[2] Frankl describes it as "the Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy"[3][4] along with Freud's psychoanalysis and Alfred Adler's individual psychology.
[5] Logotherapy is based on an existential analysis[6] focusing on Kierkegaard's will to meaning as opposed to Adler's Nietzschean doctrine of will to power or Freud's will to pleasure.
[8] With the test, investigators found that meaning in life mediated the relationships between religiosity and well-being;[9] uncontrollable stress and substance use; depression and self-derogation.
[3] On the meaning of suffering, Frankl gives the following example: "Once, an elderly general practitioner consulted me because of his severe depression.
As a neurologist and psychiatrist, Frankl developed a unique view of determinism to coexist with the three basic pillars of logotherapy (the freedom of will).
Anecdotes about this use of logotherapy are given by New York Times writer Tim Sanders, who explained how he uses its concept to relieve the stress of fellow airline travelers by asking them the purpose of their journey.
[15] Overall, Frankl believed that the anxious individual does not understand that their anxiety is the result of dealing with a sense of "unfulfilled responsibility" and ultimately a lack of meaning.
To relieve the anticipatory anxiety and treat the resulting neuroses, logotherapy offers paradoxical intention, wherein the patient intends to do the opposite of their hyper-intended goal.
A person, then, who fears (i.e. experiences anticipatory anxiety over) not getting a good night's sleep may try too hard (that is, hyper-intend) to fall asleep, and this would hinder their ability to do so.
This would relieve the anticipatory anxiety which kept the person awake in the first place, thus allowing them to fall asleep in an acceptable amount of time.
[12]: 202 [16] Finally Frankl suggests that if goals seem unreachable, an individual loses a sense of future and thus meaning, resulting in depression.
Edith Weisskopf-Joelson, a psychologist and follower of logotherapy, argues that "our current mental-hygiene philosophy stresses the idea that people ought to be happy, that unhappiness is a symptom of maladjustment.
[12]: 188 Frankl suggested that it is important for the patient to recognize their inclinations toward perfection as fate, and therefore, must learn to accept some degrees of uncertainty.
[12]: 208 Frankl suggested that a person with schizophrenia could be helped by logotherapy by first being taught to ignore voices and to end persistent self-observation.
[16] Then, during this same period, the person with schizophrenia must be led toward meaningful activity, as "even for the schizophrenic there remains that residue of freedom toward fate and toward the disease which man always possesses, no matter how ill he may be, in all situations and at every moment of life, to the very last".
[12]: 216 In 1977, Terry Zuehlke and John Watkins conducted a study analyzing the effectiveness of logotherapy in treating terminally ill patients.
[22] Frankl explicitly replied to May's arguments through a written dialogue, sparked by Rabbi Reuven Bulka's article "Is Logotherapy Authoritarian?".
[27] Some researchers argue that logotherapy is not a "scientific" psychotherapeutic school in the traditional sense but a philosophy of life, a system of values, or a secular religion[28] that is not fully coherent and based on questionable metaphysical premises.
[29] Frankl openly spoke and wrote on religion and psychiatry, throughout his life, and specifically in his last book, Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning (1997).
[48] These recent developments introduce Viktor Frankl's logotherapy to a new generation and extend its impact to new areas of research.