LOGOTHERAPY, THEOLOGY, AND PASTORAL PSYCHOLOGY.
By Prof. Dr. Heye Heyen
Available in German here.
Translated by Tom Edmondson for Meaning in Ministry: Pastoral Care with Logotherapy (blogsite).
On the death of Viktor E. Frankl:
On September 2, 1997, the Viennese professor of neurology and psychiatry, Viktor E. Frankl, the founder of Logotherapy and Existential Analysis, died at the age of 92. Who was this man whose work received less attention in the German-speaking world than in America, and from whose books Protestant theologians quote less frequently than their Catholic colleagues?
1. The Life of Viktor Frankl
Born in 1905 to Jewish parents in Vienna, the stronghold of psychotherapy at that time, he already corresponded with S. Freud as a high school student, from whom he turned away during his medical studies in order to join A. Adler's individual psychology. After a few years, however, there was a break here too. In 1927, Frankl, whose understanding of neuroses increasingly differed from Adler's, was expelled from the Viennese Association for Individual Psychology. From 1930 Frankl worked as a doctor at the neuropsychiatric clinic of the University of Vienna. At the same time, he set up counseling centers for young people who were in emotional distress – in no small part due to the mass unemployment of those years. Against the background of this work, Frankl developed the basic ideas of his logotherapy during the 1930s. He often recognizes a deficit in the experience of meaning or what he calls an 'existential vacuum' as the reason or breeding ground for mental suffering. Accordingly, he sees the therapeutic task as helping to find a perspective of meaning.
Frankl spent the years 1942-45 as a prisoner in four concentration camps. He later described these years as the "crucible" of his logotherapy: "Indeed, the lesson of Auschwitz was that man is a meaning-oriented being. [...] The message of Auschwitz was: Man can only survive if he lives for
something. And it seems to me that this applies not only to the survival of the individual, but also to the survival of mankind.” After the liberation in 1945 - he had lost his entire family except for one sister - he returned to Vienna. He dictated the book that would become a bestseller: Saying Yes to Life Anyway. A Psychologist Experiences the Concentration Camp. The title of the English translation is: Yes to Life in Spite of Everything. A series of scientific books followed, including his habilitation. Apart from longer
stays in the USA, where he held several guest professorships, Frankl stayed in Vienna until the end of his life.
2. Basic Ideas of Logotherapy
Frankl differs from Freud and Adler above all in that he sees the basic 'Mover' of man not in the will to pleasure or in the will to power, but in the will to meaning. If this becomes frustrated, an 'existential vacuum' is created in which all sorts of mental disorders can then proliferate and the will to pleasure or power can become dominant.
If the frustration of the striving for meaning is the main cause of a disorder, Frankl speaks of 'noögenic neurosis' and understands logotherapy as a specific therapy. According to Frankl, logotherapy is non- specific therapy for psychogenic neuroses. The anthropological place of the striving for meaning is the spiritual dimension. With the 'spirit' man is given the ability for 'self-transcendence' and 'self-distancing'. Frankl illustrates what is meant by the term 'self-transcendence' using the paradox of the eye, which fulfills its meaning and realizes itself precisely by overlooking itself and instead perceiving the 'world'. Thus, according to Frankl, man finds himself precisely by directing his attention away from himself (even more so: from his symptom) to something that is not himself: to a beloved you, to a task, to something that is worth being perceived. The therapeutic method that aims at this is 'dereflection'. Man's possibility of 'self-distancing' is shown in an ability that no animal possesses: to laugh. Humor is used above all in the probably best-known method that Frankl developed: paradoxical intention. It comes into effect wherever anticipatory anxiety produces or at least intensifies a symptom. For example, someone who, in humorous exaggeration, almost wishes to 'sweat something out for the boss like he has never seen it before' will take the wind out of the sails of his fear of expectation and possibly experience for the first time with amazement that his hands are completely dry in the dreaded encounter.
For Frankl, the spiritual dimension—here the influence of his philosophical teacher M. Scheler becomes apparent - is the basis of man's freedom to rise above his psychophysical conditionality and to take a stand and behave in relation to it. As the opposite pole of freedom Frankl sees the responsibility of man, whereby he also clearly has in mind the aspect of being responsible before whom or what.’ Unconscious spirituality is the subject of dream analysis, which, however, has a much lower significance in Frankl's practice than Freud's. His work The Unconscious God4 deals with this topic above all. The title is misleading, however, insofar as the idea that God himself can be found in the unconscious, as it were, is far from Frankl. Rather, he is concerned with making people aware of a Translator’s note: The English version is Utled, Man’s Search for Ultimate Meaning, and contains additonal material potentially repressed or undeveloped relationship with God. The spiritual dimension is also the basis of conscience, which is therefore 'ontically irreducible'. It is understood as a 'sense-probe' and is thus to be fundamentally distinguished from the Freudian superego, which Frankl does not question as such.
