Logotherapy- a method of psychotherapy and existential analysis, which is a complex system of philosophical, psychological and medical views on the nature and essence of a person, the mechanisms of personality development in normal and pathological conditions, ways to correct anomalies in personality development.
Created by Viktor Frankl, logotherapy, as one of the most influential areas of modern psychotherapy, helps a person in search of the meaning of life. Logotherapy opposes, on the one hand, orthodox psychoanalysis, and, on the other hand, behavioral psychotherapy.
Based on the philosophy of human responsibility, Frankl called the worldview tragic optimism:
"Despite our belief in human potential, we must not close our eyes to the fact that human beings are, and perhaps always can be, a minority. But that is why each of us feels challenged to join this minority. Things are bad. But they will become even worse if we don't do everything in our power to improve them."
In his theoretical building, V. Frankl distinguishes three main parts: the doctrine of the pursuit of meaning, the doctrine of the meaning of life, and the doctrine of free will.
Frankl considers the desire to find and realize the meaning of one's life by a person as an innate motivational tendency inherent in all people and being the main engine of behavior and personality development. In order to live and act actively, Frankl concludes, a person must believe in the meaning that his actions have. The absence of meaning gives rise to a state in a person, which Frankl calls an existential vacuum.
The necessary level of mental health is a certain level of tension that arises between a person, on the one hand, and the objective meaning localized in the outside world, which he has to implement, on the other hand. Thus, the main thesis of the doctrine of the desire for meaning can be formulated as follows: a person strives to gain meaning and feels frustration or vacuum if this desire remains unfulfilled.
The main thesis of the doctrine of the meaning of life in Frankl's theory: human life cannot lose its meaning under any circumstances; the meaning of life can always be found. No one, including a logotherapist, presents the only meaning that a person can find in his life. However, logotherapy aims to empower the patient to see the full range of potential meanings that any situation can contain. It is not a person who raises the question of the meaning of his life - life raises a question for him.
The main thesis of Frankl's doctrine of free will can be formulated as follows: a person is free to find and realize the meaning of life, even if his freedom is noticeably limited by objective circumstances.
There is a specific and non-specific scope of logotherapy. Psychotherapy of various kinds of diseases is a non-specific area. A specific area is noogenic neuroses, generated by the loss of the meaning of life. In these cases, the Socratic dialogue technique is used, which makes it possible to push the patient to discover for himself an adequate meaning of life. Important role at the same time, the personality of the psychotherapist himself plays, although imposing one's own meanings on them is unacceptable.
Modern clinical psychotherapy is a fairly strong means of influencing the psyche and behavior of a person. Therefore, like any potent remedy, it must be used consciously, carefully, taking into account all available indications and contraindications. Such an approach to clinical psychotherapy is impossible without an in-depth study of its origins and a fundamental knowledge of its theoretical foundations.
Viktor Frankl (1905-1997) - Austrian psychiatrist, psychologist and neurologist. From 1942 to 1945, Frankl was in German concentration camps, including Auschwitz and Dachau. His father, mother, brother and wife perished in the camps. Frankl is the founder of the third Vienna school of psychotherapy (logotherapy), after the first psychoanalytic school of Freud and the second school individual psychology Adler (Gladding S., 2003). Logotherapy focuses on the pursuit of meaning, while psychoanalysis focuses on the pursuit of pleasure and individual psychology focuses on the pursuit of power.
Word logos has the double meaning of "meaning" and "spirituality". Logotherapy thus deals with the existential and spiritual nature of man. According to Frankl (1990), the pursuit of meaning is a central motive for human existence. The meaning of life is unique to each person and changes over time. Patients often claim that the meaning of life is pleasure. If pleasure were the main source of meaning, it would hardly be worth living, since there are much more unpleasant sensations in life than pleasant ones. Those who are too busy looking for pleasure or happiness cannot find it because they concentrate too much on finding it. Frankl identifies three main ways that people can find meaning in life:
1) to give something to life (values of creativity);
2) to take something from life (values of experience);
3) to take a certain position in relation to the fate that cannot be changed, for example, with inoperable cancer (relationship values).
In addition, past experiences and religion are two other areas in which people can find meaning.
Meaning in work. Work is the main area in which people can go beyond themselves. The work that a person is engaged in does not have of great importance what matters is how the job is done. This must be made clear to neurotic persons who complain that another occupation would enable them to realize themselves better. Frankl believes that there are such opportunities in any job, although he admits that some jobs are mostly routine. In such cases, the meaning of creativity should be sought in activities that can be done at leisure.
The existential importance of work is manifested in what Frankl calls "unemployment neurosis." The most pronounced symptom in the unemployed is apathy, a feeling of worthlessness and emptiness. In neurotic personalities, unemployment becomes an excuse for all failures and removes from them all responsibility to others and to themselves, as well as to life. At the same time, unemployment is more likely to be the result of neurosis than neurosis the result of unemployment. Unemployment is not a blow of fate that should be accepted. Some people respond to the existential challenge of unemployment by staying active and engaged, thus avoiding the neurosis associated with unemployment. There is an alternative to physical retreat under the pressure of social destiny. It is quite possible to engage in various other activities, to spend time usefully, to take a life-affirming position. Work is not the only way to give meaning to life. A person is able to decide what his attitude to the loss of a job will be, positive with elements of hope or apathetic. Logotherapy shows the unemployed a way to gain inner freedom, despite the adverse situation, and teaches the awareness of responsibility, thanks to which he retains the opportunity to do his hard life meaningful.
Employment can be both positive and negative. Some people try to escape the emptiness of their existence by seeking refuge in a job or profession.
The meaning is in suffering. According to Frankl (1990), people can choose how they respond to suffering. For example, terminally ill people can see meaning in life until the last moment if they accept the challenge of fate and suffer courageously. Frankl quotes Goethe: "There is no predicament that we cannot ennoble either by deed or by patience."
Some people can rise to challenge suffering and are able to be spiritually enriched and strengthened by it. However, people need to be careful not to accept fate too readily. Attitude values should only be invoked when they have a firm conviction that they are powerless to change their fate.
The meaning of love. “Love is just one of the possible ways to fill life with meaning, and far from The best way. Our existence would be very sad, and life poor, if their meaning depended on whether we experience happiness in love ... ”(Frankl V., 1990). At the same time, the lack of love can be explained more by neurotic failure than by fate. External physical attractiveness is comparatively unimportant, and its absence is not a sufficient reason to refuse love. The rejection of love is usually associated with an overestimation or underestimation of love. Neurotic personalities may be wary of the tension associated with unrequited, unrequited love, and therefore tend to avoid opportunities for love.
Supersense. People are incapable of understanding the ultimate meaning of human suffering. However, this does not mean that suffering does not have such an ultimate meaning. Frankl does not agree with the provisions of secular existential philosophy, according to which one of the main tasks of a person is to endure the meaninglessness of life. Frankl believes that people should put up with their inability to grasp the mind and see from a rational point of view the ultimate meaning of life. The Infinite God is silent rather than dead.
One of the trends modern life is not a departure from religion, but a weakening of the emphasis that is placed on the differences between different faiths. Frankl does not advocate a universal religion. Instead, he sees the point in creating a deeply personalized religion that would allow people to address the supreme being in their own individual language, using their own words.
Existential vacuum and existential neurosis. Frankl distinguishes between two stages of meaninglessness - existential vacuum and existential neurosis.
existential vacuum, or existential frustration, - a phenomenon characterized by subjective experiences of boredom, apathy, emptiness, cynicism.
It is the existential vacuum (the feeling of emptiness and meaninglessness of life) that does not allow the individual to adequately withstand life's difficulties. The frustration of the will to meaning is "existential frustration". Such frustration is sometimes substitutively compensated by a thirst for power or pleasure.
Existential frustration is not always a pathological phenomenon. Frankl does not believe that the search for the meaning of existence, or even doubting its existence, is necessarily due to any disease or leads to it. Often he reassures "non-patients" by saying that their existential despair is an achievement rather than a sign of neurosis. This is a sign of intellectual depth, not superficiality.
