Viktor Frankl (1905-1997) is worthy of much respect and admiration. Out of three terrible years of suffering in a concentration camp, during which his mother, father, brother, and wife were taken from him, Dr. Frankl developed logotherapy (from the Greek logos, roughly equivalent to "meaning"). Logotherapy is an approach to therapy that addresses our inherent need for meaning and value in living. The belief that sustained Dr. Frankl during this period of intense suffering was the conviction that people, in spite of great adversity, anguish, and the loss of all they hold dear, can remain free within themselves and are able to maintain, and even to strengthen, their sense of self-respect and integrity. To communicate how it is possible to do this became Dr. Frankl's lifework.
Logotherapy is a therapy of meaning for those who are unable to find a reason for living. It is a form of therapy related to existential analysis (see Chapter 10), but it is specific in its concern for helping clients find what it is that really matters to them, that makes hardships and pain worthwhile.
If Freudian psychoanalysis looks to the past for insight, logotherapy focuses instead on the future, on a person's life task. In this, there is no abstract and general answer to the question "What is the meaning of life?"
For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment. To put the question in general terms would be comparable to the question posed to a chess master, "Tell me, Master, what is the best move in the world?" There simply is no such thing as the best or even a good move apart from a particular situation in a game and the particular personality of one's opponent. The same holds for human existence.... Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment.... Ultimately, a man should not ask what the meaning of life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is 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.[[1]]
[[1]] Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy (New York: Washington Square Press, 1963), pp. 170-171.
Dr. Frankl liked to compare logotherapy to the role of the eye specialist: the logotherapist's role is to help the patient see more clearly the range of lived values and meaning available to him.
WHAT LOGOTHERAPY IS LIKE
An elderly physician came to Viktor Frankl to ask for help with severe depression. His wife, whom he loved above all else, had died two years before. His sense of loss would not heal. Could Dr. Frankl help him?