3. Logotherapy in German Speaking Areas
Although overshadowed by the major therapeutic schools, logotherapy has been growing in the German-speaking world since about 1980. Two 'pioneers' of logotherapy will be briefly introduced here, whose differences at the same time indicate the factual 'range' of possible logotherapeutic standpoints: the psychologist Elisabeth Lukas, director of the South German Institute for Logotherapy in Munich, and the Protestant theologian Uwe Böschemeyer, director of the Hamburg Institute for Existential Analysis and Logotherapy. E. Lukas is best known for her numerous (pocket) books in the Herder publishing house. In easy-to- understand and yet precise language, she presents the basic ideas of a (type of) logotherapy that could be described as 'orthodox'. In ever new variations, she presents Frankl's concepts, justifies them, and emphasizes their significance compared to all other currents of thought at the time (not only in psychology). In accordance with her strong emphasis on the spiritual dimension, she sees a great danger in overemphasizing the role of the psychic; according to her strong orientation to Frankl's parable of the paradox of the eye, she sees a great danger in any form of psychotherapeutic 'navel gazing'. Above all, she takes a decidedly critical stance towards depth psychology—sometimes not without polemics.
U. Böschemeyer, author of the dissertation "Die Sinnfrage in Psychotherapie und Theologie" (The Question of Meaning in Psychotherapy and Theology) published in 1976, already in the early days of his logotherapeutic activity advocated the concept of (what was then called) "integrative logotherapy". Its characteristic was a greater openness towards other schools and methods; this was especially true towards depth psychology. In the meantime, U. Böschemeyer has decisively developed logotherapy into a "value-oriented existential analysis" in his institute. The most important difference to classical logotherapy lies in the understanding and in the weighting of the unconscious, as the center of which the spirit and thus the orientation towards values is seen. Through the method of 'value-oriented imagination' developed by Böschemeyer, values such as 'self-acceptance' can be experienced via inner images and, if necessary, their obstacles can be recognized and worked on. In recent years U. Böschemeyer has become known to a wide audience through several books and numerous small publications (SKV Edition).
4. Logotherapy as an Object of Theological and Pastoral Psychological Interest The interest shown by theologians in logotherapy or in the work of V.E. Frankl is - especially on the Protestant side - on the whole rather low. For example, it must be noticed that H. Gollwitzer in his two monographs on the question of meaning does not explicitly refer to Frankl in a single place. Two theological dissertations take a look at Frankl's anthropology: the work of U. Böschemeyer (supervised by H. Thielicke) from a systematic-theological point of view, and the work of St. Peeck from a practical-theological point of view (significance for suicidal people). Wolfram Kurz, professor of religious education and at the same time director of an institute for logotherapy and existential analysis in Tübingen, makes logotherapy fruitful for religious education in several publications, including his dissertation and his habilitation thesis. Among the German-speaking authors, he is probably the one in whom logotherapeutic and theological or religious pedagogical elements interpenetrate most strongly and result in an overall conception.
In his (practical-theological) dissertation, Karl-Heinz Röhlin compares existential analysis and logotherapy with the more recent Protestant concepts of pastoral care. From logotherapy he gains impulses for a 'meaning-oriented pastoral care', which he understands - in modification of the well- known thesis of D. Stollberg - as "logotherapy in the church context."5 Nevertheless, the well-known representatives of Protestant poimenics as well as pastoral psychology on the whole only make very peripheral reference to Frankl and his school(s), if at all. Incidentally, the reverse is even more true: Frankl himself and authors who define themselves primarily as logotherapists hardly take any notice of pastoral psychology or clinical pastoral training.
5. Opportunities for Dialogue
Since I myself have completed both the Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) and various pastoral psychological training courses on the one hand, and an existential-analytical-logotherapeutic training (with U. Böschemeyer) on the other hand a good ten years ago, I have been interested in integrating some methods that I owe to pastoral psychology within the training of logotherapists and the CPE. Conversely, I would like to see logotherapeutic insights included in the training of pastoral workers and pastoral psychologists.
I can only indicate here in the form of theses what the main benefits for both sides could be.
a) The benefit for (prospective) logotherapists from contact with (representatives of) protestant poimenics and pastoral psychology could be the following:
- Sensitization to the fundamental desire to be accepted – for this, the central consideration of the 'will to meaning' must not obscure the view;
- Overcoming an anthropological reductionism that actually largely understands fear only in terms of the paradigm of 'anticipatory fear' and does not take it into account as existential;
- Striving for an attitude that tolerates open questions and is skeptical of hasty answers;
- Raising awareness of the danger of dealing with oneself and others in a moralizing manner;
- Discovering a human 'right to complain' (up to and including accusing God; see Psalms);
- Sensitization to the fact that faith is also only lived in this world and that therefore ecclesiogenic damage (and analogously: comparable dangers through neologistic counseling) must also be taken into account.