Existential, or noogenic neurosis, develops when neurotic symptoms are attached to existential frustration. Although existential conflicts can develop without a neurosis, every neurosis has an existential aspect. Neuroses, according to Frankl, are rooted in four different layers (or "dimensions") of the human being - physical, psychological, social And existential or spiritual. different types neuroses differ in terms of the relative importance of each of these four dimensions. The purpose of diagnostics is to identify the primary among them. Noogenic neuroses account for only about 20% of cases of neuroses.
Therapy affects the whole person and may include physical (or medical) intervention, psychotherapy, and speech therapy, either in parallel or sequentially. Logotherapy aims not to take the place of existing psychotherapy, but only to supplement it with a spiritual dimension. It focuses on meanings and values.
Term noetic refers to the spiritual dimension. Noogenic neuroses arise because of existential problems, among which the frustration of the will to meaning plays a significant role. Psychoses also include existential aspects, which consist in the freedom to determine one's own attitude towards the disease. Therefore, even psychosis is a test of the patient's human qualities.
Logotherapists are alert to both clear signs of an existential vacuum (such as a client saying, “My life lacks meaning”) and hidden symptoms, such as apathy and boredom, which indicate that clients feel empty inside. The elimination of signs of existential frustration, such as apathy and boredom, is a "by-product" of the search and discovery of meaning. When clients begin to see more meaning in their lives, the severity of their symptoms (depression, addiction, aggression) usually decreases.
Mass neurotic triad. Frankl speaks of the neuroticization of humanity, due to the existence of an existential vacuum. The global impact of the existential vacuum is not limited to inducing a sense of meaninglessness and noogenic neuroses. Frankl uses the term "mass neurotic triad" to describe the three main effects: depression, addiction, and aggression.
Regarding depression, there is objective evidence that suicide rates are on the rise, especially among young people. Frankl sees the reason for this in the spreading existential frustration.
In terms of addiction, people with low life goals are more likely to try to find meaning in drugs than those with well-defined goals. lofty goals in life. Addicts often claim that they turned to drugs to find meaning in life. Many alcoholics also suffer from feelings of meaninglessness.
Regarding aggression, Frankl believes that people are most likely to become aggressive when they are overwhelmed by feelings of emptiness and meaninglessness.
logotherapy methods. The significance of logotherapy lies in the fact that it helps clients find meaning in their lives. Logotherapy consultants seek to confront clients with their life challenges and reorient clients towards solving those challenges.
Logotherapy attaches great importance to the relationship between the patient and the therapist. These relationships are the most important aspect psychotherapeutic process, a much more important factor than any method or technique. Relationships require a balance between two extremes, human intimacy and scientific detachment. This means that the psychotherapist should not be guided solely by sympathy or a desire to help the patient, but also should not suppress human interest in him by reducing relationships to technical devices.
Technically, logotherapy is close to cognitive-behavioral therapy. Methods of paradoxical intention, dereflection, changing attitudes and positive reformulation (they are called methods of Socratic dialogue) are characteristic of both directions.
One of the main methods of existential analysis - working with a biography - is contraindicated at high emotional stress, as it can lead to a state of overstrain and increase the client's suicidal risk.
In neurotic states, the main methods of logotherapy are paradoxical intention and dereflexia.
paradoxical intention. The use of paradoxical intention is recommended for the short-term treatment of clients with obsessive-compulsive and phobic mental disorders.
The essence of paradoxical intention is that clients are asked to intentionally do exactly what they are afraid of. In addition, paradoxical intention engages and is supported by clients' sense of humor; due to a sense of humor, clients increase the feeling of detachment from neuroses, as they begin to laugh at them.
Paradoxical intention is categorically contraindicated in psychotic depression.
Dereflection. The purpose of using paradoxical intention is to help clients ridicule their symptoms of neurosis, and the purpose of using dereflexion is to help clients ignore these symptoms. Dereflection is especially useful in cases of male impotence and inability to achieve orgasm in women. Dereflection diverts attention from the action being performed and own person, switching it to a partner.
In the presence of psychoses such as endogenous depression and schizophrenia, logotherapy can be used in combination with drug therapy. Logotherapy itself deals with the healthy part of the personality, helping clients to see meaning in suffering.
Grade. It would be unfair to judge logotherapy based on the techniques of paradoxical intention and dereflection. These are specific techniques for very specific symptoms or neurotic conditions. They are hardly applicable to the more severe disorders that existential psychotherapy deals with, in particular existential frustration and loss of meaning in life. Logotherapy is designed to deal with these philosophical or spiritual problems.
It has been argued that logotherapy is more of a faith, a philosophy of life, a secular religion than a science or school of psychotherapy in the ordinary sense of the word.
Frankl's therapy is "meaning therapy", and meaninglessness and the search for meaning will always be problems for a person; for this reason alone, it is to be expected that logotherapy will retain its importance as an independent form of treatment in the field of psychotherapy.
"PRACTICE
GOALS
Frankl distinguishes the following three categories of mental illness: noogenic diseases (neurosis), psychogenic diseases (neurosis) and somatogenic diseases (psychosis). The existential vacuum is not in itself a neurosis. However, the goals of logo-therapeutic counseling are the same, regardless of whether the existential vacuum exists in itself or whether it is an element of a noogenic neurosis.
Logotherapists focus clients' attention on choices that allow them to deal with an existential vacuum. The significance of logotherapy lies in the fact that it helps clients find meaning in their lives. Logotherapy consultants seek to confront clients with their life challenges and reorient clients towards solving those challenges. Logotherapy involves teaching clients to take responsibility as well as trying to unlock clients' desire for meaning. When the desire for meaning is unlocked in clients, they are more likely to find ways of self-transcendence through the values of creativity, experience, and relationships. Clients must recognize their existential responsibility for finding the meaning of life. However, the transformation of the spiritual unconscious into the conscious is only one of the stages in the counseling process.
Counselors primarily seek to help clients transform their unconscious potential into a conscious act, and then allow the unconscious habit to form. Frankl (1975a) emphasizes that if religious counselors can bring religion into counseling, then logotherapeutic counselors should refrain from setting religious goals.
The elimination of signs of existential frustration, such as apathy and boredom, is a "by-product" of search and discovery of meaning. In addition, as clients begin to see more meaning in their lives, any symptoms they may have that belong to the mass neurotic triad (depression, addiction, aggression) usually decrease, and may even disappear completely.
Psychogenic neuroses include obsessional mania and phobias. When clients have such neuroses, the main task of the consultant is to help clients overcome their tendency to hyperintention, or overzealousness. Psychogenic neuroses may also be based on sexual and sleep problems, in which case the counselor should seek to help clients overcome their tendency to hyper-reflexivity or excessive self-awareness.
In the presence of psychoses such as endogenous depression and schizophrenia, logotherapy can be used in combination with drug therapy, which will allow for the correction of somatic disorders. Logotherapy itself deals with the healthy part of the individual, and often the goal of counselors is to help clients find meaning in suffering.
The broader goal of Frankl's logotherapy is the rehumanization of psychiatry. Psychiatrists and counselors should not consider consciousness as a mechanism, and the treatment of mental illness should not be evaluated only in terms of technical aspects. Within the nearest environment and their gifts, people are ultimately self-determining. In the concentration camps, some prisoners preferred to behave like pigs, while others preferred to behave like saints.
LOGOTHERAPY FOR CLIENTS IN EXISTENTIAL VACUUM
How does a logotherapist deal with clients in an existential vacuum? Although Frankl does not systematically list the methods he used in his writings, the following are some of the recommendations drawn from his writings.
HUMAN RELATIONS
Frankl (1988) notes that counseling involves both strategies and I-Thou relationships. Frankl also emphasizes that logotherapy cannot become too individualized. Thus, although the logotherapist is inherently a responsibility educator, he trains clients to take responsibility precisely in the context of a duty-filled and caring relationship that reflects respect for the uniqueness of each client. Frankl values humane people and is interested in the rehumanization of psychiatry. Frankl's work demonstrates his inherent compassion and wisdom. By offering clients a humane relationship, logotherapists create favorable conditions for effectively helping them find their own meaning.
