Psychologists in frankl.

Viktor Emil frankl (doctor 1905- 1997), an American clinical psychologist, was born in Austria. 1930 received the doctor's degree in medicine from Vienna university, and 1949 received the doctor's degree in philosophy. He is a famous leader of ontology analysis theory. Meaning therapy invented by him is an important school of western psychotherapy. After World War II, he was a famous professor at American international universities, and served as a visiting professor at Harvard University, Stanford University, Diyou University and Southern Methodist University. Frankl is the founder of speech therapy, and his therapy theory is called the Third Vienna Psychotherapy School. The first two schools are S. Freud School and A. Adler School. In the 1920s, frankl began to publish papers. The first paper was published in Freud's International Psychoanalysis, and the second paper was published in Adler's International Individual Psychology. However, because of his unconventional views, he was expelled from Freud's psychoanalysis society and Adler's individual psychology society. Since then, influenced by O. Schwartz and R. allers, especially by existentialist L. Binswanger and phenomenologist M. Scheler, frankl no longer believed in psychoanalysis and individual psychology, and began to advocate his own unique system. As early as 1940s, frankl's theory had a humanistic tendency. He believes that people's main motivation is to understand the purpose and significance of existence and reveal the secret of their own existence. He called this motivation "the will to explore meaning". Animals know to seek happiness and conquest, but they don't know the meaning of survival; Human nature lies in finding meaning. Because "the will to explore meaning" is the main support of human beings, if this inner desire is hindered in real life, it will cause psychological obstacles. Inspiring patients to discover the meaning of life is the core of speech therapy.

The advantage of speech therapy is that the therapist should make patients gradually realize the inevitability, pain and uncertainty of death, which will inevitably lead to anxiety, fear, disappointment and guilt. In order to avoid this anxiety, patients sometimes distort their inner experience and live in an unreal existence. Guide patients to understand that only by enduring these anxieties and pains and fighting these difficulties can they experience their own existence. The ultimate goal of treatment is to arouse patients' sense of responsibility, understand the meaning and purpose of their existence, and have a clear direction for their own life path.

Frankl's speech therapy is based on "human's exploration of meaning", so he named his masterpiece "Human's Exploration of Meaning". Based on frankl's personal experience in Nazi concentration camps, including the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp, this book expounds that the only pillar for him to walk down from bottom to top is his understanding of the meaning of life, and thus puts forward the theory and practice of speech therapy. Some of his later works include: Living the Meaning of Life, The Will of Meaning, The Unconscious God, The Unheard Call for Meaning, Psychotherapy and Existentialism, Doctor and Mind, etc. These works elaborated and developed his speech therapy. The core of frankl and logotherapy's theory is "meaning". This meaning is unique, only people can and must practice it. This is different from the existence of Sartre's "self-action", and its meaning is not created by itself, but needs people to explore. If meaning is regarded as self-expression or projection of desire, then "it loses the characteristics of challenge and appeal, and can no longer inspire people's courage and progress." The basic motivation of life is the will to seek meaning, and neurosis patients just lack this will.

The frustration of the will to seek meaning led to frankl's "mental neurosis", which originated from the spiritual aspect of human existence and appeared when people's anxiety or disappointment exceeded their perception of the value of life. This is a "mental disaster", not a pathological mental illness. Therefore, some inner conflicts of human beings are normal and healthy. The purpose of Logotherapy is to help people understand their own life topics, find out the meaning in his life, and stimulate his potential.

When exploring meaning and value, it may cause people's inner tension. But this tension is a prerequisite for mental health. Frankl believes that the most important essence of human existence is responsibility, so in logotherapy, patients should bear the responsibility of judgment, and doctors' values should not be imposed on patients. The ways to find meaning are: (1) creation and work; (2) Realizing value: through experiencing one thing and one person, discovering the meaning of life, such as the essence of work or culture and love; (3) Suffering: When suffering is found to be meaningful, it is no longer painful. Through the understanding of life tragedy and the response to difficulties, people are urged to think deeply, find themselves, finally discover the meaning of life and realize self-transcendence. In the practice of logotherapy, frankl found that excessive will and excessive attention were the reasons for the aggravation of symptoms, so he invented contradictory intention technology to let patients deliberately engage in the events they were afraid of. This is basically consistent with the operation of Morita therapy and paradox prescription in family therapy.

