SOURCE_DOCUMENTS/journal_018_2.txt

Volume 18, Number 2 Autumn 1995 
The International Forum for Logotherapy, 1995, 18, 65-68. 
FRANKL AND MARCEL: TWO PROPHETS OF HOPE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY 
Jim Lantz 
William Blair Gould4 has described both Viktor Frankl and Gabriel Marcel as prophets of hope. Both Frankl1•2•3 and Marcel5·6•7 have presented existentialism to the human community in a way that significantly challenges the despair of the French Existentialist, Sartre8 and in doing so offer great hope for the 21st century through their concepts of selftranscendence 1·2• 3 and human availability.5,5.7 The purpose of this article is to briefly compare Sartre's philosophy of "Being For Itself" with Frankl' s philosophy of self-transcendence and Marcel's philosophy of availability. In my view, such a comparison highlights the contributions that both Frankl's logotherapy and Marcel's Christian Existentialism make in the field of psychiatry and mental health for the 21st century. 
Sartre's Existentialism 
Sartre's brand of existentialism became popular and well-known in Europe and the United States after World War II. For many writers, philosophers, and psychotherapists Sartre's8 focus upon renouncing all attempts to evade anxiety, his focus upon accepting responsibility, his focus upon individual courage and Existence, and his focus upon the inadequacy of external supports, was experienced as a liberating and invigorating position. Although Sartre8 offered many new insights and ideas, his position failed to show how individual existing human beings could achieve meaningful relationships with other people and the world at large. For Sartre8 a meaningful, self-transcendent life was not possible to describe within the confines of existentialism. Sartre' s8 brand of existentialism, while helpfully emphasizing courage, responsibility, freedom, and existence, also provided a serious challenge to the idea that anything of meaning could exist beyond the boundaries of the individual self. Sartre's8 "Being For Itself" can only be seen as viewing self-transcendence and human availability as absurd acts. 

Availability and Self-Transcendence 
6 23
For Marcel5· .7 and Frankl1· · availability and self-transcendence are connected to the call and claims of otherness which can only be answered with responsible action,2·3 charity,5·6 and human love.1.7 For both Marcel7 and Frankl, 1 responding to the call of otherness is the most effective method of strengthening and expanding the self. For both Frankl1·2 and Marcel, 6 •7 a person who can hear and respond to the claims of otherness, and can yield to encounter and make commitments to the world beyond the self, demonstrates availability and self-transcendence. For Sartre8 such self-transcendence and availability would disrupt and diminish the self. For both Frankl1·2 and Marcel5•6 psychotherapy should include a significant focus upon helping the client respond to and be available to otherness through self-transcendent activities, while for Sartre8 such an approach could again only diminish the self. 
Avoidance of Availability and Self-Transcendence 
For both Viktor Frankl3 and Gabriel Marcel5 every human being is pulled towards availability and self-transcendence and is also afraid to manifest and experience availability and self-transcendence. For both Frankl3 and Marcel,5 such fear and avoidance is reactive to the side effects of availability and self-transcendence. Self-transcendence and availability always include two powerful and potentially painful side effects: responsibility and vulnerability. As a result, many individuals deny and repress availability and self-transcendence in order to avoid these side effects. For Frankl2 this creates an existential vacuum which is then filled with symptoms and problems. For Marcel,5 ·6 Frankl' s existential vacuum is described as a disruption of the human traveler's (homo viator) return to the source of love which Marcel calls the "ultimate thou." For Marcel,6.7 Frankl's existential vacuum could be described as "hell on earth." 
Defenses Against Availability and Self-Transcendence 
For Gabriel Marcel5 ·6.7 the spirit of abstraction is the major, modern human defense against availability and self-transcendence. In my view, Marcel's spirit of abstraction is remarkably similar to Viktor .Frankl' s2·3 description of the dehumanizing effect of reductionism in which people are treated as machines to be fixed and/or systems to be adjusted. Since the readers of this journal are familiar with Frankl' s ideas about reductionism, I will focus upon Marcel's concept of the "spirit of abstraction." 
For Marcel5·6 the "spirit of abstract living" is a significant disruption of the quality of human life. Marcel5 does believe that abstraction is necessary in human life and in human problem solving. The spirit of abstraction occurs when the concrete reality from which the abstraction is taken is repressed, covered, clouded, or denied. The spirit of abstraction can easily result in "technomania" where technology and 
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problem solving become imperialistic and become values and meanings rather than the servant of values, meanings, and human life. 
Illustrations of the Spirit of Abstraction Defense 
An example of Marcel's5 spirit of abstraction occurred a few years ago when I was introduced to a theologian who had come to a midwest college to study "Just War" theology. I was surprised and upset to discover that this scholar (who had never experienced war) had also never discussed war with a combat veteran or talked about the effects of war with a family that had lost a loved one in war. This scholar felt comfortable studying "Just War" theology without a human context and without any connection to the concrete reality of war. This scholar could not understand my concerns and criticism. He defended his work as "theoretical" and felt that my "qualitative" concerns were neither appropriate or justified. In my view, his stance was an excellent example and demonstration of Marcel's5 .7 spirit of abstraction and Frankl' s2·3 reductionism. 
A second illustration of Frankl' s3 reductionism and Marcel's5 spirit of abstraction is demonstrated in the following clinical material. Dr. X started working with Tina Jones after she attempted suicide. This 1 5year-old girl was placed in a hospital setting where she was started on antidepressant medications and intensive psychotherapy with Dr. X, a young psychiatrist who had recently completed his residency. Tina made excellent progress and after six months the psychiatrist started reducing Tina's medication. Unfortunately he also reduced the amount of time he spent seeing Tina (and her family). As a result, Tina's functioning was not adequately monitored as she was being taken off her medications. Tragically, Tina suffered a rebound depression and committed suicide. The psychiatrist started working with Tina's parents after her suicide to help them work through this tragedy and was in fact doing a good job with the parents. In spite of his excellent work and the responsiveness of Tina's parents, Dr. X was feeling considerable personal pain reactive to his awareness that he had made some mistakes and that it was very possible that Tina would still be alive if these mistakes had not occurred. Dr. X started personal therapy with a somewhat classically trained psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapist who told Dr. X that it was very possible that Tina's suicide was reactive to an unconscious death wish on the part of her parents. Although Dr. X had not experienced Tina's parents in this way, his own therapist's interpretation made theoretical sense and helped Dr. X feel considerable relief from guilt. After Dr. X accepted his therapist's interpretation, his relationship with Tina's parents changed considerably. They dropped out of treatment with Dr. X but continued treatment with a different therapist. The couple reported that they no longer felt Dr. X cared about them. 
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Conclusion 
In my view, Dr. X used reductionism and the spirit of abstraction to handle his own guilt and pain, and Tina's parents wisely started seeing a more empathic therapist. Dr. X was a fairly average and usual example of the many overly abstract and unavailable mental health professionals who are being trained today in our hospitals and universities. Frankl' s self-transcendence and Marcel's availability are the correct prescriptions for both Dr. X and the mental health professional of the 21st century. 
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Frankl' s 1 · • logotherapy and Marcel's · .7 Christian Existentialism remain our best chance for the rehumanization of both psychiatry and mental health. 
JIM LANTZ, Ph.D. is a Dip/ornate in Logotherapy, a Logotherapist in private practice, and a faculty member at The Ohio State University College of Social Work [1947 College Road, Columbus, Ohio 43210 U.S.AJ. 
References 
1. 
Frankl, V. (1959). Man's search for meaning. NY: Simon & Schuster. 

2. 
Frankl, V. (1967). Psychotherapy and existentialism. NY: Simon & Schuster. 

3. 
Frankl, V. (1975). The unconscious God. NY: Simon & Schuster. 

4. 
Gould, W. (1993). Viktor E. Frankl: Life with meaning. Pacific Grove: Brooks/Cole Publishing. 

5. 
Marcel, G. (1956). The philosophy of existentialism. NY: Citadel Press. 

6. 
Marcel, G. (1963). The existential background of human dignity. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 

7. 
Marcel, G. (1973). Tragic wisdom and beyond. Evanston: Northwestern University Press. 

8. 
Sartre, J. (1956). Being and nothingness. NY: Philosophical Library. 


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The International Forum for Logotherapy, 1995, 18, 69-73. 
INTEGRATING LOGOTHERAPY AND LIFESTYLE THEORY: A REMEDY FOR CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR 
I recall a conversation with an 
inmate who reported he amassed so much money dealing drugs that he didn't have time to spend most of it. When I questioned him about how much money he had wanted to accrue before desisting from crime, his puzzled expression betrayed the fact that he had never seriously contemplated this possibility. A more familiar scenario is for the criminal to establish one or more target dates or cash cutoffs for the cessation of all criminal activity, but when the goals are achieved they are supplanted by new criminal objectives. This implies that the lifestyle of commitment to criminal aims may be a more important motivator of repeat criminal behavior than the realization of any single criminal goal. 
The Lifestyle Explanation of Criminal Behavior 
Accardi ng to the lifestyle approach to criminal behavior, existential fear arises from the conditions of one's birth. Banished from the security and comfort of the womb, the child is thrust into a world of rapidly shifting perceptions, sensations, and contingencies. Because change poses a threat to the infant's very survival, change soon becomes a focal point of apprehension, anxiety, and concern. Existential fear, which appears first as a primitive fear of nonexistence, soon transforms itself into a psychological fear of change. Because change is inevitable, existential fear is inescapable. An individual, nonetheless, has a choice as to how he or she goes about managing this fear: the two primary categories being "Lifestyle Recitation" and "Adaptation." 

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Lifestyle Recitation 
Lifestyle recitation accepts preconceived rules, roles, rituals, relationships, and measuring rods for success and failure for the expressed purpose of avoiding, escaping, or hiding from fear. This method of fear management calls for deception and concealment rather than mastery and constructive action. Preoccupation with lifestyle activities makes it exceedingly difficult for individuals to achieve meaning in life and thus aggravates their vulnerability to fear. Many criminal offenders consequently lack a spiritual understanding of life and seek to fill the vacuum in their lives by denying their personal responsibilities and looking for an aggressive solution (e.g., power, greed) to an internal, noetic problem (emptiness brought on by an absence of meaning). Lifestyles often coalesce around themes of crime, 5 drug abuse,6 and compulsive gambling,7 but are not restricted to socially deviant forms of behavior. Persons viewed by society as highly successful or socially conforming may also fall within the purview of a lifestyle mode of being. The dutiful wife who remains in an abusive relationship, the professional sports figure who feels lost without the security of athletic competition, and the businessperson whose concern for financial gain clearly outweighs any regard for the welfare of employees and the environment, are all choosing to handle existential fear through established rules, roles, and rituals. 
Adaptation 
How, then, can a therapist assist clients who wish to quit their criminal lifestyle? This requires consideration of the other major method of fear management--adaptation. Hence, the primary goal of lifestyle intervention is to maximize a person's adaptive resources while minimizing his or her reliance on lifestyle forms of fear regulation. 
In contrast to the rigidity of a criminal lifestyle, adaptation calls for innovation and flexibility. Persons managing existential fear with adaptation are open to informationsupplied by their environment. They modify their thinking, perceptions, and behavior in an effort to remain cognizant of a changing environment. Where lifestyles are designed to procure a false sense of constancy, adaptation strives to keep one abreast of changes taking place in the internal and external environment. To understand the difference between adaptation and lifestyle it is important to keep in mind that adaptive living entails a coordination of short-and long-term goals, whereas lifestyle recitation is primarily concerned with the short-range effects of one's actions. 
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Adaptive responses prepare the organism for future change and signal respect for oneself, others, and nature based on the historically proven fact that persons and nations that do not respect themselves, others, and their environments, are doomed. 
Proposed Treatment for the Criminal Lifestyle 
There are several ways in which adaptability might be taught to persons who have grown accustomed to dealing with fear via a criminal lifestyle. One approach is to instruct clients in basic acadamic, occupational, life, coping, and thinking skills as a means of enhancing their adaptive resources and increasing their propensity for making adaptive responses in the face of environmental change. This will fail to yield satisfactory results, however, unless the issue of meaning is also addressed. For this reason, Frankl's3 logotherapy has much to offer clinicians working with clients who have learned to depend on a criminal lifestyle to manage fear. This is because logotherapy emphasizes values, goals, and transcending one's current situation. Research, in fact, has established that interventions aimed at values, 2 goals,4 and life meaning1 are effective in reducing recidivism in offenders. 
Grouping values into their creative, experiential, and attitudinal subcategories seems a particularly effective means by which adaptive goals might be realized in one's work with criminal offenders. Creative values, for instance, present offenders with the opportunity to transcend their immediate situation and substitute creative and adaptive goals for their prior interest in power, pleasure, and materialism. Experiential goals, on the other hand, help direct the criminal offender away from fantasy while focusing attention on the possibilities of the moment. Finally, attitudinal values assist the individual in coming to terms with aspects of his or her life that cannot be changed--by reinforcing the notion that regardless of the situations in which we find ourselves we still have the freedom to choose the way we think. Using these values as a framework for change, the client can then go about establishing short-and long-term goals designed to achieve respect for oneself, others, and the environment. 
Case Study 
John was a single, black male who started selling drugs at a relatively early age. He grew up in an impoverished home environment and frequently used this fact to justify his various criminal activities. 
When asked why he violated the law by selling drugs, John pointed out various societal inequities and perceived injustices, as if these somehow relieved him of responsibility for his own behavior. Treatment therefore began by stressing the importance of taking responsibility for one's actions. This was followed by group discussions on choice and a review of how John might make better life-decisions in the future. The treatment plan called for basic training in academic, occupational, social, and thinking skills, but also emphasized the pursuit of meaning as an avenue through which he could abandon the criminal lifestyle. 
Interventions aimed at the criminal lifestyle generally are most effective when conducted in a group setting. Group therapy provides an excellent forum for discussions on values, goals, expectancies, and the search for life meaning. John proceeded through a series of psychoeducational and process groups designed to address existential fear, lifestyle thinking, and a wide assortment of possible social-coping skill deficits. He was encouraged to enroll in educational and vocational programming available through the institution's education department. A recurrent theme of treatment with clients like John is assisting them in the achievement of life-meaning by helping them find respect for themselves, others, and their environment. After 18 months of treatment John was transferred to a lower-security institution, from which he eventually was released to a half-way house and then home. Although follow-up data are not currently available, John's chances of remaining crime-free will be enhanced if he continues to act responsibly, think rationally, and work vigorously toward the realization of life-meaning. 
Discussion 
The purpose of this article is to highlight the applicability of meaning to the formation of an adaptive stance toward life in persons previously committed to a criminal lifestyle. Obviously, meaning can be of assistance to anyone interested in abandoning the lifestyle approach to existential fear management, although the present discussion focuses on criminal offenders. Whether the rules, roles, rituals, relationships, and measuring rods that guide a lifestyle are socially acceptable or as deviant as John's, a lifestyle clearly restricts a person's freedom by forcing him or her into a preconceived pattern of thinking and behavior. Lifestyle recitation, therefore, constitutes abandonment of innovation in favor of following a standard set by 
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others. Hence, while it is duly noted that consummate adaptation is an ideal that is approached rather than attained, and that lifestyle rules and roles cannot be eliminated entirely from our behavior, the goal of lifestyle intervention is to maximize the amount of time a person spends in adaptive pursuits and minimize the amount of time he or she spends chasing the fantasies that give birth to a criminal lifestyle. 
GLENN D. WALTERS, Ph.D. [Psychology Services, Federal Correctional lnstitution-Schuylkill,P. 0. Box 700, Minersville, Pennsylvania 179540700 USA] is a Psychologist and author of drug abuse and criminal lifestyle materials. The assertions contained herein are the private views of the author and should not be construed as official or as reflecting the views of the Federal Bureau of Prisons or the United States Department ofJustice. 
References 
1. Barber, L. S. (1979). Juvenile delinquents. In J. Fabry, R. Bulka, & 
W. Sahakian (Eds.), Logotherapy in action. NY: Jason Aronson. 
2. 
Bush, J. (1983). Criminality and psychopathology: Treatment for the guilty. Federal Probation, 47, 44-49. 

3. 
Frankl, V. E. (1962).Man'ssearchformeaning:Anintroductionto logotherapy. Boston: Beacon Press. 

4. 
Lochman,·J. E., Burch, P.R., Curry, J. F., & Lampron, L.B. (1984). Treatment and generalization effects of cognitive-behavioral and goal-setting interventions with aggressive boys. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 16, 13-19. 

5. 
Walters, G. D. (1990). The criminal lifestyle: Patterns of serious criminal conduct. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. 

6. 
Walters, G. D. (1993). The lifestyle approach to substance abuse. The InternationalForum for Logotherapy, 16, 13-19. 

7. 
Walters, G.D. (1994). The gambling lifestyle: I. theory.Journal of Gambling Studies, 10, 159-182. 


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The International Forum for Logotherapy, 1995, 18, 74-82. 
PURPOSE IN LIFE AND SELF-PERCEIVED ANGER PROBLEMS AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS 
Andrew A. Sappington & Patrick J. Kelly 
(ABSTRACT) Three studies investigated the relationship between anger problems and purpose in life. Also, relationships with variables believed to increase purpose in life were investigated. College students completed questionnaires on self-perceived anger problems, indicated interest in participating in an anger management study, completed a Purpose in Life (PIL) test, and completed other questionnaires measuring enjoyment oflife, altruistic contributions to life, and cognitive reactions to unpleasant events. Anger problems correlated negatively with PIL scores, positive affect, and altruism. They correlated positively with negative affect and a tendency to respond to unpleasant events by dwelling on problems or blaming others. The proportion ofstudents interested in anger management techniques was similar to the proportion interested in anxiety or depression management 
techniques, and ranged from 34 to 64%. The proportion of students who acted out in potentially dangerous ways when angry ranged from 46 to 62 %. Implications from Frank/'s theory for helping students deal with such problems are discussed. 
Anger-related problems are not uncommon on college campuses. About 20 % of college students have experienced violence in a dating relationship. 11 ·12 Studies have documented other student-on-student violence.7 ·10· Such problems are disturbing both in their own right and because they may be early warning signs of later domestic violence.9 
Viktor Frankl offers a possible way to understand such problems. He proposes that a sense of meaning or 

purpose in life is necessary for both physical health and psychological adjustment.4 Indeed, empirical research has found meaning to be related to effective functioning in a variety of life 
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areas.2 It is reasonable to expect that low purpose in life could play a role in anger problems as well. 
If so, then Frankl's theory suggests that other variables are related to anger problems. According to Frankl, purpose in life can be found through three general approaches: {a) taking from the world, {b) giving to the world, and {c) the attitude taken towards inevitable suffering. Since enjoyment of life, altruism, and constructive cognitive reactions to unpleasant events all contribute to purpose in life, they should all correlate negatively with anger problems if lack of meaning indeed plays a role. 
One goal of the present study was to determine the relationship of anger problems to purpose in life and to its contributing variables of enjoyment of life, altruism, and cognitive reactions to events. A second goal was to determine the extent to which college students perceive themselves as having anger problems and have some interest in getting help. Although anger-related problems are common among college students, denial is often found in those who have such problems.6 
Method 
Three studies were conducted. The first examined the relationship between self-perceived anger problems and: {a) purpose in life, {b) cognitive responses to unpleasant events, and (c) anxiety, a variable presumably negatively related to enjoyment of life. A second study examined the relationship of anger problems to a somewhat different set of cognitive responses to unpleasant events and to a cluster of variables related to enjoyment of life. The third study examined the relationship between anger problems, purpose in life, and two measures of altruism. All three studies additionally attempted to determine the extent to which college students were interested in receiving help for anger problems. 
Study I Subjects 
Students (36 females, 31 males) in an undergraduate abnormalpsychology class (an elective course requiring a passing grade in an introductory psychology course) volunteered for extra credit. Because of ethical considerations, students were not required to participate in research at this university. Given this constraint, the use of extra credit ensured the most representative sampling of a given student population. In this study, for example, all students in class that day participated. The ages of the subjects ranged from 18 to 43 years, with a mean age of 22.1 years. 
Measures 
Subjects were presented with a booklet containing the following six instruments to be filled out during the last 15 minutes of a class period. 
Anger and Hostility Scale.17 This questionnaire differs from other measures of anger in that it attempts to measure the extent to which subjects perceive themselves as having problems because of their anger. The instrument is comprised of 1 3 closed-ended questions about personal handling of anger; each question is followed by a 5-point scale rating the frequency with which an experience occurs (from 1 = "almost never" to 5 = "almost always"). 
In pilot work the correlation of individual items with the total score ranged from + .59 to + .82 except for "acting out" items that were in the 
+ .20's. The test-retest reliability over a three-month period was +.75. In the same pilot work, spouse abusers scored significantly higher on the measure than patients with no anger problems, thus providing some construct validity. 
Coping Style Scale .17 Subjects indicate what they think about after something makes them mad. They indicate on a 5-point scale (from 1 = "almost never" to 5 = "almost always") how often they think about (a) how to solve the problem, (b) how bad the problem/person is, and (c) about something other than the problem (three questions for each approach). Some construct validity is provided by the fact that in pilot work spouse abusers dwelt on mistreatment more and used distraction less than non-abusers, a finding consistent with other research on coping styles and anger problems.8 
The Purpose in Life (PIU test.2 This served as a measure of the extent to which subjects felt that their lives had meaning. The Spielberger Trait Anxiety Scale.19 This served as a measure of trait anxiety. 
Interest Questionnaire. A brief questionnaire asked subjects to indicate which of several possible studies they would be interested in participating in even though no extra credit would be given. Items included: a study of techniques for controlling anxiety; a study of techniques for controlling depression; a study of techniques for controlling anger; a study of techniques for increasing creativity; and a study of techniques for improving study habits. It was felt that this would provide a relatively nonthreatening way for subjects to indicate an interest in receiving help. Subjects had to provide a name and phone number, which involved at least some behavioral commitment. 

