According to research, getting a life purpose strengthens resilience in adversity’s face.
It is also the basis of logotherapy, which is a conventional psychotherapeutic practice.
In the article, we’re going to evaluate Logotherapy’s present-day uses and provide you a little idea about finding life’s purpose and mental strength.
Let us First Understand What is Logotherapy
The term, which is derived through “Logos,” Greek word translates “meaning,” and its therapy. It is defined as a condition’s treatment, maladjustment, or illness.
The term was developed through Viktor Frankl, and the theory has been founded on the belief that the nature of humans is motivated through the search of life’s purpose and the pursuit of the meaning of someone’s life is known as logotherapy.
You can learn more on BetterHelp.com about Logotherapy; the fundamental basis, assumptions, and more. But in this article, we’ll dive more into the applications of Logotherapy.
The theories of Frankl got influenced heavily by personal suffering experienced and the losses in concentration camps in Nazi Germany.
Let’s see evaluate Frankl’s treatment and how it could be applied to mental health issues.
Franklian’s Philosophy Components of Logotherapy
Three main components are at Franklin philosophy’s heart:
- A healthy core is provided for each person.
- The primary focus is the enlightenment of a person for own internal resources and offering them tools for using the inner core.
- Life provides you with meaning and purpose; it doesn’t owe you a sense of happiness and fulfillment.
Finding Meaning of Life through Logotherapy
Logotherapy revolves around the premise that humans are driven for finding sense of purpose and meaning in life.
According to Frankl, the meaning of life gets discovered in three ways:
- After creating work or accomplishing task
- After fully experiencing something or loving someone
- By the attitude adopted by someone towards unavoidable suffering
According to Frank suffering is unavoidable on life’s part, and the ultimate freedom of man is the ability to respond to given circumstances, also the most painful ones.
Also, people find life’s meaning through identifying unique roles fulfilled by people.
For example, when a man consulted with Frankl because of severe depression after his wife’s death, Frankl asked him about considering what might have happened when he first die and the wife got forced for mourning death.
The man gradually recognizes that his suffering spared his wife from such experience, which served as a curative factor and majorly helped him in getting relieved from depression.
Present-day Logotherapy Clinical Applications
As a few practices of logotherapy is about advising exposure toward feared stimuli for creating desensitization – that is, getting used to the stimuli so there is less impact – they also lend themselves well to the cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), which uses approach for treating conditions like phobias.
“On a lot of levels, logotherapy also presents high compatibility degree with the therapy of cognitive behavior,” as stated by authors of a 2013 article which has been published in Psychotherapy journal.
In support of his theory, research studies have found logotherapy useful with drug and alcohol problems, depression, anxiety, rehabilitation, psychoses, and the despair associated with incurable illnesses.
Main Techniques for Logotherapy
Three mainly used logotherapy techniques are:
Paradoxical Intention: This is about asking the most feared thing. Let’s suppose people experiencing phobias or anxiety can get paralyzed through fear.
However, through using ridicule and humor, they wish about the thing that is feared the most, which is the removal of fear from the intention and also relieving anxious systems that have been related to it.
Socratic Dialogue: The Socratic dialogue has been a technique where the logotherapist makes use of the own words of a person as a self-discovery method.
After intently listening to what is said by the person, the therapist points out certain word patterns, or solutions of words to clients, and lets the person experience meaning.
The process lets a person realize that the answer is within and waits to get discovered.
Treatment of Mental Conditions Through Logotherapy
Logotherapy functions on the belief that a lot of issues related to mental health and illnesses are because of existential angst.
Through the work, Frankl found that people struggled through meaninglessness feelings, a situation referred to as an existential vacuum.
Logotherapy is used for the treatment of different issues that are existential. Specifically, logotherapy is effective for treating posttraumatic stress, substance abuse, anxiety, and depression.
Logotherapy Criticism
Among the primary logotherapy, criticisms is the one coming from Rollo May, who is the founder of the existential movement in United States.
People have argued that logotherapy is authoritarian in nature and it suggests that clear solutions are there for different problems and Frankl offers people utilizing the therapy with different meaning when they’re not able to discover their own.
Frankl got aware about the criticism drawn by May and refuted the idea that due to logotherapy the responsibility is taken away from the individual.
Then he stated that logotherapy treatment is actually aimed at educating the person about the responsibility of self.
Frankl believed that a sense of meaninglessness was associated with the “neurotic triad” of aggression, depression, and addiction.