DIAGNOSTICS OF THE STATE OF THE EXISTENTIAL VACUUM
Logotherapists are alert to both clear signs of an existential vacuum (such as a client saying, “My life lacks meaning”) and hidden symptoms, such as apathy and boredom, which indicate that clients feel empty inside. Clients successfully deal with problems related to meaning, although noogenic neuroses account for "only about 20% of the cases of neuroses that occur in our clinics and offices" (Frankl, 1988, p. 68). Often, Frankl reassures "non-patients" by saying that their existential despair is an accomplishment rather than a sign of neurosis. This is a sign of intellectual depth, not superficiality.
DEEPENING EXISTENTIAL AWARENESS
The following describes the methods that Frankl used to deepen the existential awareness of the finiteness of life and the importance of taking responsibility for it.
EXPLANATION. Clients should be taught that fragility gives meaning to human existence rather than deprives it of meaning.
OFFER MAXIM (principles, rules of conduct set out in brief form). One of Frankl's main maxims: "Live as if you were living a second time and acted in your first life as wrong as you are going to act now" (Frankl, 1955, p. 75).
USING COMPARISONS. Clients can be invited to imagine their lives as moving pictures that are shot on film. Clients realize that life is irreversible when they hear from a counselor that they cannot “cut” anything and that nothing can be changed “after the fact”. You can offer clients another comparison - let them imagine themselves as sculptors who have limited time to create their works of art, but do not know when the deadline is.
FOCUSING ON THE SEARCH FOR MEANING
Frankl emphasizes that the question of meaning is an individual question. Logotherapists must both individualize their working methods and improvise. Logotherapy is neither a teaching, nor a sermon, nor a moral exhortation. Frankl (1963) draws an analogy to an ophthalmologist who enables people to see the world as it really is. In the same way, the task of the logotherapy consultant is to expand the field of view of clients in such a way that the full spectrum of life meanings and values is visible to them.
The following are some of Frankl's methods of focusing clients' attention on issues related to meaning.
HELPING CLIENTS RECOGNIZE THE IMPORTANCE OF TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR FINDING MEANING.
Frankl makes it his mission to help clients achieve the highest possible “activation” in their lives. He shares his ideas, according to which human life never, under any circumstances, loses its meaning. Clients must learn that they are always responsible for finding meaning in any situation they encounter. unique life. Logotherapy teaches clients to view their lives as a kind of predestination. Religious logotherapists working with religious clients can go one step further - such counselors can help clients realize that they are not only responsible for their life's tasks, but also responsible to the one who sets the tasks.
HELPING CLIENTS TO LISTEN TO THEIR VOICE OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
Frankl often repeats that meaning must be found and cannot be given. Clients are guided in their search for meaning by the voice of their consciousness. The client needs a vigilant mind if he is to "listen and obey the ten thousand different demands and commandments hidden in the ten thousand situations that confront his life" (Frankl, 1975a, p. 120). While counselors cannot give meaning to clients, they can provide existential examples of their personal relentless search for meaning.
STATEMENT TO CLIENTS OF QUESTIONS ABOUT THE MEANING. Counselors may ask clients about what creative success they could achieve and help them look for answers to the questions asked. In addition, counselors can help clients find meaning in their relationships and in their suffering.
INCREASING THE NUMBER OF SOURCES OF MEANING. Logotherapy counselors can help clients gain a broader understanding of the sources of meaning. Frankl (1955) quotes a client who stated that her life was meaningless and that she would only get better if she found a job that could satisfy her needs, such as treating sick people. Frankl helped this client see that not only the work she did, but the attitude she had towards her work, could give her a unique opportunity to fulfill her potential. In addition, in her personal life, not related to work, she could find meaning in the role of a wife and mother.
REVEALING THE MEANING THROUGH SOCRATIC DIALOGUE. Frankl (1988) gives the following example. One of his clients was constantly tormented by a sense of the transience of life. Frankl asked the woman to name a person whom she respects and whose virtues she highly values, and she remembered the family doctor. Then, through a series of questions, Frankl led the client to admit that while the doctor had died and some ungrateful patients might not remember what they owed him, the doctor's life had not lost its meaning.
REVEALING THE MEANING THROUGH THE LOGODRAMA.
Frankl (1963) gives an example of meaning elicitation through "logodrama" in a counseling group. A woman admitted to his clinic after a suicide attempt lost her youngest son, who died at the age of 11, and was left alone with her eldest son, who was stricken with infantile paralysis. Frankl first asked another member of the group, a woman, to imagine that she was 80 years old and look back at a life she had lived that had no children but had a lot of financial success and prestige. This woman eventually admitted her life was pointless. Frankl then asked the mother of a disabled son to look back on her life in the same way. In answering, the client realized that her life was filled with meaning because she made the life of her crippled son more complete and easier.
OFFER OF MEANING.
Frankl gives the following example. An elderly doctor, in a state of severe depression, could not cope with grief for two years after the death of his beloved wife. First of all, Frankl asked the client what would happen if he himself died first. The doctor replied that if left alone, the wife would suffer terribly. After which Frankl said: “You see, doctor, she was spared such suffering, and it was you who spared her; but now you must pay for it by outliving your wife and mourning her” (Frankl, 1963, 178-179).
DREAM ANALYSIS.
Logotherapists can work with clients' dreams to bring spiritual phenomena to the level of consciousness. Frankl (1975) gives the following example. The woman dreamed that, along with dirty laundry, she took a dirty cat to the laundry. When she came to pick up the laundry, she found the cat dead. This woman had the following free associations: "cat" was a symbol of "child" and "dirty laundry" was the "dirt" of gossip that surrounded her daughter's personal life and her love story, to which the mother was very critical. Frankl saw in this dream a warning to the mother, a call to the woman to stop torturing her daughter, because otherwise she might lose her. Religious logotherapists may also analyze dreams to bring the religious unconscious into the conscious. Frankl suggests that many people hide and repress their religiosity because "intimacy is inherent in true religiosity" (Frankl, 1975a, p. 48).
LOGOTHERAPEUTIC METHODS USED IN PSYCHOGENIC NEUROSIS
Paradoxical intention and dereflexia are the two main logotherapeutic methods used in psychogenic neuroses (Frankl, 1955, 1975b). Both methods are based on an appeal to such important human qualities as self-transcendence and self-detachment.
PARADOXAL INTENTION
The use of paradoxical intention is recommended for the short-term treatment of clients with obsessive-compulsive and phobic mental disorders. In phobias, paradoxical intention is used to reduce the severity of premature anxiety, which is the client's reaction to events and reflects the fear of a repetition of these events. These anxious expectations cause excessive attention, or hyperintention, which prevents clients from doing what they previously intended. In short, premature anxiety is exactly what clients fear.
The essence of paradoxical intention is that clients are asked to intentionally do exactly what they are afraid of. Their fears are replaced by paradoxical desires, as a result of which "the wind is taken away from the sails of the phobia" (Frankl, 1955, p. 208). In addition, paradoxical intention engages and is supported by clients' sense of humor; due to a sense of humor, clients increase the feeling of detachment from neuroses, as they begin to laugh at them.
Frankl gives many examples of paradoxical intention. So, one young doctor was afraid that he would begin to sweat more when meeting people. Whenever they met someone who had previously given them premature anxiety, this client would say to himself, "I used to excrete only a liter of sweat, but now I'm going to excrete at least ten liters!" (Frankl, 1955, p. 139). After just one session of paradoxical intention, the young man was freed from the phobia that had plagued him for four years. Let's consider another example. One medical student was so afraid of trembling that she began to tremble as soon as the anatomy teacher entered the preparation room. The girl solved this problem using the technique of paradoxical intention. Whenever the teacher entered the room, she would say to herself, “Oh, there's the teacher! Now I'm going to show him what a good shaker I am - I'll really show him how to shake hard!" (Frankl, 1955, p. 140). But every time she tried to do it, the trembling stopped. Although obsessive-compulsive neurotics also exhibit fear, their fear is more of a fear of themselves than a "fear fear". They fear the potential effects of their strange thoughts. But the more these clients wrestle with their thoughts, the more pronounced the symptoms of neurosis become. If counselors using paradoxical intention succeed in helping clients stop their struggle with their obsessions and delusions, the client's symptoms will soon lessen and may even disappear completely.