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Study II 
Subjects. 
Students (63 females, 54 males) in an introductory psychology class (a required course) took part in this study for extra credit. The ages of the subjects ranged from 17 to 34, with a mean age of 19.9. 
Measures 
The measures included the same first and last measures used in the 
previous  study  (the  Anger  and  Hostility  Scale  and  the  Interest  
Questionnaire).  In  addition,  the  following  four  instruments  were  
administered:  
Beck Depression Inventory.1  

Rosenberg Self-esteem . 14 Both this and the Beck are commonly used with college student as well as clinical populations. Emotions Questionnaire.5 This scale provides scores for happy and unhappy emotions. 
Coping Strategies Questionnaire.18 This is a revised version of the Coping Styles Scale used in Study I. Respondents indicate on a 5-point scale how often they think about Problem Solving, Dwelling on Problems, Blaming Others, Distraction, and Pollyanna (looking for the bright side) when something happens that they do not like. There are three items for each cognitive strategy. Some construct validity comes from a study of prisoners in which Blaming Others and Dwelling on Problems correlated significantly with number of disciplinaries and negative affect, which is consistent with other research on cognition and adjustment in prison.13 lntercorrelations among coping strategies were + .30 or less, suggesting that they measure different approaches. 
Procedure 
Students in all introductory psychology classes were invited to attend· a special questionnaire session for extra credit. A variety of questionnaires from many different studies were completed by subjects, among which were the measures described above. The total session lasted for 1½ hours. 
Study Ill Subjects 
Students (34 females, 35 males) in an introductory psychology class participated for extra credit. The ages of the subjects ranged from 18 to 36, with a mean age of 21 .3 years. 
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Measures 
The measures completed by the subjects, following the same procedure as in Study 11, included the Anger and Hostility Scale, the Coping Strategies Questionnaire, and the Interest Questionnaire from Study II as well as these additional measures: 
Purpose in Life.2 
Volunteer Activities Form .16 Subjects indicated their interest in volunteering for any of 10 activities (including such items as donating old clothes, giving blood, working with the homeless, etc.). Subjects checked the items they were interested in volunteering for and gave their names and phone numbers. 
Helpful Activities Form. Subjects listed all of the favors they had done for someone over the last 24 hours. 
Results 
Table 1 shows the correlations between self-perceived anger problems and all non-cognitive variables. Self-perceived anger problems correlated significantly and negatively with Purpose in Life. Also, they correlated significantly and negatively with enjoyment of life as measured by the "Happy" subscale of the Emotions Questionnaire and self-esteem. And they correlated significantly and negatively with altruism as measured by the Willingness to Volunteer and Helpful Acts scales. By contrast, anger problems correlated significantly and positively with unpleasant emotions, which presumably reflect low enjoyment of life. 
Table 1 
Correlations of non-cognitive variables with Anger and Hostility Scale 
Study _I_ Study _1_1 Study _11_1  State anxiety .52* Happy emotion -.37* Purpose in Life -.34*  Purpose in Life -.34* Unhappy emotion .51 * Willingness to volunteer -.25*  Self-esteem -.31 * Helpful acts -.55 *  Beck Depression .28*  
*Significant at .05 level  


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Table 2 shows the correlations of self-perceived anger problems with cognitive coping strategies, or reactions to unpleasant events. When confronted with unpleasant events, dwelling on problems and blaming others were associated significantly and positively with self-perceived anger problems. 
Table 2 
Correlations of Anger and Hostility Scale with coping strategies 
Study _I  Dwelling :rry to on ignore mistreatment groblem  Problem solving  
.54*  -.43 *  .05  
Studies !!....&JU  Dwelling on groblems  Blaming others  Think about something else  Problem solving  Look at bright side  

.39* .45* .01 .04 .13 .26* .41 * -.28 * .01 .03 
*Significant at .05 level 
Table 3 shows the percentages of subjects expressing an interest in participating in a study of techniques for controlling anger, anxiety, or depression for studies I, 11, and Ill. It also shows the proportion of subjects who have engaged in acting out behavior such as using physical force against someone or driving dangerously while angry. The proportion of subjects interested in anger control techniques was similar to the proportion interested in anxiety or depression control techniques. 
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Table 3 
Interest in learning control techniques 
%  %  %  % who did  
interested  interested  interested  something  
in  in  in  dangerous  
anger  anxiety  depression  while  
Study  D.  control  control  control  angry  

67  61  56  48  51  
II  117  34  47  48  46  
Ill  69  48  61  51  62  
Total:  253  47  53  49  52  

Discussion 
A sense that life is meaningful does indeed relate negatively to anger problems. Also, the variables that facilitate finding meaning--taking from the world, giving to the world, and the attitude adopted towards suffering-are themselves associated with anger problems in predictable ways. Overall, Frankl's theory would seem to be helpful in understanding anger problems. 
The implication might seem to be that a sense of purpose or meaning in life helps protect against such problems. However, the data in the present study are correlational and do not allow us to draw causal conclusions. Experimental studies are needed as a next step. It is necessary to increase purpose in life in people with anger problems, and to then observe whether or not the anger problems are alleviated. Fortunately, the techniques needed for such a study are already available. Sappington has developed self-administered booklets that significantly increase Purpose in Life scores by providing readers with exercises designed to increase altruism or enjoyment of life.15 Also, logoanalysis can increase Purpose in Life scores.3 It remains only to increase Purpose in Life for those with anger problems in order to determine its effects upon those problems. 
If meaning enhancement techniques do prove successful in alleviating anger problems, it would have great practical significance. One of the more interesting findings in the present study is that college students do perceive themselves as having anger problems and are interested in receiving help for them. Subjects were as likely to want help for anger problems as for anxiety or depression, yet help is currently far more widely offered for the latter problems. If help could be offered for anger 
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problems in college and high school, it could reduce much family violence. Frankl's theory may offer important leads for providing such help. 
ANDREW A. SAPPINGTON, Ph.D. [Psychology Department, University Station, UAB, Birmingham, Alabama 35294 USA] is an Associate Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has published articles on free will in Psychological Bulletin and American Psychologist and a book on the psychology of adjustment. He conducts groups for spouse abusers and consults at a prison. 
PATRICK J. KELLY was an undergraduate when this study was conducted andhas since graduated. He has done graduate work in religion andplans to apply for graduate work in psychology. 
References 
1. 
Beck, A. T. (1978). Beck depression inventory (rev. ed.). Philadelphia: Center for Cognitive Therapy. 

2. 
Crumbaugh, J. C. (1968). Cross-validation of the Purpose In Life test based on Frankl's concepts. Journal of Individual Psychology, 24, 7481. 

3. 
Crumbaugh, J. C. (1972). Changes in Frankl's existential vacuum as a measure of therapeutic outcome. Newsletter for Research in Psychotherapy, 14, 33-37. 

4. 
Frankl, V. E. (1962). Man's search for meaning: An introduction to logotherapy. Boston: Beacon Press. 

5. 
Fordyce, M. W. (1983). A program to increase happiness: Further studies. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 30, 483-498. 

6. 
Gelles, R. J., & Straus, M.A. (1988). Intimate violence. NY: Simon & Schuster. 

7. 
Gyrl, F. E., Stith, S. M., & Bird, G. W. (1991). Close dating relationships among college students: Differences by use of violence and by gender. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 8, 243-264. 

8. 
Hudley, C. A. (1992). Attributions for pride, anger, and guilt among incarcerated adolescents. CriminalJustice andBehavior, 19, 189-205. 

9. 
Jaffe, P. G., Wolfe, D. A., & Wilson, S. K. (1990). Children ofbattered women. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. 

10. 
Laner, M. R. (1990). Violence or its precipitators: What is more likely to be identified as a dating problem? Deviant Behavior, 11, 31 9-329. 

11. 
Lo, W. A., & Sporakowski, M. J. (1989). The continuation of violent dating relationships among college students. Journal of College Student Development, 30, 432-439. 

12. 
Makepeace, J.M. (1981 ). Courtship violence among college students. Family Relations, 30, 97-102. 

13. 
McDougal, C., & Boddis, S. (1991 ). Discrimination between anger and aggression: Implications for treatment. Issues in Criminological and Legal Psychology, 2, 101-1 06. 

14. 
Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 

15. 
Sappington, A. A. (1990). An experimental investigation of Viktor Frankl's theory of meaningfulness of life. The International Forum for Logotherapy, 13, 125-130. 

16. 
Sappington, A. A., & Baker, J. (1991, August). Refining religious belief/behavior relationships. Paper presented at the American Psychological Association Annual Convention, Washington, D. C. 

17. 
Sappington, A. A., & Kelly, P. (1991, August). Angerproblems among college students. Paper presented at the American Psychological Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco. 

18. 
Sappington, A. A., & Pharr, R. (1992, August). Abuse experiences among college students. Paper presented at the American Psychological Association Annual Meeting, Washington, D. C. 

19. 
Spielberger, C. D., Gorsuch, R. L., & Lushene, R. E. (1970). The StateTrait Anxiety Inventory (STAl) test manual for Form X. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologist Press. 


81 
82 
The International Forum for Logotherapy, 1995, 18, 83-86. 
TEACHING THAT ENCOURAGES MEANINGFUL LEARNING 
George E. Rice and Rayton R. Sianjina 
American schools serve less than 20 percent of students adequately. This is the contention of Ray Marshall, 
former Secretary of Labor, who believes that our schools are failing to turn out students capable of handling basic math, much less capable of higher-order thinking that Marshall sees as necessary to cope with change and technology of a new century.6 This reinforces national reports that students are not learning what many adults think they should. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) continues to emphasize that American youth perform inadequately in various assessment areas. For example, among 13-year-olds, only 20 percent can understand the actual problem; can write an informative report about a personal experience; or can use a personal computer as a tool to learn a school subject.1 
A significant problem of education is that a tremendous number of students cannot relate what they are asked to do in school with how they might use this information in their lives other than as preparation for some standardized measure. They no longer view education as relevant to their lives. As we approach the 21st century with its technological and social demands, we must break the cycle of devaluing education. 
Breaking the Cycle of Devaluing Education 
We can break this cycle by emphasizing meaning-oriented teaching and learning. Students, especially those having the most difficulty in school, need personal reasons (meaning) to meet learning requirements. For example, students who see no purpose for English grammar will need to have it modeled for them, will need an explanation of why it is taught, and will need to know specifically how it can be useful to them in their 

83 
lives. Students have to be assisted to recognize meaning in each schoolrelated experience. 
Frankl emphasizes that meaning is available to every person regardless of sex, age, 10, educational or environmental background; and he emphasizes that one of the main aims of education is to deliberately build meaning into teaching and learning activities.3 According to current theory, the strongest influence on understanding (meaning) of verbal knowledge is exerted by previously acquired knowledge that the learner understands and values. Gagne emphasized that the role of previously learned information needs to be taken into account in the design of instruction.4 As with other motivational approaches to teaching and learning, Good and Brophy identified certain inherent preconditions for optimal success that support and extend the work of Gagne: (a) the task or experience must be one that the learner can accomplish with effort (sufficient prior learning), (b) the task or experience must be valid or hold meaning for the learner, and (c) the teacher must be prepared to model the meaning in the task or experience.5 Students must be convinced that what is asked of them is relevant to their lives, that success on what is asked does not depend upon ability, and that what is asked will empower them as they make decisions about meaningful future experiences. 
A Meaning-oriented Model 
Foll2~i~~ is a meaning-oriented teaching and learning model. 7 As the lesson ~~ plan for transfer of prior leaning by reviewing previously learned materials and experiences and demonstrating how they relate to what is taught. Just as transfer of previous learning has to be planned, so does transfer of current learning into the future. This answers the "why" for students as they are learning. Promoting the purpose of the lesson is critical in developing meaning. Taking into account students' interests and needs in initial planning for the lesson provides more intrinsic reasons for student participation. Another motivational factor early in the lesson is communicating the lesson's objective to the students by simply letting them know in their language what they are expected to learn, how they will demonstrate that the learning has been accomplished, and the effort that will need to be expended to be successful. This allows students to monitor their progress (strategies selected, effort expended, additional knowledge or skills needed) as they work toward the objective. Involving the students is another consideration in lesson initiation. Meaningful learning is more probable with active (covert/overt) involvement than with passive or no involvement. Active learning can be accomplished simultaneously while reviewing prior learning with appropriately selected activities and questions. Involving students in lesson initiation pays 
84 
dividends in student interest (attention) and provides the foundation for building each lesson into a meaningful learning experience. 
Once lesson initiation is accomplished, designing the lesson presentation is undertaken. Three considerations for lesson presentation are: (a) explanation, (b) active participatron, and (c) feedback. The explanation should be organized to provide relevant content, key examples, definitions, and modeling of the thinking processes and skills required in completing the task. The elements of explanation should be selected to provide optimal meaning for the learner. Obtaining student involvement in the lesson is essential in developing meaning, particularly when the task is complex. Active participation includes the use of questioning, activities, and imaging to facilitate meaning in learning. A variety of levels and types of questions, as well as questioning techniques should be inserted throughout the explanation to check student understanding and to actively involve learners. Questions need to be designed that go beyond a check for what is being learned. As students demonstrate readiness, appropriate activities (guided and independent) should be planned that provide them with the opportunity to practice utilizing behaviors originally stated in the objective. Cooperative activities work well because they encourage meaningful experiences directed toward specific performances. Imaging (covert activities) should also be encouraged to give students an opportunity to think about what is being learned. 
Immediate and clear feedback about students' effort during active participation provides students with positive information as to how their performance can be enhanced or their thinking challenged. The feedback must be genuine and sincere, and it must be provided without sarcasm or ridicule--without threatening the students' self-esteem.2 Clear personalized presentations capitalize on students' interest and provide immediate feedback, focus on growth, and take into account the individuality of the learner. By recognizing and preparing relevant (meaningful) correctives and enrichments for each lesson, no student needs to feel frustrated or helpless because of inadequate prior learning, nor would a student need to sit idly with a feeling of boredom because he/she completed an assigned task. 
Just as the lesson begins by capitalizing on transfer of learners' previous knowledge, closure completes the meaning loop by planning for transfer of currently studied materials into the future. A variety of examples of possible applications for the day's learning experience as it relates to the learner should be discussed. Formative closure can be placed at critical transition points throughout the lesson. Regardless of the placement, however, the requirements are the same: involve the learner and provide review and application of what is being learned. Closure is 
85 
student-and content-centered and gives students another chance to practice and review what was taught and learned. 
Conclusion 
After millions of dollars invested in various attempts at reform of our schools over the past few decades, standardized test results seem to indicate that none made a significant impact. The growing dropout rates fueled by frustration, alienation, and boredom mirror the test results. For the vast majority of children entering the decade of the 90's, schools hold no purpose, no meaning. If the goal of education is to create lifelong learners who value learning, then a meaning-oriented teaching model is a critical ingredient. 
GEORGE E. RICE, Ph.D. [Department of Educational Leadership and Counseling, Northeast Louisiana University, Monroe, Louisiana 71209 USA] has been a teacher, principal, and superintendent ofschools. He has authored and co-authored several books and articles and is presently Professor at the University. 
RAYTON R. SIANJINA, Ph.D. [Department of Curriculum & Instruction and Educational Leadership & Counseling, Northeast Louisiana University, Monroe, Louisiana 71209 USA] has been a teacher and director of teacher education at various schools. He has authored and co-authored several articles and is presently an Associate Professor of Education and Educational Technology at the University. 
References 
1. 
Anrig, G., & Lapointe, A. (1989). What we know about what students don't know. Educational Leadership, 47, 4-9. 

2. 
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Literacy and intrinsic motivation. Daedalus, 119, 115-140. 

3. 
Frankl, V. (1978). The unheard cry for meaning. NY: Simon & Schuster. 

4. 
Gagne, R. (1985). The conditions of learning and theory of instruction. NY: Hold, Rinehart, & Winston. 

5. 
Good, R., & Brophy, J. (1987). Looking in classrooms (4th ed.). NY: Harper & Row. 

6. 
Marshall, R. (1989). Solving the problem at the source. Paper presented at Carnegie Corporation Conference, NY. 

7. 
Rice, G., & Taylor, G. (1986). The peanut butter and jelly guide to teaching. Vicksburg: ETSI, Inc. 



86 

The International Forum for Logotherapy, 1995, 18, 8 7-96. 
MEANING-IN-THE-WORKPLACE AS SOCIAL CHANGE 
Greg Clark 
Aggression, addiction, and depression are major social ills in the 20th century. The question of how to resolve these ills has been asked in many forms, both politically and socially. The potential role of the workplace, however, has received limited attention. This article highlights the opportunity to promote social change through the workplace, guided by the tenets of logophilosophy. 
Logotherapy offers a resolution to the social ills of aggression, addiction, and depression at the individual level.7 However, it is important also to translate logophilosophy from an individual to a social level. 
What vehicle might be available to help us? At one level, logoeducation has been a forum to reach the masses, though to date this seems to be limited to "seekers" who come to training and/or to treatment searching for a better world. At another level, we may be able to reach still others by bringing logo-education to them through their workplace. 
Business Community Interest in Change 
The time is right. In response to recent findings of the costs to the company of employee stress, business management is open to alternative ways of looking at how it operates. Companies are interested in cutting the costs of stress--costs that show in high employee turnover, absenteeism, stress-related health problems, and disability claims (not to mention hidden costs of lower productivity and diminished customer service.) 11 As a result, business is increasingly open to creative approaches to management philosophy. The old management
87 
by-results philosophy is making way (currently, in the U.S.A.) for more long-term approaches that include consideration of the employee. 12 
Logophilosophy's ability to approach stress prevention through meaning aims at the very heart of this employee consideration and the costs of stress. Business management is gearing itself toward facilitating employee involvement and responsibility, which may be translated into the pursuit of personal meaning in the job task(s) through such guideposts as responsibility, uniqueness, and choices.5 Indeed, business management theories are beginning to include concepts harmonious to those of logophilosophy such as self-transcendence3 •4 and spiritual growth.1 
Stress Sources and Logophilosophy 
Competition 
One area where employees experience stress in the workplace is competition.While some competition can be healthy (eustress), there exists a threshold beyond which competition becomes unhealthy (distress). 
Much workplace stress is the by-product of the competitive attitude of our society. At the personal level, individual competition for jobs goes beyond basic needs and well-being and into ego-centered concerns such as status and power. This is not a new concern--in 1900 W. G. Jordan wrote: "In the race for wealth men often sacrifice time, energy, health, home, happiness, and honor--everything that money cannot buy. "8 At the business level, companies place pressure on employees to produce because of fear of not getting a large enough share of the marketplace-this fear spills over into the lives of employees as they perceive this pressure as a potential threat to their livelihood. So competition creates pressure in the individual (personal demands) and on the individual (company demands). 
From a logophilosophy perspective, we would also be concerned that competition stifles the creativity of all participants, and thus works against the order and evolution of the business as an entity. Among the drawbacks of competition are: (a) employees are deprived of experiencing personal meaning through creativity, (b) the company loses motivated employees, and (c) the company loses the opportunity for product innovation from employee creativity. 
Business management can challenge competition with ideas about cooperation, interpreted as self-transcendence, and this can be realized by pursuing meaningful goals within the workplace. 
88 
Lack of control 
Another stressor in the workplace is employees' sense of a lack of control--a lack of say about how things are done at work. If employees feel their ideas are not considered, they may feel used by the company and not part of the "big picture" for the company. Having no sense of input into what you do and how you do it for eight hours, five days a week, contributes to a sense of helplessness and adversely impacts motivation and self-esteem. Feeling out of control leaves one feeling vulnerable to outside forces, contributing to skepticism and mistrust (of the company, in this case). In response, employees make maladaptive attempts to alleviate these feelings--such as through power struggles between employees or between employees and management. 
The sense of helplessness can be alleviated by giving employees the opportunity to pursue meaning in the workplace. A sense of meaning can come as a by-product of allowing employees to make choices, fulfilling their uniqueness, and assuming responsibilities (three guideposts to meaning actualization). The pursuit of these guideposts is carried out by the meaning-vehicle of creativity. 
Opportunities do exist within the workplace to do that which is uniquely meaningful to the employee for the company and for fellow employees. Actualizing such opportunities benefits both the employees and the company. The employees become happier as they gain a sense of worth and sense of control in their lives. The company gains from happier, healthier employees who show reduced sick time and turnover, have motivation to work, and have the potential to create a better product or safer environment. 
Nola Lewis states, "A fundamental transformation is taking place in our business and working world. It involves a shift which goes beyond the traditional quest for productivity, quality, and profit to encompass such issues as helping people build working lives based on and incorporating their VALUES, helping people to access and use their innate CREATIVITY in the workplace, and realizing that the business community is not a bystander in the changing world around us--it has a LEADERSHIP role to play. "10 Logophilosophy, with its tools, experience, and organizational structure can aid in the quest of this transformation toward values actualization and creativity in the workplace. Logophilosophy is ready to work with the business community. We only need to figure the merger. 
If businesses will work with logophilosophy as a guide to better business, the results will transcend into the personal lives of the participants--to their families, their neighbors, and the community at 
89 
large, thus realizing social change. After all, hasn't competition operated in such a manner? 
Dynamics of Logophilosophy in the Workplace 
Since the pursuit of meaning is the strongest motivation,6 it is wise to use it to motivate people in the tasks of the workplace. We need to find companies willing to consider the merits of logophilosophy and risk incorporating a logo-business design into their management philosophy. An employer who designs the workplace so employees receive a sense of personal meaning through their jobs within the company structure will empower employees through personal responsibility, resulting in enhanced quality. Employees can come to see the job as meaningful, supervisors as supportive, and management as caring. 
A trained logotherapist serving as a consultant could offer the company a sampling of logo-education to benefit such an undertaking. The logotherapist could guide the company in identifying unique opportunities for the pursuit of meaning at all levels (management, supervisors, and employees). Wherever obstacles arise, the wisdom of logotherapy can guide the decision-making process. 
For example, an introductory logotherapy-business seminar (combining tenets of logotherapy with the needs of business management) could produce the following results: 
• 
Management would understand the benefits of the pursuit of meaning for all in the workplace. Management personnel would sense their own opportunity to pursue meaning--and thus be motivated to design the workplace environment to accommodate these pursuits. 

• 
Supervisors, versed in the training of logophilosophy, could find meaning in helping individuals find personal meaning in the tasks of the job. 

• 
Employees would: (a) gain the sense of what is personally meaningful, (b) find the uniqueness of their meaning in doing their jobs, and (c) realize how to best handle the stress of doing unfavorable tasks (e.g., adopting a meaningful attitude). 


