Logotherapy - An interesting approach

Source: Carole Thibaudeau. From the newspaper Le Soleil, Special Section No. 8, Le plaisir de vivre, October 98.

Viktor Frankl developed an approach to psychotherapy that he called the "logotherapy." (Logos in Greek means meaning.) In this approach, responsibility is regarded as the essence of human existence.

In logotherapy, the therapist tries to assert his patient what their responsibilities are. He has to choose what he wants to be responsible, to what or to whom. Therefore, the therapist speech is less likely that the traditional therapist to impose his values to his patients because he does not take responsibility for them.

A good way to set the mood "logotherapy" is to live as if this was the second time they were preparing to make the same mistakes. "Imagine that this is the past, and you have the power to change the past," Frankl offers. We are thus confronted with the limited nature of life and the finality of what made life and ourselves.

According to logotherapy, we can discover the meaning of his life in three ways.

First: through a work or a good deed.

Secondly, by experiencing something or someone. This may be the experience of goodness, truth, beauty, such as contact with nature or with a certain culture or what is even better to know the uniqueness of a human being through love.

The third way to find meaning in life lies in the attitude to take to unavoidable suffering. Placed in a desperate situation, it remains to the human freedom to choose what attitude to take to die with dignity, bear their suffering. "When you can not change a situation, an incurable cancer, for example, you have no choice but to transform.

"Suffering is not necessary to find meaning in his life. But we can find meaning even through suffering, if it is unavoidable. If it is not, however, you should eliminate the cause, whether psychological, biological or political. Agree to suffer unnecessarily is masochistic rather than heroism. But to accept suffering with courage to keep his life its meaning until the last moment it's your decision.

Calendar
"I am never tire of repeating that the only transitory aspects of life are those who are potential state, Viktor Frankl wrote. Updated, they become reality and they are preserved in the past where they are preserved forever. "

Frankl tells the metaphor of the calendar.
The pessimist is the person who sees with sadness his schedule shrink day by day. For cons, the person who brings enthusiasm to life's problems looks like the man who carefully preserves the pages of his calendar after scribbled a few notes on the back. He can look with pride and joy on all the wealth contained in these pages.

What does he grow old? Why regret his youth? He is fully aware of its rich past, which includes not only the reality of work and his loves, but also his sufferings bravely faced. It's still of his suffering that he is the most proud of, even if they can not inspire envy.