Frankl gives the following example of the use of paradoxical intention in obsessive-compulsive neurosis. One married woman suffered for 14 years from a mania of counting and a mania of checking that her kitchen drawers were in order and securely locked (Frankl, 1955, p. 143). The doctor showed the client how to deal with paradoxical intention. He showed the woman how to casually throw things on the kitchen table and say to herself: "These drawers should be as dirty as possible!" After two days, the client's counting mania was gone, and after four days, she no longer felt the need to constantly check the contents of her kitchen table. The woman's condition gradually returned to normal, and whenever any obsessive-compulsive ideas reappeared from time to time, she was able to ignore them or turn them into a joke.
DEREFLECTION
Just as paradoxical intention can be used to counteract hyperintention, dereflection can be used to counteract hyperreflexion, or over-attention. Frankl (1988) considers the development of a compulsive introspective tendency to be one of the most serious problems in the United States. The purpose of using paradoxical intention is to help clients ridicule their symptoms of neurosis, and the purpose of using dereflection is to help clients ignore these symptoms.
Sexual neuroses such as frigidity and impotence are one of the areas of application of dereflexia. Clients should be re-reflected (re-oriented) from their anxiety to the solution of the problem available to them. Frankl (1963) gives the following example. One young woman complained of her frigidity. As a child, her father sexually abused her. However, this incident in itself was not the cause of her frigidity. The woman read popular psychoanalytic literature and all the time she was afraid that her traumatic experiences sexual abuse create sexual difficulties. Orgasm, as a result of a woman's excessive desire to prove her femininity and excessive attention to herself, has ceased to be an involuntary manifestation of devotion to a partner. When a woman's attention was diverted (de-reflected) away from herself and refocused on her partner, she experienced involuntary orgasms. Consider another example of dereflection. One woman became very thin as she watched her swallowing with obsessive attention and was afraid that the food would go the wrong way. The client was dereflected with the formula: "I must not watch my swallowing because I really must not swallow, for I am not actually swallowing, but rather it is being swallowed" (Frankl, 1955, p. 235). As a result, the client learned to trust the automatically regulated functioning of her body.
MEDICAL CARE FOR SOMATOGENIC PSYCHOSIS
Frankl (Frankl 1988) uses the term "medical care" to describe the work of a logotherapeutic consultant with clients who have a physical illness when the source of the physical illness cannot be eliminated. Frankl believes that medical professionals should bring comfort and comfort to the sick. Medical care should not be confused with pastoral ministry. As a rule, logotherapy treatment for clients with endogenous depressions and psychoses involves working with that part of their personality that is not captured by the disease. The goal of logotherapy is to help clients find meaning in the position they take regarding their suffering. There is a certain degree of freedom even in people with psychosis, psychosis does not affect the deepest inner core. Sick people are extremely demoralized by the belief that their suffering is meaningless.
Consider the example of medical care in the presence of a client with a somatic disease.
A seventeen-year-old Jewish boy, schizophrenic, was placed in mental asylum in Israel for 2.5 years, since the symptoms of the disease were very pronounced in him. The young man began to doubt his faith in God and began to blame God for making him different from other people. Frankl hinted to the patient that perhaps God wanted to set him the task of enduring solitude for a certain period of his life. The young man said that that was why he still believed in God and that maybe God wanted him to get well. To this, Frankl replied that God needed not only his recovery, but also an increase in his spiritual level. Subsequently, the young man became much better, and Frankl is confident that he helped this client find meaning "not only in spite of, but also because of the psychosis" (Frankl 1988, p. 131)."
/R.Nelson-Jones: "Theory and practice of counseling"./
“I saw the meaning of my life in helping others find meaning in their lives”
Viktor Frankl
Viktor Emil Frankl was born in Vienna on March 26, 1905. Known as one of the founders existential psychotherapy, author logotherapy(Therapy by the Search for Life Meaning) or the Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy.
The first is the school of classical psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud, and the second is the school of individual psychology by Alfred Adler.
While still a schoolboy, Frankl corresponded with Freud, and after graduating from school, sent him an article that was published in the International Psychoanalytic Journal. It must be said that, while bowing to Freud, Frankl was also interested in Adler's ideas and even became an active member of the Society for Individual Psychology, but after several critical speeches against the Adlerians, he left in 1927. After that, in his later writings, Freud and Adler became opponents.
In addition, Frankl was influenced by existential philosophers: Kerkjegaard, Jaspers, Scheller, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky and others. Existentialists (from the word exist - essence, to exist) have always been interested in the problems of combining the higher and individual meaning of human existence. This interest resonated during and after the Second World War, which showed the fragility of cultural and moral values and the very existence of mankind. Frankl's philosophical ideas organically intertwined with Freud's and Adler's.
Frankl wanted to be a doctor from the beginning. He was interested in neuropathology, which was clearly influenced by Freud, who, as we know, was a neuropathologist (neurophysiologist) by first education. As a result, Frankl becomes an M.D. and works in clinical psychiatry. This is about the "roots" of his teachings.
His personal biography had no less influence on the formation of his scientific ideas. The fate of Viktor Emil Frankl is interesting and tragic.
To the creation of a theory logotherapy And existential analysis Frankl came as a result of searching for his own life meaning. In his youth, he experienced a crisis of faith, but not only faith in God, but also faith in himself, in friends, in society, in the meaning of life. Frankl had a long deep depression - a complete sense of hopelessness and lack of meaning in life. Having gone through despair, a sense of the meaninglessness of being, nihilism, having carefully and deeply studied Freud, Jung, Adler and other psychologists and philosophers, and having seen that the loss of faith is characteristic not only of him, but of very many people, Frankl managed to develop immunity against nihilism, and began to teach others to find a way out of such crises. This is how logotherapy Viktor Frankl.
Word "logos" has seven translations and the first, the most capacious, means “the highest, divine meaning”, knowledge that was originally present in the universe, as Kant said "a priori transcendence". Thus "logotherapy" V this case is interpreted on the basis of the "higher meaning", "knowledge", "ideas".
Logotherapy opposes, on the one hand, the orthodox psychoanalysis, and on the other hand, behavioral psychotherapy, not denying them, but attaching the main importance to the acquisition by a person of the meaning of his existence, without which, according to Frankl, no psychotechnics can cure neurotic addictions.
Having received medical education, Franca in 1928 opens the first of the Youth Counseling Centers in Vienna, which functioned until 1938. His ideas resonate among colleagues who understand that young people lack counseling specifically on the problems of finding meaning in life, many psychotherapists and psychiatrists have joined Frankl's activities. In 1930 he becomes a doctor of medicine. From 1938 to 1942, while working as a professor and consultant at the neuropsychiatric clinic at the University of Vienna, Franca Scientific research. Then he began to write a draft of his first book.
And then the second started World War. By that time, Frank was already quite authoritative and he was offered to go to America for a well-paid job. But his parents, despite any arguments about the fascist danger, refused to move. And Frankl stayed with them, hoping that his authority and prestigious position in a neuropsychiatric clinic, despite his nationality, would be able to save his family from a concentration camp. But he was wrong. As a result, from 1942 to 1945. - he went through five concentration camps, including Auschwitz and Dachau, lost his parents, brother, and wife. Only his sister and himself survived.