Such a cooperative company design of meaning-offering for all will promote a sense of personal control, and foster personal responsibility. This, in turn, will provide the opportunity to experience values actualization, and enhance employee self-esteem, while becoming a self-generating motivation within the workplace. 
90 
Combining Logophilosophy and Business Leadership Roles 
Robert Levit (a logophilosopher within the human resources/business management field) defines workplace leadership as "the clarification of purpose and meaning for others. "9 He cites the "six leadership roles and dimensions of an effective leader" taken from the Leadership Effectiveness Analysis. 2 I offer (starting on the next page) an illustration that targets each of these six roles and suggests how logo-education can promote the realization of their dimensions seen as necessary to succeed. In the left-hand column the six roles (R) of effective leadership are listed with the dimensions (D) that are considered essential to actualize the role. I encourage the reader to review the left-hand column now to gain a sense of effective business leadership qualities. The righthand column is then read as an offering of how a leader trained in logoeducation can go about realizing the desired dimensions of each role. 
The illustration shows that through a logotherapeutic interpretation, the objectives of the effective business leader can be realized. The desired results of cost reduction and increased productivity will ensue as a by-product when stress in the workplace is reduced by focus on the human factor (personal meaning). 
What people seek from their jobs is self-esteem, dignity, and pride. These can be the products of being engaged in meaningful pursuits through the tasks of the job; but both the worker and the manager must perceive this opportunity--and logo-education is capable of promoting this perception. 
At the individual level, for managers, leaders, and employees alike, logo-education can facilitate awareness of personal unique opportunities to experience meaning. At the organizational level, the pursuit of meaning within the job environment brings about an internal motivation to perform the tasks of the job, resulting in decreased sick hours and increased productivity. Finding personal meaning in the job is a means of operating from "within" the individual instead of "upon" the individual. 
What works to heal and prevent the mass neurotic triad--aggression, addiction, and depression--can work in the workplace. After all, is work not but a part of life; and isn't life truly the big picture? 
91 
LOGO-EDUCATED LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS 
ROLE(R)/DIMENSION(D) 
1. R: CREA TING A VISION 
D: 
lnnovative--looking at issues from a fresh viewpoint 

D: 
Strategic--uses the "big picture" in decision making 

D: 
Self-strengthenng--comfortable making decisions on own perception 


LOGO LEADER INTERPRETATION 
THE LOGO LEADER: 
interprets innovation as creative and promotes the pursuit of creativity as one means of actualizing meaning in life. 
realizes that the organizational gains come as a by-product of recognizing the "big picture" to be the pursuit of personal meaning for employees and self. The leader finds personal meaning in utilizing the "big picture" (meaning for others) as a built-in compass in decision making. 
perceives decision making as personally meaningful. The perception of the "big picture" as "helping others to pursue meaning" guides the direction and comforts the stress of making decisions. 
92 
2.  R:  DEVELOPING FOLLOWERSHIP  
D:  Persuasive--communicate  
objectives  

D:  Outgoing--at  ease  in  public  
settings  
D:  Exciting--emotion  brought  to  
work  
3.  R:  IMPLEMENTING VISION  
D:  Tactical--participates  in  the  
action  
D:  Communicating--keeps  others  
informed  

THE LOGO LEADER: 
achieves persuasion via communicating in a manner that connects the job tasks to the opportunity to pursue personal meaning. 
has a sense of personal meaning (helping others to pursue their meaning) in the job which promotes an inner confidence and fosters ease with self in any setting. 
experiences personal meaning in the job that promotes motivation and manifests as enthusiasm for the job. 
THE LOGO LEADER: 
pursues personal meaning through creating for the self and through modeling for employees. 
sees personal meaning in being mindful of the need to communicate changes and objectives so that others better understand their unique opportunities to maintain the pursuit of meaning in the tasks of their job. 
93 
D: Delegating--allows others to share in tasks 
4. R: FOLLOWING THROUGH 
D: Feedback--coaching and communicating 
5. R: LEADERSHIP STYLE 
D: 
Management Focus--assuming responsibility 

D: 
Dominance--being assertive when required 


understands that sharing tasks can facilitate opportunities for workers to experience meaning through responsibility/creativity. 
THE LOGO LEADER: 
educates others to the opportunities for, and the benefits of, pursuing meaning in the job. Perceives the need for dialogue to monitor and communicate changes in the employee's life situations, and/or the tasks of the job (in order to better maintain a work environment capable of promoting their unique pursuit of meaning). 
THE LOGO LEADER: 
perceives the freedom to choose (being response-able) as one means of experiencing personal meaning in life through the job. 
is motivated by personal meaning to be assertive where doing so promotes the "big picture" of helping others to pursue their meaning. 
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D:  Production--creating an  understands that product  
environment for achievement  achievement comes as a by 
product of personal achievement  
through finding meaning in the  
tasks of the job.  
6.  R:  TEAM PLAYING  THE LOGO LEADER:  
D:  Cooperation--works with  sees the leader's role in the big  
others on goals  picture as supporting the pursuit  
of goals (personal meaning) with  
others.  
D:  Consensual--shares the  encourages others to share in  
decision-making process  the decision-making process,  
being mindful of their  
opportunity to experience  
meaning through creativityin the  
decision-making process, and  
through responsibility for the  
decisions made.  
D:  Empathy--emotionally  knows what is personally  
understands others  meaningful to others and knows  
of their efforts to pursue  
meaning through the tasks of  
their job and in the environment  
of the workplace, which reveals  
an emotional picture of the  
employees' values and desires.  

95 
GREG CLARK, M.A. [1642 42nd St., NE, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52404 USA] is a Dip/ornate in Logotherapy, works as a trauma counselor at the Cedar Rapids Vet Center, and is clinical coordinator of the Cedar Rapids Critical Incident Stress Debriefing Team. 
References 
1. 
Autry, J. A. (1994). Life and work: A manager's search for meaning. NY: William Morrow & Co. 

2. 
Clark, K., & Clark, M. (Eds). (1990). Measures ofleadership. Greensboro: Center for Creative Leadership. 


3. Crosby, P. B. (1992). Completeness: Quality for the 21st century. NY: Dutton. 
4. 
Drucker, P. F. (1992). Managing for the future: The 1990s and beyond. NY: Dutton. 

5. 
Fabry, J. (1988). Guideposts to meaning. California: New Harbinger. 

6. 
Frankl, V. E. (1984). Man's search for meaning. NY: Washington Square Press. 

7. 
Frankl, V. E. (1985). The unheard cry for meaning. NY: First Washington Square Press. 

8. 
Jordan, W. G. (1900). The majesty of calmness. NY: Fleming H. Revell. 

9. 
Levit, R. A. (1992). Meaning, purpose, and leadership. The International Forum for Logotherapy, 15, 71-75. 


10. Lewis, N. (1992). Review of New traditions in business: Spirit and leadership in the 2 1st century. Noetic Science Review, 22, 40. 
11. Northwestern National Life. (1992). Employee burnout: Causes and cures (Research Rep. Part 1 ). Minneapolis: Author. 
12. Walton, M. (1986). The Deming management method. NY: Putnam. 
96 
The International Forum for Logotherapy, 1995, 18, 97-101. 
NOETIC AND PSYCHIC DIMENSIONS IN CLINICAL PRACTICE AND RESEARCH 
John Stanich 
Logotherapy serves as a supplement to psychotherapy. 1· P-77 A supplement adds to an existing paradigm: completion is not the necessary factor. Logotherapy adds wisdom to psychology by positing an open view of the human being. This is depicted in Figure 1 . The illustration is taken from Lukas3 and modified to suit the present article. 

Figure 1. 
Psychological and Noetic Dimensions: Relation to the Temporal Axis Past Present Future 
The  The  .  
psychological area  noetic domain  OPEN  
CLOSED  
.  

The domain of nous extends from the present into the future. The area of psychology is the sum of experiences in which the human being has partaken directly and indirectly. As the figure indicates, at a given moment, the past and time-to-present already have been determined and are unchangeable. Thus, the psychological area is a closed area. From the supplemental quality of logotherapy follows the human being's openness to the world. Openness is characterized by an unbiased acceptance of opportunities revealed to the person. (Love and self
97 
transcendence are two human expressions of this openness that lie 
outside the scope of this article.) The closed individual "lives" in his or 
her psychology. This closedness to the world is evidenced through a 
condition generally labelled "neurosis." 
Outside the logotherapeutic system of reference it is not uncommon that the past and the opportunities in the present and future become intertwined. The critique has been levelled that it is impossible to confuse these closed and open areas. While the critique is correct on a philosophical, theoretical basis, clients' tales of past experiences, and the interpretation of research, contradict the critique. 
Frankl revolutionized psychology by introducing the issue of noetic vs. psychic dimensions. These dimensions show two distinct sides of what, upon initial examination, can appear to be one phenomenon. The four distinctions are: (a) fate vs. freedom; (b) susceptibility of the body and psyche, but intactness of the noetic; (c) pleasure orientation vs. meaning orientation; and (d) character vs. personality. These components are not dichotomous opposites. Rather, each belongs to a specific, principally different dimension--the psychological and the noetic, respectively. 
Despite the existence of these distinctions for more than half a century, misunderstanding is still not uncommon in daily life, in psychology classes, and "on the couch" in therapy. The mix-up is evident in two directions: (a) when the noetic is erroneously traced back to the psychological, the results are pan-deterministic, psychologistic, reductionistic, and collectivistic interpretations;3 (b) when conclusions from research remain on the psychological plane, the results are statistical pictures of a particular sample at a specific point in time. In both cases, a noetic elevation4 is necessary to see the specifically human. 
Clinical Practice 
In general, non-logotherapeutic psychologies place a relatively strong emphasis on the past (trauma, poor learning, incorrect reinforcers, etc.) hoping to reverse the effects of assumed causal agents. Unfortunately for many clients, this results in blaming the past, putting off action, and lengthier therapies than necessary. 
Traditionally, the psychological dimension of the clients is the primary area of interest. The clients realize they have a problem and want to "feel better" either by getting rid of the source or by learning to manage the problem. It is assumed that either insight or better knowledge of prior occurrences can bring about a change. In working 

98 
with only the psychological, clients remain in the past until they feel confident enough that insight acquired along the way will lead to (spontaneous) recovery. Attention is focused foremost on self. Intention, too, is self-centered. The emphasis lies on feeling better. The result can be hyper-intention. The effects strengthen (at least temporarily) the neurosis. By maintaining focus on the factual, psychological, closed area, the believed roots of the neurosis are provided with fertile soil and can penetrate deeply into the character of the person. 
The logotherapist can recognize, too, that a client has a problem or neurosis. But from a psychohygienic perspective, it is imperative that the client move from the dimension of the psyche to the noetic as quickly as possible. Focus on the psychological confirms facts and, worse, can bring about hyper-reflection (deeper fixation on the original problem or neurosis) and another neurosis (an iatrogenic one). The logotherapist lifts out the client from his character group (phobics, hypochondriacs, etc.) and discusses noetic possibilities that can be brought into being. 
Frankl states that "the line between existence [nous] and facticity [the psychological] ...must be drawn as sharply as possible. "2· P 27 To assist in realizing the specifically human, the therapist must continuously bear in mind the distinction between noos and psyche. Therapeutic benefits of drawing the line as sharply as possible include: 
(a) 
therapist and client can come to a quicker agreement regarding the therapeutic contract; (b) time is not focused on, for example, the past, the unchangeable, counter-transference, seduction in therapy, etc.; and 

(c) 
clients are made aware that their character is not a problem to be solved but rather something they can learn to manage. This does not imply that the character stagnates--on the contrary, personality takes continual stands against prior character dispositions, resulting in selfgrowth. These stands are existential decisions that illustrate the phenomenon of noo-dynamic tension. 


Research 
Science often speaks of "truths." These can lead to predictions that, unintended or not, become self-fulfilling prophecies. The final step in the process of self-fulfilling prophecy is to fall prey to collectivism, an undesired result from a psychohygienic perspective. 
Research generalizes results of representative or special samples. Results are facts insofar as they are based on circumstances from an earlier point in time. So, no result can profess to be 100% true, predict 
99 
all future actions, or be valid for all of a given "type" or character (e.g., all pensioners, all suburbanites, all females...). The danger lies not so much in the psychological conclusions of scientific studies (a probability level always is indicated) but rather in how the conclusions are applied in reality and understood by "the person in the street." 
For instance, advertisements are research applications performed to increase the chances of selling a particular product. The facts accrued are valid for a point in time and usually for a target group. But, because human beings develop and change as personality takes a stand to prior character, the ad industry is on the run constantly in attempts to appeal to the more developed target group ("new, improved!"). This chase is continuous. 
Health campaigns provide other examples. Preventive health campaigns are undertaken after facts are gathered. Conclusions are drawn and information is made available to the general public. A recent newspaper article showed that effects of health campaigns were greatest during the initial phases. After a longer time period there was virtually no difference between a group provided continual health information vs. a typical uninformed sample. This is obviously not good news to health-promotion campaigners who welcome speedier change. Seen logotherapeutically, one conclusion is that campaigns must make their appeal on the individual level. The elevation from fact to freedom must be emphasized if accelerated change is desired, for, as the study indicated, positive changes occur anyway. 
Thus, research also is challenged to draw a sharp distinction between the area of psychology and the domain of nous if it is to have effect in application. The psychological is not denied, but it is relegated in order to highlight the noetic components of the distinctions--freedom, noetic intactness, meaning orientation, and personality. 
Conclusion 
Finally, logotherapy, as therapy, focuses on the noetic by pointing out opportunities to clients. In research, a noetic elevation considers the facts and asks which noetic possibilities were or could have been realized. Since facts, at an earlier point in time, were possibilities, it would prove fruitful to identify these to show that freedom has existed, and subsequently does exist in all situations. 
For the sake of clarity, Figure 2 presents the noetic vs. psychic dimensions and other distinctions utilized in this paper. 
700 
Figure 2. 
Components of the Psychological and Noetic Dimensions Past Present Future 
Psychological Closed Facticity Fate Susceptibility Pleasure Character 
JOHN STANICH 
.  
Noetic  
Open  
Existence  
Freedom  
Intactness  
Meaning  
Personality  
.  
[Box  13086,  S-402  52  Goteborg,  Sweden]  is  

Psychologist and Director of the Swedish Institute of Logotherapy. 
References 
1. 
Frankl, V. (1973). The doctor and the soul. NY: Vintage Books. 

2. 
Frankl, V. (1975). The unconscious God. NY: Simon & Schuster. 

3. 
Lukas, E. (1992). Author's personal notes from a seminar given in Goteborg, Sweden. 

4. 
Stanich, J. (1993, July). Logotherapy in gerontological research: Elevating the psychological to the noetic. Paper presented at The Ninth World Congress of Logotherapy, Toronto. 


101 
The International Forum for Logotherapy, 102-108. 
Self-awareness Therapy for Prisoners 
Helyn S. Bercovitch 
(ABSTRACT) This study investigated the effects of the Self-awareness Therapy designed by the author in 1986 to enhance self-esteem andpersonal growth in prisoners. The hypothesis of the work was that the treatment wouldincrease self-esteem bypromoting personal growth largely through the use of logotherapy. Because a poor self-image is highly correlated with criminal tendencies, this study assumed that heightened self-concept would result in decreased criminal tendencies. Scores for eight measures of self-esteem on the Tennessee Self-concept Scale were compared for 15 groups of 11 to 13 medium security, federal prisoners from pre-to post-treatment. The results indicated that self-esteem raised on all eight measures, with the greatest improvement occurring on the behavior subscale. 
In 1986 developed a self-awareness program for mediumsecurity federal prisoners based on logotherapy. Today it is available at three Canadian penitentiaries and at the community-based project S.T.A.R. (Self-awareness Training Against Recidivism), a center I founded for exoffenders in 1988. Plans are now underway to create a Center for Logotherapy to serve the general population. 
Offenders typically stop criminal activity between the ages of 35-45, a time known in the field, as the "abatement period." The change usually occurs when the individual comes to the realization that he or she is responsible for their actions and events in their lives. It is the time when the person resolves to take control of their destiny. The goal of criminology and psychology, in my opinion, should be to identify variables that shorten individual criminal careers by speeding up the desired realizations and empowering offenders to become 

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their own masters. The underlying thesis of this paper is that raising selfesteem is one of those variables. 
The literature indicates an association between low self-esteem and various forms of criminal behavior. For example, alcohol and drug abuse, which accounts for a large percentage of crime, have been shown to be negatively correlated with self-esteem.2 •4 •9 • 15 Similarly, low self-esteem has been reported in men who committed violent crimes, 12 child abuse, 1 · 14 and sex offenses. 10•13 General deviant responses related to low self-esteem were found in a series of studies conducted by Kaplan. 11 Clearly, poor self-image is implicated across many different kinds of criminal activity. Therefore, elevating self-esteem may be a good place to start when working with offenders. 
A significant difference between criminal and non-criminal groups on measures of self-esteem has been shown, with criminal groups consistently scoring lower.6 A negative linear relationship between self-esteem and the length of incarceration has been reported, suggesting that the prison experience itself may progressively lower self-image.5·7 In this way the justice system may be aggravating the problem it is supposed to be correcting. Instead of enabling an inmate to cope with the pressures of society, incarceration may lower self-esteem and thereby decrease coping abilities. 
Because of this hypothetical link between self-esteem and criminal behavior, a number of studies have attempted to raise self-esteem in prisoners through a wide variety of treatment programs, including logotherapy.3 •16 Although many treatment programs have had positive effects on prisoners' self-concepts, none have focused on fostering personal growth of the individual's ego ideal as a means of enhancing self-esteem. Our program uses a wide variety of techniques to encourage self-awareness by promoting personal growth. The treatment is a combination of many psychological therapies operating on many levels toward improving self-image, the most noteworthy and frequently used being logotherapy. 
Method Subjects 
Fifteen treatment groups consisted of 11 to 1 3 adult male, mediumsecurity federal prisoners. In Canada, federal prisoners are defined as those sentenced to two years or longer. The crimes that were represented ranged from fraud to murder. Offenders originated from many different cultures, with a mean age of 26. All subjects had an understanding of English, most had the ability to read and write in that language. 
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Procedure 
Participants were tested before and after treatment on eight elements of self-esteem using the Tennessee Self-concept Scale (TSCS).8 The factors measured were Identity, Behavior, Self-satisfaction, Physical Self, Moral/Ethical Self, Personal Self, Family Self, and Social Self. T-testswere employed on each subscale across the groups to assess for statistically significant changes in self-esteem. 
Initially, prisoners attended the program on a volunteer basis. Later, it was strongly recommended by administrative staff. Many previous psychological studies with prisoners have suggested that motivation for participating in treatment has no effect on outcome behavior or results. 
Nine of the groups met during the day as paid social development programs. The six other groups met during the evening as social activity programs. Both formats had the same instruction and material for 30 working hours (2.5 hours for 10 sessions). There were two group leaders: Helyn Bercovitch (10 groups); and Tracey Moore (5 groups), who was trained in the approach by the author for more than one year. The groups were conducted from the fall of 1991 to the spring of 1993, under the jurisdiction of the Correctional Service of Canada, Quebec Region. 
The therapy consisted of a wide variety of activities designed to increase self-image on many levels. Decisions about which elements to work on were made on the basis of knowing the population first-hand through individual therapy. Eight elements were judged as having the greatest correlation to prisoners' self-esteem: Meaning, Self-knowledge, Self-acceptance, Self-control, General knowledge, Communication skills, Self-confidence, and Positive reinforcement. 
Framework for Specific Activities in Self-awareness Therapy 
1
. Meaning (Logotherapy) Orientation respecting Logotherapy and Viktor Frankl Guided meditation with a focus on meaning Discussions of meaning in all aspects of life Journal writing 

2. 
Self-knowledge Art therapy Reflection Senses exercises Provision of relaxation and meditation tapes Instruction in self-monitoring techniques 

3. 
Self-acceptance Secrets exercises Sociological studies 

4. 
Self-control Relaxation exercises Alternatives to violence strategies Exercises with coping methods Controlled structured discussions 

5. 
General knowledge Audio-visual material Lectures and guest speakers Exploring different cultures 

6. 
Communication Skills Debates Human relation exercises Drama therapy Films on communication 

7. 
Self-confidence Video taping exercise and playback Presentations by participants Speaking before the group 

8. 
Positive reinforcement Positive feedback in the journal Acknowledgment of improvement and contributions Physical contact Graduation certificate 



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Often offenders see the world as being totally beyond their control. They view events as things that happen to them by accident at any given moment. Searching out meaning in the different aspects of their experience provides a larger context in which to function. They become more aware of their purpose in life and the action needed to achieve it. They develop the ability to perceive a greater role in controlling their own destiny. 
Logotherapy is usually presented in the form of a meditative exercise after a brief lecture about Viktor Frankl, his life, and philosophy.The inmates are especially amazed at what Frankl was able to accomplish as a prisoner. The story itself provides an inspiration. Instruction for the meditation is to identify their meaning or purpose in life. Members are then asked to share any insights or impressions they gained. At times, individuals are unable to pinpoint their meaning. Here the exercise becomes even more meaningful. 
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Results 
The results are shown in Figure 1 . The t-tests on all eight measures of self-esteem from pre-to post-testing showed statistically significant (p <.01) increases. Average total improvement was 14%, with the highest increases occurring in the behavior subscale. Statistically significant differences were noted between the day and evening classes, with the day groups demonstrating greater improvement. There were no effects related to group leader. 

p
I ss B PS ME F s M 
X Axis: 8 measures of Self-esteem on the Tennessee Self-concept Scale V Axis: Scores in percentiles 
Diamonds = pre treatment mean scores Squares = post treatment mean scores M (on X axis) = overall mean 
Figure 1. Mean pre-treatment (diamonds) and post-treatment self-esteem scores across 1 5 groups of prisoners. 
Discussion 
Prisoners usually lose self-esteem steadily with time in incarceration.s.1 However, in our Self-awareness Therapy, they appeared to raise their self-concept. 
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There were no prison records available to measure changes in behavior or for follow-up. (In this way, Widdon's work was more complete. 16 ) Subjective observations by administrative staff, however, suggested improvement in the subjects' general attitude in that they were more open and polite. 
The reason that day classes seemed to have been more effective might be that the day groups were taken more seriously by the administration because they were included as part of the work schedule. The subjects may have picked this up and applied themselves more earnestly. Another reason could be that prisoners would be more likely to have used drugs or alcohol in the evening sessions and therefore may not have been as alert. 
An issue of concern is that the prisoners do not appear to hold on to the newly acquired self-esteem completely. In a different investigation (not included in this research), one group partook in the therapy for two successive sessions. Pre-testing was done in September at the start of the therapy, with the post-test in December. The same group was tested again after the Christmas break (about 3 weeks with no therapy) and once again at the end of a second round of therapy in March. The results showed that scores lowered slightly after the break but increased even more after the second round of therapy. 
Here we see that one 30-hour program is not enough. The therapy should be ongoing. Because of the open-ended structure of the therapy, it would be possible for an individual to attend for several years without seeing the same class twice. Although the issues addressed would be the same (meaning, love, relationships for example), they are never presented in the same way. 
The Correctional Service of Canada has given the program more status. They have elevated it from a social activity at one institution in 1986, to a recognized personal development program in several penitentiaries. 
HELYN S. BERCOVITCH [P. 0. Box 1421, Oliver, British Columbia VOH 1TO] is Founder/Director of the Quebec Center of Logotherapy and Founder/Director of Project STAR (Self-awareness Training Against Recidivism). 
References 
1. 
Blumberg, M. L. (1974). Treatment of the abused child and child abuser. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 31, 204-215. 

2. 
Brown, R. A. (1980). Personality measure in gamma and delta alcoholics: A brief note. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 36, 345-346. 

3. 
Bunk, D. E. (1979). Effects of Hatha Yoga and Mantra Meditation on the psychological health and behavior of incarcerated males. Dissertation Abstracts International, Aug., Vol. 40 (2-b), 904. 

4. 
Carroll, J. F., Klein, I., & Isreal, S. Y. (1978). Comparison of the similarities and differences in the self-concepts of male alcoholics and addicts. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 46, 575-576. 

5. 
Clinard, M. B. (1974). An assessment of prisons with recommendations for policy. The Wisconsin Sociologist, 11, 35-39. 

6. 
Edwards, W. J. (1978). A comparative study of the self-concept of persons committing misdemeanors and felonies. Southwestern Sociological Association, 1066. 

7. 
Fichtler, H., Zimmerman, R.R., & Moore, R. T. (1973). Comparison of self-esteem of prison and non-prison groups. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 36, 39-44. 

8. 
Fitts, W. H. (1965). Tennessee Self-concept Scale. Los Angeles: Western Psychological Services. 

9. 
Graeven, D. B., & Folmer, W. (1977). Experimental heroin users: An epidemiological and psycho social approach. American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 4, 365-375. 

10. 
Janoff-Bulman, R. (1979). Characterological versus behavioral selfblame: Inquiries into depression and rape. Journal ofPersonality and Social Psychology, 37, 1797-1809. 

11. 
Kaplan, H. B. (1976). Self-attitudes and deviant response. Social Forces, 54, 788-801. 

12. 
Newman, D. E. (1974). The personality of violence: Conversations with protagonists. Mental Health and Society, 1, 328-344. 

13. 
Panton, J. H. (1978). Personality differences appearing between rapists of adults, rapists of children, and non-violent sexual molesters of female children. Research Communications in Psychology, Psychiatry, and Behavior, 3, 385-393. 

14. 
Shorkey, C. T. (1980). Sense of personal worth, self-esteem, and anomie of child-abusing mothers and controls. Journal of Clinical Psychology 36, 817-820. 

