Elisabeth Lukas - Living Logotherapy

Living Logotherapy

Published by

www.elisabeth-lukas-archiv.de

2020 Elisabeth-Lukas-Archiv gGmbH

Dr. Heidi Schnfeld

Nrnberger Strae 103a

D-96050 Bamberg

info@elisabeth-lukas-archiv.de

This English edition published with the kind permission of Profil Verlag. Originally published in German as Lehrbuch der Logotherapie, Menschenbild und Methoden 2014 Profil Verlag GmbH Mnchen, Wien

Elisabeth Lukas

LOGOTHERAPY

Principles and Methods

Translated from the German by:

Dr. David Nolland, Oxford

Edited by:

Dr. Heidi Schnfeld, Bamberg, and Dr. David Nolland, Oxford

Cover design, typesetting and layout:

Bernhard Keller, Kln

Print and distribution: tredition GmbH, Hamburg

ISBN 978-3-00-066678-0 (paperback)

ISBN 978-3-00-066679-7 (eBook)

Contents

Foreword

Translators Note

Logotherapys Concept of Man

Classification of Logotherapy

The Concept of Dimensional Ontology

The Dialectic of Fate and Freedom

Conscience, the Organ of Meaning

The Dialectic of Vulnerability and Intactness

The Dialectic of Pleasure Orientation and

Meaning Orientation

An Intermediary Case Study

Two and three dimensional interpretations

The Dialectic of Character and Personality

Self-knowledge and Dealing with Oneself

The Logotherapeutic Form of Conversation

Keywords as a Guarantee Against the Imposition of Values

The Problem of Ambivalence: the Torn Human Being

The Problem of Non-acceptance: People Who are Frozen

by Protest

The Problem of Ignorance: the Person Walled-in

by Indifference

Reflections on a Rhetoric of Love

The Methods of Logotherapy

The Categories of Neurosis According to Viktor E. Frankl

The Origin of Anxiety Neuroses

Curing Anxiety Neuroses

Keeping the Compulsive Neurotic Character in Check

A Bit of Unkindness: Hysteria

Rescue by Renunciation

A Multidimensional Concept for Dealing with Addiction

Eating Disorders a Problem Complex with Two Roots

Preventing Iatrogenic Damage

Supporting Patients with Somatic / Endogenous Illness

Dealing with the Blows of Fate

Noogenic Neuroses and Depressions

Ways Out of the Existential Vacuum

How Sleeping Disorders and Sexual Disorders are Created

A Recipe for Avoiding Egocentricity

Prevention and Aftercare

The Value of Life

The Pathogenesis of Mental Disorders

Further Developments in Logotherapy

Being Able to Decide Well

Principles of Meaning-Centred Family Therapy

Perceiving Oneself in a Completely Different Way

The Author

Foreword for the Series Living Logotherapy

In our time, people usually have enough to live on. What they often lack, however, is something to live for. This is how Viktor E. Frankl, the Viennese psychiatrist and founder of logotherapy, summarised a problem that is just as relevant today as ever. Elisabeth Lukas, a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist, has an international reputation as Frankls most important student. In her many books, she illustrates how logotherapy provides help in cases of mental illness, enriches the everyday life of healthy people and inspires us all to lead a meaningful, fulfilling life. Her books illustrate how humane, authentic and up-to-date a living logotherapy can be. The main objective of this new series is to make her books, which have enjoyed lasting success in the German-speaking world, more accessible to speakers of English.

Many people have worked hard to make it possible for the Elisabeth Lukas Archive to publish this new series. Particular thanks are due to our translator Dr. David Nolland, who has produced a fluid text that remains very close to the original. He has excellent knowledge in the field of logotherapy and supervises this series in all matters relating to the English-speaking market. Thanks are also due to Prof. Dr. Alexander Batthyny, who supported us from the beginning and will accompany this series as a guide. The formatting and layout is due to Bernhard Keller, and the beautiful presentation of the books is wholly attributable to his expertise.

The first book in this series was a collaborative project combining discussions of the theory of logotherapy by Lukas with numerous case studies by Schnfeld. The present book, the second in the series, is a textbook by Elisabeth Lukas on the fundamental concepts of logotherapy and their applications. This book has been reprinted in German many times, but there has not, until now, been a satisfactory translation available in English.

Thanks to Dr. Kagelmann of Profil Verlag, the holder of the rights for the German version of the books, for generously giving his permission for an English language version.

The third book, which will appear shortly, is a further collaboration between Lukas and Schnfeld, combining case studies with discussions of how these cases illustrate the practical application of logotherapeutic methods.

All that remains is to wish all of these books on the practical application of logotherapy success in the English-speaking world. May it give readers a glimpse into the vitality and relevance of these lifechanging therapeutic methods!

Dr. Heidi Schnfeld

Director of the Elisabeth-Lukas-Archive

Translators Note

Logotherapy is notoriously tricky to translate, as indicated by Frankls dissatisfaction with the translations of his own works. In developing his ideas, Frankl made use of nuances of language: metaphor, wordplay, and poetry, and it is not always possible to render these into another language. What is important is to make sure that Frankls intentions are respected, that his underlying respect for the human spirit in all its responsibility and freedom is kept in focus.

Elisabeth Lukas is a student of Frankl who followed very closely in his footsteps, and this classic work illustrates her achievements in developing the practical applications of Frankls logotherapeutic methods. To do justice to these methods, and provide a satisfactory reference work for an English-speaking world, we have to be careful that the nuances do not become misleading. To stay on track, we simply need to recall that meaning is always there to be found, and that we have, inalienably, within ourselves, everything we need to find it.

A note on the many Frankl quotations in this book. Most of these have been cited from German originals, and in these cases the translations are all mine. In many cases there is no English translation available, and even where there is, we often felt that a new translation was better suited to the needs of Lukas text.

Dr. David Nolland

LOGOTHERAPYS
CONCEPT OF MAN

Classification of Logotherapy

Logotherapy was founded by the Viennese psychiatrist and neurologist Viktor E. Frankl (1905-1997). It can be categorized amongst the many therapeutic approaches existing today by noting to two main points of view:

According to W. Soucek, logotherapy is the Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy, where Sigmund Freuds psychoanalysis is the First Viennese School of Psychotherapy and Alfred Adlers Individual Psychology is the Second Viennese School of Psychotherapy. There is a simple rule of thumb to help us remember the emphases of these three approaches: Sigmund Freud focused on the will to pleasure, Alfred Adler on the will to power, and Viktor E. Frankl on the will to meaning. Naturally these are only simplified descriptions, which cannot claim to do full justice to the corresponding schools of psychotherapy. They merely characterise typical areas of research. Freuds comprehensive theories focus on human drives in particular the gratification of the sexual drive which, if suppressed, become a source of psychic disorder. Adler examined the relationship of the individual to the social environment and derived the theory that deepseated feelings of inferiority lead to compensatory striving for power. Frankl ultimately saw human beings as entities who want to shape life in a meaningful way, and who can become psychically ill when their