From the point of view of the layman, Frankl made the wrong choice: "he did not save his parents and subjected himself to many years of suffering." But not from Frankl's own point of view. A person with a heightened sense of conscience, religiosity (“honor thy father”) and the highest meaning of life in such a situation had no choice. Compared to the torment in the concentration camps, the torment of his conscience would have been much stronger from one thought: “what if, if I had stayed with them, I could, given my authority, save them ...”. And this “what if ...” would have poisoned him for the rest of his life, and besides, he would hardly have achieved such world fame and the opportunity to help millions of people, if not for his famous book “Psychologist in a concentration camp”, where the theoretical provisions of logotherapy found concrete practical implementation.
In concentration camps, he, like all prisoners, worked hard and hard: he dug trenches, laid rails. And only at the very end of the war, Frankl was given the opportunity to work as a doctor. This was for him as a psychologist a huge experience, which he outlined in the aforementioned book "A Psychologist in a Concentration Camp".
It was in the camps that he noticed that in such unbearable conditions for many people, those who concentrated their thoughts and feelings not on longing for the past and not on today's personal experiences, but on the future, on the practical implementation of the meaning of their existence for the sake of higher goals than just survival. How can one not recall here the apostles of Christ, 10 of whom died for their faith, Archpriest Avvakum, Nikolai Ostrovsky, Ernst Thalmann and many other people whose meaning of existence was selfless service to ideas (the values of which can be argued, but for them these doubts did not exist and this is what made suffering for them, unbearable for the townsfolk, not only insignificant, but also sublimely ecstatic). These people, in the words of Nietzsche, "turned tragedy into triumph." (After all, Nietzsche also belongs to the existentialist philosophers).
Frankl often cited another quote from Nietzsche: "He who has For what live, can withstand almost any How".
In particular, Frankl himself was helped to survive not only by the doctor’s duty (“help
tell others"), but also hatred of the Nazis. An important “help” was that the Nazis found and burned a book that he had almost finished, in which he described his priceless tragic experience and taught people how to survive in unbearable conditions. This action touched him so much that he set himself the goal, by all means, to restore the burnt book and even make it even better. And he succeeded. His book "A Psychologist in a Concentration Camp", published immediately after the war, instantly and triumphantly sold around the world with a circulation of two and a half million copies and brought Frankl unprecedented popularity.
At the end of the war in 1946, Frankl became head of the neurological department of a hospital in Vienna. Since 1947 he has been teaching psychiatry and neurology at the University of Vienna, becoming a Doctor of Philosophy and head of the Austrian Society of Psychotherapists. Since 1955 - professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Vienna. In the 1940s, after publication and translation into English language his books, the main of which are: The Doctor and the Soul: From Psychotherapy to Logotherapy, Man's Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy, Psychotherapy and Existentialism, The Subconscious God:
Psychotherapy and Theology", "The Inaudible Cry of Meaning: Psychotherapy and Humanism", Frankl became world famous. And being an honorary and visiting professor at Stanford, Harvard and other prestigious universities, he lectured all over the world: South Africa, Australia, Asia, Africa. “I saw the meaning of my life in helping others find meaning in their lives,” said Frankl.
In the 50-60s. he states the prevalence of the loss of the meaning of life and provides statistics confirming that such a loss leads to the most common
tragic triad - depression, drug addiction including alcoholism, and aggression. If, according to Freud, aggression is generated by repressed, unresolved sexual instincts, then Frankl believed that the lack of meaning in life causes no less aggression. He said: “People tend to occupy this emptiness with anything or burn it out.”
Frankl believes that about eighty percent of alcoholics and one hundred percent of drug addicts are people who have no meaning in life or have lost it, i.e. experiencing existential vacuum- inner emptiness, meaninglessness of existence. Indeed, it is useless to treat an alcoholic if, after leaving the clinic, he does not know why he will not drink more, will endure the most difficult restructuring of not only the body, but also the entire habitual image, leisure activities that somehow filled the meaninglessness of his life. .
I must say that the existential vacuum, in itself, is not neurotic, but of course, is a risk zone. It can lead, and most often leads, to the so-called noogenic neuroses.
Noogenic neurosis- this is a neurosis of a painful search for one's life meaning in an existential vacuum. This may be due to the destruction of values and traditions (revolution, discrediting of religion, “perestroika”, in a word, the ancient Chinese curse: “May you live in times of change!”).
For a human, unlike animals, traditions and moral values are very important, and their destruction and discrediting leads to the loss of the high meaning of life and to reductionism (narrowing of interests and deeds to petty, selfishly philistine ones). In this regard, Frankl introduces another term "existential frustration". Frustration is a certain collapse of plans, the inability to implement them. In this case, existential frustration is a block on the way to the search for meaning. There are several types of blocking: apathy, boredom, lethargy, laziness.
Jung also claimed that all of his patients after 35 years of age somehow suffered from a lack of faith (the meaning of life) and did not gain peace of mind until they found their faith. Frankl shows that this faith can be not only religious, but also the acquisition of any other transcendental(that is, petty selfishness escaping from the “lone cell”) the meaning of life. Frankl argues that finding the meaning of existence is available to everyone normal person, regardless of gender, age, intelligence, character, environment, religious and ideological beliefs.
From the standpoint of classical psychoanalysis, as well as its opponent - behaviorism, people are quite rigidly determined: according to Freud - by various biological needs, in behaviorism - by "stimulus-reactions". Consequently, for personal freedom, and hence responsibility, there is almost no room left. Existentialists fundamentally disagree with this. They believed that a person has free will, although they recognize certain biological and social limitations of it. Frankl calls it human freedom in a space limited by death and fate. How are the concepts of personal responsibility connected with fate, which, it would seem, has already decided everything for us?
It seems to me that destiny can be understood as a certain potential path for the development of an individual within the general program for the development of mankind and nature as a whole. It cannot be rigidly determined, since life is creativity (God is the creator), which means a search with the right to experiment and make mistakes. A certain number of plants, animals, people die, some survive, but the overall progress is obvious, otherwise life would have ceased long ago. Thus, the individual path (fate) is like a stream limited by certain shores (hereditary-biological, social conditions), but in this stream one can die immediately, and the other swims for a long life and this will depend not only on chance, but also from the skill, experience and care of the swimmer. That is, despite the inevitable accidents, an experienced, well-trained (studied), able to swim (survive, endure, get along with people) swimmer in different conditions is much more likely to swim (live) longer, more useful and more interesting. This is what implies a combination of fate with an individual meaning of life and responsibility:
A behaviorist would say:
Sow an act - reap a habit - sow a habit - reap a character -
you sow a character, you reap a destiny.
The Existentialist adds:
Worthy Goal, as the meaning of life.
Otherwise, even this beautiful proverb will not bring you happiness. For "There is no fair wind for one who does not know where to sail."
Existentialists place great emphasis on of death. Frank considers this concept extremely important for finding meaning in life. This approach is not new. For example, the ancient Greeks advised to periodically repeat to yourself “Memento mori” (Remember death!) Not for grief, but to feel the value of every moment of life, the ability to appreciate it, asking yourself: “Am I not wasting it on trifles?”, “Am I not chasing false values”, “Am I getting on my nerves and loved ones because of nonsense?”
I called it MMT (memento-mori-therapy), because the term tanatotherapy(death therapy is used to bring a person almost to the point of clinical death to change the state of consciousness). At MMT, I advised my students in moments of sadness and anxiety to lie down calmly and imagine that you have one minute left to live. He fusses late, nothing can be changed, you must accept this as a fact and prepare to leave with dignity. And then, having calmed down before the inevitability, you begin to understand that you are not at all afraid, on the contrary, you are, as it were, freed from all worries, anxieties, sufferings and you enter the “high” of eternal peace. And after that, realizing that you are not afraid of death, say to yourself: “So what am I afraid of in this life if I am not afraid of death?”
I even wrote to himself and others such a memo-tuning fork:
Not afraid of death - not afraid of anything,if he remembers - "Not afraid of death."
When a person says that he is not afraid of death, but for the fate of children, business, etc., he is right in his own way, but the root cause of all other fears is the genetically inherent fear of death, the rest are derivatives of it. And if the fear of death is overcome, then the rest of the fears turn into worries, with the possibility of their rational therapy.
