Frankl Relationship And Meaning

Furthermore, Frankl’s experience also relates to the topic of meaning and relationship. Among all types of relationship, Frankl found intimate relationship has given him the strongest sense of meaning for his life. The simple thought of his wife made him stronger and have the ability to survive in the brutal working condition out in the cold. According to “Social connectedness as a source and consequence of meaning in life”, it has shown that intimate is one of the two type of relationships that predicted meaning in life (Stavrova, 2016). This verifies why Frankl was able to understand his sense of meaning through the love he had for his wife. Apart from the love he has experienced from thinking about his wife during his hard times, the fact …show more content…
Logo means meaning in Greek. According to “Meaning-Centered Based Counseling”, “Logotherapy does not prescribe meaning but describes what life would be like without meaning and what could have done to find meaning. The therapist helps the client gain a new perspective on life and explore new opportunities of finding meaning” (Wong, 1998). In Frankl’s terms of view in logotherapy, man’s search for meaning is a primary focus in his life and not a “secondary rationalization” of instinctual drives. I disagree with this because based of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, only after basic needs like physiological and safely as well as intermediate needs like love and esteem are fulfilled step by step, one can then ultimately attain self-actualization and understand one’s sense of meaning in life. It is not feasible to think about meaning in life when one’s necessity has not been fulfilled. In terms of the part that I like about logotherapy is the idea of people can find meaning in his or her lives through finding the special role in which they can only fulfill. For instance, Frankl gave an example of an old man consulted him due to his depression on losing his wife and could not overcome it for more than two years. He then asked the old man what would have happened if he died first and his wife had to survive with that alone. This old man then realized his own suffering spare his wife from going through his experience and cured him of his severe depression. I really like this part because this changed my perspective on suffering. I tend to view things negatively but this made me realize suffering may be good too because this may reduce the suffering of others. It seems like Logotherapy is slightly authoritarian because it has a set of solution and rules to help the patient to find meanings in life if they are not able to do so. I would