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Meaning Therapy : New Challenges And The Future

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Psychotherapist are facing new challenges and the future seems more chaotic and uncertain than ever. Scientific research has not increased our ability to predict our destiny as humans. We have not found any solution to the evils in the world or human suffering. Violence, death, and misery are dominating the media. It seems like that is all we as humans think about. Psychologist have come up with a type of therapy that is supposed to help people discover and create meanings and values in their lives out of painful experiences. It’s called Meaning Therapy. The idea originated from Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy (Wong 2015). Meaning Therapy (MT) focuses on the positive psychology of making life worth living in spite of suffering and …show more content…

It was Frankl who first made a compelling case that the human quest for meaning was the heart and soul of psychotherapy. An approach by his own extraordinary survival experience in a Nazi concentration camps (Frankl, 1985). Frankl suffered in these horrific concentration camps and was able to somehow turn his life around when he was freed. He could have given up and blamed the concentration camps for ruining his life but instead he got up and was able to find something that gave him a sense of meaning. The primary objective of Meaning Therapy for Viktor was to awaken people from their everyday busy routine and help them with their potential meaning. Meaning is described as “man’s striving to fulfill as much meaning in his existence as possible, and to realize as much value in his life as possible” (Frankl, 2010). Viktor proposed that meaning is the core of human values and the principle should be taken seriously. The motto of Meaning Therapy is: meaning is all we need and relationship is all we have (Wong 2015). It focuses on the human responsibility to live meaningfully and purposefully in every situation on a daily basis in order to become what they are meant to be. According to Frankl’s logotherapy, there are three factors that characterize human existence: spirituality, freedom, and responsibility. The spiritual aspect is the very core of our humanity. By tapping into our spiritual side it helps relieve the

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