What allows a person to independently find their life meaning? Existentialists believe that such a guide is conscience, which V. Frankl calls organ of meaning and the ability to independently find this meaning - self-transcendence person (that is, going beyond the limits of the individual egoistic I). A person can find the meaning of his existence only by going beyond his personal D, switching attention from the inner experiences of his own person to reality, to active cooperation, to practical help to others.
How more people comes out of the passive experience of his problems “outside” (to active useful activity, helping others), the more complete and psychologically healthy he becomes. Pythagoras said: "Do not look for happiness - it is in you." True human happiness can be felt only by going beyond the limits of one's "I". Remember, in Adler: "If you feel bad, find someone who is even worse and start helping him" or "the one who constantly cooperates with others will never become neurotic."
So, “Your love for others is more necessary to you than to them!”, because by helping others, doing a common thing, you release colossal energy that was previously locked somewhere inside and mainly went to self-destruction: to useless neurotic experiences and conflicts of the "underestimated I". This inevitably happens while you are in existential vacuum(lack of a worthy life meaning of life) and, in turn, does not allow filling this vacuum, stubbornly defending his wrongness, like any neurosis. Psychoanalysts call it defense mechanisms I, and Frankl - ways to maintain an existential vacuum to which he refers primarily: suppression, avoidance of responsibility, lack of attention to self-transcendence(attempts to find a higher, or at least higher meaning of one's existence than petty selfish goals and suffering from not achieving them).
Thus, treatment of a person comes down to taking him out of the existential vacuum, i.e. to the setting of higher life goals and the formation of responsibility to oneself.
Frankl introduced a number of fundamental concepts into psychotherapy, for example, "medical care"- Helping people find meaning in somatic psychoses. He, almost like Chekhov, said that there is some higher, inaccessible to the human mind, meaning in suffering (“It seems a little more and we will find out why we live, why we suffer ...”). Many people even love or worship suffering to some extent. And this is not a painful masochism, but a healthy spiritual need to accept life “to the fullest” with all its feelings and experiences, and not hide from them, as squeezed out of consciousness, they will begin their destructive work in the subconscious and return in the form of conflicts and neuroses. Pushkin wrote: "I want to live in order to think and suffer." And the neurotic tries so hard to hide from the slightest suffering that this very hiding (and, moreover, unsuccessfully) causes him suffering.
Many worship Christ precisely for his sufferings, identify with him, and for more high level experience their suffering and find purification (catharsis - "purification through suffering"). So, there is some tangible need for it. A logotherapist should help a person when a person is forced to a suffering person to find in this the highest meaning of purification, rethinking life values, finding new ways. After all, spiritual suffering, as well as physical, shows that something is not in order, and this must either be accepted philosophically, or outline a clear strategy for changing circumstances and attitudes towards them.
Remember the ancient wisdom:
God give me the strength to change what I can
Give me the patience to endure what I cannot change.
And give me wisdom to distinguish between the first and the second.”
This is where the logotherapist helps with the addition that even “that I don’t
I can change” can be endured in different ways (humiliating and sublime), but for this you need to know “why you live, why you suffer ...”.
It is necessary to mention two more well-known methods of logotherapy.
This - paradoxical intention(paradoxical intent) and dereflection(that is, opposition to reflection as useless introspection). These methods are mainly applied in overcoming neuroses, obsessions And phobia(obsessive exaggerated fears). It is believed that the classical characteristics of the mechanisms of formation of phobias and obsessive-compulsive disorder are given by Freud. Frankl's approach does not contradict them, but quite clearly complements them. Frankl describes the process of forming phobias according to the scheme: fear breeds fear. That is, this individual, having experienced some kind of fear, begins to fear that this fear may be repeated. He is no longer afraid of the root cause of fear, but of the fear itself caused by this cause. He is afraid to experience this state again, and so often thinks about it, then this very fear (abnormality, the pain of which he is aware) becomes the cause of his constant experiences. In a broad sense (illustrating Frankl's main idea), we can say that a person very often becomes unhappy, sick, lonely, unemployed, poor precisely because of the fear of becoming unhappy, sick, lonely, etc. That is, without becoming what he is afraid to become, he already lives with his emotions, fears and suffering, enters into his image and eventually becomes such.
(On the "opposite" to this process, imagotherapy(from image - image), when an individual gets used to the image of his best I - such a person (healthy, happy, self-confident, etc.) as he would like to see himself.) However, here a paradoxical reaction occurs - the more the individual suppresses the obsessive state in himself, tries to reject it, the more it affects him pressure. Frankl proposes to use this paradoxical mechanism in the opposite direction. That is, the individual should try to convince himself that he really wants to experience, as vividly as possible, that feeling that he had previously sought to suppress, forget, destroy at all costs. This method is widely used in modern psychotherapy and counseling under the name paradoxical intention(from the word intention - intention).
For example, a person suffering from cardiophobia announces that in exactly 15 minutes a heart attack will happen to him or a person who is afraid to ride the subway, that something terrible will happen to him at the very first station. First, someone accompanies them, then they begin to be convinced of the groundlessness of their fears and gradually reduce and even ridicule them. This process is far from a one-time one and requires great patience and readiness from the psychotherapist and his client to follow the path of the experiment to the end, otherwise there is no need to start, as the fear will only intensify.
Another equally popular method of Frankl's logotherapy is dereflection, that is, overcoming reflection - painful self-digging, obsessive-compulsive disorder neuroses. This method is often used in the treatment of neuroses associated with various sexual disorders or fear of such disorders and problems. As a rule, these are problems of potency and orgasm (or fears of impotence, frigidity, etc.).
Frankl argues that most obsessive-compulsive disorder neuroses are related to the client's desire for sexual pleasure and the fear that he will not be able to get it. That is, Frankl's main idea is again illustrated - it is in the pursuit of happiness (pleasure) that a person loses it. The individual goes into reflection, and instead of completely surrendering to sexual contact, he constantly observes himself, as if from the side, analyzes his aggravations with the fear that he will not succeed. Frankl refers to many practical examples. Here is one of them:
"... a woman concerned about her frigidity was told that the course of treatment would be carried out in 2 months, for the time being, she should not think about her problem, and during intimate relationships, pay more attention to her partner. It happened that the patient came not after 2 months, but after 2 days - completely healed. Thus, simply switching attention from yourself to a partner, dereflection, leads to health and happiness.
Something similar happens with actors and speakers. When they are preoccupied with the impression they make on the audience, reflect during the performance, they speak very weakly and completely lose the attention of the audience, and sometimes the thread of the speech. Simply switching attention from yourself to the audience, to conveying the meaning of the performance to the auditorium, dedication makes the performance bright, lively, strong and attracts the attention of the public.” (Quoted by N. Linde). From this, Frankl concludes that getting rid of such a neurosis lies through overcoming reflection ( dereflection), complete self-forgetfulness and dedication.
Taking into account the possibilities of a more complete and spontaneous self-disclosure of individualities identified by Jacob Moreno through psychodrama, Frankl successfully uses logodrama. However, the task of logodrama is search and highlighting positive life meanings through a role-playing game, while Moreno's psychodrama is aimed at cathartic reaction repressed negative emotions.
Also dream analysis, which psychoanalysts conduct in order to identify the deep causes of neurosis, Frankl uses to search for true (still hidden) life meanings in the process positive discussing dreams with your clients.
In conclusion of our brief conversation about Viktor Frankl, one cannot fail to quote his phrase, which at first glance seems strange for such a great humanist:
“Despite our belief in human potential, we must not close our eyes to the fact that human beings will always be in the minority. But that is why every decent person feels challenged to join this minority. Things are bad, but they'll only get worse if we don't All, what is in our power to improve them.
But Frankl has suffered the right to such a view, which he calls tragic optimism, calling to love not fictitious, but real people and try to help them without even expecting awards and thanks. Remember Saint Francis:
"God, send me to seek to love, not to be loved."
This is probably true Christian, not market love (“And you me?”, “I won’t love you!”).