15. 
Steffenhagen, R. A. (1978). Toward a self-esteem theory of drug dependence: A position paper. Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education, 22, 1-3. 

16. 
Widdon, M. F. (1983). Logotherapy in prison. International Forum for Logotherapy, 6, 34-39. 


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The International Forum for Logotherapy, 1995, 18, 109-113. 
MEANING AS A RESOURCE IN MARRIAGE COUNSELING 
Paul R. Welter 
Elie Wiesel wrote that "God made man because he loves stories. "6 Looked back upon, marriages are stories full of love, loneliness, reconciliation, trauma, anger, and joy. Each marriage has its beginning and its ending. I believe that a primary meaning of marriage, and one that is often overlooked by marriage counselors, is the story of the marriage. Even if the marriage is only six months old the story has begun. And if the couple has been married thirty-five years and is considering divorce, they need to review their long story carefully before ending that story by their own action. 
Getting Their Story 
The counselor needs to obtain a family history (the antecedents of the marriage story) from each of the spouses, then the story of their own marriage. This process serves as a reminder to each spouse that there is more to their marriage than the present crisis. Usually people who come for marriage counseling have dysfunctional memories. Their heads are so befogged by hurt, anger, and often hate and revenge, that their memories are blocked. The problem is that they think their memories are intact. But listen to them recollect a common incident. They relate two widely differing stories, not a common story, because of the working of time and individual mental rehearsals. Also couples "rewrite their history" as they experience a new conflict. The counselor who can help clients distance from some of their symptoms of hurt and anger can begin to draw out the real story of their marriage. 
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When a couple comes with an urgent crisis, then the crisis must be dealt with as the first item of business. However, as soon as possible I begin to get their story. I call it "Getting your story," rather than "Taking your family history." I use the genogram as the basic tool for showing the story. 
The Modified Genogram 
The genogram developed by Murray Bowen and others is a tool I use in nearly all my counseling--individual, marriage, and family--because of its ability to graphically portray the story of the person, couple, or family. It is simply a chart borrowed (and modified) from the field of genealogy. Murray Bowen has been a pioneer in developing the genogram to portray graphically the impact of one generation on successive generations. He describes in detail his "multigenerational transmission" theory in his Family Therapy in Clinical Practice. 2 His theory is research-based, a careful study of the history of many families. Bowen would often trace back a hundred years or more to see if there was a tendency to transmit family characteristics, including illnesses. He concluded that there was a multigenerational transmission of basic family patterns. Such patterns become quite graphic when the counselor uses a genogram to visualize the family story. 
Counseling and the Search for Meaning 
One young couple came for counseling because the husband was beginning to talk about divorce. The presenting problem was that of the wife's dislike of sex. Their sexual relationship had been generally unsatisfactory throughout their two-year marriage. A metaphor for this was that she would hug him warmly as he left for work. She knew he did not have time for sex then. However, when he came home from work and tried to hug her, she crossed her arms in front of her body with her palms on her shoulders to distance herself from him and an embrace that might lead to sex. 
I asked them to put sex on hold for three weeks while we met weekly to look at their shared life and its meaning. The moratorium on sex wasn't a problem; it just made if official. I discovered their individual stories and their joint story by constructing a genogram. We talked about many positive things. Why did they choose each other? What about their spiritual kinship? What activities did they do together before they became resentful of each other? What were their individual goals and dreams and their couple goals and dreams? This process, of course, was one of dereflection. They had both been hyper-reflected on sex, a highly significant component of their marriage, but not the only component. It 
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was important to focus for awhile on the other parts of their story which had great meaning. They laughed some when they talked of the walks they used to take together. They had a way of talking about little things they saw along the way. The laughter also helped the dereflection process. It should be noted that although they both felt somewhat rejected and resentful, they were not full of bitterness. Their anger had not yet gotten cold. 
Treatment consisted of a referral to a gynecologist, a number of individual counseling sessions concerning the wife's differentiation from her mother who "still sees sex as dirty," and the couple's use of the "sexual pleasuring" technique. I loaned them books during this time, including Charlie and Martha Shedd's Celebration in the Bedroom, a joyful, "impious" approach to married sex.4 We ended counseling after they reported satisfaction with their sexual relationship, and after we had talked together about the new meaning of their marriage. They sent a card a year later to announce the birth of their first child, and called me about a year after that to get the name of a counselor in another city for friends of theirs (and to update me on their continuing story). 
Meeting with the Family of Origin 
Sometimes when I am doing marriage counseling and we get to the "bottom line," it sounds like this: "If worse comes to worst, I will choose my parents instead of you." This is an anguished admission of a truth from one spouse that both have known for a long time. At this point I ask the dependent adult to bring his or her parents and siblings (the total family of origin, if possible) for one or more counseling sessions. The spouse is nearly always terrified when I make this request. But about half of these clients, with great courage, make the invitation. Those geographically available from the family of origin usually come, some travelling hundreds of miles. So I have had many sessions with adult children in their twenties and thirties (once in a while in the early forties) and parents in their fifties, sixties, and seventies. Usually all the siblings are enmeshed (bound together by guilt) with the parents. 
The family members say things that have needed to be said for a long time. I have never had one of these sessions that has not been frightening for all of us, nor without benefit to the family. The parents, of course, want autonomous children, but don't want to let go of them. I can tell when the process is working for the spouse with whom I am especially concerned. This person goes through a brief, terror-filled time of feeling like an abandoned child as the differentiation process is reopened and continued. When there has been some healing, there are new possibilities in the marriage because the individual has finally "left home." Dependent 
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behavior is both a symptom and a cause of meaninglessness, and gives direction to the counselor for treatment--differentiation. If the family of origin is unavailable, the counselor may still help the client get "unstuck" through individual counseling. 
The Passage of Time--Episodes or Journey? 
The rationale for the above view of marriage as a story has to do with the way we view time. Does our life consist of a series of episodes, or is it all connected--a journey? This question is of great significance to the quest for meaning. If life is simply episodical, then meaning is greatly reduced because there can be no sense of perspective, of story, of connectedness. If life is a journey, then each of the episodes can have meaning, including the opening and closing episodes--birth and death. 
The Episodical Nature of Life 
As we look at life around us, the evidences at first seem compelling for viewing life as a series of unconnected events. Most schools, including church schools, are finely graded with pre-school classes, kindergarten, first grade, and so on. Human development books discuss ages and stages. Television serials, whether soap operas or sitcoms, are episodical. Even our church worship services can be viewed in a disconnected way from one week to the next. Many people reduce life to three primary episodes: Education, work, and retirement.1 
Life (and Marriage) as a Journey 
Our past, present, and future are of one piece in terms of responsibility. Contrast that with the legal view of insanity. If someone commits murder and is later judged to have been insane at the time, the defendant may be pronounced "not guilty by reason of insanity." However, in that plea of insanity that person loses not only the legal obligations that go with responsibility, but also part of the essence of what it means to be human--that is, responsibility for one's acts. 
We need to be responsible in the journey of marriage, but we cannot, individually, control that journey. The truth is, we cannot control any journey. We set out on a vacation and plan to follow a schedule. However, if the car breaks down, we lose control of our time (and money) very rapidly. We plan a business trip using commercial flights. But if a flight is canceled because of weather or mechanical problems, or if the suitcase containing materials for a seminar presentation is lost, we again lose control of the trip. In this respect, marriage is like all other journeys. John Steinbeck made that clear in discussing the nature of journeys in his book, Travels with Charlie. 5 Charlie was a poodle who accompanied 


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Steinbeck in a pick-up camper on a meandering, friendly investigation of the United States. Steinbeck noted: 
We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us....In this a journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it. I feel better now, having said this, although only those who have experienced it will understand it. 
The Bible is careful to make clear that life is a journey. There is even connectedness between earth and heaven. Resurrection has to do with continuity as well as change. And the Bible is clear that marriage should also be a unified story: "That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united with his wife, and they become one" (Gen. 2:24). A helpful tool which provides a sense of story and meaning to counseling with couples is Bill Coleman's It's Been a Good Year: The Anniversary Book. 3 It is an upbeat resource that provides spouses with new ideas for surviving struggles and celebrating togetherness. 
PAUL R. WELTER, ED.D. [P. 0. Box 235, Kearney, Nebraska 68848-0235 USA] is a Counseling Psychologist and Dip/ornate in Logotherapy who currently writes and leads seminars. He has authored six books. The above article is extractedfrom Counseling and the Search for Meaning, by Paul R. Welter, Ed.D., copyright 1987, Word, Inc., Dallas, Texas USA-used with permission. 
References 
1. 
Bolles, R. (1981). The three boxes of life: And how to get out of them. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press. 

2. 
Bowen, M. (1987). Family therapy in clinical practice. NY: Jason Aronson. 

3. 
Coleman, B. (1986). It's been a good year: The anniversary book. Minneapolis: Bethany House. 

4. 
Shedd, C., & Shedd, M. (1981). Celebration in the bedroom. Waco, Texas: Word Books. 

5. 
Steinbeck, J. (1962). Travels with Charlie. NY: Viking Press. 

6. 
Wiesel, E. (1966). The gates of the forest. NY: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston. 


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The International Forum for Logotherapy, 1995, 18, 114-115. 
CRISIS INTERVENTION AND LOGOTHERAPY: A CASE STUDY 
Stephen J. Freeman 
Sunday afternoon, not a day I usually see patients in the office, I sat opposite a young woman whom I knew well. Eleven years ago she had been my first patient when I opened my practice. She had been referred by a psychiatrist who had diagnosed depression superimposed on a borderline personality disorder. This was the beginning of what developed into a two-year-plus therapeutic relationship. Her struggle was a tedious effort in which she overcame a multiplicity of difficulties in separating from her parents. Her goal eventually 

became to prove to them in some way that she was able to take care of herself. Progress toward this goal continued with ups and downs during this time and since I last saw her. Continued, that is, until she detected a mass of unknown origin, a twist of fate she feared might be too much for her to bear. She began to experience old familial symptoms of anxiety, panic, and feelings of annihilation representing a place and a person to which she feared she might return. These fears prompted her request to see me on that particular Sunday. 
As we sat opposite each other in my office, she fought to still her anxiety and fears. She told me about the mass, her fear that it might be cancer, and her greater fear of regressing to the invalid she pictured herself as having been eleven years ago--one who was unable to complete her goal of separation and individuation. 
What occurred to me as she spoke was Frankl's reference to Nietzsche's statement, "not the suffering itself was his problem but that the answer was wanting to the outcry, why the suffering?" My friend and mentor, Robert C. Barnes, had told me of a crisis and logotherapeutic 
114 
intervention he had utilized which had provided an answer to Nietzsche's question. My patient was searching for an answer to the same question. 
I had noted in Dr. Barnes' account his query, "What was it that stood between her and her ability to master her fate?". What struck me was my patient's fear that "it might be too much (to bear) and I'll return to being the invalid I saw myself as eleven years ago, unable to reach my goal." This inner conflict begged the question--Why? I offered this statement to her: "You have the opportunity to prove to your parents that you really can take care of yourself." Her anxiety, bordering at this point on hysteria, melted away and a serene calm took its place. Her response after a moment was a simple and eloquent, "Thank you." 
Crisis represents both danger and opportunity, danger for the person in crisis as well as for the therapist working with the person. Therapeutic danger, as Elisabeth Lukas points, lies in overvaluating or undervaluating the traumatic event. In our case overvaluating the event may have led to an approach in which the patient was asked to vent fully her feelings. The danger here was that she could easily become overwhelmed by her own emotional tidal wave. Undervaluating the event could have taken the form of depth psychology and reexploration of issues (e.g., abandonment, separation, and individuation). 
In choosing a logotherapeutic approach the event was neither overnor undervaluated. My patient had already presented her answer to the yet unarticulated question--why me, why must I suffer? Nietzsche's statement echoes the human need for meaning and self-transcendence. Lukas, quoting Frankl, stated "the neurotic existence punishes itself by a lack of self-transcendence." In our case a human being's unquelled rage against her fate prevented her from living with it. In finding a meaningful interpretation, a why, the suffering was not removed but made bearable. 
STEPHEN J. FREEMAN [Texas Woman's University, Family Sciences, P. 
0. Box 425769, Denton, Texas 76204 USA] is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Counseling Component in the Department of Family Sciences at Texas Woman's University. He is a Diplomate in logotherapy and is a member of the International Board of Directors of the Viktor Frankl Institute ofLogotherapy. He currentlyserves as the lnstitute's Dean of Education. 
The International Forum for Logotherapy, 1995, 18, 116. 
Logotherapeutic Aphorisms by Viktor Frankl (selected by Elisabeth Lukas) 
Every deed is its own monument. One does not have to take every nonsense from oneself. The rules of life do not demand that we win at any price; but they 
demand that we not give up the fight. As long as we suffer, we are spiritually alive. We cannot influence fate, but we can master it. Often the ruins enable us to see the sky. When you panic seeing old doors being shut, realize that there are 
new ones opening. A sick body still contains a healthy spirit. Where all words are not enough, every word is too much. The tension between what we are and what we ought to be makes 
for mental health. Some means desecrate the holiest of ends. The "novel" a person has lived is an incomparably greater creative 
accomplishment than any written one. In contrast to the sources of energy, meaning is inexhaustible. It doesn't matter what we expect of life; what counts is what life 
expects of us. If you take away someone's guilt you take away his/her dignity. 
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The International Forum for Logotherapy, 1995, 18, 11 7-118. 
Letter to the Editor 
Paul Welter (International Forum, Autumn 1993, Introducing Clients to Intergenerational Resources) writes: "While working with clients who could find little meaning in life, I intuitively connected them, when possible, with either little children or the elderly ... After I had done many of these matches with clients [and children or the elderly], I tried to analyze why it was working. I'm still not sure." I wonder whether Paul Welter's discovery does not lead us to the basic logophilosophical principle: The existence of the human spirit, and the desperate need for its recognition. 
If we want to find meaning in life we need first to have an awareness of our authentic self. It may seem odd that we have to resort to meeting children and the elderly in order to encounter genuineness. But it is precisely these age groups that radiate the spirit, because the very young and the old do not wear masks. In Welter's words, children are still "unconditioned" and "free not to have to measure up;" and the elderly have the freedom to leave conformity behind and meet a person with honesty and openness. 
The young and the old can offer to troubled human beings what is most important, namely unconditional acceptance. The mutual recognition of the free spirit in the other person gives new hope, joy, and momentary fulfillment. 
How can we match clients with the young or the old? How can we help clients discover their own genuine strength? I have greatly benefitted from Welter's Childlike Adult Inventory, introduced in "Childlike Adults and Meaning in Life" (The International Forum for Logotherapy, 1988, 11) and have used it with student-patients. 
The inventory counterbalances 20 desirable and less desirable childlike qualities and encourages participants to step back and objectively scrutinize their strengths and weaknesses. After completion of their inventory they are requested to indicate two qualities of strength and two desires for improvement. 
It should not be difficult to use this information in helping us determine a good match. A young person "who loves but does not express it" might benefit from an elderly person who radiates warmth and expresses caring and affection. A "rushed, impatient" young person might learn to sit down and become absorbed in the wondrous stories of a wise older woman or man, thus gaining new insight in the meaning potentials for life. On the other hand, an older physically or mentally challenged individual who feels cheated, "unable to bounce back," might be helped to move closer to "resilience" by being encouraged to develop a friendship with children who are "sensitive to others," "have a sense of humor," or "challenge fear." 
I foresee Paul Welter's Childlike Adult Inventory becoming a valuable tool in rediscovering and acknowledging the healthy childlike qualities in all of us. We educators and therapists should feel encouraged to tap into the intergenerational human resources. 
Ingeborg van Pelt Amherst College Student Health Services Amherst, Massachusetts 01002-5000 USA 
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The International Forum for Logotherapy, 1996, 19, 1-8. 
WHAT'S NOT IN FRANKL'S BOOKS 
Joseph Fabry 
For his 90th birthday Viktor Frankl has given the world--at least the German-speaking world--a birthday gift. In this 31st book he becomes very personal and reveals some of the events, feelings, thoughts and memories not contained in all his previous books. He did not plan to publish this material which he had noted down on various occasions during his long lifetime. But he was finally persuaded to let the publisher have what he calls his Lebenserinnerungen (life memories). 
His mother, he writes, was a woman of heart and emotional warmth, his father a rational perfectionist with a strong sense of justice and duty. Frankl sees himself as a combination of extreme rationality which comes from his father, and deep emotions inherited from his mother. 
Some of his first memories are as unique as his whole character, and foreshadow his life philosophy. How many of us remember to have woken up, as a 4-year-old, realizing that he, too, would have to die one day? This thought, he writes, never left him during his life. It was not the fear of dying that occupied his thinking, but the question whether the eventual death would make his entire life meaningless. As you all know, he found his answer by realizing that it is exactly the transitoriness of life that makes life meaningful. Because the only thing we have securely saved is what we have stored in the granaries of the past. This is a thought that has brought comfort to many, especially the old, nearing their end. 
From his father he also inherited the inclination to perfectionism, the tendency to ask much of himself. He tells about his life principles: to perform the smallest task as carefully as the largest, and the largest task with the same tranquility as the smallest. When he is asked to participate in a discussion with a few colleagues, he prepares his thoughts and takes notes. And when he talks before an audience of several thousands, he talks as calmly as he would in a discussion with a few. A second life principle: when he has a task to perform, he does not wait to the last moment but does it as soon as possible. And a third principle: perform the most disagreeable task first, to get it over with. 
He admits he sometimes violates these principles. Then he gets mad at himself and, as he puts it, does not speak with himself for days. 
Talking about his qualities, he mentions one he is most proud of: he doesn't forget the good things someone has done for him, and he does not hold a grudge against someone who did him wrong. 
This explains also his answer he gives to people who ask him how he could have returned to Vienna after his liberation, after all the Austrians had done to him and his family. He replies that he returned to a city where, among other things, a non-Jewish attorney had secretly supplied him with bread and potatoes when it was dangerous to do so, and where a neighbor had hidden his cousin. When asked how he could forgive and forget all the evil that was done to him, his family, and all the Jews, he answers: "Forgive, yes, but not forget." When we consider this answer, we must remember that the forgiveness does not include those who committed criminal or cruel deeds. As he has repeatedly stated, he rejects collective guilt and does not share the view of some 
purists that the Viennese should rather have gone to concentration camps than remain quiet in the face of the atrocities they witnessed or ignored. Such a stand, he says, could rightly be taken only by those who had been in a concentration camp and knew the consequences of such a righteous position. 
Another of Frankl's life principles is this: when something disagreeable happens to him, he wishes nothing worse should happen in the future. He is equally grateful for everything in the past he was spared. This principle, which is the basis of his attitudinal values, says that one should be grateful for miseries one has been spared, and celebrate them with anniversaries. 
The three most thrilling things he can imagine are: to be the first to 
climb a mountain peak, gambling in a casino, and performing a brain operation. 
Brain operations he performed after 1938, in the only Jewish hospital the Nazis allowed for Jewish patients. There was no doctor who was .J trained to perform these operations, so he did them himself. He was not a allowed to observe such operations done by non-Jewish surgeons and had to perform them from books and theories he had learned in school. 
2 
Although he had been an enthusiastic mountain climber all his life and has two difficult passes in the Alps named Frankl-climbs, he never achieved a "first" in mountain climbing. Once, when serving as a young doctor in Vienna's main institution for the insane, he was asked to participate in a first climb but could not get time off. 
As to gambling, this seems to be the easiest of his goals, but Frankl who has lectured at many places with famous casinos, never mentions the secrets of his gambling wishes. 
Anyone acquainted with Frankl knows his sense of humor, which plays a large role in logotherapy. It is a Viennese tradition to play with words and do some wild punning. Most puns are untranslatable but here are two that are not tied to the German language. 
In his early years, before he owned a car, he used to say: "I don't have an automobile. I travel in a heteromobile, when others take me along." 
And when he was asked whether he wanted another cup of tea, he answered: "No, thanks, I am a mono-tea-ist." 
During his early years at the insane asylum, he collected sayings of patients which struck him as funny. When he asked a woman whether she had sexual intercourse, she first said no, but after some more inquiries she admitted: "Well, yes, as a child." Another woman, in response to the same questioA, said: "You know, Doctor, only when I get raped. I don't get around much." 
In his lectures and books, Frankl tells jokes to make a point. In private, he loves to tell funny stories, often with a Jewish flavor. An example is the story of the Jew who shared a train compartment with an SS man. The Jew unpacks a herring, eats it, and wraps the head of the fish carefully and puts it in his pocket. The SS man asks him why he does this. 
The Jew explains: "The head of the fish contains its brain. I bring it to my children so they'll become smart." 
"Will you sell the head?" asks the SS man. 
"Why not," answers the Jew. 
"How much?" 
"One mark." 
"Here you have a mark," says the SS man and eats the fish head. Five minutes later he goes into a rage. "You dirty Jewish swine, the whole herring only costs 10 pfennigs, and you sell me the head for a mark!" 
"See," says the Jew, "It's beginning to work." 
3 
Among his hobbies Frankl, of course, lists mountain climbing which for him was not only a favorite sport but also relaxation and a chance to think. There hardly has been an important decision, he writes, he did not make on his lonely walks and climbs in the mountains. 
This striving for height was also expressed by his learning to fly an airplane at age 67 when he did not have the opportunity to climb rocks during the seven winter quarters when he taught logotherapy at the US International University on the flatlands of San Diego on the Pacific. 
Striving for the heights of life, reaching for goals and meanings is also evident in logotherapy, which he called a "height therapy" in contrast to the pervading depth therapy. 
Among his less serious hobbies Frankl names his interest in the design of ties and eye glass frames. I remember his first visit to Berkeley when he was all excited about a new eye glass design he had seen in Los Angeles. He insisted on talking to my optometrist who was puzzled about the little old man who seemed to know more about eye glass frames than he himself. 
Very few people know that Frankl has composed an elegy which was publicly presented by an orchestra, and a tango which was used on TV. 
Better known is his talent for caricature. There is hardly a logotherapist visiting Frankl, without bei'ng caricatured by him, usually with a witty caption. He sees his talent for caricature related to his gift for psychiatry because here, too, he diagnoses the weaknesses of a person and shows it in a drawing. 
Also known is that he wrote a one-act play, called "Synchronization in Birkenwald" in which three philosophers, Socrates, Spinoza, and Kant, visit a concentration camp and make observations about some of Frankl's favorite topics--time and eternity, life and death, meaning and purpose. I translated the play and it was first performed in Berkeley, with the Frankls present at the first two performances. 
Frankl gave his first lecture about the meaning of life when still in high school, at a Viennese adult education center of the socialist movement in which he was active during his high-school years. In this lecture he already spoke of his basic thoughts: that we should not ask life for its meaning, but that it is rather life that asks us, and it is our responsibility to find it; and that there exists a meaning beyond our understanding in which we have to believe, at least in our unconscious. .J 
At that time he had become interested in psychology, and he and his a high-school friends spent days discussing not only Marx and Lenin but also Freud and Adler. He devoured Freud's writings and started to write letters to him which Freud always answered. Frankl sent Freud material 
4 
which he thought Freud would be interested in. He personally met Freud only much later. They had only one face-to-face meeting, quite coincidental. He saw Freud on the street and started in introduce himself. Freud stopped him and said: "Yes, yes, Viktor Frankl, Czerningasse 6, door 25, right?" He knew Frankl's address from their correspondence. 
Shortly after that meeting Frankl came under the influence of Alfred Adler who had broken with Freud. Frankl became Adler's favorite disciple but when he did not support Adler's beliefs 100 percent, Frankl was expelled from the individual psychology movement. The break came when Frankl insisted that any psychotherapy must deal with the question of meaning. Frankl puts the conflict this way: "The theme that runs through all my works like a red thread is the clear understanding of the frontier between psychotherapy and philosophy, with special attention given to the problems of meanings and values." He wanted to overcome the psychologism of the time which interpreted all pathology through psychology. He still sees psychologism as leading to a reductionism which ignores the entire human dimension of the spirit. Frankl has said repeatedly that logotherapy is an attemptto "rehumanize" psychotherapy and to include the human dimension of the spirit in all therapeutic considerations. 
We do not realize--at least, I did not--how early in his life he worked on his own theories. The break with Adler came in 1927, when Frankl was 22 and still a medical student. At that time he had already started to work on his own school of psychotherapy. In 1926, one year before his break with Adler, he used the term logotherapy for the first time in academic circles, in a lecture at the Society for Medical Psychology which he had founded with the Viennese psychiatrist Fritz Wittels. In 1929, still a student, he spoke of the three values through which we can discover meaning: creative, experiential, and attitudinal. In the same year, 1929, he already practiced paradoxical intention, although the name appeared in print only ten years later, in 1939. 
After he was expelled from the individual psychology movement, Frankl' s interest shifted from the mere theoretical to practical applications. He received his M.D. in 1930 and founded free counseling centers for young people, especially those who feared the extremely strict final examination of high school. Failure could mean the end of an academic career. Every year high-school students committed suicide at the time of these exams. Frankl won the cooperation of many distinguished therapists who realized the potentials of Frankl' s methods. In consequence, 1930 was the first year when no student suicide was 
5 
reported in Vienna when the high-school diplomas were handed out. 
Professor Otto Potzl, the director of the neurological-psychological University Clinic of Vienna, made an exception to the university rules and allowed Frankl, even before his graduation, to work independently at the clinic. What Frankl learned from his patients at the clinic and the counseling centers, and from the questions following his many lectures, was a treasure chest of case histories on which he further based the development of logotherapy. 
After his graduation he continued working at the university clinic, and eventually at Vienna's largest mental institution, the Steinhof. There he was director of the department dealing with female suicides. He estimated that some 3,000 patients a year went through his hands. This, he says, further sharpened his diagnostic eye. 
In 1937 he opened his private practice which ended only months later when in March 1938 the Nazi troops occupied Austria. Jewish doctors were not allowed to treat non-Jewish patients, but Frankl was allowed to continue as the director of the neurological department of the only Jewish hospital in Vienna, the Rothschild Hospital. 
Here Frankl describes an odd situation. Under a Nazi rule, no psychotic patient could be sent to a nursing home but rather became a victim of euthanasia. Frankl took a considerable risk in diagnosing psychotic patients as suffering from physical sicknesses, such as fever delirium, before sending them to the Jewish nursing home. So it happened that Jewish patients suffering from insanity found a haven in the Jewish nursing home, while non-Jewish insane patients were killed through euthanasia. 
But this haven did not last long--not for the patients, nor for Frankl himself, his parents, or his young wife Tilly whom he had married in 1937. She was a nurse in the Rothschild Hospital where Frankl worked. He fell in love, not only with her beauty but with the understanding of her heart. He describes the crucial moment of his decision to marry her: 
One day she prepared a noon meal in his parents' apartment for them and him. The hospital called him in an emergency. He immediately left in a taxi, and when he came back two hours later, his parents had eaten the meal, but Tilly had waited. Her first reaction was not "Finally you're back. I've waited for you with the meal," but "How did it go? How is the patient?" Frankl writes, "In this moment, I decided to marry this girl, not because she was this or that but because she was she." 
Because of his position in the Rothschild Hospital, Frankl was able to protect himself, his parents, and his wife from deportation. But in 1942 the socalled final solution was strictly enforced. No one was exempted. 
6 
His experiences in the camps are well documented in his books. They were a cruel test of his theories: that life had meaning under all circumstances; that the will to meaning is the strongest motivation for living; and that we always have the freedom to find meaning, even if only by finding a meaningful attitude in hopeless situations. It must have required all his logotherapeutic beliefs to survive these horrors. I should like to share with you two of the worst, haunting episodes Frankl describes in his book. 
Among the things Frankl was able to smuggle into his first camp, Theresienstadt, was a capsule of morphium. His parents also were there, and he knew his father was dying. He was 81, had had two sieges of pneumonia, and was starving. Frankl used the morphium. He needed two injections until life ceased. Frankl records the following dialogue: 
"Do you have any pain?" -"No." 
"Do you have any wish?" -"No." 
"Do you want to tell me anything?" -"No." 
"Then," writes Frankl, "I kissed him and left, knowing I would not see him alive again. But I had the most wonderful feeling. I had done my part. I had stayed in Vienna because of my parents, and now I had accompanied my father to the threshold of death and spared him unnecessary suffering in dying." 
The second incident that haunted me when I read the book, recounts the time when Frankl learned that his wife had died in the concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen. It had happened after British soldiers had liberated the camp. They had found 17,000 corpses there, and during the next six weeks thousands more corpses were added, Tilly among them. Frankl was told that gypsies cooked part of the corpses on open fires in large kettles, mainly livers. Frankl writes: "For weeks I was haunted by obsessive thoughts that gypsies were eating Tilly's liver." 
During his first days in Vienna, when Frankl learned about the full tragedy of his family, many of his friends were afraid he would commit suicide. One of these friends, the Aryan attorney Bruno Pittermann, who before the war had secretly passed on rationed potatoes to Frankl' s family and later became vice-chancellor of Austria, was instrumental in getting Frankl the directorship of the neurological department of the Poliklinik Hospital, which Frankl then headed for the next 25 years. 
Another friend, Otto Kauders, who had become the head of the Psychiatric University Clinic, prompted Frankl to write the final version of the manuscript that explained logotherapy and had been lost in the camps. This book is known in English as "The Doctor and the Soul." 
7 
This was the challenge he needed. It confirmed one of his basic beliefs that you should not ask what life can do for you but what life asks of you. Life asked him to tell the world of logotherapy, through is work in the Poliklinik and his book. 
He threw himself into his work. He dictated for hours at a time, and three secretaries were needed to follow his dictations with shorthand and typing. It just flowed out of him, in unheated, hardly furnished rooms, with window openings covered with cardboard. From time to time he collapsed in a chair, exhausted, and broke into tears. The floodgates had opened. 
The next year, in 1946, he met Elli, then only 21 to Frankl' s 42. She was a nurse in the surgery department of the Poliklinik Hospital. She came to ask him if the neurology department could spare an extra bed. When he agreed she thanked him with a grateful smile, and he said afterwards to his assistant: "Did you see those eyes?" 
In 1947 he married Elli who shared with him many years of struggle and sacrifices, but also years of triumph. He writes: "She supplements me--what I do with my brain, she does with her heart." Or, as Professor Needleman once said: "She is the warmth that accompanies the light." 
Reading Frankl's book I could not help noting how closely his life follows his principles. He has been motivated by the three values he formulated in high school. He found meaning in his creative values-writing books, giving lectures, developing logotherapy; in the experiential values of love--his parents, his wife, nature, his rock climbing; and in the attitudinal values to find meaning in the most meaningless situations imaginable, the concentration camps. 
He ends his book with an anecdote. The editor of "Who's Who in America" asked him to write to them what he considered the most important goal in life. He asked a group of visiting professors and students what they thought he had sent in his answer. One of the students said immediately: "You have found the meaning of your life helping others to find meaning in theirs." 
Frankl concludes his book: "That was true to the point. I really had written this." 
JOSEPH FABRY (315 Carmel Avenue, El Cerito, CA 94530 USA] is the founder of the Viktor Frankl Institute ofLogotherapy in the United States and is co-editor of The International Forum for Logotherapy. 
8 

