Logotherapy and Suicide (a life-saving controversy)

What is Logotherapy?

Neurologist and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl; a holocaust survivor, developed Logotherapy, which states that the primary motivational force of an individual is to find a meaning in life. Striving to find meaning in life is the most powerful motivating force in humans. And this is what Dr. Frankel gave a short introduction about, in his 1946 most famous book (Man's search for meaning).

Logotherapy principles:

● Life has meaning under all circumstances, even the most miserable ones.

● Our main motivation for living is our will to find meaning in life.

● We have the freedom to find meaning in what we experience and when we face a situation of unchangeable suffering.

What cause a human to commit suicide?

Suicide idiomatically is the act of intentionally causing one's own death, but looking deeper on why a person would commit suicide is related to losing meaning in life due to several risk factors including Mental disorders as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality and anxiety disorders, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder(ADHD), Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome, physical disorders such as chronic fatigue syndrome, and substance abuse as alcoholism and the use of and withdrawal from benzodiazepines (depressant drugs), stress from financial or academic difficulties, relationship problems as breakups or divorces, or harassment and bullying.

Logotherapy VS Suicide (a life-saving philosophy)

According to Dr. Frankel, Logotherapy deals with the person's psychological and emotional reaction to the illnesses. Examples for causes of suicide treated by Logotherapy:

● Treating Anxiety. 

Anxiety is the result of “unfulfilled responsibility” and a lack of meaning. New York Times writer Tim Sanders, a follower of Logotherapy, uses this concept to relieve the stress of fellow airline travelers by asking them the purpose of their journey. When he does this, no matter how miserable they are, their whole demeanour changes, and they remain happy throughout the flight.

● Treating Neurosis.

Anticipatory anxiety (cause for neurosis/distress) is a fear of a given outcome, which makes that outcome more likely. A person who fears not getting a good night's sleep tries too hard to fall asleep, and this would hinder their ability to do so. Logotherapy offers paradoxical intention, wherein the patient intends to do the opposite of their hyper-intended goal by setting another goal or meaning in their suffering from insomnia. So if that person went to bed and intentionally tried not to fall asleep. This would relieve the anticipatory anxiety, which kept the person awake in the first place, thus allowing them to fall asleep in an acceptable amount of time.

● Treating depression.

Dr Frankl suggests that if goals seem unreachable, an individual loses a sense of future and meaning that results in depression. Dr Frankl challenges individuals who suffer from depression to find meaning in their suffering. Such meaning to keep going will act as a motive to reach that goal, which seemed unreachable before.

● Treating Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

People with OCD have recurring, unwanted thoughts (obsessions). To get rid of the thoughts, they feel driven to do something repetitively (compulsions). They lack the sense of completion that most other individuals possess. Dr Frankl says that the patient is “not responsible for his obsessional ideas”, but “he is certainly responsible for his attitude toward these ideas” . The patient has to recognize their inclinations toward perfection as fate and, therefore, must learn to accept some degrees of uncertainty. Logotherapy helps them to ignore their obsessional thoughts and find meaning in their life despite such thoughts.

●Treating Schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a long-term mental disorder that involves a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behavior, which leads to to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into fantasy and delusion, and a sense of mental fragmentation. Dr Frankl says that the person with schizophrenia needs to learn how to ignore voices and end persistent self-observation. He must involve himself toward meaningful activity, as “even for the schizophrenic there remains that residue of freedom toward fate and toward the disease which man always possesses”

Conclusion.

Suicide is a serious issue that results from losing meaning in life. That is what Logotherapy addresses through challenging man to search and find a meaning to keep going in life. Even if it seems there is no meaning in life, deep down, there is still a residue of meaning that man will cling to to keep living for it. That meaning in life and the hope to get back to the loved ones and live life like a human is what saved many people from giving up or ending their lives in concentration camps. If it is not for having a meaning in life, we wouldn't have seen those holocaust survivors who overcame their miserable moments to tell us about their experiences like Dr. Frankl. In the end, We have to remind ourselves with Nietzsche's words, "If we have our own why in life, we shall get along with almost any how"