attitude to the situation.

The goal of logotherapy is to encourage a person to study himself, to achieve insight and understanding that he has many important aspects in life. Many modern people complain that they live meaninglessly. However, they may be wrong, because even the fact that they live like "driven horses" or "walk in circles" also includes some goal that they wanted to achieve, they just went in the wrong direction.

Finding the meaning of life can be called introspection, when a person plunges into his own experiences, talks about his life, talks about joys and disappointments. All this is the goal of logotherapy, because by discussing what happened with a person, the understanding comes that it was actually full of interesting events and pursued some goal. It's just that today a person is in frustrated feelings and cannot see his goal due to experiencing his disappointment or grief.

In every situation in which a person finds himself, there is a meaning. Even difficulties and problems do not just arise. Everything in human life is important and valuable. It’s just that the person himself negatively perceives some events, allowing himself to forget about his meaning of life.

In fact, each person has his own meaning of life. A person may not be aware of it, but he is constantly going somewhere, striving for something, acting, because he wants to achieve some goals. Small goals form one big goal, which determines the meaning of human life. And all the problems and troubles, because of which a person begins to suffer and forget about his meaning of life, are simply perceived negatively. A person does not see any sense in them, although in fact, even in the most difficult and difficult situations, the individual to one degree or another strove for his main goal.

Outcome

There is one big goal - the meaning of life, which gives value to all actions and situations that happen to a person. And there are small goals that are set by a person as they move towards the main one. A person should not wish for short period time to achieve your main goal in life, since this is likely to be impossible. However, you can set many small goals, reaching which you can gradually move towards the main one.

Perhaps the most main lesson, which all people should learn, reads as follows: go with a goal in life. For each day, set a goal that you will achieve during the day. For each week and month, you need to set small goals that you will work on in order to achieve the most important goal within a year or several years.

A mistake that many people make is not having any goals. People dream, want something, desire. But if you look at what they devote every day of their lives to, you can see that they devote less of their time to achieving their goals. There are goals, but no one achieves them either in a month, or in a year, or in many years.

A successful person is one who goes through life with a purpose. A successful person is one who performs only those actions that correspond to the achievement of his goals. There is nothing superfluous in what a successful person does. Everything he does is aimed at achieving some goals. He sets big goals, and he breaks them down into small ones, which he achieves in a short period of time.

Walk with purpose in life. You are going somewhere - set a goal that you want to achieve where you are going. You are somewhere - set yourself a goal that you want to achieve while you are in this or that place. You are communicating with someone - set a goal that you want to achieve as a result of a conversation with an interlocutor. You are doing something - achieve your own goal. In other words, reach your goal at every step. Do not communicate with people without a purpose. Don't go to some place without a goal. Don't do things without a purpose.

Remember the wise words: “Until you have a goal, other people set it for you ... Until you have a direction in which you are going, other people determine it for you ... If you don’t know why you are doing something, you can easily be manipulated ... ". If you do not achieve your goals, then you will have to achieve the goals of other people. Do you need it?

Walk with purpose in life. Any little business, no matter what you do, should be subordinated to some of your goals. If you communicate with a person, first set a goal of what you want to get from him, and then act only within the framework of this goal. You will no longer yell at a person if you want to get his love. You will no longer threaten him if you want to cooperate with him. Set a goal for yourself and act within that goal.

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Among the many areas of psychotherapy that exist today, there is a special direction that was developed relatively recently - in the middle of the 20th century. Yes, it, like all the others, involves a therapeutic effect on the human body and his psyche, but is based on the search and analysis of the meanings of his life. And as a site for self-development, we simply could not afford not to talk about this most interesting direction called “logotherapy”.

What is logotherapy?

In more scientific terms, the term "logotherapy" refers to a type of psychotherapy based on the psycho-anthropological model that was developed by the Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist Viktor Frankl.