The International Forum for Logotherapy, 1996, 19, 9-14. 
LOGOTHERAPY REVISITED AS LOVE THERAPY 
James C. Crumbaugh 
The search for meaning is not a mysterious treasure hunt, but the practice of the everyday human nature necessary to successfully meet everyday human life. So why all the questions of disparity from 
the  traditional  world  of  
psychotherapy?  What's  the  big  
difference?  

The trouble comes when Frankl adds that finding meaning in life always involves a spiritual experience. This often creates conflict, confusion, and casts shadows of doubt over logotherapy. 
The word spiritual was so misunderstood by the Austrian Psychotherapy Society before World War II that Alfred Adler, then its president, had Frankl kicked out on the grounds that Frankl's approach was foreign to the Society's thinking. 
Frankl teaches that humankind is made up of a trinity of body, mind, and spirit. To our secular generation that word is often anathema because people interpret it to indicate that you have to go to church, synagogue, temple, or mosque in order to have a meaningful, successful, and socially-approved life. But while Frankl is not anti-religious, he emphasizes that logotherapy is per se secular. 
We can take the mystery out of spiritual by redefining it as nonmaterial: It leads us into the world of nonmaterial values. We don't find true meaning merely in creature comforts of the material world. These are nice to have, and we all want them, but they are not enough to yield a satisfying life. Why do people like Marlon Brando and Jane Fonda jeopardize secure careers of great financial success and artistic achievement by spending huge amounts of their own time and money in pursuit of nonmaterial social causes? Obviously because the material alone is not enough. Mickey Rooney and Shirley 
9 
MacClaine also have said as much and have demonstrated it in their 
own lives. 
Spiritual takes us into the world of "the higher things of life," which may involve the fine arts, creative activities, and human relationships. In the last analysis all sources of "spiritual" meaning do take us into the deepest and highest of interpersonal relationships which are called love. 
Therefore, logotherapy is really love therapy, because logos signifies meaning and the satisfying of spiritual meanings always involves love. Loving and being loved are what really give us the feeling of being Somebody to somebody, of counting, of being needed and appreciated, of having a personal identity as a unique and valuable Being. All of this may take one person to religion and another to social work, still another to both. So spiritual is not the negative value that some attribute to religion, but rather it is the introduction of love into life. 
If you happen to be religious you'll recognize that almost all holy writings reinforce love as the highest value and meaning in life. For Christians, John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." In the original Greek logos is used for word. And elsewhere we read, "God is love." ( 1 John 4: 16). So for the Christian, God is both love and ultimate meaning. Mathematics teaches that things equal to the same thing are equal to each other. So if God is equal to both love and meaning, then meaning must be equal to love. 
But if you are not religious, you'll reach the same conclusion about the meaning of logos by reflecting upon ultimate meaning as noted previously. And if logos implies love as the highest form of meaning, then logotherapy is really love-therapy. 
Logotherapy's treatment consists of devising ways to help the individual search for and find meaning in life. It gives the individual a feeling of fulfillment of this basic need to be needed, the need for interpersonal relationships that bring a sense of fulfillment and of personal value. 
Love--The Key to Mental Health 
Now let's look at how the treatment works to develop and utilize love as the key ingredient of mental health: 
1. The first step is to recognize that the real essence of finding a "logo" (the advertising profession's term for a symbol 
10 
or meaning that stands for a service or product and emphasizes its uniqueness and special value) for life is the awareness that it will inevitably be a search for and an expression of love. 
2. The second step is to look at how this quest utilizes love as the key ingredient of the interpersonal relationships that constitute the foundation of every logo for life. To do this we need to examine the nature of love, and the forms or dimensions in which it occurs. Fundamentally there are three levels of love. The Greek language, a highly sensitive tongue, has six words for love, three of which reference the levels of love that we see in logotherapy. 
a) The first level is what the Greeks call eras or sexual love. This most primitive stage of love may be labeled (in Frankl's terms) the Will to Pleasure--the principle of hedonism that Freud made the foundation of all human motivation (although the libido or sexual energy was not merely copulatory but also the energy of building a bridge or creating a symphony). 
Frankl distinguishes two sublevels of eros: The purely physical side of sex based on self-satisfaction without concern for the partner, and er_oticism or sexual desire oriented toward a particular partner (commonly called "infatuation"). The latter represents the beginning of a relationship and thus of love in the logotherapeutic sense; but it is not sufficiently deep or lasting to carry true meaning. 
b) 
The second level of love is philia or "brotherly" or "family" love. This is obligational love: we are obligated by the social order to accept responsibility for these relationships. Alfred Adler said that power is gained only through establishing dominant relationships with other human beings. This could result in their loving or hating the power-seeking individual, but if the feeling is to be a positive or helping one, it has to be an expression of love. It is still not the highest form of love because it is obligational and not given freely and apart from responsibility to the love object. It is, however, a step up from Freud's basement to the main floor of the human mind, although we have one more dimension to go. 

c) 
The third, final, and highest level of love is agape or altruistic love. Frankl takes us up to this level by adding what he calls the noetic or "spiritual" level as the most powerful 


11 
human motive beyond the biological drives like seeking food. 
This level of love is truly unselfish, given freely without expectation of reward. Only by reaching it do we find full satisfaction in life through feedback from extending this unselfish behavior to others, who in turn show the appreciation that gives us a feeling of being Somebody to somebody, of counting, of being needed. This is what really gives meaning to life on the human level, and it represents the spiritual dimension, not necessarily religious but the inspirational and aspirational aspects of life which lifts us from Adler's main floor to the roof and sky beyond. 
3. The third and final step in applying logotherapy as love therapy is to develop and practice the third altruistic level of love. This we can do through a series of exercises. Each is designed to give practice in the expression of positive responses rather than hate or negative responses in whatever situation we may have to face. This does not mean to let people run over us, but rather to do whatever we have to-even go to war--without actual hate, but with a positive hope to find some common meeting ground that will end the conflict. And in this connection we use this "common meeting ground" principle in all conflict situations. Here we can take a lesson from mathematics: How do you find a common meeting ground between two fractions, the common denominator? Suppose you have one fifth and one third, and you want to get them together in a common denominator. As all learned in grade school, you multiply them together to get them into fifteenths; now you have three fifteenths instead of one fifth, and five fifteenths instead of one third. You can use this principle to find a common denominator for any fraction; and the principle is the key to working out human conflicts. That doesn't mean we can solve all human conflicts that way, but in most conflicts we can improve interpersonal relationships by it. Russia and the United States have some common ground in space exploration, where they can do some things better together for both financial and brain-power reasons. The 111111. Republicans and the Democrats find some common ground in many goals, though they may differ in methods of achievement. Business competitors find common goals in community functions. Competitors in sports have common 
12 
goals in the love of the games. Individuals in conflict often find common ground in a sport, hobby, or business interest. 
What You Can Do 
But I can hear some now saying, "What? You're going to teach everybody to love everybody else in a society moving daily toward hate, violence, and hostility? You're going to advocate love in a worldwide bog of anger, misery, suffering, and hypocracy, where people put love on postage stamps but not on each other? What makes you think that is going to work?" 
It won't change the history of the world over night. But the feedback from a step in this direction can motivate many to keep trying; and trying can activate a chain reaction of motivation that spreads in society and gives hope rather than despair, and builds tension-reducing habits. 
The key to successful employment of logotherapy lies in what Frankl calls the attitudinal value: the value in taking a positive rather than a negative attitude toward situations that, while deplorable, are unchangeable, at least at present; and in using that attitude to pick up the pieces of positive assets that always remain in spite of whatever has happened; and finally, in_ using those assets to reconstruct a set of new life goals in Phoenix-like fashion from the ashes of the old. And this construction is made with the mortar of love rather than hate, of kindness rather than resentment. It is a truism that positive responses of tolerance breed like reactions, just as those of hate result in a similar counter reaction. It is up to the individual to initiate the interruption of the latter and activation of the former. And it is the function of the logotherapist or logocounselor to point out the psychology of all of this that inspires the patient or counselee with new hope for the future if they will just try it. In applying it, Rosemary Henrion and I use a number of exercises that the patient or counselee completes as homework and then discusses in a group meeting. The exercises merely provide a focal point for this effort and a primitive quantification of results that can encourage and reinforce the effort. 
Our exercises emphasize practice in attaining the highest possible level of love and avoiding or neutralizing as many conflicts as possible through two basic techniques, which we call the primary principle of conflictresolution (finding as low a common denominator as possible), and the secondary principle of conflict resolution (tension reduction through perception of humor in the overarched poles of conflict--"lf it 
13 
didn't involve a serious human problem, this behavior would be funny"). The principle is a special application of the logotherapeutic technique of "self-distancing" or withdrawing from an intense situation to see it as others would from their detached positions. 
All of which is really the goal of all good psychotherapy. There is no magic for the logotherapeutic approach above other techniques-but it works best for some therapists or counselors and some patients or counselees. It is the therapy of choice in some selected cases: the literature rather consistently suggests about 20 percent of a typical clinical case load. 
An application of logotherapy as love therapy, either under this or some other name--the application of the meaning of altruistic love in some form--has the potential to win the Nobel peace prize and to change the world by harnessing the power of love to combat the forces of hate. Until and unless somebody does something like this soon, however, the human race is likely to destroy itself. If we are to avoid this end an inspired leader must arise to draw us forward and upward. 
It might as well be you as anyone. 
JAMES C. CRUMBAUGH, PH.D. [140 Balmoral Avenue, Biloxi, Mississippi 39531 USA], Clinical Psychologist, is senior author of the Purpose-in-Life (PILJ test and two books on logotherapy. He is a Diplomate and Fellow of the Viktor Frankl Institute ofLogotherapy in the USA. The above paper is based on the introduction to a book in progress (by Crumbaugh andRosemary Henrion) thatpresents a series of exercises designed to invoke interpersonal responses that involve the three stages of love. 
14 
The International Forum for Logotherapy, 1996, 19, 15-19. 
COPING WITH LIFE-THREATENING ILLNESSES USING A LOGOTHERAPEUTIC APPROACH STAGE I: HEAL TH CARE TEAM INTERVENTIONS 
Jared Kass 
Since 1975, I have been exploring ways that logotherapeutic interventions can be used to cope with the inevitable stresses of illness. Coping is a sequence of cognitive appraisals which modulate the stress response. 11 Health psychologists have shown that positive coping responses can improve quality of life and, in some instances, treatment outcomes. 7' 15 For example, among chronic pain patients, increases in life purpose are related to reductions in levels of depression and pain.9 This paper is the first of two papers that will describe logotherapeutic interventions that can help medical patients develop positive coping resources during a life-threatening illness. These interventions take place in two complementary, though sometimes independent, stages. In stage I, health care teams use a logotherapeutic perspective to assess and form positive emotional alliances with patients. These alliances help patients begin to form effective coping mechanisms and facilitate referral to mental health counseling, when appropriate. In Stage 11, mental health counselors use a logotherapeutic approach to help patients concretize positive coping mechanisms. 
Logotherapeutic and existential approaches to psychotherapy have been central in focusing on the need to address fundamental questions of meaning in life. 17 Is there an underlying meaning in my life? Do I have the power to find such meaning? Is there a transcendent element that is greater than my individual self, and, if so, what is my relationship to this Spirit of Life? Some existential theorists argue that belief in a transcendent element is an escape from reality. 12 Others suggest that such beliefs can serve as a foundation for the courage to live deeply and authentically. 16 Frankl recognized the value of a self-transcendent dimension.4'6 He 
15 
articulated the need to wrestle with questions of meaning and to discover 
a spiritual dimension of life.5 Few patients show the need to address these 
questions so directly as those facing a life-threatening illness.3 But health 
care teams rarely help a patient address these ultimate questions, which 
constitute the psychospiritual aspect of a medical crisis.2 
In helping patients address the psychospiritual aspect of a medical crisis, a health care team must first recognize its symptoms. Assessment requires an analysis of patients' responses to their life-threatening illnesses by using a logotherapeutic perspective. These responses can include: 
1. 
Feelings of self-blame: "I am to blame for this illness... I brought it on myself... I deserve this fate... This oroves that I am flawed, a failure..." 

2. 
Feelings of victimization and negative, external locus of control: "Why is this happening to me?... Why can't I make this illness go away?... Why is God doing this to me or allowing this to happen?" 

3. 
Feelings of isolation: "No one can understand what I am feeling... There is no use trying to talk to anyone about it... I am completely alone." 

4. 
Fear of abandoning loved ones: "They won't survive without me... No one else will care for them... They will be all alone... I am letting them down." 

5. 
Feelings of depression and withdrawal: "There is no reason to celebrate life, and no way to find meaning in life... There is no use in going on... There is no reason to remain connected to others." 

6. 
Fear of pain: "I won't be able to handle the pain... I won't be strong enough... I will be judged, humiliated, shamed, by my inability to handle the pain." 

7. 
Fear of death: "I am terrified that my life may be coming to an end... I'm not ready... What happens when I die? ... Where do I go? ... Is there a God? Do I have a soul? Does any part of me survive?" 


These highly charged feelings are an expression of the psychospiritual crisis that inevitably occurs during a life-threatening illness. The patient's life is now at stake. The patient's definition of self, and life's meaning, are in question. This crisis has three components. 
16 
• 
Meaning and purpose in life. During a life-threatening illness, patients need to find coherence and meaning in their personal lives and in life itself.9 This need is reflected in responses #1, 2, 5, 7. 

• 
Empowerment. Patients in crisis also need to remain empowered: to feel confident that their lives are under control.9 This need is expressed in responses #i, 3, 4, 6. 

• 
Relationship to the Spirit of Life. By whatever name they refer to the transcendent dimension, life-threatening illnesses evoke a need to experience a connection to this greater whole.8 · 10 Through this connection, patients sense that they are not alone, loved ones are cared for, and aspects of themselves persist. This need is reflected in responses #2, 3, 4, 7. 


