Quick look at Existentialism and logotherapy

THis is a paper i wrote a few years ago- just wanted to get it online for a quick introduction to existentialism that some folks have been asking for- so here ya go.

Walter Kaufman in his book Critique of Religion and Philosophy states

“Any philosophic work that pursues one to the exclusion of the other (in speaking of psychology devoid of philosophy and vice-versa) does so at its peril. Psychological speculation without special attention to the concepts used is likely to be philosophically naive-and Freud’s so called metapsychology is a case in point. But what is overlooked by many contemporary philosophers is that conceptual analysis divorced from all philosophy are no less naive.” (Parenthesis mine)1

He continues in stating that one philosophical movement that has managed to escape this trend is that of existentialism, and specifically discussed in this paper, existential psychotherapy.

Existential psychotherapy is best described as a philosophical approach that influences a therapists practice. It goes by a number of different names, some stressing certain steps of the theory, but more often just different names referring to the same thought process. These range form existential psychotherapy, existential analysis, and to the most common, logotherapy, which is what it will be considered in this paper. The term existential analysis has continued to be used, and appears to refer to a different aspect of Viktor Frankl’s theory and method than logotherapy. Tweedie notes that “these terms are nearly synonymous and refer to two facets of the same theory.”2

Logotherapy is derived form two Greek words, the first of which is Logos. The general meaning of this word is “a word, a saying, a statement; reason, the mental faculty of thinking, calculation.”3 The second word is therapeia (which is form therapeuo), meaning “service rendered by one to another;” specifically, “medical service, curing, healing. . .” In essence logotherapy is healing through meaning, or therapy through meaning. Frankl states,

“Let me explain why I have employed the term ‘logotherapy’ as the name for my theory. Logos is a Greek word that denotes ‘meaning’! Logotherapy or as it has been called by some authors, ‘the Third School of Viennese Psychotherapy,’ focuses on the meaning of human existence as well as on man’s search for a meaning. According to logotherapy, the striving to find a meaning in ones life is the primary motivational force in man”4


Frankl’s logotherapy has been called as stated the “Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy.” It was preceded by Freud’s ‘psychoanalysis’, and Adler’s ‘individual psychology’, which are considered the first and the second Viennese schools of psychotherapy.

Background and Development: Existential Philosophical Roots

The existential therapy movement was not established by any one person or group. Rather it has grown out of a major theme in philosophy. It arose spontaneously in different parts of Europe, and among different schools of psychology and psychiatry in the 1940's and 1950's5

May shows that the development of the existential movement in psychology is in part an outgrowth of the phenomenological movement in philosophy, with Husserl’s phenomenology influencing it particularly. Existential philosophy, the second major contributor, had its origins in the work of Kierkegaard and Jaspers, as well as later existential writers including Heidegger, Marcel, and Sartre.

May defines existentialism as “the endeavor to understand man by cutting below the cleavage between subject and object which has bedeviled Western thought and science since shortly after the Renaissance. . . . It arose specifically just over a hundred years ago in Kierkegaard’s violent protest against the reigning rationalism of his day, Hegels ‘totalitarianism of reason,’ to use Maritain’s phrase.”6 It focuses on the experience of the individual, especially outside that of the intellect to that of experience, and on existence in its total involvement in a situation within the world.

Key Founders

Viktor Frankl is considered to be the foremost contributor to existential psychotherapy and the founder of Logotherapy. He founded the Youth Advisement centers there in 1928 and directed them until 1938. He received his MD. in 1930 and his Ph.D. in 1949, both at the University of Vienna. He was on staff at the Neuropsychiatric University Clinic from 1930 to 1938. He was a specialist in Neurology and psychiatry and then the head of the Neurological Department at Rothschild Hospital in Vienna from 1936 to 1942. He became head of the Neurological Policlinic Hospital in Vienna in 1946. In 1947 he was appointed associate professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Vienna, and became a professor in 1955. He was visiting professor at Harvard University summer school in 1961, and in 1964 and1965, visiting professor at the Chicago Psychiatric Foundation.7 Frankl’s parents, brother, wife, and children died in the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Dachau, where he was a prisoner from 1942-1945. This was perhaps one of the most defining events in his life that shaped his theories.

Another key figure in the development of the existential movement was Rollo May. He is credited with bringing it from Europe to the United States and for translating key concepts into psychotherapeutic practice. His writings have had a large amount of influence on existentially orientated practitioners.