And yet, Viktor Frankl was not deprived of the love and gratitude of people. He is a recognized author of the Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy (following the schools of Freud and Adler). His books have been published in millions of copies, and logotherapy that is why it is not often mentioned that it has long outgrown a separate direction and has become synonymous with all existential and positive psychology and is used by psychotherapists of almost all schools.
SUMMARY:
the main objective logotherapy in the presence of an existential vacuum and noogenic neuroses - to find the meaning, the "exit-vector-arrow" that breaks through the "shell" of egocentrism - it bursts and the whole world is yours. That is, you are His, and He is yours. Everything is mutual - the synchronism of the existence of the universe - everywhere look for the opposite, opposition, "body" (it cannot be).
Logotherapists- Responsibility educators.
Methods focus on meaning:
- - learning to take responsibility for one's own meaning (and not like a soldier - what they order), understanding the "voice" of one's own consciousness;
- - posing questions about meanings, increasing the number of potential sources of meaning;
- - analysis of dreams;
- - making sense out of Socratic dialogue;
- - usage logodramas;
- - offering new meanings.
Finding the meaning of life should not go to hypochondriacal introspection and neurosis with a feeling of "doomed to non-realization").
"Primary Strength in Life"- unconscious desire for self-actualization. Beyond the "I" (transcendence), metaphysical patterns are included.
Consciousness - ethical instinct (conscience- the voice of the transcendence of the spiritual subconscious).
Consciousness. To be human means to be conscious, responsible, but different (alive, not a rigid neurotic). Responsibility within situations and possibilities. "Free will within death and destiny". People are restrained by bio-, social-restrictions, but within them they each
they can choose the moment and are obliged to answer for their choice, and not justify it by external circumstances (Bulgakov: “ On the doggy place - dog").
spiritual core does not lend itself to complete introspection (psychoanalysis) and is more manifested in activity (behaviorism - “ Judge them by their deeds."
Love Andart - connection of consciousness and the unconscious.
self-transcendence - going beyond your ego I - from which all the misfortunes of the neurotic (" Self-lover is not loved by anyone and doomed not to suffer from the "dislike" of others). The search for the Higher meaning, but the chain begins with the first step of getting out of the shell of egoism to the neighbor.
Sources of meaning. Man lives fully doing a common thing, experiencing values, loving, rejoicing and suffering(Pushkin: “I want to live in order to think and suffer”).
Meaning in work unemployment, depression... Existential vacuum.
Meaning in love. Love is higher than sex because it is more permanent. To be able to love a real, not a fictional or desired person, but at the same time see its potential and stimulate its realization.
Love - the main meaning of life, but if it is selfish and closes other aspects of life, then it inevitably turns into neurosis and suffering for oneself and others.
Meaning in the past. Golden reserve of memory. To comprehend even mistakes, to thank fate (“Do not say with longing “they are not there”, but with gratitude - "were"). Without a reserve of memory of good deeds and meetings for the last age crisis (according to Erik Erickson), a person comes with a feeling of a catastrophe that cannot be corrected (Hurry to do good deeds and love, love, love ...).
The supersense of suffering and death. People are unable to understand the ultimate meaning of human suffering. (Chekhov ". "It seems a little more and we will understand why we live, why we suffer...»).
Tragic triad: pain, guilt, death.
If it is impossible to avoid, then you can change your attitude towards them and even see the highest philosophical meaning (“If pain and suffering accompany death, this is the fate of a beneficent fate, believe”).
The suffering of Christ and the martyrs relieves the suffering of millions of people. Suffering for faith, ideas, lofty goals - turning tragedy into triumph.
Here: "There is no predicament that we cannot ennoble with deed or patience."
The meaning of death. The motto of the ancients "Memetnto mori" (remember death) is not
pessimistic. It reminds of the responsibility for every moment of life, the value of time: do not put off good deeds, do not waste time, strength and nerves on trifles.
existential frustration generates apathy, boredom, passivity. Put yourself and your clients "adrenaline" goals, when the goal itself throws adrenaline into the blood and makes life meaningful (at least at the stage of the struggle for the goal).
WORKSHOP.
Logotherapists do not have the same pattern of working with clients as behavioral therapy schools. Their opponents consider this a minus that makes it difficult to create unified system training of psychotherapists.
However, existentialists themselves consider this to be their plus - they fundamentally depart from schemes and diagnoses so as not to lose the unique uniqueness of each person behind them. Accordingly, the stages of work and their content are determined by the logotherapist not rigidly, but creatively adapting to different clients, problems and situations. Logotherapists are not "technicians" in psychotherapy, but philosophers. Naturally, not everyone is predisposed to this. And not all clients need such an approach. However, the importance of taking into account the philosophy of each person and work and the search for higher meanings of existence are taken into account by creative psychotherapists of all directions.
Therefore, do not wait for ready-made recipes, but try to creatively develop the basic provisions and conditional steps. logotherapy and fill them with specific content to work on your problems or the problems of your clients:
- - Humane relations.
- - Diagnosing the condition existential vacuum.
- - Deepening existential awareness.
- - Explanation.
- - Offer " Maksim"(principles, rules of conduct set forth in brief form).
- - Use of comparisons.
- - Focusing on the search for meaning.
- - Helping clients understand the importance of taking responsibility for finding meaning.
- - Helping clients to listen to the voice of their consciousness.
- - Asking clients questions about meaning.
- - An increase in the number of sources of meaning.
- - Emphasizing meaning through socratic dialogue.
- - Emphasis on meaning logodrama.
- - Suggestion of meaning(s).
- - Dream analysis(to search for meanings).
Put it into practice paradoxical intention And dereflection(on itself or on clients). Describe it.
QUESTIONS FOR SELF-CHECK.
- 1. Translate exactly the meaning of the therapeutic direction logotherapy.
- 2. What the main objective logotherapy?
- 3. Mark the main stages of the life and work of Viktor Frankl and how they influenced the development logotherapy.
- 4. Why logotherapy refers to existential psychotherapy.
- 5. What is the method paradoxical intention? Why and how is it used. Give an example.
- 6. What is the method dereflections? What is it used for. Give examples.
- 7. What is medical pastor and when does it apply?
- 8. Than logodrama differs from psychodrama?
- 9. How are analyzed dreams V logotherapy unlike the classic psychoanalysis?
- 10. List main meanings human life according to therapy and briefly explain them.
- 11. What is medical pastor and when does it apply?
- 12. Than logodrama differs from psychodrama?
- 13. How are analyzed dreams V logotherapy unlike the classic psychoanalysis?
- 14. List main meanings human life according to therapy and briefly explain them.
The twentieth century was the period of the study of man. Literally in a hundred years, many scientific disciplines whose purpose was to reveal the secrets of human existence. The weakening of the influence of the church on the minds of the population, associated with technological progress, aroused great interest in the human soul and methods of self-knowledge. This was the impetus for the development of psychology and psychotherapy. One of its areas is called logotherapy. Frankl, the author of the technique, managed to create a unique scientific theory, with which you can cure a wide range of psychoses of a different nature and conduct effective introspection. Today's article is devoted to this technique and its basic principles.
Victor Emil Frankl: creator of logotherapy
Frankl is a fairly well-known figure in psychotherapy. He was a talented neurologist, psychiatrist and psychologist. The whole life of this man was devoted to science, and last years his mind was completely occupied with logotherapy.
Frankl was born at the beginning of the twentieth century in Vienna. He showed an early interest in psychiatry, specializing in depression and suicide. Prior to World War II, Frankl headed a major medical center in Vienna for suicide prevention. Even then, he began to move away from the worldviews of Freud and Adler, which had an effect on him. big influence at the beginning of his career.
In 1942, the entire Frankl family ended up in a concentration camp because of their Jewish roots. Here he spent three years of his life and lost almost all his relatives except his sister. But it was during these years that logotherapy was born and tested. Frankl was a member of a secret society that provided psychological assistance to prisoners. He has worked with first shock, suicidal tendencies, hysterics, and people with epilepsy. This help saved many human lives and supported Frankl himself, who felt needed and necessary.
