The Life-changing Impact of Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy — 1. What Is Logotherapy?

1. 1. Logotherapy, coined by Viktor Frankl, is healing through meaning, based on three tenets: freedom of will, will to meaning, and meaning of life.
2. 2. Frankl argued that humans have freedom of will and are not determined by inherent inclinations or external forces.
3. 3. The will to meaning is the fundamental human drive to find coherence and connectedness in life.
4. 4. Frankl asserted that life must be objectively meaningful, not merely a human projection, for the search to be worthwhile.
5. 5. Frankl believed that suffering and tragedy provoke the deepest search for meaning, and that meaning can be found even in the worst conditions.
6. 6. Frankl identified the 'tragic triad' of human existence: pain, guilt, and death, and also spoke of existential vacuum—a feeling of inner emptiness.
7. 7. As a child, Frankl was troubled not by fear of death but by whether life's transitory nature destroys its meaning.
8. 8. Frankl chose to stay in Nazi-occupied Austria rather than emigrate to the US, interpreting a piece of marble from a burnt synagogue as a sign to honor his parents.
9. 9. In Auschwitz, Frankl decided not to commit suicide and instead lived his philosophy: life expects something from us, not the other way around.
10. 10. Frankl argued that love is the ultimate goal of human aspiration, and that it transcends even death.
11. 11. Frankl's vision of giving a lecture on camp psychology after liberation helped him endure; he later fulfilled that vision, speaking to audiences worldwide.
12. 12. Frankl concluded that humans are capable of both inventing gas chambers and entering them with a prayer; our choices define us.