Concepts
Will to meaning
According to Frankl, the primary and basic human motivation - the striving to find and fulfil meaning.
Meaning of life
In logotherapy meaning is not invented but discovered. It is concrete, unique and changes from moment to moment - but it never disappears.
Three paths to meaning (values)
Frankl identified three main groups of values through which people realise meaning: creative, experiential and attitudinal values.
Creative values
The first path to meaning: realising meaning through what we create and do - work, a creation, a deed for others.
Experiential values
The second path to meaning: receiving what the world gives us - love, encounter with another, beauty, nature, art, truth.
Attitudinal values
The third and highest path to meaning: the attitude a person takes towards suffering that cannot be avoided or changed.
Freedom of will
The first pillar of logotherapy: a person is conditioned but not determined - they can always take a stand towards their conditions.
Responsibility
According to Frankl, the essence of human existence is being responsible - answering with actions the questions that life asks.
Conscience - the organ of meaning
Frankl called conscience the “organ of meaning” - the intuitive capacity to sense the unique meaning hidden in a given situation.
Dimensional ontology and the noetic dimension
A model of the human being as a unity of three dimensions: somatic, psychological and noetic (spiritual). The noetic dimension is the source of freedom, conscience, humour and self-transcendence.
Self-transcendence
The human capacity to reach beyond oneself - towards a task to be done or a person to be loved. According to Frankl, the essence of human existence.
Self-distancing
The capacity to step back from oneself - from one's fears, symptoms and moods. It shows itself, among other things, in humour; paradoxical intention is based on it.
Defiant power of the spirit
“Trotzmacht des Geistes” - the capacity of the spiritual person to stand up to psychophysical conditions: fears, moods, illness and circumstances.
Tragic triad
Three unavoidable experiences of human life: suffering, guilt and death. According to Frankl, even these can be transformed into meaning.
Tragic optimism
An attitude of hope and commitment “in spite of” the tragic triad - suffering, guilt and death.
Homo patiens - the suffering human
An image of the human being as capable not only of action (homo faber) but also of dignified and meaningful suffering.
Ultimate meaning
The final, all-embracing meaning (Ger. Übersinn) that exceeds the limits of human knowledge; an object of trust or faith.
Psychiatric and psychotherapeutic credo
Frankl's two “professions of faith”: behind every illness, even psychosis, the spiritual person remains intact; and the human spirit can always step back from its conditions.
Noo-psychic antagonism
The tension between the spiritual dimension and the psyche: besides the cooperation of body and psyche (psychophysical parallelism), the spirit can stand up to one's own psyche.
Noodynamic tension (noodynamics)
A healthy tension between who a person is and who they can and should become - between what is and the meaning waiting to be fulfilled.
Pathoplasticity and alternating diagnosis
Besides asking “where did the problem come from?” (pathogenesis), logotherapy asks “how does the person shape their relationship to the problem?” (pathoplasticity) - this is where freedom lies.
Existentially significant experience
An experience that touches a person “to the core” - it gives something, takes something away, and changes their relationship to themselves and the world. It can concern any dimension of life, not only the spiritual one.