After examining the psychological state of human beings in the 20th century, frankl came to the conclusion that the reason for people's crazy pursuit of power, money, sexual desire and other hedonic behaviors lies in empty frustration and the will to seek meaning. In order to avoid emptiness, people adopt various compensation methods, such as the will to seek power and the will to enjoy. Modern people's general sense of emptiness and urgency is logotherapy's indication, so logotherapy has gone beyond psychotherapy in a strict sense.

With the passage of time, frankl's theory has been widely used in the field of psychotherapy. For example, the technology of "contradictory intention" has become one of the basic technologies of many schools, especially the new behaviorism. But the scope of application of frankl's theory goes far beyond this. Jim Lants published an article entitled "The Application of frankl's Existential Unconsciousness in Marriage and Family Therapy" in the fourth issue of 1998. Introduced Frankl's family therapy in detail.

Frankl believes that family life has multiple meanings and functions. Every couple, every family and every family member has a unique way to understand meaning and realize its potential. There are three parts of meaning in family: meaning in marriage and family life, willingness to seek meaning and freedom to seek meaning. The will to seek meaning is the basic motivation and reason of marriage and family behavior. In effective family therapy, therapists should help families discover the meaning of family, realize the potential of meaning that has been concealed, denied and suppressed, hidden in the family and preserved in the unconscious, and bring these unconscious meanings and potentials to the conscious level during the treatment. The change of family therapy is actually secondary to the understanding mentioned in analytical therapy. In frankl's family therapy, you will also encounter resistance, because realizing the potential significance of the family means facing the sense of responsibility and vulnerability of the family, which will induce anxiety within the family. In the treatment, we should stimulate three kinds of consciousness motivation: attention, recovery and realization. "Concern" means that the therapist has the responsibility to let the family play the role of overcoming resistance and pay attention to the existing and achievable significance potential. "Recycling", also known as "honor", means that therapists help family members to recall, discover the potential of the meaning they realized in the past, and show respect to them, which is worthy of pride, although it has been considered by family members to exist in the "lost past", which is helpful to reduce emptiness and eliminate accompanying symptoms. "Realization" means that if family members can pay attention to and discover the potential of meaning in the family, but can't make use of it, therapists should help them identify, overcome and change the family interaction mode that causes this obstacle. Lentz believes that the above three motivations are driven by three main components of frankl-style family therapy, namely, human satisfaction, dynamic philosophical reflection and existential philosophical reflection. "Conforming to human nature" means that the therapist provides a supportive environment and brings the realization mode of unconscious impedance and meaningful potential into the conscious level. "Dynamic philosophical reflection" means that the therapist helps the family to realize the previous pathological functional model and further realize a more effective integrated functional model, which is similar to the problem-focused technology. "Existentialist philosophical reflection" means that therapists use questions, sports, legends, poems, art, stories, sympathy, image guidance and other methods to help family members "pay attention" to their future significance potential and opportunities and "restore" the past significance, similar to Milan Group's systematic circular questioning technology. The indications of frankl family therapy are: families with schizophrenic patients, weightless families, immigrant families, Appalachian families (author's note: Appalachian-the eastern plateau of the United States), highly somatic families, post-traumatic families and families with Vietnam War veterans.

From Lentz's discussion, we can see how existentialism is almost perfectly combined with family therapy. In my opinion, in fact, every successful psychotherapy is, and can only be, integrated psychotherapy. Bringing family members to the treatment room is only a form of treatment, and more importantly, it is the treatment concept that guides the whole treatment process. Systematic family therapy follows the principle of system theory and conforms to the dialectical view of wholeness and universal connection. This is a basic principle of psychotherapy. Another principle we should follow is "concrete analysis of specific situations"-therapists should not stick to any form, and many family therapists will encounter patients with separated indicators. At this time, we can't force all relevant family members to participate in the treatment, but should adjust our treatment strategies and choose all practical treatment techniques and theories. Frank invented some special methods to treat his patients. These methods can help patients correctly understand things and find the meaning in their own lives. One of them is called "contradictory intention". The theoretical premise of contradictory intention is that in many cases, people are too afraid of some frightening things. In other words, because he is always worried about a situation that may make him feel anxious, he becomes so horrible that he is involuntarily introduced into this situation. This is the so-called "expectation anxiety", which often makes people helpless. A person's fear of a certain situation and the fear of this kind of fear make him fall into a vicious circle. He tried his best to get rid of his fear and was overwhelmed by anxiety. If he has to face this situation,