Recognizing these three components within patients' often anguished reactions is the first step in developing a treatment plan that will be responsive to their psychospiritual needs. Though resolution of these issues cannot (and should not) be guaranteed, regaining a sense of meaning-in-life, overcoming a sense of disempowerment and isolation, and restoring a sense of connection to the Spirit of Life, can help patients reduce the inevitable stress of a medical crisis. 10 13 · 14 While primary responsibility for helping patients form positive coping mechanisms usually rests with the professional counselor, the responsibility for the initial stages of this process rests with the health care team. It is unlikely that patients will seek counseling to improve coping mechanisms unless health care teams form positive emotional alliances with them and present referral to counseling as an integral part of treatment. 
Unfortunately, health care providers often prevent patients from exploring these issues.1 One way they do this is through pessimistic attitudes. Perhaps in an effort to be honest, or as a response to personal anxiety when faced with an anguished patient, may physicians prevent dialogue by delivering unequivocally pessimistic diagnoses (e.g., "There is nothing more to do. You have nine months to live.") Even when these statements are accurate, their emotional impact is so negative that they often inhibit any process leading to the formation of positive coping mechanisms. 
17 
Paradoxically, a second way that health care teams curtail dialogue is through superficial reassurances (e.g., "Don't worry. Everything will be all right! Don't be silly, you didn't cause this illness!") Though less devastating emotionally than pessimism, these reassurances are usually experienced by patients as messages that they should not express their feelings. Still other ways that health care providers silence emotional dialogue are non-verbal: by turning away physically, through silence, or through brusque, businesslike tones, providers let patients know that they should not express their psychospiritual concerns. Thus, health care teams can contribute inadvertently to the interpersonal isolation that is a central characteristic of maladaptive coping styles. 
How, then, can health care teams respond helpfully to patients? After learning to identify the elements of a psychospiritual crisis through the acquisition of a logotherapeutic perspective, providers must learn the basic skills of responding to this crisis with compassion. First, providers must listen to their patients' feelings with genuine empathy. Second, they must reply sympathetically. When genuine and visible, sympathy helps to build a health-promoting alliance between the clinician and the patient. Third, the health care provider can ask patients to speak further about their thoughts and emotions. When supported in not concealing these complex feelings, patients begin the· process of exploring their psychospiritual crises constructively. Fourth, health care providers can use their logotherapeutic perspective to identify the three components of a psychospiritual crisis to patients. A conceptualization of these concerns can decrease anxietv by helping patients see that their psychospiritual crisis can be addressed systematically. Fifth, as patients recognize the potential value of addressing these issues in depth, they can be referred to counseling, as an integral part of treatment, and without the stigma of psychopathology. 
In summary, the acquisition of a logotherapeutic perspective by health care teams can help patients begin to develop internal resources to cope with life-threatening illnesses. The second paper in this series will describe logotherapeutic interventions by a mental health counselor which can concretize the formation of these positive coping responses. 
JARED KASS, PH.D. [Department of Counseling and Psychology, Graduate School of Arts and Social Science, Lesley College, 7 Mellen Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138-2790 USA] is a Professor at lllll Lesley College and Director of The Study Project on Well-Being. Portions of this paper were presented at the Second Annual Conference, Holistic Approaches to Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation, Lahey Clinic, Burlington, Massachusetts, July 22, 1993. 
18 
References 
1. 
Amenta, M. 0. (1986). Death and dying in contemporary hospitals. In M. 0. Amenta & N. L. Bohnet (Eds.), Nursing care of the terminally ill (pp. 35-58). Boston: Little, Brown. 

2. 
Amenta, M. 0. (1986). Spiritual concerns. In M. 0. Amenta & N. 


L. Bohnet (Eds.), Nursing care of the terminally ill (pp. 115-172). Boston: Little, Brown. 
3. Bohnet, N. L. (1986). Emotional concerns. In M. 0. Amenta & N. 
L. Bohnet (Eds.), Nursing care of the terminally ill (pp. 105-113). Boston: Little, Brown. 
4. 
Frankl, V. (1966). Self-transcendence as a human phenomenon. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 6, 97-1 06. 

5. 
Frankl, V. (1969). The will to meaning. NY: New American Library. 

6. 
Frankl, V. (1975). The unconscious God. NY: Simon & Schuster. 

7. 
Friedman, H. (Ed.). (1991 ). Hostility, coping, and health. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association. 

8. 
Kass, J. (1991, April). Integrating spirituality into personality theory and counseling practice. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Counseling Association, Reno, NV. 

9. 
Kass, J., Friedman, R., Leserman, J., Caudill, M., Zuttermeister, P., & Benson, H. (1991 ). An inventory of positive psychological attitudes with potential relevance to health outcomes. Behavioral Medicine, 17, 121-129. 

10. 
Kass, J., Friedman, R., Leserman, J., Zuttermeister, P., & Benson, 


H. (1991 ). Health outcomes and a new measure of spiritual experience. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 30, 203211. 
11. 
Lazarus, R., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. NY: Springer. 

12. 
May, R., & Yalom, I. (1989). Existential psychotherapy. In R. J. Corsini & D. Wedding (Eds.), Current psychotherapies. Itasca, IL: 


F. E. Peacock. 
13. Pargament, K., Matan, K. I., & Hess, R. E. (1992). Religion and prevention in mental health: Research, vision, and action. 
Binghamton, NY: The Haworth Press. 
14. Schumaker, J. F. (1992).Religionandmentalhealth. NY: Oxford University Press. 
15. 
Taylor, S. (1986). Health psychology. NY: Random. 

16. 
Tillich, P. (1952). The courage to be. New Haven: Yale University Press. 

17. 
Yalom, I. (1981 ). Existentialpsychotherapy. NY: Basic Books. 


19 

The International Forum for Logotherapy, 1996, 19, 20-22. 
STAGES AND TREATMENT ACTIVITIES IN FAMILY LOGO THERAPY 
Jim Lantz 
The terms "family logotherapy," "Franklian family therapy," and "existential family therapy"7,s,9, 10 are all used to describe an approach to the treatment of couples and families based on the concepts of Viktor 
23455
Frankl. 1,,, ,, In family logotherapy, there is a consistent focus on the human encounter between logotherapist and client family, on the growth opportunities to be found in crisis and family life stage change, and on the family's desire to discover a sense of meaning and purpose in marital and family life.9 My approach 
7 910
to family logotherapy, developed over the past 25 years, ,s, , considers the function of the therapist to help the family "notice" meaning potentials in the future, to "actualize" meaning potentials in the here and now, and to "re-collect" and "honor" meaning potentials previously actualized and deposited in the past. This shrinks the family existential vacuum and the symptoms that flourish in it. 1' 9 The stages of the treatment process and treatment activities that have proved useful in the practice of family logotherapy are outlined below. 
The Initial Stage 
Assessment and joining activities are used in the initial stage to help the family and therapist identify characteristics in each other that they can appreciate, respect, enjoy, admire, and confirm.7, 10 In this joining stage, the therapist must decide whether he or she is willing to engage lllll in a self-transcendent relationship with the couple or family seeking help. If the therapist can manifest self-transcendence with the family, he or she will begin to experience an empathic connection with the 
20 
family's pain. Such empathic connection provides the family enough 
8 9 10
support to move into the working stage of treatment.7· •• A 9:IXrd 
important part of the initial stage is assessment of the depth and intensity of the family existential vacuum and the patterns that disrupt the noticing and actualizing of meaning potentials. Assessment activities include circular questions, the Purpose in Life Test, metaphorical questions, observation of transactional patterns during conjoint treatment interview, art assessment methods, family projective drawings, and a variety of family self-report evaluation techniques.,8·9 
The Working Stage 
In the middle or working stage of family logotherapy, network intervention, social-skills training, and existential reflection activities are used to help the couple or family to notice meaning potentials, actualize them in the present, and remember meaning potentials in the past.9• 10 
Network intervention activities are used to help increase the meaning opportunities and potentials in the client family's environment.7'8'9 Network intervention activities most frequently are used to help the family notice meaning potentials in the social environment and find resources to help them actualize them.9 • 10 
Social-skills training activities refer to the interventions made by the therapist to influence family interaction and problem-solving in a healthy direction and help the family do a better job of actualizing and utilizing the meaning potentials found in daily life.9 In social-skills training, the therapist challenges pathogenic or meaning-disrupting family or marital interaction, and encourages healthy or "meaning enhancement" interaction. Social-skills training activities also encourage healthy problem-solving and facilitate the family's skill in using problem-solving skills to actualize marital and family meaning potentials. 9 
To help the family notice meaning potentials in the future and to recollect those of the past, existential reflection and/or Socratic 
8 910
reflection are used.7• •• Questions, interpretations, comments, and personal interest stimulate and facilitate family and marital reflection about past, present, and future meanings, often using art, poetry, circular questions, prayer, drama, literature, life review, active imagination, ritual, music, confirmation, celebration, and the "I-Thou" dialogue. Numerous examples of social-skills training, network intervention, and existential reflection treatment activities can be found in Existential Family Therapy: Using the Concepts of Viktor Frankl.9 
21 
The Ending Stage 
The ending stage of treatment evaluates and uses termination activities to help the family and therapist decide whether treatment has been useful, should be terminated, and if so, to say goodbye. In my work with families, I use single-subject case design methods and the Purpose in Life Test to facilitate dialogue with the couple or family about the usefulness of treatment and its continuation. If there is a mutual decision to terminate the therapy, adequate time should be allowed to give the family and therapist a chance to celebrate the work they have done together during the treatment process, and to say goodbye. 
JIM LANTZ, PH.D. [1947 College Road, Columbus, Ohio 43210 USA] 
is Director of the Worthington Marital Therapy Institute, a life member of the Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy, a Dip/ornate in Logo therapy, and a faculty memberat The Ohio State University College of Social Work. 
References 
1. 
Frankl, V. (1955). The Doctor and the soul. NY: Vintage. 

2. 
Frankl, V. (1959). From death ca.mp to existentialism. Boston: Beacon Hill. 

3. 
Frankl, V. (1967). Psychotherapy and existentialism. NY: Simon & Schuster. 

4. 
Frankl, V. (1969). The will to meaning. NY: New American Library. 

5. 
Frankl, V. (1975). The unconscious God. NY: Simon & Schuster. 

6. 
Frankl, V. (1978). The unheard cry for meaning. NY: Simon & Schuster. 

7. 
Lantz, J. (1974). Existential treatment and the Vietnam veteran family. Ohio Department of Mental Health Yearly Report, 33-36. Columbus: Ohio Department of Mental Health. 

8. 
Lantz, J. (1978). Family and marital therapy. NY: AppletonCentury-Crofts. 

9. 
Lantz, J. (1993). Existential family therapy: Using the concepts of Viktor Frankl. Northvale: Jason Aronson. 

10. 
Lantz, J. (1995). Frankl's concept of time: Existential psychotherapy with couples and families. Journal of lllll Contemporary Psychotherapy, 25, 135-144. 


22 
The International Forum for Logotherapy, 1996, 19, 23-28. 
KAREN HORNEY AND VIKTOR FRANKL: OPTIMISTS IN SPITE OF EVERYTHING 
Robert C. Leslie 
This paper stresses five issues in which Karen Horney and Viktor Frankl share common ground: 
•differences 
from Freud 

•psychology 
in laymen's language 

•possibility 
for change 

•alternatives 
to depth treatment 

•place 
for values in psychology 


Differences from Freud 
Horney strongly differed from Freud, particularly on the concept of women. Her early writings on this subject were gathered together in the book Feminine Psyr;hology.5 · P13 She also differed with Freud about outlook on life: 
Freud has a pessimistic outlook on human nature and, on the grounds of his premises, was bound to have it. As he saw it, man is doomed to dissatisfaction whichever way he turns. He cannot live out satisfactorily his primitive instinctual drives without wrecking himself and civilization. He cannot be happy alone or with others. He has lost the alternative of suffering himself or making others suffer... 4• P-377 
Albert Schweitzer uses the terms "optimistic" and "pessimistic" in the sense of "world and life affirmation" and "world and· life negation." Freud's philosophy, in this deep sense, is a pessimistic one. Ours, with all its cognizance of the 
4 377
tragic element in neurosis is an optimistic one. · P 

23 
Frankl acknowledges his indebtedness to Freud but makes strong 
objection both to Freud's determinism and his reductionism: As a professor in two fields, neurology and psychiatry, I am fully aware of the extent to which man is subject to biological and sociological conditions. But in addition to being a professor in two fields, I am also a survivor of four camps--concentration camps, that is, and as such I also bear witness to the unexpected extent to which man is capable of defying and braving even the worst conditions conceivable ... Man is 
730 131
ultimately self-determining. 1· p. -
Logotherapy deviates from psychoanalysis in so far as it considers man as a being whose main concern consists in fulfilling a meaning and in actualizing values, rather than in the mere gratification and satisfaction of drives and instincts, or in merely reconciling the conflicting claims of id, ego, and superego, or in the mere adaptation and adjustment to society and 
environment. 7· P· 703 
Psychology in Laymen's Language 
Horney writes in a clear, direct style without much reference to 
complicated psychological jargon. She writes about the inner conflicts 
that we humans struggle with: A child can move toward people, against them, or away from them...Moving toward, he accepts his own helplessness ... and tries to win the affection of others and to lean on them. Only in this way can he feel safe with them. When he moves against people he accepts and takes for granted the hostility around him, and determines consciously to fight. He implicitly distrusts the feeling and intentions of others toward himself. He rebels in whatever ways are open to him. When he moves away from people he wants neither to belong nor to fight, but to keep apart. He feels he has not much in common with them, that they do not understand him anyhow. He builds up a world of his own--with nature, with his dolls, his books, his dreams. In each of these three attitudes one of the elements involved in basic conflicts is overemphasized: helplessness in the first, 
hostility in the second, and isolation in the third.9· p.4 2·43 1111111 
24 
Horney's point is not that these three movements are necessarily neurotic. Any one of us makes use of all these movements commonly and deliberately when the occasion calls for it. The neurotic aspect enters when one always, or at least characteristically, falls into one or another of these movements whether appropriate or not. In this sense, each movement can become a rut cut deeply into a personality. Horney is insistent that we can get out of such a rut, once it is recognized. 
Frankl has special appeal for ordinary, down-to-earth persons, who have no exalted opinion of themselves but who like to use their intelligence and like to be challenged. The language he uses is everyday and down-to-earth. Once when he was asked to distinguish between psychoanalysis and logotherapy, he had a clear and simple answer. He asked what the questioner believed to be the essence of psychoanalysis. The man answered: "During psychoanalysis, the patient must lie down on a couch and tell you things which are very disagreeable to tell." Frankl then said: ''In logotherapy, the patient may remain sitting erect but he must hear things which are sometimes difficult to hear." 1 · P-95 
In describing three different dimensions in life on which meaning can be found, Frankl lists them quite simply: 
What are the possibilities for giving life meaning, for realizing values? There are several answers. Men can give meaning to their lives by realizing what I call creative values, by achieving tasks. But they can also give me,ming to their lives by realizing experiential values, by experiencing the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, or by knowing one single human being in all his uniqueness. And to experience a human being as unique means to love him. 
But even a man who finds himself in the greatest distress, in which neither activity nor creativity can bring values to life, nor experience give meaning to it--even such a man can still give his life a meaning by the way he faces his fate, his distress. By taking his unavoidable suffering upon himself as a burden to be born he may yet realize values. 
Thus life has meaning to the last breath! For the possibility of realizing values by the very attitude with which we face our unchangeable suffering--this possibility exists to the very last moment. I call such values attitudinal values. The right kind of suffering--facing your fate without flinching--is the highest achievement that has been granted to man.2 · p.x, 11 
25 
Possibility for Change 
Horney writes that the human being can change and "go on changing as long as he lives," and she states the conditions that are needed to make growth possible: 
The human individual needs favorable conditions for his growth "from acorn to oak tree"; he needs an atmosphere of warmth to give him both a feeling of inner security and the inner freedom enabling him to have his own feelings and thought and to express himself. 
He needs the goodwill of others, not only to help him in his many needs but to guide hirn to become a more mature and fulfilled individual. 
...he also needs healthy friction with the wishes and wills of others.4' p. 18 
Frankl, when demonstrating logotherapy in the presence of a select group of clergymen at Pacific School of Religion in an afternoon seminar, worked with a heavily overweight woman who had been unable to become pregnant; she had five miscarriages. He expressed a critical attitude toward the doctors who had not concerned themselves with an overactive glandular condition. He then challenged her to take responsibility for her own life which was more than her glandular condition. Here are his words as taken from the tape recording of the session: 
You are not responsible for your five miscarriages, but you are all the more responsible for what you have made out of the predicament... To produce some children, this is not possible, but to accept the fate of a distasteful organism with an enlarged pituitary--this should be an incentive for you. 
Alternatives to Depth Treatment Horney tells how broad the opportunities are for being challenged to change. She states the issue in memorable words: 
Analysis is not the only way to resolve inner conflicts. Life itself remains a very effective therapist. Experience of any one of a number of kinds may be sufficiently telling to bring about personality change. It may be the inspiring example of a truly great person; it may be a common tragedy which by bringing the neurotic in close touch with others takes him out of his egocentric isolation; it may be association with persons so congenial that manipulating or avoiding them appears less 
3 240
necessary. · P 
26 
Frankl can be illustrated on how logotherapy works by a case history from Robert Barnes, president of the Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy. A young mother left her little girl in an automobile parked in a neighbor's yard. Intending to stay only a moment, she left the door open and the engine running. The neighbor's four-year-old girl saw a familiar car in the driveway, climbed in through the open door, and managed to release the brake. When the car began to move, the little girl, Mary, fell out and the car ran over her. Hearing some commotion outside, Mary's mother ran out and found little Mary badly bleeding in the driveway. She scooped Mary into her arms. Mary died there in the driveway. 
Mary's mother had terrible nightmares of the sight of her little girl bleeding to death in her arms. She sought help with no results. She finally found her way to Dr. Barnes who focussed on the action the young mother had taken in holding Mary tight in her arms: 
I am so glad that you took your daughter into your arms. That you didn't stop half-way to your child, frozen with terror, covering your eyes at the unbearable sight. Otherwise the last thing she saw would have been the dirty tire that rolled over her. Your action allowed her to face the eyes of her mother and read in them the love that had surrounded her all of her short life. 
[The mother replied] You mean it was good what I did, good for Mary. [Barnes goes on] I saw the dawn of a meaning behind the darkness of her pain. [The mother then responded] If this is so, then I can live with the memory of little Mary's blood-covered face. 
52 54
Self-transcendence had overcome self-pity.6• P-· 
Place for Values in Psychology Horney writes: 
However great man's possibilities for becoming destructive, the history of mankind also shows an alive and untiring striving toward greater knowledge about himself and the world around him, toward higher religious experiences developing greater spiritual powers and greater moral causes, toward better ways of living.4 • P-377 
My own belief is that man has the capacity as well as the desire to develop his potentialities and to become a decent human being and that these deteriorate if his relationship to others and hence to himself, is and continues to be, disturbed. 
27 
I believe that man can change and go on changing as long as he 
lives.3·P·19 
Frankl sets forth his credo: "Man has both potentialities [for good or evil] within himself; which one is actualized depends on decisions but not on conditions. "7• P-734 And regarding Auschwitz: 
Our generation is realistic for we have come to know man as 
he really is. After all, man is that being who has invented the 
gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who 
has entered those gas chambers with the Lord's Prayer or the 
Shema Yisrael on his lips. 1• P-135 
I do not know if JFK ever read Frankl, but if he didn't one of his speech writers must have. The familiar words spoken by JFK in 1961 are known to most of us: "Fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." Almost six years earlier similar words are recorded by Frankl: "I asked both my fellow prisoners whether the question was really what we expected from life. Was it not, rather, what life expected from us?"2 · p.v These words are a tribute, not only to Frankl but to Horney, as well. 
ROBERT C. LESLIE, Ph.D. [646 Santa Rosa Ave., Berkeley, California 94707 USA] is Professor Emeritus of Pastoral Psychology and counseling at the Pacific School ofReligion, Berkeley, and Curator of the Viktor Frankl Library and Memorabilia at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. 
References 
1. 
Frankl, V. (1962). Man's search for meaning. NY: Simon & Schuster Touchstone. 

2. 
Frankl, V. (1973). The doctor and the soul. NY: Alfred A. Knopf, Vintage. 

3. 
Horney, K. (1945). Our inner conflicts. NY: Norton. 

4. 
Horney, K. (1950). Neurosis and human growth. NY: Norton. 

5. 
Kelman, H. (1967). In K. Horney, Feminine psychology (introduction). NY: Norton. 

6. 
Lukas, E. (1993). Logotherapeutic crisis intervention: A case history. The International Forum for Logo therapy, 16, 51-54. 


28 

The International Forum for Logotherapy, 1996, 19, 29-33. 
"A NEW COURSE FOR MANAGEMENT" REVISITED 
Michael W. Wright 
In 1979, Oliver A. Phillips discussed the need for a different approach to business management. He discussed various tenets of logotherapy in terms of application to management practices: 
Logotherapy was developed in a clinical rather than a business environment. Its basic concept can be adjusted to application by management. Man's main motivation, his will to meaning, can be diverted in two directions, one leading to collective neurosis and the nihilistic view that life has no meaning, the other to existential frustration and the reductionist view that man is a robot. Only when a person's will to meaning is allowed to develop freely and responsibly, will he find meaning--through his activities, experiences, and attitudes. 
How far these psycho-philosophical concepts can be translated into the practical world is still an open question. This essay attempts to indicate how management can avoid the diversions of workers' will to meaning toward nihilism and reductionism. But to place the workers' will to meaning at the center of the production process would require fundamental changes in the value priorities of management, from efficiency toward human potential, from quantity of production to quality of work life, from power and money toward meaning. Few companies are willing to explore such value shifts. However, economic and ecological necessity may force a new course in management. And it may turn out, as preliminary observations indicate, that the long run 
29 
efficiency and profits may increase if they are no longer the 
primary goals, but emerge as by-products of a management 
that aims at allowing workers to find fulfillment.4 · P-310 
The purpose of this essay is to review Phillips' s comments, provide a brief update, and make some additional observations. Since 1979 there have been enormous changes in the competitive environment of the marketplace. 
Phillips points to the application of logotherapy principles to business management, the extent of which, he says, is an "open question." While the question may be open, there is little doubt that there are many opportunities available where logotherapy principles can have an impact in the business organization. While Phillips focuses on the corporate entity primarily, the same principles can be applied to include any organization whether it be a profit-oriented firm, a non-profit institution, or a governmental organization. Also, when he speaks of workers, one could include workers from all levels of the organization whether they are workers on the production line, supervisors, midlevel managers, or senior-level executives. 
Phillips was most prophetic when he stated that economic necessity may force a "new course in management." Economic necessity and the fight for survival of the business (and non--profit) enterprise in the 1990's has precipitated changes in organizational design and the methods used to carry out the mission of the organization. 
Probably two of the best-known advocates of redesigning and reinventing the corporation are Michael Hammer and James Champy.4 The economic necessity, which Phillips concluded may be the catalyst to initiate a change, is stated in no uncertain terms by Hammer and Champy: 
A set of principles laid down more than two centuries ago 
has shaped the structure, management, and performance of 
American businesses throughout the nineteenth and twentieth 
centuries. In this book, we say the time has come to retire 
those principles and to adopt a new set. The alternative is for 
corporate America to close its doors and go out of business. llllllll 
The choice is that simple and that stark.4 • P-1 
30 
One may deplore the fact that it takes a crisis to initiate change and once again "necessity is the mother of invention." The bad news is the crisis. The good news is that much of the solution does not need to be invented or reinvented. Aside from organizational design, applying many of the principles of logotherapy in releasing human potential and energy would go a long way in creating a psychologically healthier work environment for the employee. In fact, over the past 1 0 years or so, one can see definitive changes with respect to "job descriptions" and the development and use of "teams." 
Phillips cited the use of the team concept by the Topeka Gaines 
Pet Food plant whereby ... the plant employs semi-autonomous teams; each selects its own foreman, devises its own methods for doing work, determines the production quota, and makes job assignments. Every team member is trained to learn all jobs which are rotated so no one gets assigned to menial work all the time. . . Each worker participates in decision making, takes responsibility for it, and is actively involved in community affairs. . . . These examples project the will to meaning as a pervading force varying strands of mankind toward selftranscendence... A management realizing the consequences of the frustrated will to meaning in its work force will be able to unite with the workers in a common goal of dedication to a task beyond itself. · P-388
"4 The use of the team approach, if implemented properly, will develop the employee's sense of responsibility and the employee's capacity for decision making, resulting in a more meaningful work role. The concepts of teamwork, team building, and team goals also have implications in the logotherapeutic context. (Note: There are many different types of teams, including: semi-autonomous teams, enterprise circles, quality circles, virtual teams, project teams, selfdirected work teams, etc.). The use of the team concept has grown considerably since 1979. Numerous books have been published on the subject of teams, and most colleges and universities offer courses dealing with various aspects of teams. According to the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California, a survey of 
31 
the Fortune 1000 companies showed that 68% of the companies 
were using the self-directed work team approach, representing 1 0 % 
of the working population of the companies surveyed.1 
A matter of concern needs to be mentioned. Volumes of team success stories have been reported in books, magazines, and professional journals. There is every reason to believe that the team approach should be successful for the reasons mentioned by Phillips. However, there are also some stories where the team approach has failed. There can be multiple causes for a team to fail. However, one cause might be traceable to a misguided motive on the part of those who decide to use the team concept. Upon hearing of large reductions in operating expenses, huge increases in revenue, improved quality, or in short, increased profits, some companies or institutions will "jump on the bandwagon" seeing the end result without the care and understanding of the how, when, where, or why to implement the team concept. Machiavellian motives and Machiavellian implementation decrease the probability of success, especially when it comes to the self-directed work team approach. While the team concept represents tremendous possibilities, the motive for choosing this method should not be to exploit human potential. Poor implementation may have more to do with motive than with ignorance. 
Phillips correctly describes a role where logotherapy can enhance management theory and business practices. He also predicted it would take a crisis to cause a shift in values. He was at the forefront of thought by showing how the team approach could be utilized in releasing the human energy and potential of the employee. 
The traditional manager/subordinate relationship has been and should continue to be replaced by self directed-work teams. Team members will in general find that their potential will be unleashed through the capacity to make decisions, through commitment to shared goals, and through acceptance of increased individual responsibility. The results are more meaningful work activities, work experiences, and attitudes. 
The following words of Viktor Frankl are appropriate. They describe the aims of psychotherapy, but they also strike a common 1111& ground with the core principles found at the heart of the team approach and the aims of the "new management" theory: 
32 
Hitherto psychotherapy has given too little attention to the spiritual reality of man. For the aim of the psychotherapist should be to bring out the ultimate possibilities of the patient, to realize his latent values--remembering the aphorism of Goethe, which might well be adopted as the maxim of psychotherapy: "If we take people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat them as if they were what they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming. "2· p.a 
MICHAEL WRIGHT [2416 Hempstead, Toledo, Ohio 43606 USA] is 
a doctoral candidate in Human Resource Dt9velopment at the 
University of Toledo. 
References 
1. 
Dumaine, B. (1994). The trouble with teams. Fortune Magazine, 130 (5), 86. 

