The Will to Meaning

Book excerpt: From the author of Man's Search for Meaning, one of the most influential works of psychiatric literature since Freud. Holocaust survivor Viktor E. Frankl is known as the founder of logotherapy, a mode of psychotherapy based on man's motivation to search for meaning in his life. The author discusses his ideas in the context of other prominent psychotherapies and describes the techniques he uses with his patients to combat the "existential vacuum." Originally published in 1969 and compiling Frankl's speeches on logotherapy, The Will to Meaning is regarded as a seminal work of meaning-centered therapy. This new and carefully re-edited version is the first since 1988.