In the second half of the book, we see the psychiatrist in him come out, and he explains his own psychiatric theory, called "logotherapy." He then goes on to explain different ways logotherapy can be utilized in many people's lives. Also, he proposes that logotherapy is often better than other psychiatric methods.
Outline:
I. Life in the Concentraion Camps.
A. "Every man was controlled by one thought only: to keep himself alive for the family waiting for him at home, and to save his friends." (p.23)
B. Inmates in a concentration camp go through three phases of thought. (p.26)
1. The period following his admission: "shock." (p.26)
2. The period when he is well entrenched in camp routine: "overcome by a grim sense of humor," (p.34) and "apathy." (p.42)
3. The period following his release and liberation: the prisoner experiences a feeling of loneliness and being lost, not knowing what to do after being cooped up in the camp for so long. Where could they go? What did they have?
C. My favorite quote from this section of the book: "The truth-that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love." (p.57) This, to me, is what the whole first half of the book is about.
II. Logotherapy-"focuses on the future, that is to say, on the meanings to be fulfilled by the patient in his future. At the same time it defocuses all of the vicious-circle formations and feedback mechanisms which play such a great role in the developement of neuroses. It breaks up the typical
self-centeredness." (p.120)
"The logotherapist's role consists of widening and broadening the visual field of the patient so that the whole spectrum of potential meaning becomes conscious and visible to him." (p. 132-133)
A. The Will to Meaning. (p.121-123)
1. "Man's search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life and not a 'secondary rationalization' of instinctual drives."
2. "It must and can be fulfilled by the person alone, no one else."
B. Existential Frustration. (p.123)
1. "The term 'existential' may be used in three ways to refer to
a. Existence itself.
b. The meaning of existence.
c. The striving to find a concrete meaning in persnal existence, that is to say, the will to meaning."
C. Noogenic Neuroses. (p.123-126)
1. "Noogenic neurosis do not emerge from conflicts between drives and instincts but rather from existential problems. Among such problems, the frustration of the will to meaning plays a large role."
D. Noo-Dynamics. (p.126-128)
1. This idea holds that there is a meaning to ones life, which people often lack awareness of.
a. "There is much wisdom in the words of Nietzsche: 'He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how'."
E. The Existential Vacuum. (p.128-130)
1. "The existential vacuum manifests itself mainly in a state of boredom."
F. The Meaning of Life. (p. 130-131)
1. "The Meaning of Life differs from man to man, from day to day, and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general, but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment."
G. The Essence of Existence. (p. 131-134)
1. One of the key ideas of this is "Live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now."
2. "According to logotherapy, we can discover the meaning of life in three different ways:
a. By creating work or doing a deed.
b. By experiencing something or encountering someone.
c. By the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering."
H. The Meaning of Love. (p. 134)
1. "Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality."
I. The Meaning of Suffering. 9p. 135-138)
1. "In some way, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of sacrifice.
2. It is one of the basic tenets of logotherapy that man's main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life. That is why man is even ready to suffer, on the condition, to be sure, that his suffering has a meaning."
J. Logotherapy as a Technique. (p. 145-152)
1. "'The wish is to father the thought' to 'fear is the mother of the event'."
2. Take someone who has trouble sleeping for example. When they wake up they usually bother themselves with thoughts of how much sleep they're losing, and how badly they would like ot get it back. Instead, they should try the opposite. They should try to stay awake as long as they can. In trying to do the opposite of what they want to do, they forget about the poroblem, and end up falling asleep easier and faster. Of course it isn't totally simple, but it is a technique that can be mastered. For detail in full, however, one should consult Viktor E. Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning." It is truly worthwhile.