May was born in 1909 and first lived in Ohio then moving to Michigan as a young child with his five brothers and a sister. In his youth he studied ancient Greek civilization, which he believes gave him an adequate view of human nature. He later traveled to Vienna and studied with Alfred Adler. While in his doctoral program he came down with tuberculosis, which resulted in a 2 year stay in a sanitarium. During his recovery he spent a large amount of time reading on the subject of anxiety. This resulted in the writing of a number of his popular books. His greatest personal influence was that of Paul Tillich, a German philosopher. He spent much time with him discussing matters of dealing with philosophy, religion, and psychology. May was one of the main proponents of the humanistic approach to psychotherapy, and was the principle American spokesman of European existential thinking as it is applied to psychotherapy.8

Two other existential therapist that had a significant impact in the United States are James Bugental and Irvin Yalom.

Philosophy and Concepts; Views of Human Nature

The most significant part of the existential movement is the fact that it is devoid of a particular tendency to identify therapy to a set standard of techniques. Rather it bases it’s practice on the understanding of what it means to be a human. They stand for respect of the person, for exploring new aspects of human nature and for divergent methods of understanding people.9

Frankl, in his book, Psychotherapy and Existentialism says that there is however a theory, a vision underlying the practice of Logotherapy. He goes on to point out that there are three basic assumptions of the human condition that form a chain of interconnected links. They can be called Freedom of Will, Will to Meaning, and Meaning of Life.10 These are what all of logotherapy is based. These will be outlined later in the six propositions of logotherapy.

The fact that humans are in a constant state of transition captures in part the existential view of human nature. This would be that the significance of our existence is never fixed once and for all; rather we continually re-create ourselves through our projects. According to the existential approach, there are six basic dimensions to the human condition. They are (1) the capacity for self-awareness; (2) freedom and responsibility; (3) creating ones identity and establishing meaningful relationships with others; (4) the search for meaning, purpose, values and goals; (5) anxiety as a condition of living; and (6) awareness of death and nonbeing.11

The Capacity for Self-Awareness

Bugental states, “A central fact of the human experience is that man is aware.”12 Man has the capacity to reflect and make choices based on the past, and their view of the future because we have to capacity of self-awareness. The greater ones awareness the greater possibility they have for freedom. In order to live more fully, one must increase their awareness. When this is done they become aware of a number of facts about their existence. One inescapable fact that one must meet in his awareness is that it is finite, limited and incomplete; we do not have an unlimited time to do what we want with our life. As well as becoming aware of the outside or internal conditions that have effected the way we make decisions in life.

Another fact that one must find is that we have the potential to take action or to stay stagnant and to not act, however inaction is a decision to act in itself. We can chose our actions therefore to some extent we can create our own destiny. This creates a search for meaning which is not automatically bestowed on us but is the product of our search and of discovering a purpose. One then can discover a sense of responsibility when they experience concern about the actions they take because they realize the consequences of their choices. This is described as Existential Anxiety, which is discussed later in this paper.

Another awareness we face is the fact that we are basically alone. We come to the realization that while others can share in some of our experiences, they are still completely separate from us. This can be illustrated in the fact that no matter how close we are to someone, we are still completely separate from them, a completely separate individual. This can be where one will experience loneliness and the ultimate threat of complete isolation.

Freedom and Responsibility

One of the central themes of existentialism that logotherapy embraces is that of free- will. Especially that individuals are free to choose who they will become and what their meaning or destiny will be. We have a large role in the shaping of our destinies because we are free to choose among alternatives. Because of this freedom we must accept responsibility for the direction of our lives. Freedom means freedom in the face of the instincts, inherited disposition, and the environment. Humans are influenced by all these factors, however they still have the freedom to accept or reject and to take a stand against these conditions. So, humans do not simply exist, they are able to decide what their existence will be. Since they can rise above biological, psychological and sociological conditions, which is what the predictions for which their future is based, they are individually unpredictable.13

Existentialist are then anti-deterministic in that they see the person transcending both himself and his culture. Frankl states that each person is ultimately self-determining. One can avoid this responsibility by making excuses for the reason they decide in the ways they have. For example they may state, “that’s just the way I am,” or, “I am this way because of my alcoholic father.” This ultimately is choosing not to live authentically and not accepting responsibility. Bugental states, “under the influence of radical determinism we have tended to see the person as but this collection of past perceptions, and we have taught each other well so that we come to see ourselves in the same fashion.”14 Frankl says in Man’s Search for Meaning,

“Every human being has the freedom to change at any instant. Therefore we can predict his future only in the large framework of a statistical survey referring to a whole group; the individual personality, however remains essentially unpredictable. The basis for any predictions would be represented by biological, psychological, or sociological conditions. Yet one of the main features of human existence is the capacity to rise above such conditions, to grow beyond them. Man is capable of changing the world for the better if possible, and of changing himself for the better if necessary.”15


