Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy is a relevant framework and also a confusing term as it makes one think of branding and not the Greek word logos, which is “meaning”. In this podcast, I share why it is important to make youth aware of Logotherapy as a perspective to counter the growing rhetoric of determinism and The Butterfly Effect that are eroding belief in free will and therefore distancing people from a sense of control over self or environment. Such disempowerment, I believe, destroys agency and purpose and therefore contributes to personal anxieties, depression and an overall ability to set goals and live a non-centric lifestyle. Perspective taking is a deficit in today’s youth that are IV hooked to the steady drip of social media affirmation. A quick search in jurn.org will discover countless studies of the negative relationships between youth (and all adult) mental health and addiction to social media applications. I believe that Logotherapy should be taught to all youth. WHO WAS VIKTOR FRANKL? Viktor Frankl was an Austrian neurologist and psychologist who founded what he called the field of “Logotherapy”, which has been dubbed the “Third Viennese School of Psychology” (following Freud and Alder). Logotherapy developed in and through Frankl’s personal experience in the Nazi concentration camp. The years spent there deeply affected his understanding of reality and the meaning of human life. His most popular book, Man’s Search for Meaning, chronicles his experience in the camp as well as the development of Logotherapy. During his time there, he found that those around him who did not lose their sense of purpose and meaning in life were able to survive much longer than those who had lost their way. MAN’S SEARCH FOR MEANING. Dr. Perrodin provides several chilling, yet reflective accounts from Frankl’s hallmark book. For example, Dr. Frankl cautioned that a prisoner was never awoken from a nightmare as the reality of life in the camp was certainly worse than anything conjured in the mind. He also talked of how he volunteered to care for typhus patients, although such an act very well could have brought upon his own physical demise. WHAT IS LOGOTHERAPY? It is loosely interpreted as therapy through finding meaning as “logos” translates to “meaning” in Greek. However, Dr. Perrodin explains why he interprets Logotherapy as less of a therapy and more of a framework. Logotherapy has 3 basic assumptions (1) Life has meaning under all circumstances (2) People have a will to meaning (3) People have freedom under all circumstances to activate the will to meaning and to find meaning. EXISTENTIAL VACUUM. Frankl’s way to describe life that has no meaning and this perpetual condition creates a void that we aim to satiate with drugs, violence, food, and other vices, such as modern-day social media -- yet the void will be a black hole and we will be forced to intellectually reason with our purpose to live or to die. FORMATS. You can also listen to this podcast on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-safety-doc-podcast/id1209802253?mt=2 or SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/user-186592129 or on The 405 Media http://the405media.com/the-safety-doc/ You can view this episode on YouTube https://youtu.be/ni2HYAIhtjE FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: On Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to “The Safety Doc” YouTube channel and SoundCloud RSS feed. DR. PERRODIN'S SAFETY BLOG: https://crisisprepconsulting.wordpress.com/ SAFETY DOC WEBSITE: www.safetyphd.com David will respond to discussion thread comments or questions & also to emails. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host and guests and do not reflect positions of The 405 Media or supporters of “The Safety Doc Podcast”. The show is curse free and adheres to nondiscrimination principles while seeking to bring forward productive discourse and debate on topics relevant to personal or institutional safety.
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