Where There's a Will there's Meaning

   Anxiety, Depression, addiction, despair, suicide. All negative terms that people usually don't like discussing. Well, unless you're a psychiatrist who is trying to find out HOW you're feeling instead of WHY you're feeling. Personally, I have huge anxiety issues, I've struggled with depression and have had my own suicidal wishes in the past. I would like to make it understood right now that I do share personal stories every now and then, not to gain sympathy or empathy, but I feel it helps tell the truth of the matter, and makes it helps present my own knowledge on the matter based off personal experience. I had several therapists who were more concerned with HOW I was acting and what I was doing to cause myself to feel the way I felt. I ended up getting out of therapy and never going back because I wasn't being helped. I never thought that an answer could be so simple. Life. 

    Logotherapy, derived from Greek "logos" which translates to "meaning" and "therapy" meaning treatment of an illness. 

    Existentialism, is a philosophical theory or approach which emphasizes the existence of an individual person through their act of free will.

   Viktor Frankl, a psychologist and neurologist, founded logotherapy and existentialism analysis. Frankl had 29 honorary doctorates from different universities, published 32 books in 32 languages, was married twice, fathered one child, was a grandfather to two, and great-grandfather to one. He was born in Vienna in March of 1905 and died in Vienna in September of 1997. He followed teachings of Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler. Frankl's theory includes 3 views, Freedom of Will, Will to Meaning, and Meaning in Life. I will be taking a closer look at his second view, Will to Meaning. 

   Viktor Frankl explains that we are autonomous people who seek characteristic ways of expressing and shaping our worlds. Frankl believes we also constantly seek the meaning of life, and too often are over concerned with finding it so much that it consumes us and leads to our unhappiness. An article found on franklzentrum.org tells us who Frankl is and also says, "Any existential frustration of the need for meaning may lead to aggression, addiction, depression, despair and suicidality; it may also trigger or aggravate psychosomatic illnesses and neurotic disorders" (Zentrum Wien, 2). So when we think too much about what life means and what we are meant for, it could have such negative affects that it could cause our mental health to deteriorate. When I look back at my life and why I struggled with so much sadness and despair, I realized that at least 50% of the time I was confused about what the meaning of life was, I was worried that my life had no meaning and that it never would. I convinced myself life was terrible and there was no point to it. But Frankl offers hope, "Logotherapy helps patients identify, remove or cope with inhibitions and blockades hampering them in the search for meaning. It sensitizes them, making them perceive potential meaning. In this context, logotherapy does not offer meaning, it merely supports patients in translating into reality the potential for meaning they discover for themselves" (Wien, 2). So if we are willing to look at this theory and are willing to look at what he's telling us, then we will receive support to find a potential meaning for our reality. Our reality being what we create, the potential is great and often limitless, it's just a matter of what we believe.

http://www.franklzentrum.org/downloads/5030/life%20and%20work%20of%20Viktor%20E.%20Frankl.pdf

   

   Also in my research I found an article on Rogerian Theory. A theory created by a man named Carl Rogers, this theory also called Person-Centered Therapy. Rogers created the theory in the 1940's, it does not focus on people as flawed, who have problematic behavior, instead each person's desire for growth and change. Rogers is quoted for saying, "Individuals have within themselves vast resources for self-understanding and for altering their self-concepts, basic attitudes, and self-directed behavior; these resources can be tapped if a definable climate of facilitative psychological attitudes can be provided" (Goodtherapy.org, 1) Again if we are willing, we are capable of self-understanding, changing our attitudes and behavior if we want it enough. Rogers doesn't say anything about our outlook on life having anything to do with it, but he does say that a person has to be willing. 

http://www.goodtherapy.org/person-centered.html#

   If we are willing to see it, we will. If we are willing to have the desire we are capable of much more than we think, and our potential meaning will start to make sense. So be willing to do what you feel is right for your growth.