Therefore man, unless they are mentally or developmentally disabled are completely free to decide for themselves. However cinstricted this freedom is it still leaves them with the opportunity to choose ones course or simply to stand up against the conditions which limit them. Arbuckle adds,

“Freedom is the core of existential thought. This may be experienced as Sartre’s consciousness of freedom, Jaspers existence as freedom, Kierkegaard’s self as freedom, or Tillich’s concept of man as freedom. They are all saying the same thing-that I am free, that where I go and what I do depends on me, not the forces outside of me or even the forces that I may have internalized as a part of me. I, and I alone, always have to ultimate choice, and this choice I am free to make. The very fact that one is alive means that he has the potential to be free, but one is never free to live, of course, until he is free to die.”16


Humans cannot avoid freedom, because we create ourselves and our world, however, we may wish that it were otherwise, that maybe there is a structure or a foundation that is outside ourselves that we may cast ourselves onto in order to ease this burden. A well known quote from Sartre is that “man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.”

Frankl goes on to insist that freedom is not only from something but that more importantly it is for something: responsibility. He states,

“Freedom however, is not the last word. Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in the terms of responsibleness. That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.”17


The individual is responsible to themselves, to his or her conscience, or to God. The goal of the therapist is then to make the patient fully aware of his or her responsibilities, and it must leave them with the option for what, to what, or to whom he sees himself being held responsible to. Thus freedom and responsibility go hand in hand.

Striving for Identity and Relationship to Others
Man is concerned with preserving his individuality and uniqueness, but also desires to be found in a community. Man is an extremely relational being. Most people however have not trusted themselves to find answers and have settled for directions, answers, values and beliefs from the important people in their world. One becomes a stranger to himself, and merely a mirror of what others expect him to be.

It is a struggle and takes courage to learn how to live from the inside of oneself. One of the greatest fears a client expresses is that there is no core to themselves, that they are merely reflections of everyone expectations of them.

One part of the human experience is that of aloneness, however, strength can be derived from sensing this separation and looking into ourselves. We alone must decide how we will live and give meaning to life. This cannot come from anothers expectations. Before we can come into a good relation with another we must be able to stand on our own. This reinforces the fact that the human is ultimately alone. Man is a very relational being and longs to be significant in another persons world. Relationships however are not built on deprivation but on personal fulfilment. Only when one is able to stand alone and dip into themselves for strength can they enter into healthy relations with another. Otherwise this creates parasitic relationships.

The Search for Meaning
Perhaps the most distinguishing human characteristic of man is his search for significance and meaning. It is “the most human phenomenon of all, since an animal never worries about the meaning of its existence.”18 This, which is described as the second of the three basic tenets of Logotherapy19, is man’s primary motivational force for living. This is in contrast to Freud’s “will to pleasure”, and Adler’s “will to power”.20It must be sought after, defined and achieved by each person individually, since each person is unique as well as their specific meaning. This is not however a drive in the psychodynamic sense. The human is pushed by his drives, but one is drawn forward by their pursuit of meaning.

Meaningless in life leads to an emptiness, a condition Frankl calls an ‘existential vacuum’. With no instincts to guide their behavior and with the disappearances of traditions to guide their choices but faced with the necessity to make these choices, people do not know what to do or what they want to do. Frankl states that “the existential vacuum manifest itself mainly in a state of boredom. . . . In actual fact, boredom is now causing, and certainly bringing to psychiatrists, more problems to solve than distress.”21 In this type of boredom man is ultimately let down by all his pursuits. He is continually seeking a new high, like a child seeking new toys when one has lost its appeal, only to find that nothing can satisfy his heart. One manifestation is that of what Frankl calls “Sunday neuroses.” This is when the busyness and the demands of the week slow down and one is faced with the ultimate lack of content on their lives, and they become aware of the void within them.

People attempt to flee this feeling of meaninglessness in a number of ways. There are essentially three facets that present themselves in this vacuum, which are depression, aggression, and addiction. They compensate for it by a seeking after money, which leads to a seeking after more and more possessions. In other cases this is compensated for by a seeking after pleasure. “That is why existential frustration often eventuates in sexual compensation. We can observe in such cases that the sexual libido becomes rampant in the existential vacuum.”22 A compensation is also often found in alcohol and drugs.

