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of how much they are dependent on any collective and influenced by it in a spiritual sense.”²⁰

      Collectivism, in its various forms, is a perfect example of the ways of thinking that arise when spiritual matters are derived from, or traced back to, psychic ones.

      To end this sad chapter, I want to finish the enumeration of psychological “dead ends” with an example that illustrates all of the previously mentioned dangers of impermissible projections. The starting point of our considerations is a mother who bears an unwanted child.

      Pan-determinism would claim that rejection of the child by the mother inevitably leads to a mother-child relationship that is destroyed for life (“programming”).

      Psychologism would claim that the unwanted pregnancy was a result of the neurotic impulses and complexes of the mother (“unmasking”).

      Reductionism would claim that the entire future upbringing of the child by the mother will be an expression of her unconscious hatred towards the child (“devaluation”).

      Collectivism would claim that in later life the child will exhibit the characteristics and behavior of all “typical unloved children” (“classification”).

      What would logotherapy say about this case? It would argue that everything is still possible for mother and child. That both can grow into love for one another, and that the mother, with her intact spiritual dimension, has the freedom to change her attitude to the child and accept its existence as a meaningful task. As a task that she is responsible for fulfiling, and in the fulfilment of which her personality will mature into something new.

      Self-knowledge and Dealing with Oneself

      The expression “dealing with oneself” has been used in connection with deriving the human capacity for self-distancing from the noopsychic antagonism. This expression refers to an important pedagogical-therapeutic goal of logotherapy. This goal is more highly valued than the goal of self-knowledge. For adequate self-knowledge can never remain an end in itself, but is a transitional stage on a path which leads beyond the self. By calling for setting goals beyond the self, logotherapy becomes a school for living which breaks out of the narrower space of psychotherapy and merges with an education in responsibility.

      Self-knowledge reveals the process of self-becoming, unconscious drives, formation in fixed ways and, of course, also the deliberate input of the person from past epochs. Dealing with oneself unlocks the self’s potential, which builds upon it, and actualises the spiritual consciousness and the spiritual unconscious. (What Frankl meant by the spiritual unconscious is the unpondered and imponderable origin of the ethical, erotic and autonomic in human life: faith, love in the widest sense, and artistic inspiration.) Dealing with oneself is equivalent to giving oneself a belated self-education for achieving inner control and inner growth.

      A minimum level of inner control is a prerequisite for alleviating numerous psychic disorders such as addiction and delinquency, and this can only be achieved by a movement of the spirit which gains distance from the self and works on the self from this distance in a healing and corrective fashion. Similarly, a minimum level of inner growth is a prerequisite for maintaining good health in all situations of life that require a capacity for achievement, love, and suffering, and can only be achieved by a movement of the spirit that transcends the self by listening to a call of meaning.

      As illustrated in the figure, self-knowledge simply reveals the inner movements of the unity “human”, while dealing with oneself begins external movements that lead across the threshold of the self. What does this mean in practice for psychotherapy? Well, it stakes out the poles between which the idea of logotherapy catches fire.

      “A humane, a humanised, a rehumanised psychotherapy presupposes that we have self-transcendence in our sights and master the art of self-distancing.”²¹

       On the “self-distancing” pole

      In logotherapy, the therapist senses self-healing powers, such as courage, defiance, humour or gratitude, possessed by the patient and focuses on strengthening them. The therapist works in alliance with the patient’s intact spiritual abilities and uses them to combat the patient’s psychic weaknesses. It is interesting to note that after millennia of research, modern medicine has arrived at similar conclusions and is increasingly trying to activate the immune systems of sick people against disease. Perhaps logotherapy can cut short the analogous research process in psychotherapy, since from the beginning it has methodically worked out the little stimuli that are indispensable for the mobilisation of spiritual self-healing powers.

       On the “self-transcendence” pole

      In logotherapy, the therapist helps the patient to stand above things – and, if necessary, above him or herself. This is only possible if the patient turns away from things – and necessarily away from him or herself – towards a meaning to be fulfilled in the world. It is amazing what – normally hidden – reserves of power exist in a human being and suddenly open their floodgates when such a meaning comes to light. And it is no less amazing how many unimportant problems are solved when they are not sustained by receiving attention.

      Thus, in a patient-therapist relationship in logotherapy, the external world is always included as a third frame of reference. This means that after establishing an atmosphere of personal trust (a) the patient’s attention is drawn to values in the sphere of his or her life (b). As soon as the condition of the patient allows, the therapist follows his or her thoughts (c), which pre-empts any transfer problem from the outset and substantially facilitates the patient’s subsequent withdrawal from therapy.

      Dealing with oneself – which therefore consists not only in healing oneself, but also in forgetting oneself in a positive way – often produces a kind of self-discovery as a by-product; as paradoxical as it sounds, self-discovery never springs from self-knowledge. Selfdiscovery can only be achieved indirectly through a discovery of meaning. If one looks for oneself, tries to catch a glimpse of one’s image in all the artful mirrors of psychology, one loses oneself. But if one goes out and devotes oneself to a meaningful task, one finds oneself.

      ¹ Viktor E. Frankl, Der Wille zum Sinn, Hogrefe Verlag, Bern, 7th ed., 2016, 17.

      ² Viktor E. Frankl, The Will to Meaning, Foundations and Applications of Logotherapy, Meridian/Penguin Group, New York, 1988, 16.

      ³ Viktor E. Frankl, Der Wille zum Sinn, Hogrefe Verlag, Bern, 7th ed., 2016, 23f.

      ⁴ Das Leiden am sinnlosen Leben, Psychotherapie für heute, Kreuz Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau, 2013, 33f.

      ⁵ Viktor E. Frankl, Logotherapie und Existenzanalyse, Beltz Verlag, Weinheim und Basel, 2010, 3rd ed., 59f.

      ⁶ Viktor E. Frankl, Logotherapie und Existenzanalyse, Beltz Verlag, Weinheim und Basel, 2010, 3rd ed., 65f.

      ⁷ Viktor E. Frankl, Der Wille zum Sinn, Hogrefe Verlag, Bern, 7th ed., 2016, 92f.

      ⁸ Viktor E. Frankl, Der leidende Mensch, Verlag Hans Huber, Bern, 2005, 3rd ed., 141.

      ⁹ Viktor E. Frankl, Der leidende Mensch, Verlag Hans Huber, Bern, 2005, 3rd ed., 197.

      ¹⁰ Das Leiden am sinnlosen Leben, Kreuz Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau, 2013, 30.

      ¹¹ Viktor E. Frankl, Der Wille zum Sinn, Hogrefe Verlag, Bern, 7th ed., 2016, 88.

      ¹² Viktor E. Frankl, Ärztliche Seelsorge, dtv, München, 2007, 7th ed., 58.

      ¹³ Viktor E. Frankl, Gesammelte Werke Band 3, Die Psychotherapie in der Praxis, Böhlau Verlag, Wien, Köln, Weimar, 2008, 34f.

      ¹⁴ Viktor E. Frankl, Der leidende Mensch, Verlag Hans Huber, Bern, 2005, 3rd ed., 163.

      ¹⁵

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