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Psychotherapy and Existentialism: Selected Papers on Logotherapy

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Viktor Emil Frankl (1905-1997) was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor, as well as the founder of logotherapy, a form of existential psychotherapy. His most famous book (which also describes his experiences in the Holocaust) is Man's Search for Meaning.

He states in the Foreword to this 1967 book, "This volume consists mainly of a number of my papers in the field of logotherapy published during recent years. I have selected for reprinting those essays which I believe will provide the clearest and most direct understanding of the principles of logotherapy and their therapeutic applications."

Here are some representative quotations from the book:

"Man is free to rise above the plane of somatic and psychic determinants of his existence."
"(B)oth the will to pleasure and the will to power are derivatives of the original will to meaning."
"It is a tenet of logotherapy that meaning can be found in life not only through acting or through experiencing values but also through suffering."
"Man is free to be responsible, and he is responsible for the realization of the meaning of his life, the logos of his existence."
"Since logotherapy, as its name implies, focuses on meaning, it cannot avoid confronting the patient with pain, death, and guilt, or, as I call it, the tragic triad of human existence."

This reads as a textbook for those wanting to learn about the theory and jargon of logotherapy but was of no use as a practical guide to dealing with issues of existential doubt. Not for a lay person looking for answers.

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