Man’s Search for Meaning- English II
Short Answer Questions - "Logotherapy in a Nutshell"
1. Before writing the second section of this text, had Frankl described logotherapy in
writing?
Answer: Yes, in 17 volumes in German
2. When a journalist asked Frankl to describe logotherapy in a sentence, how did he
respond?
Answer: In therapy, the patient must hear things that are disagreeable.
3. When comparing logotherapy and Freudian psychotherapy, what does Frankl
write is the focus of logotherapy?
Answer: The future
4. Why does Frankl use the term logotherapy?
Answer: Logo means “Meaning” in Greek
5. In logotherapy, how is the search for meaning seen?
Answer: As a primary motivational source
6. Frankl cites a study of students at Johns Hopkins University. What did the
students cite as important to them?
Answer: Finding meaning
7. What does Frankl claim is the nature of meaning?
Answer: It does not emerge from existence but in confronting existence
8. How does Frankl define the difference between how he and Jean-Paul Sartre
define the meaning of our existence?
Answer: Frankl- we find our meaning Sartre- we invent it
9. Frankl writes that values do not push, but pull people. Why does he make this
distinction?
Answer: To show there is always freedom of choice
10. What does Frankl write about the moral drive?
Answer: no such drive ever existed
11. What does Frankl call "existential frustration"?
Answer: the result of frustrating man’s will to meaning
12. What kind of neuroses result from existential frustration?
Answer: Noogenic Neuroses
13. How does logotherapy deal with spiritual issues?
Answer: Seriously, in spiritual terms
14. How does Frankl write that Freudian psychotherapy deals with spiritual issues?
Answer: They are not dealt with directly but they are seen as having instinctual roots
15. What does Frankl relate about an American diplomat who, after years of
psychotherapy, went to logotherapy?
Answer: After years of exploring spiritual problems his desire to change jobs was
taken seriously
16. What are noo-dynamics?
Answer: A tension between who a person is and who they can become
17. What "deep concern" does Frankl write helped him to survive Auschwitz?
Answer: His desire to rewrite his manuscript
18. What is the existential vacuum?
Answer: Lack of meaning in life
19. How does the existential vacuum manifest itself?
Answer: Boredom
20. What does Frankl argue is the meaning of life?
Answer: it varies
21. What kind of statue does Frankl argue should compliment the Statue of Liberty?
Answer: A statue of responsibility
22. What does Frankl write about responsibility?
Answer: tries to impress on each patient their responsibility
23. What are the ways that logotherapy believes meaning in life can be found?
Answer: Through deeds, experiencing a value, or suffering
24. What is Frankl's opinion of love?
Answer: It is the only way to grasp another human being
25. How does Frankl write that love is interpreted in psychotherapy?
Answer: As a phenomenon of sexual drives and instincts
26. What does Frankl claim is the most important part of suffering?
Answer: one’s attitude in the face of it
27. What does Frankl write is the aim of traditional Freudian psychotherapy?
Answer: restoring pleasure and happiness
28. What question does Frankl claim that more and more doctors are confronted
with?
Answer: what is life?
29. What does Frankl term supra-meaning?
Answer: An ultimate meaning that transcends man’s intellectual capabilities
30. Can logotherapy be used with neurotic individuals?
Answer: They in particular can benefit from logotherapy
31. What is "hyper-intention"?
Answer: an excess of intent that makes the goal impossible
32. Frankl writes that "every age has its own collective neurosis." What does he
characterize as the neurosis of his day?
Answer: The existential vacuum
33. What does Frankl argue man determines about his life?
Answer: man decides what he will be
34. What does Frankl term "pan-determinism".
Answer: The psychoanalytic tendency to ignore that man makes some decisions
35. What does Frankl claim about what man makes of himself?
Answer: That he himself creates it
36. What is Frankl's tone in "Basic Concepts of Logotherapy"?
Answer: serious and optimistic