The word "logos" of Greek origin is interpreted in the presented context as "meaning". If we talk about other equally correct translations of the word "logos", such as "rational order" and "word", then they are unlikely to be suitable for interpreting the main provisions of logotherapy, because the task of logotherapists is not to convince their clients of anything through rational arguments, but help in determining the deep, special and individual meaning.

Briefly about the origin of logotherapy

The history of the logotherapeutic approach dates back to the 1930s. The foundations of logotherapy were first presented in 1938 by the aforementioned Viktor Frankl, who developed them based on the individual psychology of Alfred Adler and.

Often referred to as "the third Viennese school of psychotherapy", logotherapy is now an empirically based and internationally recognized psychotherapeutic approach.

Fundamentals of logotherapy

The main motivational force of a person, according to logotherapy, lies in his desire for meaning. According to Viktor Frankl, people in any situations and conditions strive for meaning and try to justify their existence, correlating it with the people around them and the world in general.

Frankl presented a three-dimensional model of personality, which contained two dimensions in the horizontal plane (mental and physical) and one in the vertical (noetic or spiritual). All three of these dimensions form one indivisible whole.

The spiritual is in man that which distinguishes him from the animals. Features of measurement are opposed to homeostatic processes, resulting in a tension between what has already been achieved and what only needs to be realized - this is the tension that supports the human desire to embody values ​​and realize meaning.

Frankl pointed out that mental health can only be when there is a certain tension between a person and the external meaning that he must realize. To be human means, in its essence, to be open to something outside, to something that is different from a person who exists independently. In addition, man is a free, responsible and spiritual being. And the sphere of the spiritual here includes meaning, freedom of choice, intuition, inspiration, ideals, conscience, responsibility, ideas and humor.

In proof of all this, Viktor Frankl cited the results of his research.

Foundations of logotherapy

Viktor Frankl had his own professional credo, the meaning of which was that a person cannot be reduced to his disease or its symptoms. In his work Man's Search for Meaning, the scientist presents his credo through the example of working with mentally ill people.

So, he said that none of the conceivable circumstances can limit a person so that she is 100% deprived of freedom. Based on this, even a small part of freedom remains with a person, regardless of the restrictions created by neuroses or psychoses. Even the most severe psychosis is not able to touch the innermost core of the personality.

For a logotherapist, a person is always “something more”, and he always pursues the goal of finding points of contact with that part of the client’s interior that is “not affected by the disease”, and will try to help him come to an awareness of his capabilities and resources.

The logotherapeutic approach is based on three philosophical and psychological components:

• free will
• Will to Meaning
• Meaning of life

What is meant by this:

free will

Logotherapy says that man is only partly conditioned and has both the original freedom to make decisions and the ability to take a stand in relation to psychological, biological and social conditions. Freedom here should be understood as a space in which a person can shape his life within the limits of specific possibilities.

Freedom comes from their sphere of spirituality, which prevails over the physical and mental. As spiritual beings, humans not only respond to stimuli, but also have a certain amount of independence, and thus the ability to shape their lives.

Free will is of great importance in psychotherapy and allows people to act autonomously, even if they are disturbed by spiritual or. Through this resource, people can cope with the symptoms of ailments and regain the ability to self-determination and control over life.

Will to Meaning

Man is not only free, but free to achieve. The desire for meaning is the primary motivating force. If a person does not have the opportunity to realize his meanings, he will be disturbed by a feeling of emptiness and meaninglessness. He may also begin to be disturbed by depression, addiction, aggression, and neurotic disorders.

With the help of logotherapy, people can understand and neutralize the factors that prevent them from pursuing meaningful goals in their lives. Logotherapy develops in people the sensitivity to perceive the possibilities of meaning, but it must be understood that it should not be used as a means to define goals. The logotherapist acts in the process of logotherapy only as an accompanist of the client, who helps him to realize the possibilities of meaning, which the latter must discover for himself.

Meaning of life

The core of logotherapy is the idea that meaning is an objective reality. Logotherapy postulates that the task of a person is to create a better self from the "source material", as well as to create a better world around, through the realization of one's freedom and responsibility, as well as through the recognition and realization of the meaning of all events.

