existential therapy and the meaning of being – - essentials for a fulfilling life - längle...

Existential Therapy and the Meaning of Being –

- Essentials for a fulfilling life -

Längle Alfried, M.D., Ph.D.International Society for Logotherapy and Existential

Analysis, Viennawww.laengle.info / www.existential-analysis.org

AgendaI. Logotherapy I.1. Introduction I.2. Key for discovering meaning I.3. Existential Meaning I.4. Ontological Meaning

II. Existential Analysis (Vienna) II.1. Introduction II.2. Key to existenceII.3. Existence and meaning II.4. Meaning and spirituality

III. Methods III.1. Practical steps with 4 FM III.2. The Logotherapeutic Meaning Searching Method (MSM) III.3. Method of Life Horizon

IV. Investigations

I. Logotherapy

1st World Congress for Existential Therapy London 17th May 2015 - Alfried Längle, M.D., Ph.D.

Logos = meaning therapy through the discovery of meaning

I. Logotherapy

I.1. Introduction

Metaphysical approach:“THERE IS” meaning in the world

I. Logotherapy I.1. Introduction

“Life has meaning in all circumstances ”

“In the Beginning was Meaning”

I. Logotherapy – I.1. Introduction

Main contribution of Frankl: made “meaning” a practical concept for

psychology and therapy.

Irv Yalom (1980, p. 521)

“Few clinicians have given meaning so much importance

… like Frankl.”

The concept of meaning is further on developed existentially in Logotherapy

“...meaning cannot be given arbitrarily but must be found responsibly.”

V. Frankl (1970, p. 63)

Making sense

the “Copernican Turn”(V. Frankl, 1946)

I.2. Key for discovering meaning

I. Logotherapy

I. Logotherapy I.2. Key for finding meaning

Instead of asking for the meaning of your life…

See yourself as the center of the decisive world!

“It is life itself that asks questions of man. (…) it is not up to man to question; rather he should recognize

that he is questioned, questioned by life;

(Frankl 1973, 62)

“It is life itself that asks questions of man. (…) it is not up to man to question; rather he should recognize

that he is questioned, questioned by life;

he has to respond by being responsible; and he can answer to life only by answering for his

life.” (Frankl 1973, 62)

Basis = connectedness:

ME „World“ Other(s),

YOU vis-à-vis other(s)

INSIDE OUTSIDE

Being-in-the-World

questionning, asking…dialogue towards me (= demand, requirement(s) of the situation)

Free PersonME „World“

Other(s), YOU vis-à-vis other(s)

Being-in-the-World

questionning … dialogue (= demand, requirement(s) of the situation)

Responding

PersonME „World“

Other(s), YOU vis-à-vis other(s)

Being-in-the-World

Dialogical reality of existence

In other words…

Being human means: being questionned

to live means: giving answers

Frankl introduced dialogical exchange with the world

In Logotherapy: existence questions emerge from outside („world“)

Meaning is discovered through the realization of values

(V. Frankl, 1984, 202)

I. Logotherapy

I.3. Existential Meaning

Existential Meaning is defined as:

“…a possibility embedded in reality“ V. Frankl 1985, 42

I. Logotherapy I.3. Existential Meaning

Three “Main Roads” (“categories of values”)

to meaning (V. Frankl, 1946; 1973, 43f)

Three categories for discovering meaning according to Frankl:

Creative values

Experiential values

Creative values

Experiential values

Attitudinal values

The search for meaning...

= mirrors our fundamental humanness: a “manifestation of intellectual sincerity and

honesty”≠ sickness per se (Freud)

Frankl: “Existential vacuum”

= persistent experiential state and deep feelings ofmeaninglessness and emptiness

Frankl 1970, 88ff

Frankl “Existential vacuum”

= persistent experiential state and deep feelings ofmeaninglessness and emptiness

loss of interest and apathy aggression – depression – addiction & unstable

psychological health

Frankl 1970, 88ff

religion

philosophy

I. Logotherapy

I.4. Ontological Meaning

I. Logotherapy – I.4. Ontological Meaning

I a) activity: Existential meaning

b) Horizon (meaning of all): ontological meaning

Relationship between existential and ontological meaning:

II. Existential Analysis (Vienna)

Existential Analysis (Vienna)• phenomenological-existential approach

II.1. Introduction

Existential Analysis (Vienna)• phenomenological-existential approach• focus on being – our being there• rooted in the person approaching the world

and oneself on the basis of becoming “more fully oneself”

• criterion for becoming more fully oneself: inner fulfillment

II.1. Introduction

II. Existential Analysis (Vienna) – II.1. Introdution

Basic principle of Existential Analysis (EA):

…Dialogical exchange with oneself and others

Inner world Outer world

IPerson

Person stands in continuous inner and outer dialogue

Questionning

Responding

Person ME „World“ Other(s),

Being-in-the-World

Dialogical reality of existence

Prerequisites for dialogue:

Phenomenological openness

Inner consent

- Freedom: experienced and practiced

- A felt sense: con-“sent“

- Authentic

- Responsible

- Dialogue (inner and outer) agreement

II.2. Key to existence

The aim of EA: to help people…

…to experience (to live with) inner consent

with what one is doing

II. Existential Analysis (Vienna) – II.2. Key to existence

Criterion for a „full“ existence:

