A Comparison of Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning and Sigmund Freud’s The Future of an Illusion.

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Sigmund Freud and Viktor Frankl have both experienced similarly dramatic social and political changes within the early twentieth century Austrian environment, but their psychological theories are very different when compared. Frankl mentions that his development of logotherapy stems from Freud’s psychoanalysis but puts much more emphasis on individual control over the self in regards to attitude and interpretation of events. Logotherapy, or therapy through defining meaning, touches on many of the facets of positive psychology as developed by Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Frankl identifies the three stages of mental distress as an inmate travels through a concentration camp: shock and disgust, apathetic and emotional death for protection, and following liberation is a period of almost disillusionment and disconnect with society. These stages Frankl experienced and observed personally throughout his years as an inmate in Nazi run concentration camps.
Frankl stresses the importance of finding meaning in suffering and continuous hope of liberation in regards to increasing the chances of survival in such a dehumanizing and disease ridden environment. Meaning has also been emphasized in positive psychology but termed differently, called resiliency. Resiliency was studied directly in regards to Holocaust survivors; they were constantly finding new ways to challenge their minds in order to maintain their humanity. Frankl mentions his own experience of rewriting his scientific paper that was confiscated the first day of his imprisonment, an act that was proven to give him meaning to survive through his trials. As Frankl mentions multiple times through his explanation of logotherapy and meani...

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...ers say the fault lies outside of the individual when he led a fairly stable and safe life compared to Frankl?

Works Cited

Frankl, V. (2006). Man’s Search for Meaning. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

Freud, S. (1927). The Future of an Illusion. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XXI (1927-1931): The Future of an Illusion, Civilization and its Discontents, and Other Works, 1-56. Retrieved from http://www.free-ebooks.net/ebook/The-future-of-illusion/html#ixzz2wtNQNNc6 Seligman, M. E., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive Psychology: An Introduction, 55(1), 5. American Psychological Association. Retrieved from https://www.monroecommunitycollege.biz/depts/strengthsquest/documents/positive_psychology_intro.pdf Smith, Z. T. (2012). The Future of an Illusion Summary. Retrieved from http://firmitas.org/FreudFuture.html

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