Meaning however cannot be sought after as something to obtain. Finding meaning is a by-product of a commitment to engaging in life. Meaning like happiness must be a by-product. Frankl states,

“happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue. One must have a reason to be happy. Once the reason is found however, one becomes happy automatically. As we see, a human being is not one in pursuit of happiness but rather in search of a reason to be happy, last but not least, through actualizing the potential meaning inherent and dormant in a given situation.”23

This is what is considered “paradoxical intention.” Human existence is rather a matter of self-transcendence than that of self-actualization. For self-actualization is not something that can be aimed at “for the simple reason that the more a man would strive for it, the more he would miss it. For only to the extent to which a man commits himself to the fulfillment of his life’s meaning, to this extent he also actualizes himself. In other words self-actualization cannot be attained it is made an end in itself, but only as a side effect of self-transcendence.”24

Logotherapy states that there are three different ways one can find meaning: by creating a work or doing a deed, by experiencing something or encountering someone, and by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering.25 A main aspect of Logotherapy is that of how human suffering can be turned into human achievement by the stand one chooses to take in the face of it. Suffering ceases to be suffering the moment that it finds meaning. Suffering perhaps has the most potential at aiding someone in finding meaning. Frankl attacks one of our self-centered thoughts when he says,

“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is being asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible. Thus, logotherapy sees in responsibleness the very essence of human existence.”


Anxiety as a Condition of Living

Anxiety is seen by the existentialist as an inevitable neurotic component. There is a difference however between normal anxiety and neurotic anxiety. Normal anxiety is seen as not needed to be repressed as it can be used as a motivations to change. Living healthily entails living with as little nuerotic anxiety as possible, while struggling and accepting normal anxiety. This is called Existential Anxiety which is basically a consciousness of our own freedom. It can be expressed as a deep feeling of unease that arises from the awareness that our existence is finite, we are mortal, and there is no purpose other than that which we create for ourselves. This anxiety then should be the response to the fact that we have the responsibility to create a worthwhile existence in our limited time, and that there is no external standard which can define what that existence should be. This form of anxiety however is good. It is the recognition that one does indeed have responsibility. It is viewed as a positive sign in that it signals that the individual has begun the process of accepting responsibility for their lives.

Kierkegaard described it as the “dizziness of freedom”and Rollo May states that “anxiety is the experience of the threat of imminent non-being.”26 We experience this kind of healthy anxiety when we become aware of our own freedom and the consequences of how we choose, and deal with that freedom. Freedom and anxiety go hand in hand, they are considered two sides of the same coin. Existentialist do not attempt at eliminating this form of anxiety, for to do so would cut off a vital opportunity for change and growth. Frankl states,

“What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at all cost but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.”27

This is often one issue that brings someone into counseling and is the signal that the client has begun the journey to change.

Awareness of Death and Non-Being

(Some of this section was posted earlier below under "Death")

Death, in Logotherapy, is not viewed negatively. It is considered vitally important at finding meaning in the here and now. It is a basic human condition that brings significance to life. The ability to grasp the reality that we as humans are mortal and finite is an essential part of realizing that we do not have an eternity to complete our projects, and that each passing moment is crucial. If man were immortal on this side of eternity then he would be ever putting off his projects to tomorrow, the day after, or 100 years after that. Frankl states that “The meaning of human existence is based on its irreversible quality.”28

The fact that the length of life does not determine it’s meaning is another fact that must be realized. Frankl adds that a book is not judged by the number of pages in it, but rather by the quality it contains. Also when one is morbidly pre-occupied with prolonging his life because of his fear of death, he is immobilized. Those who fear death also fear life. If we accept the reality of death and live in the present, we will not be obsessed with its ending, however we will find true freedom. While physical death destroys us, the idea of death can save us. The simple act of being aware of our finiteness can be the very act that moves us out of a stagnant mode of living and into a more authentic one.29

An important way of looking at this category is seen in Frankl’s imperative of, “Live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!”30

Conclusion
The whole philosophy of Existential Psychotherapy and Logotherapy can be summed up in a single sentence from Nietzsche that Frankl was very fond of quoting, “He who has a why to live, can bear with almost any how.”

Logotherapy is essentially a secular approach to psychotherapy in that it does not claim one specific religion or denomination as its primary beneficiary. It has been made available to every person or therapist regardless if they are theistic or agnostic. It does however clearly leave the door open to religion, and there are some very distinct Christian themes in logotherapy which are found throughout the scriptures and the teachings of Christians. Logotherapy then, is open to cooperation with other approaches to psychotherapy, its own evolution, and to every religion and philosophy of man. Frankl concludes in his book Man’s Search for Ultimate Meaning with the statement that “I see the meaning of logotherapy in helping others to see meaning in life.”31