To experience inner fulfillment

II. Existential Analysis (Vienna) – II.2. Key to existence

The relativization of meaning –

existence means more than just the realization of meaning

II.3. Existence and meaning

The four fundamental realities (dimensions):

• the world in its facts & possibilities

II. Existential Analysis (Vienna) – II.3. Existence and meaning

• life with its network of relationships and feelings

• being oneself as a unique, autonomous, responsible person

• the wider context: the future (“becoming” through one’s activities and engagement)

meaning

EXISTENCE= Will (inner consent)

SHOULD

LIKE MAY

1. To connect with the WORLD:

„I exist“, „I am able to be“

2. To feel thevalue of LIFE

3. PERSON = to be oneself, a unique

being: to sense/experience

authenticity

4. Openness to MEANING-connections:

situational + fundamental

Psychopathology: inhibition of the four fundamental realities (dimensions)

• the world anxiety• life depression• being oneself hysteria,

personality disorders• the wider context suicidality

• groundlessness world with its supporting structure;

• death life with its growth and temporality;

• loneliness uniqueness of being a person;

• meaning/ contextual understan- absurdity ding of one’s own

existence (=meaning)

Yalom (1980): Existential Analysis:

Personal Meaning

… more than just a „possibility“:

a) The „feeling“ of life‘s demand to become fruitful, to be, to strive, to experience one‘s life as

purposeful and good.

a request of our being here.

Personal Meaning

Not only to enrich others but also

b) to „become more“ by

transcending oneself towards otherness transcending the moment, the time

Meaningalignment with a value

valueMeaning

The Meaning of Being

… a process of BECOMING: based in individual being and contingent upon our transcending (reaching

beyond) our individual being

= to really become in this, our world, what we could be and what we can share in accordance

with our essence

The ultimate horizon (or ground) of meaning – the ontological meaning

= the „meaning of all“:

cannot be grasped, known or observed – but can be sensed and intuitively felt

II.4. Meaning and spirituality

Ontological meaning:

Spiritual content in meaning

feeling that our being exists within an overall context

(ungraspable meaning of life)

II. Existential Analysis (Vienna) – Meaning and spirituality

III. Methods

for finding existential meaningaccording to the

Fundamental Existential Motivations Works with inner consent

and the 4 fundamental realities (dimensions) of existence

III. Methods

III.1. Practical steps

1. Harmonizing with realityI am here - what can I do?

Perception, recognition and acceptance of realistic possibilities amongst the

facts and given reality

III. Methods III.1. Practical steps

2. Connecting emotionallyI feel my life when I like what I do

Feeling what I value, Openning myself to relationships, turning towards myself and others

III Methods III.1. Practical steps

3. My individuality, my uniquenessDo I feel free to be myself? Does it correspond

to „me“ , to my interests and ethics

experiences of self-esteem, attention, justice and appreciation

4. Transcending one‘s life toward a greater context

I am here – for what purpose?

Needs a field of activity, a structural context and a value to be realized in the future

Meaning = Questions of orientation(V. Frankl)

our belonging to (homeland; rootedness; field of activity & context) – BEING

our going towards (a value to be realized in the future; striving; transcending; being fruitful) -

BECOMING

for the counselling of concrete situations

Based on an enlarged definition of Frankl‘s existential meaning

III. Methods

III.2. The Logotherapeutic Meaning Searching Method (MSM)

Steps:1. Perception What is the situation – what is

possible for you?

2. Evaluation How important/worthy are these possibilities for

3. Selection What do you want?

4. Action When and by what means can you do it?

III. Methods III.2. The Logotherapeutic Meaning Searching Method

1. Actuality2. History3. Dialogue

III. Methods

III.3. Method of Life Horizon

1. Step: Reference to the loss

“What happened?

Why did you lose meaning? What is your own understanding?”

III. Methods III.3. Method of Life Horizon

2. Step: Taking up the life line

“What was meaningful in your life?

Why was that meaningful?”

3. Step: Existential turn

“What does this situation want from you?

What is actually needed from you?What is the challenge?”

IV. Investigations

The quest for meaning in daily life:

Tutsch et al. (2000)96 % of 200 people indicated that

they have been confronted with meaning questions

IV. Investigations

11 %: meaning doesn’t play any role in their life

These have the best results in the meaning test!

IV. Investigations

When you have found/discovered meaning - it doesn’t bother you any more… !

IV. Investigations

Debats (1996), HollandN = 114; Life Regard Index (Battista & Almond 1973)

MeaningStress , happiness , self-esteem

Existential Meaningwell-being & progress in psth

IV. Investigations

RCT-studies in Logotherapy:

24 RCT studies, mainly on sleeping disorders, anxiety, meta-analysis

IV. Investigations

Power of meaning

He who has a why to live for – can bear almost any how.

(F. Nietzsche – wording of V. Frankl 1963, 164)

IV. Investigations

Thank You

Längle Alfried, M.D., Ph.D.International Society for Logotherapy and Existential

Analysis, Viennawww.laengle.info / www.existential-analysis.org

existential therapy and the meaning of being – - essentials for a fulfilling life - längle...

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