2. 
Frankl, V. (1986). The doctor and the soul. NY: Vintage Books. 

3. 
Hammer, M., & Champy, J. (1993). Reengineering the corporation. NY: Harper Collins. 

4. 
Phillips, 0. A. (1979). New course for management. In J. Fabry, 


R. Bulka, & W. Sahakian (Eds.). Logotherapy in action (pp. 307319). NY: Jason Aronson. 
33 
The International Forum for Logotherapy, 1996, 19, 34-38. 
EXPERIENCES WITH LOGOTHERAPY: NURSING THE ELDERLY 
Charlotte Stefanics 
Growing older can be an emotionally healthy and satisfying time of life. Most elderly adults adapt with little stress. 
Still, each year there are many adults over age 65 who commit suicide. Among the causes are depression and hopelessness, or lack of purpose and meaning. They have not prepared themselves for getting older, especially dealing with changes and losses in physiology, environment, and family. How one copes with changes and losses depends on attitudes and perceptions of self, others, and the world. 
Our society sends a not so subtle message that old people are a burden. The message is that they are no longer active, productive members of society--are useless. Many older adults believe this myth. 
As a nurse clinical specialist I have encountered these older adults who live superficially on what society projects. The elderly need to feel worthwhile, loved, and respected, especially those confined to nursing homes or being cared for by others. I have counseled many elderly clients who no longer have family or friends, because of family cut-offs, deaths, and childlessness. Establishing therapeutic interpersonal relationships is crucial to help them find purpose and meaning in their lives and feel valued as worthwhile persons. 
Clinical Experiences with the Elderly 
Many older adults in my practice in the domiciliary, nursing home, and clinic were depressed. These clients were thoroughly examined physically Ill and psychologically to help them reach a level of wellness where they could make changes in their way of thinking. Assisting in this process to 
34 
change and to find purpose and meaning in life, various interventions were used. 
Substance Abuse 
Group logoanalysis,1 developed by Crumbaugh and Henrion from Frankl's logotherapy, was the format used most with substance abusers, with the agreement that problem drinkers would not drink. The group discussed how logotherapy concepts could become part of one's life. Along with logotherapy concepts, communication skills and problemsolving techniques were taught. Group sessions were four days a week-two days of class instructions, and two days of discussions on how to apply their new knowledge. The program lasted three months, as all patients lived in the domiciliary. The group was an open group that admitted patients and terminated whenever they finished. One-to-one counseling followed. 
Many of these clients came from dysfunctional families with: one or both parents substance abusers, parents divorced when the children were young, or the children having been sent to live with the extended family. They had poor problem-solving skills--with little understanding as to the why of their existence, purpose and meaning of life, and how they could be in control of their lives. 
The result of this group therapy was awareness by the participants of their value as unique human persons who had many similarities yet were different. They learned to make informed decisions and realistic plans for their future. They accepted the past as it was and let go without guilt-learning from the past. Those whose families had been cut off often made contact again, and began the process of healing through forgiveness, of self first and then of others. The clients learned to view illness and suffering as a means of growth when they found personal meaning in these experiences. Frankl's statement, that in the state of tension created by suffering we understand the difference between what is and what ought to be, became the basis of taking control of their lives. The understanding of freedom and responsibility gave these clients confidence to take risks to change. 
Major Life Changes 
In caring for elderly residents both in nursing homes and assistedliving facilities, group and one-to-one counseling was the mode of assisting them. Clients who were incapacitated by physical impairment required health-care providers in an institutional setting and revealed varying levels of maturity. 
35 
One resident was irritable, had insomnia, ate poorly with periods of confusion. The nursing staff recognized her depression, and medication was ordered to help her cope. Her case history revealed, at 85 years of age and after 65 years of marriage, her husband died six months previously. She continued to live in her home for a few weeks, then she had a mild stroke and could no longer be alone. She went to live with her daughter, and, when her daughter was unable to care for her, to a nursing home. She had not had the opportunity to grieve for her several losses-her husband, her health, her environment, and her freedom to choose. When one dies, major change occurs. The resident had cared for her spouse when he had a heart problem. Both understood that one day death would separate them. To assist her in her grieving, it was important to develop a plan of care that provided consistency of care, personnel, and routine. As nursing staff carried out the plan, the resident began to share her losses. We focused on the positive loving aspects of her life with her husband and children. Talking with her daughter, who visited daily, helped her resolve feelings of inadequacy as well as her loss. Assisting the client to search for meaning in her life experiences, the counselor listened for the unique positive aspects of her life, such as love and devotion in her family relationships. This family had love for one another. The son who lived in another state visited her for a week. As she gradually worked through her grief, she left the nursing home to live with her daughter. A follow-up visit a few weeks after discharge showed a relationship of love and respect between daughter and mother. 
Loss of Control 
Loss of control that comes with loss of health can cause depression and hopelessness. Helplessness results when older adults perceive the events in their lives as overwhelming and uncontrollable. How they accept and grow from aging depends on their philosophy of life, their values, and how they attain and maintain purpose and meaning. Their will to meaning can motivate them to live fully and grow as persons. Accepting each phase of their life as having meaning, they can grow toward having integrity in old age. 
Some individuals reject life because they are unable to find any purpose and meaning, as many factors block their search. When they become depressed, feel hopeless and helpless, and see their lives as burdensome to themselves and others, they simply give up by withdrawal .,.... or rnfusal of nourishment or suicide. Their concept of suffering prevents _, them from enjoying life and health, so they have to be helped to choose a positive attitude. Life review can help search for some special incident unique to the person. 
36 
Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease 
I was called to help a group of chronic obstructive lung disease patients find new ways to live a life now altered by limitations. The goal was to focus on learning the mechanics of breathing and caring for physical needs. Then attitudes about how they could control their lives and choices were explored. We discussed sharing attitudes, the ability to cope, how to overcome obstacles, and how to live fully as valued and worthwhile persons. Purpose and meaning was found in learning to adapt in various ways to perform the tasks of daily living and making choices. 
Terminal Illness 
Nursing the terminally ill gave me the opportunity to assist them to live meaningfully to the end. Life review was an important method to assist them to look at their lives for meaning in many aspects. 
A great deal of growth occurs when the person looks back on painful experiences that at the time seem insurmountable, yet were conquered. This offers a view of suffering as that part of life that gave them new strength to live and cope with crises, even death. 
Life reviews are valuable for the terminally ill because new perspectives help with family healing and forgiveness. They are able to accept disappointments and mistakes but also see the results of those actions. In life review, we discuss life as a tapestry throughout which one sees only the threads and knots--however as one grows older with insights into self, the picture becomes clearer. The participants see the legacy of what they leave behind, that they were role models to others, and they touched others' lives as others touched theirs. They see the love shared by their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. The tasks of life they did with great care and love will live on for generations. 
An 86-year-old woman had been a second-grade teacher in a large eastern city for 40 years. She felt her life was not important because she never married and had children to carry on her beliefs and teachings. I asked her how many children she taught each year. She said, "Oh, about 30." I commented how wonderful it was that she influenced so many children in her many years of teaching. I added that those students were now parents and grandparents who passed on her teachings to other generations. I said, "Who doesn't remember their second-grade teacher? I certainly do." Her face broke into a smile as she said, "I never thought of it that way." Several weeks later she died peacefully. 
Another patient, in his life review, realized that he and his son had not communicated for at least 20 years and he couldn't remember clearly why they cut off. We called the son and asked him if he wanted to come to reconcile with his dying father. The son grasped the opportunity and arrived in time to reconcile with his father. The father died peacefully knowing his life had been worthwhile and valuable. 
Concluding Thoughts 
Throughout my nursing career I have taught nursing students, psychology interns, social workers, and various health-care providers the· concepts of logotherapy and how to use them to help patients find meaning in their illness, suffering, and dying. Logotherapy emphasizes that all human beings are unique, worthwhile, and valuable; that each person is irreplaceable and must find their own meanings in life--the meaning of the moment and ultimate meaning. It points out that suffering has value when the individual views unavoidable suffering as an experience to grow. This is true even for the final suffering. Frankl states, "Men can give meaning to their lives by realizing what I call creative values, by achieving tasks. But they can also give meaning to their lives by realizing experiential values, by experiencing the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, or by knowing one single human being in all his uniqueness. And to experience one human being as unique means to love him."2• p.x,i, 
The logotherapist's role is to evidence and broaden the visual field of the patient so that the spectrum of meaning and values become conscious. True human existence is essentially self-transcendence rather than self-actualization. Self-actualization cannot be attained if it is made an end in itself, but only as a side effect of selt-transcendence.3·P 113 Life is a process of experiences to grow and become, to live the unique tapes, to transcend through love. 
CHARLOTTE STEFANICS, Ed.D., ARNP, C.S. [955-B Wilmington Ave., Dayton, Ohio 45420 USA] is a Diplomate of Logotherapy and a Clinical Specialist in Nursing. 
References 
1. 
Crumbaugh, J., Wood, W., & Wood, C. (1980). Logotherapy, new help for problem drinkers. Chicago: Nelson-Hall. 

2. 
Frankl, V. (1965). The doctor and the soul. NY: Alfred A. Knopf. 

3. 
Frankl, V. (1969). Man's search for meaning. Boston: Beacon Press. 


38 
The International Forum for Logotherapy. 1996, 19, 39-40. 
The Death of a Logotherapist 
Mignon Eisenberg 
Max was a graduate student of the univers1t1es of life, living logotherapy before we married, before we met, and before he knew the word. He loved plants and people, from beggars to kings, and they loved him in return. He had a knack for making people feel at ease, and he got a similar response from those he met. Music was his greatest love, and from morning till late at night he would listen to classical music, profoundly immersed and happy. His interest in people made him listen to them, no matter how he felt personally. (Halloween, 1987) 
His life was one of adventures and risks, serving in the British army during World War 11, and Israel's 1948 War of Independence. Shortly after the war he fell ill with tuberculosis and went to the U.S. for radical surgery, the removal of a lobe of the left lung. Ten years later he suffered an almost fatal heart attack and had open heart surgery in Milwaukee. Back in Israel, at the end of the Gulf War in 1991, he had another heart attack and we flew to the U.S. to be close to his cardiologist. It turned out that his ailment was lung cancer, not the heart. He received radiation and made plans for travel to Alaska. 
Early in June 1995 we flew to visit with our sons and granddaughters in Los Angeles. Max became very ill and had to be hospitalized. We took him to the hospital where our younger son, a cardiologist, was practicing. I succeeded in obtaining a couch in Max's room, so our eyes could meet. When I expressed my concern, he said: "These are our most beautiful days together. We are closer than ever, every moment is so precious." Two days later his 
39 
condition worsened and the attending physician decided to prepare for a systoscopy. That night a friend of our son, a young plastic surgeon, and his wife came to visit. Max told them they were in the wrong room since he did not need a face-lift. 
I awoke at 2:00 in the morning. The room was full of people. The doctor had decided to do the systoscopy at once since Max had trouble breathing. When it was over, the doctor shook his head sadly. Nothing more could be done. The phone rang. Max lifted his oxygen mask and said: "If it rings again don't answer. It might be the angel of death." The call was from a friend in Manila. "Tell him I love him," said Max. 
A while later he lifted his mask again and said: "Do you know what I am thinking? Of Richard Strauss' four last songs. Especially the last line. 'Is this death'?" His last words were, "How beautiful!" The tough and hardened surgeon who stood next to him fell to his knees, hugged him, and said, crying: "If you see my father, tell him I loved him." 
MIGNON EISENBERG, Ph.D. is Director of the Viktor Frankl Institute of Israel [P.O. Box 3741 Ramat Hadar, Hod Hasharon, 45220 Israel] and teaches logotherapy at several Israeli universities. She is a Diplomate of the Viktor Frankl Institute ofLogotherapy in the U.S.A. and Director of the Midwest Logotherapy Institute in Chicago. 

40 

The International Forum for Logotherapy, 1996, 19, ·4 7 _44_ 
MEANING POTENTIALS OF BURNOUT IN THE HELPING PROFESSIONS 
Robert Shields 
Recently I became painfully aware that I was in the middle of a struggle with the phenomenon of burnout. I realized that one can battle with it for a long time and never recognize the enemy. I didn't recognize it for at least two years. Burnout is similar to depression in that it often remains unidentified as it siphons the energy of our existence. 
Paul Welter, a Diplomate and teacher of logotherapy, in a personal conversation, suggested that burnout is a spiritual issue best treated by calling forth the resources of the human spirit. It is a process, not an event, and therefore we can only learn to "work through it" as opposed to "getting over it." Our challenge is to recognize it, distance ourselves from it, choose a healthy attitude toward it, and self-transcend by using our experience as resources in teaching and counseling others. 
Imprisoned Spirit 
Burnout is an issue in which the human spirit is intricately involved, both in terms of the suffering and the solution. It is a process during which the human spirit is ignored within the confines of self-imposed psychic boundaries. The healing powers of the noetic are surrounded by walls of fatigue and disillusionment that seize control of our minds. At the worst stages of burnout, this struggle, even though vigorous, may go completely unnoticed by the victim. Without focus on the defiant power of the human spirit, this resource may never be released. The unwary helping professional is left feeling hopeless and desparate. Even though being oblivious to the noetic may not be its cause, burnout keeps us in the victim role and results in both inadequate therapeutic service to clients and attrition from the helping field. 
41 
The physical symptoms of burnout (fatigue, irritability, sleeplessness), its behavioral symptoms (coming to work late, loss of enthusiasm, boredom), and its psychological features (depression, emptiness, guilt) are well documented.4· p.s.s The following spiritual features are rarely noted as symptoms of burnout: 
• 
Loss of faith 

• 
Loss of meaning and purpose 

• 
Crisis of values 

•Heightened 
scrupulosity 

•Changes 
in religious ideas and affiliation 

•Feelings 
of despair 

•Alienation 
and estrangement 

• 
Lack of inspiration, courage, and vitality.4· P 5 


A Spiritual Crisis 
We are not talking about a weakness of the human spirit, but rather 
an apparent unawareness of or inability to use the healing resources that 
do exist. Burnout evolves in conjunction with a personal spiritual crisis in 
the following areas: Self-Confidence. Burnout victims feel that they are not doing as good a job as they know how to do.6· P-147 Responsibility. Dreams of escape and flight from responsibility are common symptoms.2· P-20 Burnout victims are prone to change jobs every three or four years, each accompanied by a brief "honeymoon" of exhilaration and relief. Feeling of Impotence. Some counselors have unrealistic expectations about the results of their therapy, leading from frustration and anxiety to disappointment and burnout.5· P-375 A second cause for the feeling of impotence is excessive work load and the anxiety of having barely scratched the surface of what needs to be done. Transitoriness. Dealing with the inevitability of death has profound implications on the counselors' encounter with burnout. With each advancing year they must face the fact that they have one year less to reach their most important goals. Energy. Loss of energy (fatigue, physical depletion, tiredness) is identified as a symptom of burnout by every author I have read. The wounding consequence of burnout is the erosion of self
distancing and of dereflecting from the symptoms. This leads to the 11111111. 
encapsulation of the healthy spiritual core and to a fixation in the victim 
role. 
42 
Preventive Measures 
Helping professionals who experience burnout need to be shown that these symptoms are vital signs of an opportunity for spiritual awakening and transformation. An existential crisis such as burnout can lead to an intrinsic spiritual healing.1 • p.a, Awakening of these noetic resources can result in a spiritual transformation that includes personality changes such as greater authenticity, actualization of inner potential, and a positive selfconcept; as well as an increased appreciation of life, concern for others, and a quest for meaning in life. 
Paul Welter, in his logotherapeutic training process, points out that in working with burnout it is helpful to incorporate a creative task. This aids in dereflection from the symptoms to self-transcendence and eventually modulation of attitude. He also suggests that, as we first experience burnout, it has a controlling grip on us. However, as we engage in a prolonged struggle for understanding and we "wallow" in its mire, the process reverses itself and we begin to recognize that it need not control us. We, in fact, become the masters of our own fate. It is essential that helping professionals suffering from burnout be guided away from the victim-based external locus of control toward acceptance of the internal locus of control mode. 
The following resources for prevention and treatment are worthy of consideration: 
• 
Interventions for spiritual awakening including meditation, creative visualization, imagery, and rhythmic breathing.1• P-172 

• 
A readily accessible support system--at least one person to turn to with the assurance of being understood and accepted. Also, involvement in a support group. 

• 
The ability to be aware and respond to the meaning of the moment. We can neither change the past or control the future, but we can be open and response-able to the present. 

• 
Creation of a personal mission statement. This enables us to identify our priorities and translate them into specific daily goals that focus on the present in realizing our mission. 

• 
Responsiveness to family and leisure needs. 


Conclusion 
Frankl3 has translated an abstract, humanistic philosophy into specific guidelines for everyday work. His method is based upon a clear set of values concerning living, responsibility, and self-transcendence; and it includes specific processes and steps for working with clients. 
Adoption of logotherapy as a lifestyle and therapeutic philosophy has increased my commitment to the helping profession, and it has given me tools to work with in defining and managing my own burnout symptoms. 
43 
It has helped reduce the crises of confidence, responsibility, feelings of impotence, transitoriness, and energy that have contributed to my burnout condition: 
Responsibility. Logotherapy has taught me to activate attitudinal change in times of distress by asking myself, "What is life asking of me at this difficult time?". This self-distancing, socratic question awakens me to the fact that I do have choices. The choice to transcend self-indulgence by reaching out to a student, friend, family member, or stranger is a key to burnout prevention. 
Confidence. Logotherapy has armed me with an arsenal of intervention skills that I can call upon in working with students and clients in almost any situation. The availability of these tools and recognition of their effectiveness builds self-confidence in my helping skills. 
Feeling of Impotence. Logotherapeutic concepts have helped my students who are struggling with guilt, depression, addiction, abuse, etc. to change their self-image from that of victims to that of masters. This has made all the difference. 
ROBERT SHIELDS, CPC, LMHP [Central Community College, Hastings, Nebraska 68902 USA], a Dip/ornate in logotherapy, is a counselor and specialpopulations advocatepracticing logotherapy at Central Community College. Mr. Shields provides classroom and workshop instruction in Dr. Frankl's concepts within the Central Community College service area. He is presently a participating instructor with Dr. Paul Welter in Introductory Logotherapy Training. 
References 
1. 
Chandler, C., Holden, J., & Kolander, C. (1992). Counseling for spiritual wellness: Theory and practice. Journal of Counseling, 5, 85-89. 

2. 
Estes, K. (1982). A descriptive understanding of burnout in teaching. Colorado Journal of Educational Research, 20, 16-20. 

3. 
Frankl, V. (1965). The doctor and the soul. NY: Vintage Books. 

4. 
Grosch, W., & Olson, D. (1994). When helping starts to hurt: A new look at burnout among psychotherapists. NY: W. N. Norton. 

5. 
Kestenbaum, J. (1984). Expectations for therapeutic growth: One Ill factor in burnout. Social Casework, June, 374-377. 