b) The benefit for (prospective) ministers and pastoral psychologists from contact with (representatives of) logotherapy and existential analysis could be the following:
- Sensitization for the perception of the pastor and client under the aspect: "What are his 'pillars of meaning'? (A parameter for assessing suicidality or resilience!);
- Self-awareness also under the aspect: 'Me and my values';
- Working with dreams and the imagination under the perceptual attitude: unconscious belief, unconscious hope, unconscious love;
- Sensitization to the mechanism of 'hyper-reflection' (Frankl) of one's own problems and their reinforcement that occurs as a result;
- Becoming familiar with the methodical handling of dereflection;
- Recognizing and avoiding any personal psychologistical tendencies; Frankl concludes:
“Sigmund Freud taught us the importance of debunking. But I think it has to stop somewhere, and that's where the 'exposing psychologist' is confronted with something that just can't be exposed anymore, for the simple reason that it's real. The psychologist, however, who cannot stop exposing there either, only exposes the unconscious tendency to devalue what is genuine in people, what is human in people.”
LITERATUR:
U. Böschemeyer, Die Sinnfrage in Psychotherapie und Theologie. Die Existenzanalyse und
Logotherapie Viktor E. Frankls aus theologischer Sicht, Berlin / New York 1976; ders., Logotherapie
und Religion, in: G. Condrau (Hg), Die Psychologie des 20. Jahrhunderts, Bd. 15, Zürich 1979, 296-302;
ders., Neu beginnen! – Konkrete Hilfen in Wende- und Krisenzeiten, Lahr 1966; J.B. Fabry, Das Ringen
um Sinn. Eine Einführung in die Logotherapie, Freiburg 1980 [2]; V.E. Frankl, Theorie und Therapie der
Neurosen, München / Basel 1975 [4]; ders., ... trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen. Ein Psychologe erlebt
das Konzentrationslager, München 1978 [2]; ders., Ärztliche Seelsorge. Grundlagen der Logotherapie
und Existenzanalyse, Wien 1979 [9]; ders., Der unbewußte Gott. Psychotherapie und Religion,
München 1979 [6]; ders., Das Leiden am sinnlosen Leben. Psychotherapie für heute, Freiburg i.Br. /
Basel / Wien 1981 [6]; ders., Das Leiden am sinnlosen Leben. Psychotherapie für heute, Freiburg i.Br. /
Basel / Wien 1981 [6]; ders., Der Wille zum Sinn. Ausgewählte Vorträge über Logotherapie, Bern /
Stuttgart / Wien 1982 [3]; ders., Der Mensch vor der Frage nach dem Sinn, München 1985 [4]; ders.,
Was nicht in meinen Büchern steht: Lebenserinnerungen, München 1995; H. Gollwitzer, Krummes
Holz – aufrechter Gang. Zur Frage nach dem Sinn des Lebens, München 1970; ders., Ich frage nach
dem Sinn des Lebens, München 1974; W. Kurz, Ethische Erziehung als religionspädagogische Aufgabe.
Historische und systematische Zusammenhänge unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Sinn-
Kategorie und der Logotherapie V.E. Frankls, Tübingen 1983; ders., Seel-Sorge als Sinn-Sorge: Zur
Analogie von kirchlicher Seelsorge und Logotherapie, in: WzM 37 (1985), 225-237; ders./ F. Sedlak
6 Frankl 1995, 104.
6
(Hg.), Kompendium der Logotherapie und Existenzanalyse. Bewährte Grundlagen, neue Perspektiven,
Tübingen 1995; E. Lukas, Von der Tiefen- zur Höhenpsychologie. Logotherapie in der Beratungspraxis,
Freiburg i.Br. 1983; dies., Auch dein Leben hat Sinn. Logotherapeutische Wege zur Gesundung,
Freiburg i.Br. 1984 [2]; dies., Von der Trotzmacht des Geistes. Menschenbild und Methoden der
Logotherapie, Freiburg i.Br. 1986; dies., Lebensbesinnung. Wie Logotherapie heilt. Die wesentlichen
Texte aus dem Gesamtwerk, Freiburg i.Br. 1995; M. Nicol, Die Religion in Existenzanalyse und
Logotherapie nach Viktor E. Frankl, in: WzM 38 (1986), 207-222; St. Peeck, Suizid und Seelsorge. Die
Bedeutung der anthropologischen Ansätze V.E. Frankls und P. Tillichs für Theorie und Praxis der
Seelsorge an suizidgefährdeten Menschen, Stuttgart 1991; K.-H. Röhlin, Sinnorientierte Seelsorge. Die
Existenzanalyse und Logotherapie V.E. Frankls im Vergleich mit den neueren evangelischen
Seelsorgekonzeptionen und als Impuls für die kirchliche Seelsorge, München 1988.