104 Man's Search for Meaning
Logotherapy in a Nutshell 105
the following improvisation: "Now, in
logotherapy the patient may remain sitting
erect but he must hear things which
sometimes are very disagreeable to hear."
Of course, this was meant facetiously and
not as a capsule version of logotherapy.
However, there is something in it, inasmuch as
logotherapy, in comparison with
psychoanalysis, is a method less retrospective
and less introspective. Logotherapy focuses
rather on the future, that is to say, on the
meanings to be fulfilled by the patient in his
future. (Logotherapy, indeed, is a meaning-
centered psychotherapy.) At the same time,
logotherapy defocuses all the vicious-circle
formations and feedback mechanisms which
play such a great role in the development of
neuroses. Thus, the typical self-centeredness
of the neurotic is broken up instead of being
continually fostered and reinforced.
To be sure, this kind of statement is an
oversimplification; yet in logotherapy the
patient is actually confronted with and
reoriented toward the meaning of his life.
And to make him aware of this meaning can
contribute much to his ability to overcome his
neurosis.
Let me explain why I have employed the
term "logotherapy" as the name for my
theory. Logos is a Greek word which denotes
"meaning." Logotherapy, or, as it has been
called by some authors, "The Third Viennese
School of Psychotherapy," focuses on the
meaning of human existence as well as on
man's search for such a meaning. According to
logotherapy, this striving to find a meaning
in one's life is the primary motivational force
in man. That is why I speak of a will to
meaning in contrast to the pleasure
principle (or, as we could also term it, the will
to pleasure) on which Freudian psychoanalysis
is centered, as well as in contrast to the will to
power on which Adlerian psychology, using
the term "striving for superiority," is focused.
THE WILL TO MEANING
Man's search for meaning is the primary
motivation in his life and not a "secondary
rationalization" of instinctual drives. This
meaning is unique and specific in that it must
and can be fulfilled by him alone; only then
does it achieve a significance which will
satisfy his own will to meaning. There are
some authors who contend that meanings
and values are "nothing but defense
mechanisms, reaction formations and
sublimations." But as for myself, I would not
be willing to live merely for the sake of my
"defense mechanisms," nor would I be ready
to die merely for the sake of my "reaction
formations." Man, however, is able to live and
even to die for the sake of his ideals and
values!
A public-opinion poll was conducted a few
years ago in France. The results showed that
89 percent of the people polled admitted that
man needs "something" for the sake of which
to live. Moreover, 61 percent conceded that
there was something, or someone, in their
own lives for whose sake they were even
ready to die. I repeated this poll at my
hospital department in Vienna among both
the patients and the personnel, and the
outcome was practically the same as among
the thousands of people screened in France; the
difference was only 2 percent.
Another statistical survey, of 7,948 students
at forty-eight colleges, was conducted by
social scientists from Johns Hopkins
University. Their preliminary report is part of
a two-year study sponsored by the National
Institute of Mental Health. Asked what they
considered "very important" to them now, 16
percent of the students checked "making a lot
of money"; 78 percent said their first goal was
"finding a purpose and meaning to my life."
Of course, there may be some cases in
which an individual's concern with values is
really a camouflage of hidden inner conflicts;
but, if so, they represent the exceptions from
io6 Man's Search for Meaning
Logotherapy in a Nutshell 107
the rule rather than the rule itself. In these
cases we have actually to deal with
pseudovalues, and as such they have to be
unmasked. Unmasking, however, should stop
as soon as one is confronted with what is
authentic and genuine in man, e.g., man's
desire for a life that is as meaningful as
possible. If it does not stop then, the only
thing that the "unmasking psychologist"
really unmasks is his own "hidden motive"—
namely, his unconscious need to debase and
depreciate what is genuine, what is
genuinely human, in man.
EXISTENTIAL FRUSTRATION
Man's will to meaning can also be
frustrated, in which case logotherapy
speaks of "existential frustration." The term
"existential" may be used in three ways: to
refer to (1) existence itself, i.e., the
specifically human mode of being; (2) the
meaning of existence; and (3) the striving to
find a concrete meaning in personal
existence, that is to say, the will to meaning.
Existential frustration can also result in
neuroses. For this type of neuroses,
logotherapy has coined the term "noogenic
neuroses" in contrast to neuroses in the
traditional sense of the word, i.e.,
psychogenic neuroses. Noogenic neuroses
have their origin not in the psychological but
rather in the "noological" (from the Greek
noos meaning mind) dimension of human
existence. This is another logotherapeutic
term which denotes anything pertaining to the
specifically human dimension.
NOOGENIC NEUROSES
Noogenic neuroses do not emerge from
conflicts between drives and instincts but
rather from existential problems.
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