6. 
Welter, P. (1987). Counseling and the search for meaning. Waco, 


TX: Word Books. 
44 
The International Forum for Logotherapy, 1996, 19, 45-55. 
EXPERIENCING JOY AND SORROW: AN EXAMINATION OF INTENSITY AND SHALLOWNESS 
Zipora Magen, Menucha Birenbaum, & Dvora Pery 
(ABSTRACT) The present study explored whether perceived human experience may be best typified by its intensity or by its joyous-tosorrowful nature. The study examined students' most joyful and sorrowful experiences in terms of intensity (ranging from shallow to "peak") and in terms of content in three areas (with self, with external world, and interpersonal). The sample included two age groups {adolescents and young adults) and used two questionnaires (the Positive Experience Questionnaire and the Negative Experience Questionnaire). In contrast with expectations, no age differences were found. In line with the hypotheses, consistency in the intensity level and content selection of experiences was revealed, irrespective of their 
joyous or sorrowful character. The results were interpreted to suggest that human experience is typically perceived along a continuum from intense-meaningful to shallow-empty rather than along a spectrum from happy-joyful to pained-sorrowful. The results also support Frankl's thesis that meaning exists under all circumstances. Further supported is the concept that people's experiences with other human beings, rather than with themselves alone or with the external world, are the most meaningful. 
Humanistic psychology has not directed great emphasis toward aspects of age-related development,74 but rather has focused on the evolution of the inner life. Nevertheless, psychological developmental characteristics have been claimed to correlate with the manner in which a person experiences life at different ages.z,7 The present study sought to compare young adults with adolescents on the 

45 
question of whether individuals who experience joy at high vs. low intensity also experience sorrow to the same degree. Our contention was that both the ability to experience life events in their entirety and the capacity to attribute the fullest level of meaning to life events would be related to the same personality components, regardless of the joyous or sorrowful nature of the experiences. Moreover, this study aimed to determine whether joyous vs. sorrowful experiences on the one hand, and deep vs. shallow experiences on the other hand, can be differentiated according to their content: with oneself, the external world, or other people. 
Method Sample 
A sample of 140 students participated in the study. Seventy adolescents, 1 5 to 1 6. 5 years old, were students at three academic high schools in central Israel, and 70 young adults, 20 to 25 years old, were undergraduate students at a major Israeli university in the same area. 
Instruments 
Positive Experience Questionnaire (PEQ). The PEQ6 consists of an open-ended question that elicits written descriptions of moments or experiences in one's past that evoked extremely good feelings; where, as a consequence, life seemed wonderful. The phenomenological mode of inquiry was selected to allow the subjects freedom of expression in reporting the experience as perceived and remembered. This scale has been shown to control for verbal or written ability with various samples.9 , 10 
The reported most positive remembered experiences (MPREs) were rated by trained judges on two dimensions. The first dimension was content, and the second dimension was intensity. 
Content was classified into three categories using the PEO as a nominal scale,5 as has been done in previous studies.8'9 Following are guidelines for the three categories plus examples collected from the current sample: 
Experiences with self (a subjective moment of self
awareness). For example, "I left the drama class, which was Ill 
great, and where I learned I had talent. They really enjoyed the 
bit I performed. When I left the class, it was Springtime outside, 
everything was blooming and was colored yellow. I went out 
46 
and breathed in the smell of spring, and I felt simply wonderful, because of the sudden discovery of this ability inside me." 
Experiences with the external world (an essentially sensuous relationship to things). For example, "I felt that I wanted to get off the bus, to actually just jump out of the window and to start to run in the fields and to yell, to feel the freedom and the expanse, .and this made me feel wonderful and good. Later in the trip we passed by a place with an incredible view, a wadi with water, lots of trees and greenery, where a cave was cut out of a mountain. I felt that I wanted to live in this place. All of the nature and the expanses made me feel a freedom that l could do whatever I want, and live however I want and my life seemed beautiful and wonderful." 
Experiences with others (interpersonal experiences, i.e., a dialogue or encounter between self and others). For example, "It sounds banal in some of the cases, but in the case of my husband and me, I think we're a perfect couple. I discovered in one person all of the things I ever dreamed for and wanted. The night of our wedding was simply happiness itself. A wonderful feeling: that the world is beautiful and is spread out before me and that everything is smiling at me and love overflows from everything near." Or, "An experience of happiness from a meeting with a special person, from talking with him, from our shared excitement, from the ability to give of oneself, to share, to listen, and to be together. That evening will always be etched in my memory." Intensity was rated on a 4-point continuous scale developed by 
Magen9 on the basis of Maslow's16 approach to the intensity of experience, consisting of Barely positive = 1, Satisfying andpleasurable but nothing more = 2, Meaningful and intense, having caused some change in perception but lacking inspiration or feelings of transcendence 
= 3, and Highly intense (peak) experiences = 4. Following are examples of levels 1 and 4 collected from the current sample: Level 1. "A trip abroad, travelling to France, England, Holland. visiting places, walking, and seeing new places." 
Level 4. "I arrived at this wonderful place in Europe. The river, the buildings, the grass, it was really a one-time thing, an incredibly strong experience...the powerful intensity of that place. I felt I was in a world where every single thing was good and wonderful. ..I always say that if I have to die, then there. It was really really good, really." Or, "At this gathering, I felt I was a part of my people, and that finally I had a goal 
47 
in life. I felt like I'd suddenly found a reason to live. My whole world seemed to open up toward a big, new hope." 
Negative Experience Questionnaire (NEQ). The construction of the NEO was based on the PE0. 13 The NEO constitutes one open-ended question that elicits written descriptions of those moments or experiences in one's past that evoked deep feelings of sorrow and anguish where, as a consequence, life seemed difficult and painful. 
In a similar manner to the MPREs, the reported most negative remembered experiences (MNREs) were rated by trained judges on two dimensions: content and intensity. Content was classified into three categories using the NEO as a nominal scale. Following are excerpts from examples collected from the current sample: 
Experiences with self. "Job failure: It was in the army. It probably wasn't any real, specific failure of mine, but rather it was a general sense of my incautious performance that caused me to leave the post with a difficult feeling about certain abilities of mine. It's clear to me that there were things I did badly during my post. But the dominant feeling was: I blew it. It caused me to have a rea! low self-regard about anything that had to do with my ability to fulfill such a position." 
Experiences with the external world. "That week I felt bad. I felt burdened by this view of the 'real' world as full of obligations and tasks you have to fulfill in order to succeed. The modern world looked completely negative to me and full of stupid norms. I felt really down. I started to believe in getting back to nature." 
Experiences with others. "A difficult experience for me was breaking up with a boyfriend I loved. But I made the decision to break off our relationship, with the clear knowledge that we still loved each other. I cried, I felt terrible, and just wanted to be alone." Intensity was rated on a 4-point continuous scale which was 
developed by Magen and Pery13 on the basis of Maslow's16 approach to the intensity of experience, consisting of Barely negative = 1, Dissatisfying and unpleasant, but nothing else = 2, Meaningful and intense, having caused some change in perception = 3, and Highly lllll intense, sorrowful = 4. The following examples of levels 1 and 4 were collected from the current sample: 
48 
Level 1. "After the end of vacation, when I had to go back to school, I considered quitting. I thought: What a boring world... and it made me feel. .. not so great." 
Level 4. "While out of the country, I found out by coincidence about the suicide of a friend of mine, a few days after the funeral. I felt so weak; physically I felt a heat wave. I felt terrible, personally, that I hadn't been with him or helped him. My picture of the world changed completely--a bad, wrecked-up, and unfair world had abandoned him. I thought I would go crazy, everything I did took on this significance. There were moments of black-out, and moments when a terrible pain would flood me. My attitude toward people who are different became deeper and more human. I still think about him sometimes." 
Procedure 
The two questionnaires were administered to groups of 15-20 students in both high-school and university classrooms. Each student completed the questionnaires individually and anonymously. A 2-week period separated the two questionnaires, and their order was alternated to counterbalance any effect of one measure on the subsequent measure. No significant differences were found between the group who received the PEO first and the group who completed the NEO first. 
Rater Training and Reliability 
Three raters who were graduate students in counseling were trained and supervised by the first author. Training and reliability testing were conducted on the PEO and on the NEO separately in four stages, first on intensity and then on content for each type of experience, in order to prevent contaminatory effects of content matter on intensity ratings. Reliability of scoring intensity was tested repeatedly with examples from previous studies until Pearson correlation coefficients were obtained between. 77 and .92 for the PEO and between. 75 and .87 for the NEO. For content category, an inter-judge reliability level of 90% was calculated according to Fox3 for both the MPREs and MNREs. 
Results Content of Experiences 
Table 1 presents the distributions of the total sample and the two sub-samples--adolescents and young adults--with respect to the three content areas (self, external world, and interpersonal) for the MPREs and MNREs. A chi-square test was conducted for the content of each experience type in order to examine the differences between the two 
49 
age groups in the three content categories--this yielded nonsignificant results. As can be seen in the table, the most dominant content category for both types of experiences was the interpersonal one, including 50% of the positive and 70% of the negative experiences in the total sample. 
Table 1 
Distributions of responses on the three content areas ofpositive and negative experiences in the total sample and the two sub-samples 
Content area 
Group  With Self  With  Inter- Total  
external  personal  
world  

Variable  %  {N)  %  {N)  %  {N)  %  (Nl  
Positive experiences (MPREs)  Adolescents Young adults Total sample  28.6 (20) 31.4 (22) 30.0 (42)  25.7(18) 14.3 (10) 20.0 (28)  45.7 (32) 54.3 (38) 50.0 (70)  100.0 (70) 100.0 (70) 100.0 (140)  
Negative experiences (MNREs)  Adolescents Young adults Total sample  18.6 (13) 18Ji(13) 18.6 (26)  12.8 (09) 10.0 (07) 11.4(16)  68.6 (48) 100.0 (70) 71.4 (50) 100.0 (70) 70.0 (98) 100.0 (140) --·----- 
Consistency"  Adolescents Young adults Total sample  10.0 (01) 10.0 (07) 10.0 (14)  8.6 (06) 8.6 (06) 8.6 (12)  40.0 (28) 45. 7 (32) 42.8 (60)  58.6 64.3 61.4  (41) (45) (86)  

"Subjects achieving concistency between positive and negative experiences (N = 86) 
Content Consistency 
The consistency of subjects' content categories was investigated over the two types of experiences. Cramer correlations between the MPREs and MNREs with respect to the content areas yielded a coefficient of + .33 for adolescents, +.50 for young adults, and + .39 (p < .001) for the total sample. Table 1 also presents the distribution of the consistency in responses to the two types of experiences across the Ill three content areas for the total sample and the two sub-samples. As can be seen in the table, 61 % of the total sample (n = 86) reported MPREs and MNREs that were classified into the same content category. 
50 
No significant differences emerged between the two age groups in their consistency rates. 
Intensity of Experiences 
Table 2 presents the distributions of the total sample and the two sub-samples with respect to the four levels of intensity for the MPREs and MNREs. Two t-tests were conducted, with age group (adolescents/young adults) as the independent variable and intensity level ( 1-4) as the dependent variable. The t-test performed for the MPREs yielded a nonsignificant t value, whereas the t-test conducted for the MNREs revealed age differences (adolescents: M =3.16, SD=.72; young adults: M=2.90, SD=.82; t=-1.98, p=.05). The dominant intensity level for both types of experiences was Level 3. In the total sample, 44% of the positive and 53% of the negative experiences were rated as meaningful/intense. 
Table 2 Distribution of responses on the four intensity levels ofpositive and negative experiences in the total sample and the two sub-samples 
lntensitlc:'. level 
Group 2 3 4 Total 
Variable  %  (N)  %  (Nl  %  (N)  %  (N)  %  (Nl  
Positive exps. (MPREs)  Adoles. Y. adults Total  8.6 (06) 11.4 (08) 10.0 (14)  30.0 (21) 24.3 (17) 27.2 (38)  41.4 (29) 47.2 (33) 44.3 (62)  20.0 (14) 17.1 (12) 18.5 (26)  100.0 (70) 100.0 (70) 100.0 (140)  
Negative exps. (MNREs)  Adoles. Y. adults Total  1.4 (01) 14.3 (10) 7.1 (05) 17.1(12) 4.3 (06) 15.7 (22)  51.4 (36) 54.4 (38) 52.8 (74)  32.9 (23) 21.4(15) 27.2 (38)  100.0 (70) 100.0 (70) 100.0 (140)  

Consis- Adoles.  1.4 (01)  8.6 (06) 28.6 (20)  15.7(11)  54.3  (38)  
tency"  Y. adults  4.3 (03)  8.6 (06) 30.0 (21)  8.5 (06)  51.4  (36)  
Total  2.8 (04)  8.6 (12) 29.3 (41)  12. 1 (17)  52.9  (74)  

"Subjects achieving consistency between positive and negative experiences 
(N = 74) 
Intensity Consistency 
The consistency of subjects' intensity levels was examined over the two types of experiences. A Pearson product moment correlation 
51 
coefficient between the MPRE intensity and the MNRE intensity for each age group yielded similar coefficients for adolescents (+.59) and young adults ( + .58, p < .001). Table 2 also presents the distribution of the consistency in responses to the two types of experiences across the four intensity levels for the total sample and the two sub-samples. As can be seen in the table, about 53% (n =74) of the subjects in the entire sample reported MPREs and MNREs that were rated at the same intensity. No significant differences emerged between the two age groups in their consistency rates. 
Discussion 
On the basis of the consistency found between the intensities ot the most joyous and sorrowful remembered experiences, with no age differences, one may speculate that the strength of a person's experiencing is not random or incidental but rather expresses the individual's unique capacity. In other words, human experience is typically perceived along a continuum from intense-meaningful to shallow-empty rather than along a spectrum from happy-joyful to pained-sorrowful. 
The data support Frankl' s thesis that meaning exists under all circumstances.4 "Meaning can be achieved through a deed or work (such as art, nature, beauty, or love) and through a change in attitude. "4• P·66 The early distinction between peak and non-peak positive experiences, 15 which was later broadened to a 4-ievel scale,9 11 defined the non-peak end of the continuum not as sorrowful or painful, but rather as barely positive experiences with a shallow emotional intensity or meaning, The current study endeavored to explore the possible relations between human experiencing of positive and negative life events; therefore, the utilization of the intensity scale was introduced here for both types of experiences. 
Highly intense positive experiences have been found previously to be related to characteristics of the healthy personality, to a willingness to contribute beyond oneself for a cause or other people, and to resources such as comprehensibility, manageability, and 
11 12
meaningfulness.9• • However, all of these were investigated solely in relation to positive experiences, whereas the present study added a new dimension to this body of research, namely, the ability to experience life Ill events of a painful and sorrowful nature. 
The current study's intensity scale not only allowed for the examination of the correlation between positive and negative experiences, but also enabled an inquiry into the consistency of intensity 
52 
levels for different types of life events. The consistency of intensity level found between positive and negative experiencing was more prominent at the higher intensity levels than at the lower ones, providing support to Barnes1 who concluded that those who have gone down into the depths of life are most certain of its heights. 
It also appeared that more of the young people studied reached a level of mea_ning through negative experiences than through positive experiences, highlighting the importance of all kinds of experiences and not just joyous ones in the development of a sense of meaning in one's life, and substantiating yet again the defiant power of the human spirit.4 
With regard to the different contents of experiences, interpersonal life events were the most frequently reported content category for positive experiences, corroborating previous research.5 •8·9 The same finding shown for negative experiences in the present study highlights the importance of interpersonal contact for arousing both joyous and sorrowful sensations, stressing the complexities inherent in interpersonal relations. As expressed by one of the subjects, "This wonderful experience happened one day when I saw a small boy standing in the street. A car jumped out from around the corner. I ran over, jumped, and grabbed the boy, and threw him out of the road. I guess I saved his life. I felt so good. I had done something about it. That was a real experience, a fantastic, amazing feeling." People's experiences with other human beings, rather than with themselves alone or with the external world, are their most meaningful and predominant source of joy and delight. At the same time, significant experiences of deep pain and sorrow are also most frequently those experiences related to other people. Thus, the highest consistency appeared in the domain of human interrelations. 
In contrast to expectations, age was not found to have an impact on the intensity of positive experiences or on the nature of life experiences. Adolescents and young adults revealed similar patterns not only in the depth and meaning of their joyous experiences but also in their consistency levels and highest reported frequency of interpersonal experience. 
The subjective nature of this study raises several questions concerning its limitations. The only access to human experience is through the individual's memory via his or her reporting. The selection and quality of a memory may be affected by a wide range of situational and dispositional factors. However, the judges' training in the present study attempted to eliminate the effect of factors such as verbal skill. In spite of the subjective data, the methodology used quantitative 
53 
analysis; however, the issue of causal directionality could not be addressed. In addition, the two subsamples were derived from academic educational settings and may not be representative of the general population. 
Nevertheless, the results of this study seem to hold implications for education, parenting, and counseling. Educators, parents, and mental health professionals should maintain cognizance of the value not only of increasing children's opportunities for pleasant and joyous experiences, but also of fostering youngsters' courage to fully experience even sorrowful and painful events, because all of these have growth-promoting potential in the human lifetime. The young people themselves give the best insight into the growth-promoting potential of such openness to experiencing: "It was a time of blossoming and great hope," "I felt like my whole world caved in on me," "The future was painted in a wonderful light." Although many of the events in children's lives often are not within the control of the adults in their environment, the present study indicates that the important aspect of life events is the ability to subjectively experience them to their fullest, rather than their negative or positive nature. Facilitation of strong emotlonal arousal and responsiveness to the surrounding world and the discovery of a personal sense of meaning may enable young people to enrich their lives, increase their sense of belonging, and sharpen their sensitivity to self and others. 
ZIPORA MAGEN, Ph.D. [Department of Counseling, School of Education, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel] has been a school counselor and teacher and has authored articles in the fields of humanistic psychology and ofadolescent andparent counseling, among others. For many years she chaired the university's graduate level counseling program and is presently Associate Professor at the university. 
MENUCHA BIRENBAUM is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Education at Tel Aviv University. Her specialization is educational and psychological measurement and assessment. 
DVORA PERY has been a graduate student at Tel Aviv University and Ill is presently a counselor in the educational system. 
54 
References 
1
. Barnes, R. C. ( 1 994). Finding meaning in the unavoidable suffering. International Forum for Logotherapy, 17, 20-26. 

2. 
Erikson, E. H. (1969). Identity, youth and crisis. NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. 

3. 
Fox, D. J. (1969). The research process in education. NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. 

4. 
Frankl, V. (1992). Meaning in industrial society. International Forum for Logotherapy, 15, 66-70. 

5. 
Jourard, S. M., & Landsman, T. (1980). Healthy personality: An approach from the viewpoint of humanistic psychology. NY: 

Macmillan. 

6. 
Landsman, T. (1969). The beautiful person. The Futurist, 3, 41-42. 

7. 
Levinson, D. Y. (1978). The seasons of a man's life. NY: Knopf. 

8. 
Magen, Z. (1983). Re-forming the boundaries: A trans-cultural comparison of positive experiences among adolescent males and females. Adolescence, 18, 851-858. 

9. 
Magen, Z. (1985). Cross-cultural personality correlates of intensity and content category of positive experience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 1 631-1 642. 

10. 
Magen, Z. (1990). Positive experiences and life aspirations among adolescents with and without hearing impairments. International Journal of Disability, Development, and Education, 37, 57-69. 

11. 
Magen, Z., & Aharoni, R. (1991 ). Adolescents' contributing toward others: Relationship to positive experiences and transpersonal commitment. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 31, 126-143. 

12. 
Magen, Z., Birenbaum, M., & llovich, T. (1992). Adolescents from disadvantaged neighborhoods: Personal characteristics as related to volunteer involvement. InternationalJournal for the Advancement of Counseling, 15, 47-59. 

13. 
Magen, Z., & Pery, D. (1990, August). Positive and negative experiences ofadolescents and young adults. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Boston. 

14. 
Mahrer, A. R. (1978). Experiencing: A humanistic theory of psychology and psychiatry. NY: Brunner Mazel. 

15. 
Maslow, A. H. (1970). Motivation and personality (2nd ed.). NY: Harper & Row. 


16. Maslow, A. H. (1971 ). The farther reaches of human nature. NY: 
Viking. 
55 
The International Forum for Logotherapy, 1996, 19, 56. 
Logotherapeutic Aphorisms by Elisabeth Lukas 
The positive is in us--or nowhere. Paradoxical intention normalizes, dereflection heals. Don't underestimate the power of the human spirit, 1t 1s an enormous 
reservoir of energy from which psychotherapy may draw. If the search for meaning leads to a meaning vacuum, despair results. The crisis of today is the chance of tomorrow. Poverty is a danger for the body; boredom a danger for the spirit. An unhealthy attitude is always !inked to some form of passivity. The wonderful ability to forget oneself is half of a successful therapy. Science has never cured despair, not even in the twentieth century. To eliminate a concrete problem is more important in therapy than to 
search for a spectacular cause. 
In psychotherapy, no technique--not even the best--can equal personal involvement. Psychotherapists are said to look down into the abyss of the human 
psyche; in reality they often look up, amazed and with awe, to the 
achievements of the human spirit. Self-transcendence is the medicine for the most "incurable" sickness of the psychic illnesses--egoism. 
56 
The International Forum for Logotherapy, 1996, 19, 57-58. 
A REPORT ON THE TENTH WORLD CONGRESS ON LOGOTHERAPY 
Robert C. Barnes 
Viktor Frankl's Message: Search for Meaning in Our Troubled World 
was the theme of the Tenth World Congress of Logotherapy held in Dallas, Texas, July 26-30, 1995. The Congress was dedicated to Viktor 
E. Frankl in honor of his ninetieth birthday anniversary. Participants came from 19 countries, representing 6 continents. 
Because of health reasons, Professor Frankl was unable to travel to the United States. However, he and his wife, Eleonore gave the Congress a significant gift by making it possible for their granddaughter, Katharina Vesely, and their grandson, Alexander Vesely, to participate in the World Congress. 
Commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Holocaust and the liberation of the Nazi prison camps, the uniform worn by TSgt. Barton T. Fuller (U.S. Army), one of the soldiers in the Texas regiment that liberated Viktor Frankl from Turkheim (the last concentration camp where he was incarcerated), was on display at the Friday evening banquet. Providing the audience with a truly moving and poignant moment as Katharina and Alexander Vesely each placed a rose at the side of the World War II uniform, Frankl's granddaughter asked the audience to observe a moment of silence after she said, "Without the heroism of TSgt. Fuller and his fellow soldiers, there are at least four lives that would not be on the face of the earth today, our grandfather, our mother, and ourselves." 
A keepsake videotape was presented to the Congress by Alexander who had filmed his grandfather at home in Vienna. In the filmed presentation, Frankl extended personal greetings to all of the participants in World Congress X. The last of the great European philosophers and psychiatrists of the twentieth century, Frankl also reflected upon the research that is being conducted and the books that are being written by scholars throughout the world, using the tenets of logotherapy. 
Elisabeth Lukas, PhD, director of the South German Institute of Logotherapy, delivered two keynote addresses for the Congress entitled 
What Is Special about Logotherapy: A Description of Its Holistic Concepts and My Thanks to Viktor E. Frankl on the Occasion of His Ninetieth 
57 
Birthday. She also taught a four-day post-Congress seminar entitled SelfExperience in Logotherapy: Logotherapy Lived. 
Awards presented at the World Congress included an Honorary Lifetime Membership to Jerry L. Long, PhD. The Board of Directors presented the Presidential Award to the lnstitute's three living former presidents, conferring the title of President Emeritus on Joseph B. Fabry, JD, Willis C. Finck, MS, and Bianca Z. Hirsch, PhD. The first Willis and Margaret Davis-Finck Legacy in Logotherapy Award was presented to Elisabeth Lukas, PhD, and her husband, Mr. Gerhard Lukas. The Dr. Michael F. Whidden Award was presented to Julieen Crane, PhD, and her husband, Daniel Siebers, DO, for evidence of logotherapy lived as seen in the triumphant power of their human spirit. Also receiving the Whidden Memorial Award was Jacqueline Becker of Mexico, a recent Diplomate in Logotherapy. The first Joseph B. Fabry Founder's Award was presented to Robert R. Hutzel!, PhD, and his wife, Mrs. Vicki Hutzell. Among the recipients of the lnstitute's Statue of Responsibility Award were Florence Ernzen, MSW, Dorothy C. Barnes, EdD, Arlen R. Salthouse, PhD, Carol Miller, DMin, and Charles Pratt, DMin. 
According to messages that have been received from around the globe, experiences of the Tenth World Congress of Logotherapy will remain a lasting and meaningful memory in the lives of those who participated. it was recognized throughout the Congress that in the 
grateful hearts of humankind Prof. Dr. Frankl has truly earned immortality. Perhaps more than ever before, Congress participants realized the significance of carrying Frankl's work into the new millennium--to help suffering humanity find health through meaning. 
The next (Eleventh) World Congress of Logotherapy will be held in Dallas on June 25-29, 1997. The theme will be Viktor Frankl's Logotherapy: Search for Meaning, Dignity, and Spirituality in Logotherapy. 
ROBERT C. BARNES, Ph.D. [Box 15211, Abilene, Texas, 79698 USA] is Professor and Chair of the Department of Counseling and Human Development, Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene, Texas. A Dip/ornate in Logotherapy, he is also President of the International Board of Directors of the Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy. 
at 
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ISSN 0190-3379 IFODL 19(1)1-64(1996) 
The International Forum for 
LOGOTHERAPY 
Journal of Search for Meaning