WHAT IS LOGOTHERAPY ABOUT?

SYNOPSIS OF THE TENETS OF LOGOTHERAPY

(Viktor Frankl’s Avenues to Meaning – A Compendium of Concepts, Phrases and Terms in Logotherapy, by Patti Havenga Coetzer, D.Phil., LFIBA – 2003: 8-10)

1. The Pillars of Logotherapy:

i. Life has Meaning under all circumstances – This statement can be made unqualified because:

• Meaning is not only found in that which one does (in one’s work, hobbies, commitment to a cause, etc). but
• Meaning can be realised in that which we experience (e.g. in nature, in art, in relationships).
• Meaning can be realised through the attitude that we take in the apparently meaningless, tragic, situations which cause unavoidable suffering.

ii. The Will-to-Meaning is man’s primary motivation. It is more powerful than the Will-to-Pleasure (Sigmund Freud), and the Will-to-Power (Alfred Adler, & Friedrich Nietzsche).

iii. Man is free to choose. Man is not free from physiological limits, instincts, drives and the environment. But, man is free to choose how he handles these limitations. Man has the freedom to choose his attitude.

2. Man is born with the Defiant Power of The Human Spirit. Man is not delivered over; man is not the victim of his physical limitations, his instincts, his genes, or his environment. Man has the power to choose.

3. Man always has a Choice – even if it is just the ability to choose his attitude towards circumstances, towards suffering, death, and adversity.

4. Man is Three-Dimensional. Man is not divided in a body and a psyche, but has three dimensions: the biological (the Soma), the psychological (the Psyche) and the spiritual (the Noös) which is the specific human dimension.

5. Reductionism denies the noölogical dimension, the human spirit, and limits man to the biological dimension, where man is reduced to the animal level. In other words, man is reduced to nothing-but an animal, or, in the psychological dimension, where man is seen as nothing but a machine which can be manipulated.

6. The spirit/noös is man’s untouchable core, man’s essence. This core cannot get ill; it can only be blocked by psychological or spiritual ill health. This means that man can uphold his human dignity even in times of illness, in adversity, and in coping with abnormalities. It is exactly under these circumstances that man is challenged to stay human, to act like a human being, to vindicate, to uphold his human dignity.

7. Man has Self –Transcendence: Man can transcend himself by reaching out above the self to the other, to ideals, and to God.

8. Man can distance himself from himself, e.g. through humour, which can help man to break life patterns and change the course of his life.

9. Man is not determined by that what he was, by how and where he was born, but by his vision of the person he wants to be, how he wants to act.

10. Man is unique and thus will find himself in situations where he is irreplaceable. These situations offer man the opportunity to find meaning, the unique meaning of his unique existence.