Victor Frankl, Logotherapy, Existential Analysis & The Meaning of Life- Dr Alfried Längle, M.D., PhD

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The presentation gives a brief introduction to Frankl’s life and work, my collaboration with him, and the background development of Frankl’s Logotherapy. With this meaning-centered approach, Frankl made a substantial contribution to psychotherapy. Then will be outlined how it came to a new onset through a process-oriented different paradigm on the basis of strict use of phenomenological openness. This led to a complex, fourfold motivation theory in which meaning and becoming are just one existential motivation, besides securing and expanding one’s being, enriching one’s life with pleasure and values, and finding and asserting oneself by encounter.
The development of these four dimensions of existence laid the ground for fully-fledged psychotherapy: the modern Existential Analysis which provides broad access to the treatment of psychic suffering. We will outline the key to a fulfilling life, together with a short glimpse into the work with these existential motivations, including giving a tool to how individuals can live with a greater sense of meaning and purpose in their life.
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Alfried LÄNGLE, M.D., Ph.D., Dr. h.c.mult., professor and honorary professor, was born in 1951 in Austria where he still lives. He studied medicine and psychology at the Universities of Innsbruck, Rome, Toulouse, and Vienna. After years of hospital work in general medicine and psychiatry and in an outpatient department of social psychiatry, in 1982 he started a private practice in psychotherapy, general medicine, and clinical psychology in Vienna.
At the same time, he came into close collaboration with Viktor Frankl (1983-1991). He assisted Frankl’s lectures at the university for years and worked together with him in many relevant fields of Logotherapy. He is the founder and president (1983-2017) of the International Society for Logotherapy and Existential Analysis in Vienna (www.existenzanalyse.org), whose honorary president was Viktor Frankl until 1990. By this date, Frankl resigned from his honorary presidency because of Längle’s new developments in the field of existential analysis (methods, implication of existential self-experience in the training and seminars, rejecting the exclusive use of the meaning paradigm in psychotherapy and enlarging its theoretical basis, implementation of biographical work). Dr. Längle is a Professor at the University of Vienna (Sigmund Freud University), Klagenfurt and Moscow (HSE). He has over 400 publications, 2 honorary doctorships, and 6 honorary professorships, as well as a gold medal from the Republic of Austria for scientifically high contributions.
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[@kostaborojevic498]

Interesting that frankl comes up in these times... We could rather try to change our society than "search for meaning" in a senseless world.

[@faintmelody]

Nobody will be motivated to change society without seeing a greater purpose or meaning.

[@andyshandy0128]

​@@faintmelody good point

[@dracotitanfall]

I see you're an absurdist

[@peterkingsford1398]

Isn’t this Dr Frankl’s point? That even in the horrors of the concentration camp, finding meaning is possible. If people focus on changing and improving their lives, the health of society will inevitably improve.

[@kostaborojevic498]

@@peterkingsford1398 yeah that's Frankls point but not mine.

[@jenniferbate9682]

The book is actually called Man’s Search For Meaning.

[@ducanhvu9658]

thank you professor

[@marcodallolio9746]

After a few decades interacting with people, I have developed a strong suspicion the need for meaning is not universal. Some people have it, and must contend with it throughout their lives, while others are perfectly happy conceptualizing themselves as utility-maximizing biological machines, and live as such. Reductionistic approaches to psychology work perfectly for -- and are often generated by -- the latter

[@kostaborojevic498]

I think you search for meaning when everything is shit.

[@marcodallolio9746]

@@kostaborojevic498 true, but it works the other way around as well, everything can be shit when you don't have meaning

[@kostaborojevic498]

@@marcodallolio9746 no I kinda disagree. At least in my experience I never picked up a book until dispair sneaked into my life ;)). But idk you maybe are right, maybe people need some kind of meaning some anticipatory future.

[@steveflorida8699]

I think there is a universal meaning of life. If there is an intelligent creator of the universe, then surely that being has a goal/purpose of forward growth for his planetary sons and daughters. A universal meaning and values of attainment and living.

[@marcodallolio9746]

@@steveflorida8699 then my friend you belong to the first category of people

[@easternhealingarts33]

I let this guy put me into a meditation. Holy shit.

[@constancewalsh3646]

It is interesting how commentators (other than the simply grateful ones) tend to pit what they hear against their own opinions. I venture to judge that none of these commentators has lived anything close to what Victor Frankl experienced, and yet consider themselves qualified to agree or disagree. The experience of listening -- deeply, deeply - to the words of an extraordinary human being is replaced by the urge to "agree" or "disagree." I'm just at the start of this video, and already Dr Langle, an elder, speaks of being more present with his loved ones, with his own life. I would not have to listen any further to know that here is the simple wisdom for any age. But of course I will listen! Thank you, gentle interviewer.

[@zipperpillow]

I disagree.