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PYC4804 SUMMARY CHAPTER 14 - FRANKL

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PYC4804 SUMMARY CHAPTER 14 - FRANKL

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  • January 24, 2022
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PERSONOLOGY – PYC4804 Chapter 14


The existential theory of Viktor Frankl

Background

 Human beings are primarily motivated by a will to a meaning


The view of the person underlying the theory

 Humans have been given the freedom to:
Be able to exercise responsibility
Live a life beyond mere animal existence
Live on a dimension of meaning in realizing timeless values as these emanate from a
divine dimension
Live highly personalized lives

The freedom to be responsible

 Human person is a spiritual being – a being that has freedom and responsibility
 The person is not a highly developed animal shaped by the forces of heredity and
environments
 Has been given the freedom to be responsible
 Free will holds person responsible for choices – have to bear the consequences
 Freedom to choose = noogenic dimension (identifies us as human beings)

A level of being beyond animal existence

 Human person needs to find a reason to live
 True fulfillment is hardly possible without a sense of purpose (spiritual direction) in life
 Issue for the human person is not the struggle to survive but the struggle to find and
experience meaning in life
 According to Frankl meaning = opportunity
 Every situation of life contains a unique challenge to live our lives purposefully, with
meaning
 Frankl is against the reductionist of psychoanalysts and learning theorists
 Psychological and social aspects of human life are natural aspects of existence – do not
radically distinguish humans from animals
 Unlike the animal, we have the freedom to rise above the condition in being able to
think and also do something about them
 We want to live our lives purposefully – for a good cause

The transhuman dimension

 Meaning is not something we create or invent – meaning is found
 Means that meaning something that exists in an objective sense


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, PERSONOLOGY – PYC4804 Chapter 14

 Conscience is the vehicle through which we detect meaning: the one right thing to do in
any particular situation or moment in life
 To have a conscience means that we are able to discern higher values and meanings,
grasp their significance and freely embrace them
 It is our link to the transhuman dimension, our ability to hear the voice of the
transcendent
 It is man / woman of faith that can in spite of all say ‘yes’ to the meaning of life under all
conditions and circumstances

A highly personalized (personally accountable) way of being

 Must find and experience life’s meaning in our own way
 Something is meaningful only if it is personally experienced as such
 Religion is genuine only where it is existential, where we are not somehow driven to it,
but commit ourselves to it by freely choosing to be religious
 Life holds meaning under all circumstances and that meaning can be experienced by
anyone at anytime and anywhere


The structure of the personality

The three dimension of the personality

Three levels or dimensions of existence:
o Physical – the human person could be described as ‘nothing but a complex
biochemical mechanism powered by combustion system which energizes
computers with prodigious storage facilities for retaining encoded information’
o Psychological – person has needs and drives
o Spiritual – unique to us as human beings
If human behavior is viewed from sub-human (non-spiritual) level of being, the uniquely
human or spiritual aspects of human existence will either be missed or seen in distortion
We are open systems, i.e., open towards ourselves (we can think about change
ourselves) and toward the world (we can think about and change our world)
Behavioristic – human behavior is seen as shaped by the influences of the environment
Psychoanalytic – the human being is seen animalistically – determined drives and
instincts
We have a body and a psyche, but as essentially spiritual beings, we are free to direct
our behavior: we can use body and soul (psyche) to achieve ends that we ourselves have
determined

The spiritual core of the personality

Is the personal ground of being
The human personality has a spiritual core
Genetic make-up, nor our environment that shape our personalities




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