Particular attention also needs to be paid to the fact that the potential of meaning, which is objective in nature, refers to specific situations and people, and therefore is in the process of constant transformation.

On this basis, a person who has resorted to logotherapy receives invaluable support in his striving for maximum flexibility and openness, which can help him to give his Everyday life.

Logotherapy in practice

To date, logotherapy is practiced by specialists both as a separate method and in combination with other methods, and is used both in individual and group work. In addition to the field of psychotherapy, parts of logotherapy are also resorted to.

The effectiveness of logotherapy has been proven in crisis prevention, crisis management and post-crisis work; it proved to be very effective in the prevention of depression, aggression and suicidal behavior, as well as in the elimination of neuroses. She was especially effective in her work with psychiatric patients and prisoners.

Summing up, we can say that logotherapy, developed by Viktor Frankl, is an extremely effective method of psychotherapeutic assistance to people who have difficulty finding the meaning of life and setting priorities. However, we sincerely hope that none of our readers will need the help of logotherapists.

ABOUT THE MEANING OF LIFE: Every person should have the meaning of life, but if it is not there or if its outlines are blurred, this does not mean that it is time to seek the help of a specialist. Perhaps you just need to brainstorm a little and better understand yourself. And in order to do this, we invite you to take our self-knowledge course, which will tell you a lot of interesting things about yourself. However, we recommend that each of our readers take the course, regardless of the presence or absence of the meaning of life, because, you see, self-knowledge is always for the best.

So go towards the best - and we wish you success and meaning in absolutely everything!

Viktor Frankl (1905-1997) - Austrian psychiatrist, psychologist and neurologist. From 1942 to 1945, Frankl was in German concentration camps, including Auschwitz and Dachau. His father, mother, brother and wife perished in the camps. Frankl is the founder of the third Vienna school of psychotherapy (logotherapy), after Freud's first psychoanalytic school and Adler's second school of individual psychology (Gladding S., 2003). Logotherapy focuses on the pursuit of meaning while psychoanalysis focuses on the pursuit of pleasure and individual psychology focuses on the pursuit of power.

Word logos has the double meaning of "meaning" and "spirituality". Logotherapy thus deals with the existential and spiritual nature of man. According to Frankl (1990), the pursuit of meaning is a central motive for human existence. The meaning of life is unique to each person and changes over time. Patients often claim that the meaning of life is pleasure. If pleasure were the main source of meaning, it would hardly be worth living, since there are much more unpleasant sensations in life than pleasant ones. Those who are too busy looking for pleasure or happiness cannot find it because they concentrate too much on finding it. Frankl identifies three main ways that people can find meaning in life:

1) to give something to life (values ​​of creativity);

2) to take something from life (values ​​of experience);

3) to take a certain position in relation to the fate that cannot be changed, for example, with inoperable cancer (relationship values).

In addition, past experiences and religion are two other areas in which people can find meaning.

Meaning in work. Work is the main area in which people can go beyond themselves. The work that a person does is not of great importance, it is the way the work is done that matters. This must be made clear to neurotic persons who complain that another occupation would enable them to realize themselves better. Frankl believes that there are such opportunities in any job, although he acknowledges that some jobs are mostly routine. In such cases, the meaning of creativity should be sought in activities that can be done at leisure.

The existential importance of work is manifested in what Frankl calls "unemployment neurosis." The most pronounced symptom in the unemployed is apathy, a feeling of worthlessness and emptiness. In neurotic personalities, unemployment becomes an excuse for all failures and removes from them all responsibility to others and to themselves, as well as to life. At the same time, unemployment is more likely to be the result of neurosis than neurosis the result of unemployment. Unemployment is not a blow of fate that should be accepted. Some people respond to the existential challenge of unemployment by staying active and engaged, thus avoiding the neurosis associated with unemployment. There is an alternative to physical retreat under the pressure of social destiny. It is quite possible to engage in various other activities, to spend time usefully, to take a life-affirming position. Work is not the only way to give meaning to life. A person is able to decide what his attitude to the loss of a job will be, positive with elements of hope or apathetic. Logotherapy shows the unemployed a way to gain inner freedom, despite the adverse situation, and teaches the awareness of responsibility, thanks to which he retains the opportunity to do his hard life meaningful.

