Logotherapy (Frankl)

Logotherapy —from the Greek logos, meaning— is the therapeutic method founded by Viktor Frankl after his experience as a survivor of four concentration camps. It is considered the 'third Viennese school' of psychotherapy, following Freud's psychoanalysis (search for pleasure) and Adler's individual psychology (search for power).

Central premise: the fundamental motivation of human beings is neither pleasure nor power, but the search for meaning. When a person can find meaning in their life —even under conditions of extreme suffering— they sustain their humanity. When they cannot, they develop what Frankl called 'existential vacuum' —the source, according to him, of much contemporary pathology—.

Meaning is discovered, not invented: for Frankl, meaning is not something a person arbitrarily constructs but something they discover in their particular circumstances. There are three paths to discovering it: through creative work (what we give to the world), through love and experience (what we receive), and through our attitude toward inevitable suffering.

Importance in the face of trauma: logotherapy is especially effective when pain is unavoidable —terminal illness, mass grief, profound trauma—. It does not promise to eliminate suffering; it offers a framework for integrating it into a meaningful narrative. For descendants of victims of massive transgenerational trauma (Holocaust, dictatorships, genocides), logotherapy is particularly significant: Frankl himself was a survivor and formulated the method from that experience.