In this case, use the contradictory intention method, that is, tell the patient to try to do what he is most afraid of in this situation, or expect these things to happen. Of course, this is against real wishes. In this way, the fear of disease is replaced by the opposite desire. This method enables people to pre-emptively overcome the expected anxiety and let him relax. So as to calmly deal with the situation he faces. Frankl once told an interesting example. He once treated a very serious adult stutter. The man said that he had stuttered since he was sensible. He only stuttered once. It was when he was twelve years old. Once he didn't buy a ticket by bus and tried to muddle through, but the conductor caught him. He secretly thought that the more stuttering, the better, and asked the conductor.

Frankl's colleague also told an example. It's a man who had a heart attack. He was too worried about his heart rate to leave the hospital. He is afraid that if he needs a doctor urgently, he will not be able to save him. Once, when he fell into this unnecessary anxiety again, the nurse asked him to speed up his heart and increase his pain and anxiety as much as possible. Then the nurse left the room, leaving him alone. When the nurse returned to the room, he said that he really couldn't meet the requirements of a nurse. In fact, on the contrary, he is very calm at this moment. He got up and walked outside the hospital. He hasn't gone out for a walk for half a year. When he arrived at a shop, he began to feel his heart beat faster, so he said to himself, "Be anxious and do your best!" " As a result, he did not feel anxious, but calmed down. Soon after, he was discharged from the hospital and returned to work.

If a person wants to cure his speech timidity in this way, he can say to himself before the speech: "I will try my best to make myself feel anxious." I will be anxious and frightened on the stage, want to escape and wrap myself up from top to bottom. I will tremble all over. I will be ashamed, blush, stammer and incoherent. I will be anxious and make myself feel that the whole building is by my side. " My sweat may be enough to drown all the spectators. At least, to be sure, if my sweat didn't drown them, it would certainly suffocate them. I will be a world champion and a first-class dancer. Isn't there this event in the Olympic Games? I am sure to win the gold medal. "Through this contradictory approach, people will calm down. Laugh at fear and decide what to say to yourself in a humorous way. This can eliminate the negative effects that adversity may have on you, so that you can still cope in this situation.

In frankl's view, this method is based on the theory of discovering the meaning of life. It reminds us how often we focus on trivial things in our daily lives and exaggerate them too much. Doing so will lead to unreasonable and unnecessary anxiety. If we stop this boring trick and concentrate on doing meaningful things, then we will immediately get rid of anxiety and live a more fulfilling and purposeful life. A happier life. Contradictory intentions play a role in offsetting these daily trivial fears. Of course, this fear is bred from the emptiness of existence. Therefore, living a meaningful life is the best prevention for it.

Another method invented by frankl is called "de-reflection". It is somewhat similar to contradictory intention, that is, trying to respond to "compulsive tendency", which we often find in self-observation. We often put too much attention, thinking and chewing at the beginning of a thing, and the result is getting worse and worse. A notable example is breathing. You should pay attention to your breathing. You should breathe normally. The more you pay attention, the more disordered your breathing will be and everything will be chaotic. Insomnia can also happen. If you force yourself to sleep, it will only make you unable to sleep. Because I have to get up in the morning, I have to give up the hope of forcing myself to fall asleep, that is, I fell asleep instead. Sometimes, we may not succeed, because we work too hard. If we deal with problems more easily, success will be much easier, but it will help us shift our attention from trivial things that bother us to more meaningful values and more important things. Once we do this, we will find that it can solve the problem well and we will no longer be troubled by anxiety.

Frankl distinguishes between right and wrong attitudes towards adversity. In these cases, we can use the above method. He thinks that both passive and active methods are right and wrong.

The wrong passive method refers to people escaping from difficulties because of expected anxiety, that is, escaping from fear. The correct passive method is to use the contradictory intention method. With this technology, people can overcome difficulties without fear and anxiety.

The wrong way to take the initiative is to indulge in problems and troubles, and as a result, you are overworked and exhausted, and you can't achieve your goals. Reverse reaction is the correct way to master initiative in this case. You belittle the problem and turn your attention to more important things.

"Live as if you had a second life,

It's like you did something wrong the first time. "

Victor Frank