The Will to Meaning: Foundations and Applications of Logotherapy

by Viktor E. Frankl

Book Overview

From the author of Man's Search for Meaning, one of the most influential works of psychiatric literature since Freud.

Holocaust survivor Viktor E. Frankl is known as the founder of logotherapy, a mode of psychotherapy based on man's motivation to search for meaning in his life. The author discusses his ideas in the context of other prominent psychotherapies and describes the techniques he uses with his patients to combat the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0142181269
• ISBN13: 9780142181263
• Release Date: June 2014
• Publisher: Plume Books
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Thought-provoking

It is always great pleasure to read Dr. Frankl's books. This was no exception. Although the Book was written many years ago, it contains many practical principles that can be used to overcome "existential vacuum", which is so rampant today. Must read book for those feeling aimless in this fragmented society.

Everyone should read at least one of Frankl's books

This book and Frankl's other popular book, "Man's search for meaning" offer a great deal of overlap. Yet I fond both extrememlty interesting and helpful. Frankl posits that we all have an innate tendency to mental/spiritual health which he calls the will to meaning. This is similar to the body's hedency to heal after any physical assault. He explains that good counselling focusses the will to meaning, or removes blocks which are preventing it from being expressed. Frankl's experiences in a NAZI death camp show how focussing on personal meaning and what little freedom of choice one does have, can enable mental health to survive even under the most pathogenic of circumstances.