Logotherapy/Existential Analysis (LTEA)

1. Who is Viktor Frankl ?

2. Viktor (center)was born on March 26, 1905 in Vienna, Austria which also happens to be the birthplace of modern psychiatry, and home of renowned psychiatrists Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler.

3. At the age of 16, Frankl began writing to Freud. He was fascinated with Freud’s work. On one occasion Frankl actually sent Freud a short psychoanalytic essay that he had written and it was published 3 years later. ( Frankl later began to question the basic premises of Freud’s psychoanalysis) Sigmund Freud Viktor Frankl

4. He earned a medical degree from the University of Vienna in 1930. Frankl was in charge of a hospital ward for the treatment of females who had attempted suicide. His success rate of helping patients who were suicidal was phenomenal!

5. Eight years later, Germany seized control of Austria. The Nazis made Frankl head of the Rothschild Hospital ( a clinic for Jewish patients) It was here that, in spite of danger to his own life, he sabotaged Nazi procedures by making false diagnoses to prevent the euthanasia of mentally ill patients.

6. In 1942, he married Mathilde “Tilly” Grosser(They soon expected their first child…only to be forced by the Nazis to have it aborted)

7. Nine months later, their lives changed completely! Frankl, his wife and his parents were transported to Nazi concentration camps. Viktor and Tilly Frankl Elsa and Gabriel Frankl (Viktor’s parents)

8. Frankl and the other prisoners were divided into two lines – women on one side, men on the other. A senior officer motioned to each prisoner to go toward the right or to the left. It was Frankl’s turn! Somebody whispered to Frankl that to go the right would mean work. Those sent to the left would go to a “ special camp”! Frankl shares how he tried to “look smart” and the officer put his hands on his shoulders and turned him very slowly until he faced the right. Those sent to the left, (90%) were marched from the station straight to the crematorium. Frankl and the other prisoners could actually see the chimney a few yards away that was sending a column of smoke and flame ”floating up to Heaven”.

9. The rest of his family were not so fortunate. Frankl’s wife, his parents and other members of his family, all died in concentration camps!

11. At night when he could not sleep, Frankl scribbled on strips of paper that he had stolen from the camp office and continued to work on his thesis about Fate and Freedom.

13. Logotherapyassumes that….Each person has the resources to manage any situation he or she may face, but may need assistance in discovering these resources.

14. Unlike most forms of psychotherapy, Logotherapyencourages patients to look to the future and live their lives fully, rather than relive the past.

15. Logotherapy also employs techniques useful for phobias, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

16. Can be applied when working with juvenile delinquents, career counseling and helping us ALL find more meaning in life!What is Logotherapy ?

17. Foundations: Existentialism It’s existentialist because it emphasizes the “freedom of the will” and the consequent “responsibility”. It also, of course, asserts the importance of the “meaning of life” . While Freud said human’s have a “will to pleasure” and Adler “ the will to power”, Frankl says we have a “will to meaning” Frankl’s book “Man’s Search for Meaning” Stoicism It’s stoic because it holds that no matter what the state of the world, our attitudecan always help us. Stoicism….holds that “Men are not moved by events but by their interpretations.” Even in facing death and suffering, by showing courage we can turn a situation into a supremely meaningful one. What is Logotherapy…..cont’d

19. “Oh!” replied the patient, “ for her this would have been terrible: how she would have suffered!”

20. Frankl continued, “ You see such a suffering has been spared her; and it is you who have spared her this suffering: but now, you have to pay for it by surviving her and mourning her.”

23. But….Logotherapy was also the result of Frankl’s own ideas and improvisations, not all of which are very obviously connected with his experiences in the camps.Lesson Frankl learned in three years spent in Auschwitz and Dachau…(Auschwitz a.k.a “Gate to Hell”)

25. “ What is to give light, must endure burning.”

26. “The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance.”Frankl ‘s famous quotes:

27. As asked earlier….Who is Viktor Frankl ?I hope you can now answer this question if ever asked again, and never forget this outstanding therapist who not only taught his philosophy to us, but lived it!!!! March 26, 1905 – Sept. 2, 1997 Age : 92 Name during Holocaust: #119,104 He truly endured burning, to give us light!

29. Even then, I was very impressed with what little I had read about him in our textbook “The Psychology of Religion and Coping”. Now I am not only impressed with Dr. Frankl; I believe deeply in his methods and admire how he lived his life.

30. Another concept that has had a huge impact on me is “Positive Psychology”.

31. In the future I plan to combine the LTEA concept of Dr.Frankl with the ideas expressed through positive psychology.

32. My personal testimony : Finding “meaning” in my life has brought me through several difficulties that I have faced through the years.

33. After the realization that this is a type of therapy developed by Dr. Frankl, I plan to learn more and more about its techniques and how I can put it into practice in whatever environment I find myself working in.

35. www.timlebon.com/frankl.htm#whatis

36. http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/frankl.html

37. www.google.com/images

38. http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/frankl/frankl.html

39. http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/logotherapy

40. Frankl, V. E. (1959). Man's Search for Meaning (Fourth ed. ). Boston: Beacon Press. References