The Will to Meaning

Overview

The Will to Meaning: Foundations and Applications of Logotherapy (1969) is Viktor Frankl's systematic statement of logotherapy — the mature, philosophical presentation of the therapy that Man's Search for Meaning had introduced to the world. The book is organized around the will to meaning, the concept that Frankl placed at the center of his psychology, and it develops the philosophical foundations of the therapy (the doctrine of self-transcendence, the critique of reductionism and nihilism) alongside its clinical applications (the techniques of paradoxical intention and dereflection, the practice of meaning-centered counseling). It is the book for the reader who wants to understand logotherapy not only as a memoir's message but as a complete psychological and philosophical system.

Author

Viktor E. Frankl (1905–1997) was an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, and Holocaust survivor, the founder of logotherapy. The book was written at the height of his international influence, after Man's Search for Meaning had made him famous, and it represents his considered response to the questions raised by the therapy's worldwide reception.

Historical Background

The book belongs to the period of logotherapy's international expansion. By the late 1960s, Frankl's therapy had spread beyond Vienna to the English-speaking world, and it was being engaged by the humanistic psychology movement — the psychology of Maslow's self-actualization and Rogers's client-centered therapy. The Will to Meaning is in part Frankl's engagement with this movement: the doctrine of self-transcendence is his correction of the self-actualization theory, and the book's philosophical chapters develop the claim that the self is fulfilled not by aiming at itself but by looking beyond itself.

Key Ideas

The book develops the central theses of logotherapy in systematic form. The will to meaning: the primary motivational force in human life is the search for meaning, not pleasure or power. The existential vacuum: when the will to meaning is frustrated, the result is the emptiness that Frankl called the signature neurosis of the modern age. The doctrine of self-transcendence: the human being is essentially oriented toward something beyond the self — a meaning to fulfill, a task to accomplish, a person to love — and self-actualization is the byproduct, not the goal. And the clinical applications: the techniques of paradoxical intention and dereflection, and the practice of meaning-centered counseling, in which the therapist helps the patient discover the meanings latent in their own life.

Important Passages

The book's most quoted passages include the statement of self-transcendence: "Self-actualization cannot be attained if it is made an end in itself, but only as a side effect of self-transcendence." Its account of the existential vacuum and its critique of the "tragic triad" — suffering, guilt, and death — develop the philosophy of the book's earlier chapters, and its closing sections on the applications of logotherapy make the transition from philosophy to practice.

Influence

The Will to Meaning is the systematic companion to Man's Search for Meaning, and it has shaped the academic reception of logotherapy. Its doctrine of self-transcendence has influenced the positive psychology movement and the modern psychology of meaning, and its account of the tragic triad anticipated the modern research on post-traumatic growth. The book remains the standard philosophical statement of the therapy, and it is the bridge between the popular success of Man's Search for Meaning and the clinical tradition of logotherapy.

Sources

• Frankl, Viktor E. The Will to Meaning: Foundations and Applications of Logotherapy. New York: New American Library, 1969.
• Batthyány, Alexander. Meaning in Positive and Existential Psychology. New York: Springer, 2016.