The Will to Meaning: Foundations and Applications of Logotherapy

Review ?Perhaps the most significant thinking since Freud and Adler.?-The American Journal of Psychiatry ?Frankl is one of the most famous and gifted of all psychiatrists? The incredible attempts to dehumanize man at Auschwitz and Dachau led Frankl to commence the humanization of psychiatry through logotherapy. Frankl is a professional who possesses the rare ability to write in a layman?s language.?-Dr. Gerald F. Kreyche, professor emeritus at DePaul University?I regard this book as one of the outstanding contributions to psychological thought in the last fifty years.?-Dr. Carl Rogers, author of Client-Centered Therapy ?Dr. Frankl?s contribution to psychotherapy has been great. He is perhaps the only non-behaviorist to have contributed a method to behavior therapy. The modesty with which he has put forward his important work has been remarkable.?-Dr. Joseph Wolpe, author of The Practice of Behavioral Therapy Product Description 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 "existential vacuum." Originally published in 1969 and compiling Frankl's speeches on logotherapy, The Will to Meaning is regarded as a seminal work of meaning-centered therapy. This new and carefully re-edited version is the first since 1988. About the Author Viktor E. Frankl (1905-1997) was Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at the University of Vienna. During World War II, he spent three years in Auschwitz, Dachau, and other concentration camps. He was the founder of the Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy-the school of logotherapy-and President of the Austrian Medical Society of Psychotherapy. His twenty-nine books have been translated into twenty-one languages. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. A PLUME BOOKTHE WILL TO MEANINGVIKTOR E. FRANKL was professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Vienna Medical School. For twenty-five years he was head of the Vienna Neurological Policlinic. His ?Logotherapy/Existential Analysis? came to be known as the ?Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy.? He held professorships at Harvard, Stanford, Dallas, and Pittsburgh, and was Distinguished Professor of Logotherapy at the U.S. International University in San Diego, California.Born in 1905, Frankl received the degrees of Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Vienna. During World War II he spent three years at Auschwitz, Dachau, and other concentration camps.Throughout four decades Dr. Frankl made innumerable lecture tours throughout the world. He received honorary degrees from twenty-nine universities in Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia. He held numerous awards, among them the Oskar Pfister Award of the American Psychiatric Association and an Honorary Membership of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.Frankl?s thirty-nine books appeared in forty languages. His book Man?s Search for Meaning has sold millions of copies and has been listed among ?the ten most influential books in America? according to a survey conducted by the Book of the Month Club and the Library of Congress.He died in Vienna in 1997.THEWILL TOMEANINGFOUNDATIONSAND APPLICATIONSOF LOGOTHERAPYExpanded EditionVIKTOR E. FRANKLPREFACEThis book is the outcome of a series of lectures I was invited to give during the 1966 summer session of Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. The particular task assigned to me at that time was to explain the system that characterizes logotherapy. While it has often been pointed out by various authors that logotherapy, in contrast to the other schools of ex