IN post-war years The life of a psychiatrist has developed more than successfully. He remarried, doing what he loves. Within a few years, psychotherapy experienced a significant leap in development, and it was Frankl who served as the reason. He outlined the basic concepts of logotherapy in several scientific books and successfully applied them in practice. The talented doctor died twenty years ago at the age of ninety-two.
Frankl's Logotherapy: Briefly
The method of the Austrian psychiatrist is Frankl's theory of logotherapy becomes more understandable if we consider that Greek word"logos" here is used in the sense of "meaning". Other interpretations of the translation will only confuse and will not convey true value method.
The fact is that Frankl considered human life an endless search for meaning. He was sure that the lack of meaning brings people to the brink of insanity and suicide, because they begin to experience a psychological vacuum. Logotherapy does not try to give the patient answers to questions and impose his vision of the situation. It only guides a person and allows him to determine his own meaning, for which it is worth living and moving forward.
Fundamentals of logotherapy
Even before the war, a book about a new method of psychoanalysis was published, the author of which was Frankl. The foundations of logotherapy were presented in it for the first time, but they produced the effect of an exploding bomb in the scientific community of Vienna. The name of Viktor Frankl has become quite famous, and his works are in demand.
The psychotherapist believed that all his life a person is looking for his destiny or meaning, designed to move him forward. In these long searches, he very often compares himself with other people and their life meaning, at these moments a rather complex analysis is carried out in the subconscious, the result of which can be both depression and spiritual euphoria from the newfound understanding of one's individual meaning.
Frankl imagined personality as a kind of three-dimensional quantity. In the same plane lie the physical and mental principles, not intersecting with each other. Perpendicular to them is the spiritual component, which is a set of certain processes that fundamentally distinguish people from animals. All these three quantities ideally constitute a healthy person, they cannot be separated from each other without harming the individual.
Frankl separated the spiritual vertical from the religious, he clearly isolated these concepts, recognizing in the spiritual the beginning of all motives, forces and aspirations that push a person to achieve the desired. The psychotherapist believed that a kind of tension arises on the spiritual vertical between what a person has already achieved and what he wants to achieve in the future. This tension is the key to a harmonious personality. As soon as a person achieves the desired and the tension disappears, then a new goal immediately arises and the process continues. The absence of this tension on the spiritual vertical leads to psychosis, various disorders and a vacuum, the way out of which many see suicide.
Goals of logotherapy
Frankl's psychoanalysis is based on the method of immersion in oneself. Many call it introspection, but it is this approach that makes it possible to fully immerse yourself in your life and analyze all situations. Sometimes the answer to a question is almost on the surface, but you can find it only after going through all the stages of introspection.
Together with the psychotherapist, the patient discusses everything important events in his life, he analyzes disappointments, joys and sorrows. Each event and emotion gradually leads to an understanding of the meaning of life. After all, life consists of a mass of various interrelated moments that ultimately make up the road along which you can come to important decisions.
If we consider the human essence as striving for knowledge and gaining meaning, then any neurosis and depression can be cured with the help of logotherapy. After all, it gives the patient the opportunity to find himself and find meaning in any situation. Frankl argued that in various life situations there is a meaning. In addition, he wrote in his writings that there is always a common meaning that leads a person along his path and is his destiny. But in various ups and downs, one should not forget about the many meanings that allow you to survive and move forward. Finding them allows you to overcome any difficulty and return to your main life path.
Frankl's Logotherapy: Basic Principles
Frankl argued in his works that man is a free creature. Nothing can limit him, he moves along his spiritual vertical and within it he is able to make absolutely any decisions. Working with mental disorders of varying severity, the psychotherapist believed that a part or foundation always remains inside the personality, which cannot be violated. It remains free even in the case of serious illnesses, when the impression is created of the complete inadequacy of the patient. It is to this basis that the logotherapist needs to "get through"; it is always a static value.
In this regard, Frankl identified three main principles of his scientific theory:
1. Free will.
In any given conditions, a person has the opportunity to choose and make decisions independently. Moreover, a person uses this freedom in internal decisions, determined by upbringing, temperament and experience. And also in external or social, when certain conditions are offered by the society and the situation.
This freedom allows patients to get out of various diseases because a person comes to understand that health and illness are also his own free choice. This fact fills the lives of many patients with new meaning.
2. Will to meaning.
Freedom in itself has no meaning, but as soon as you understand that it is given for some purpose, everything falls into place. Self-realization, that is, the desire to achieve one's goal, is the most important life meaning of a person. Any obstacles on this path, which explicitly or subconsciously interfere with the fulfillment of the intended tasks, lead to psychological problems of varying severity.
The logotherapist enables the patient to see and become aware of these obstacles in order to remove them and return to their original path. Moreover, the patient himself should do this work only with the help of a psychotherapist.
3. The meaning of life.
Logotherapy explains the existence of a person not just by the search for meaning, but also by the totality of certain transformations as a result of this activity. Each individual must make himself and the world around him better, but this does not at all mean a certain commonality of meaning. Each person has his own and can change depending on the circumstances. This is due to the first two principles of logotherapy.
Frankl's meaning systems
In the process of its development, mankind has formed several semantic systems, which logotherapy focuses on. Frankl singled out three value-semantic attitudes:
- creation;
- experiences;
- relationship.
The values of creativity contain what creates a personality and gives it to the world. These creations always evoke a lot of emotions and give meaning to certain categories of individuals. The world gives the value of experiences, they develop into experience and become part of the personality, grow together with it. The value of relationships is the most controversial value. After all, it is expressed not only in personal relationships, but also in a position regarding their destiny and communication with the outside world.
The psychiatrist paid special attention to conscience. Frankl's logotherapy methods singled it out as a special mental organ, which is an integral part of the existence of the individual. Conscience functions as a kind of system, the coordinates of which are aimed at finding common sense, one might say universal. He directs a person and coordinates his actions, regardless of the assessment of individuals and society.
Logotherapy Techniques
Frankl's logotherapy uses highly effective techniques. Most often they are used in work with patients who suffer from various neuroses and anxiety syndromes. Frankl proved that phobias and anxiety disorders are perfectly treated with the help of logotherapy. But each of the methods is very deep and brings efficiency only with the coordinated work of the doctor and the patient. Frankl's logotherapy presents the main techniques in the following three methods:
- paradoxical intention;
- dereflection;
- logoanalysis.
Each technology deserves close attention.
Paradoxical Intention
This method has proven to be effective in combating fears and neuroses. They are characterized by the introduction of the patient into a vicious circle. The patient is also afraid of certain situations and tries to avoid them, but this activity, in turn, gives rise to anxiety and new fears. As a result, the neurosis intensifies, and the disease begins to progress and move to a new level.
Paradoxical intention immerses a person in a problem and gives him the opportunity to face his fears. This breaks the vicious circle, which in turn relieves the patient of anxiety and neurotic symptoms. The person himself changes his attitude to the situation, and consequently, behavioral stereotypes.
Dereflection
This technique works well when elevated level self-control and attention does not allow the patient to achieve the desired. Most often this is due to various intimate problems, such as male impotence and female anorgasmia, which have no physical basis. With the help of dereflection, the patient is distracted from his person and completely switches to his partner. As a result, the problem of meeting expectations and enhanced self-control disappears.
logoanalysis
With the help of logoanalysis, the psychotherapist gets the opportunity to study the value scale of the patient. It stimulates creativity and allows in the shortest possible time to analyze the whole life in order to determine the individual meaning.
In this regard, the person loses the feeling of meaninglessness and emptiness. As a result, neurosis, anxiety and depression disappear.
Conclusion
Logotherapy has already found its application in many areas of psychology. It is very effective in working with various psychological problems which are solved with the help of logoanalysis and therapy. This direction is just as effective in the treatment of people with severe forms of psychosis, including schizophrenia. After all, logotherapy allows you to realize the meaning of your existence in absolutely any situation, and, therefore, helps to move towards the goal.