Employment can be both positive and negative. Some people try to escape the emptiness of their existence by seeking refuge in a job or profession.

The meaning is in suffering. According to Frankl (1990), people can choose how they respond to suffering. For example, terminally ill people can see meaning in life until the last moment if they accept the challenge of fate and suffer courageously. Frankl quotes Goethe: "There is no predicament that we cannot ennoble either by deed or by patience."

Some people can rise to challenge suffering and are able to be spiritually enriched and strengthened by it. However, people need to be careful not to accept fate too readily. Attitude values ​​should only be invoked when they have a firm conviction that they are powerless to change their fate.

The meaning of love. “Love is just one of the possible ways to fill life with meaning, and far from The best way. Our existence would be very sad, and life poor, if their meaning depended on whether we experience happiness in love ... ”(Frankl V., 1990). At the same time, the lack of love can be explained more by neurotic failure than by fate. External physical attractiveness is comparatively unimportant, and its absence is not a sufficient reason to refuse love. The rejection of love is usually associated with an overestimation or underestimation of love. Neurotic personalities may be wary of the tension associated with unrequited, unrequited love, and therefore tend to avoid opportunities for love.

Supersense. People are incapable of understanding the ultimate meaning of human suffering. However, this does not mean that suffering does not have such an ultimate meaning. Frankl does not agree with the provisions of secular existential philosophy, according to which one of the main tasks of a person is to endure the meaninglessness of life. Frankl believes that people should put up with their inability to grasp the mind and see from a rational point of view the ultimate meaning of life. The Infinite God is silent rather than dead.

One of the trends of modern life is not a departure from religion, but a weakening of the emphasis that is placed on the differences between different faiths. Frankl does not advocate a universal religion. Instead, he sees the point in creating a deeply personalized religion that would allow people to address the supreme being in their own individual language, using their own words.

Existential vacuum and existential neurosis. Frankl distinguishes between two stages of meaninglessness - existential vacuum and existential neurosis.

existential vacuum, or existential frustration, - a phenomenon characterized by subjective experiences of boredom, apathy, emptiness, cynicism.

It is the existential vacuum (the feeling of emptiness and meaninglessness of life) that does not allow the individual to adequately withstand life's difficulties. The frustration of the will to meaning is "existential frustration". Such frustration is sometimes substitutively compensated by a thirst for power or pleasure.

Existential frustration is not always a pathological phenomenon. Frankl does not believe that the search for the meaning of existence, or even doubting its existence, is necessarily due to any disease or leads to it. Often he reassures "non-patients" by saying that their existential despair is an achievement rather than a sign of neurosis. This is a sign of intellectual depth, not superficiality.

Existential, or noogenic neurosis, develops when neurotic symptoms are attached to existential frustration. Although existential conflicts can develop without a neurosis, every neurosis has an existential aspect. Neuroses, according to Frankl, are rooted in four different layers (or "dimensions") of the human being - physical, psychological, social And existential or spiritual. different types neuroses differ in terms of the relative importance of each of these four dimensions. The purpose of diagnostics is to identify the primary among them. Noogenic neuroses account for only about 20% of cases of neuroses.

Therapy affects the whole person and may include physical (or medical) intervention, psychotherapy, and speech therapy, either in parallel or sequentially. Logotherapy aims not to take the place of existing psychotherapy, but only to supplement it with a spiritual dimension. It focuses on meanings and values.

Term noetic refers to the spiritual dimension. Noogenic neuroses arise because of existential problems, among which the frustration of the will to meaning plays a significant role. psychoses also include existential aspects, which consist in the freedom to determine one's own attitude towards the disease. Therefore, even psychosis is a test of the patient's human qualities.

