The term logotheorie describes the ideological foundations of the logotherapy founded by the Viennese neurologist Viktor Emil Frankl . As a philosophical foundation of logotherapy, logo theory offers above all the anthropological foundations that have an impact on therapy and its methods.
Image of man in logotherapy
The image of man in logotherapy, as its philosophical-theoretical basis (log theory), is largely determined by the teaching of Max Scheler (1874–1928). Frankl worked intensively, above all, on the work “Formalism in Ethics and the Material Ethics of Values”.
Frankl sees humans, influenced by Platonic and Aristotelian principles , as a unity of body, psyche, spirit. The positive emphasis on the body (and also on suffering) is not platonic but of Judeo-Christian origin. Man is always bodily, psychologically and spiritually at the same time. It cannot be reduced to one of these aspects (see reductionism ). As a corporeal being, as a being that has a body, man is concerned with maintaining it. This requires nutrition and careful handling of one's body (exercise, health, etc.). For Frankl, sexuality also belongs in this dimension. As a being that has a psyche, man seeks to achieve states that promise him well-being; here his will is directed towards experiencing a successful life. As a being that is spiritual or determined by a nous, is penetrated by the spiritual in its psycho-physical dimension, people are concerned with motives that encompass life as it were: meaning and value of life, faith, love, freedom and responsibility are gained here and from here gain influence on the psychophysical.
For Frankl, the human being is more than a "soul apparatus" ( Sigmund Freud ) and more than a being striving for power ( Alfred Adler ). The spiritual dimension completes what he considers to be a deficient view of the human being, which Frankl encountered in psychoanalysis and individual psychology during his time .