Logotherapists are attentive to both clear signs existential vacuum (for example, to the client's words: "My life lacks meaning"), and to hidden symptoms, such as apathy and boredom, which indicate that clients feel inner emptiness. The elimination of signs of existential frustration, such as apathy and boredom, is a "by-product" of the search and discovery of meaning. When clients begin to see more meaning in their lives, the severity of their symptoms (depression, addiction, aggression) usually decreases.

Mass neurotic triad. Frankl speaks of the neuroticization of humanity, due to the existence of an existential vacuum. The global impact of the existential vacuum is not limited to inducing a sense of meaninglessness and noogenic neuroses. Frankl uses the term "mass neurotic triad" to describe the three main effects: depression, addiction, and aggression.

Regarding depression, there is objective evidence that suicide rates are on the rise, especially among young people. Frankl sees the reason for this in the spreading existential frustration.

As for drug addiction, people with low life goals, are more likely to try to find meaning in drugs than those people who have well-defined high goals in life. Addicts often claim that they turned to drugs to find meaning in life. Many alcoholics also suffer from feelings of meaninglessness.

Regarding aggression, Frankl believes that people are most likely to become aggressive when they are overwhelmed by feelings of emptiness and meaninglessness.

logotherapy methods. The significance of logotherapy lies in the fact that it helps clients find meaning in their lives. Logotherapy consultants seek to confront clients with their life challenges and reorient clients towards solving those challenges.

logotherapy attaches importance relationship between patient and therapist. This relationship is an essential aspect of the psychotherapeutic process, a far more important factor than any method or technique. Relationships require a balance between two extremes, human intimacy and scientific detachment. This means that the psychotherapist should not be guided solely by sympathy or a desire to help the patient, but also should not suppress human interest in him by reducing relationships to technical devices.

Technically, logotherapy is close to cognitive-behavioral therapy. Methods of paradoxical intention, dereflection, changing attitudes and positive reformulation (they are called methods of Socratic dialogue) are characteristic of both directions.

One of the main methods of existential analysis - working with a biography - is contraindicated at high emotional stress, as it can lead to a state of overstrain and increase the client's suicidal risk.

In neurotic states, the main methods of logotherapy are paradoxical intention and dereflexia.

paradoxical intention. The use of paradoxical intention is recommended for the short-term treatment of clients with obsessive-compulsive and phobic mental disorders.

The essence of paradoxical intention is that clients are asked to intentionally do exactly what they are afraid of. In addition, paradoxical intention engages and is supported by clients' sense of humor; due to a sense of humor, clients increase the feeling of detachment from neuroses, as they begin to laugh at them.

Paradoxical intention is categorically contraindicated in psychotic depression.

Dereflection. The purpose of using paradoxical intention is to help clients ridicule their symptoms of neurosis, and the purpose of using dereflection is to help clients ignore these symptoms. Dereflection is especially useful in cases male impotence and inability to achieve orgasm in women. Dereflexia diverts attention from the action being performed and one's own person, switching it to a partner.

In the presence of psychoses such as endogenous depression and schizophrenia, logotherapy can be used in combination with drug therapy. Logotherapy itself deals with the healthy part of the personality, helping clients to see meaning in suffering.

Grade. It would be unfair to judge logotherapy based on the techniques of paradoxical intention and dereflection. These are specific techniques for very specific symptoms or neurotic conditions. They are hardly applicable to the more severe disorders that existential psychotherapy deals with, in particular existential frustration and loss of meaning in life. Logotherapy is designed to deal with these philosophical or spiritual problems.

It has been argued that logotherapy is more of a faith, a philosophy of life, a secular religion than a science or school of psychotherapy in the ordinary sense of the word.

Frankl's therapy is "meaning therapy", and meaninglessness and the search for meaning will always be problems for a person; for this reason alone, it is to be expected that logotherapy will retain its importance as an independent form of treatment in the field of psychotherapy.