Search Results (8)

Viktor Frankl attributes significant importance to religion in relation to the human quest for meaning. According to Frankl, religion maintains its existence and continues offering guidance in the search for meaning irrespective of worldly conditions or developments. Since the 19th century, secularism—initially adopted particularly by Western nations but influential globally—has significantly limited the presence of religion in public life. Although the predictions of positivist scientists did not materialize and science has not “overthrown” religion, the number of religious individuals is rapidly declining in the contemporary era, while atheism is increasing. Nevertheless, research indicates that religions still serve as powerful guides in believers’ search for meaning. Moreover, globally, the most religious segments of the population tend to be the poorest and, as Frankl suggests, religion enables people to attribute meaning to their patience and endurance in the face of adversity. It is discussed by the academia that in the future world, humanity might transcend biological limitations, reaching an advanced form of existence (“trans-humanism”), and eventually even surpassing the biological form of Homo Sapiens into a digitally based life form described as the “post-human” stage. This study argues that unless humanity reaches this stage, people’s quest for meaning will continue independently of technological advancements, religions will persist in guiding these searches, and Frankl’s views will most likely remain valid. Full article

The research reported in this paper aimed to investigate how Brazilian psychologists describe their experiences and dealings with the evangelical religiosity (ER) of patients/users in clinical settings. The descriptive empirical–phenomenological method proposed by Amedeo Giorgi was used to analyse the recorded and transcribed interviews with fifteen Brazilian psychologists, seven of them working in a Psychosocial Attention Centrepsychosocial attention centre (CAPS) and eight working in a hospital setting. According to both groups of participants, ER is always present in both clinical contexts, manifested by users of CAPS and hospital inpatient services, as well as by their families and the health professionals themselves. The psychologists shared the implications of ER, whether dynamic or damaging, for patients’ mental health and for their treatment. Even with the predominant sense that it gives meaning to peoples’ lives and re-adnsignifies their suffering, ER is also seen as an obstacle to the promotion of health when it is characterized by strict and oppressive doctrines and dogmas. Clinical psychologists were unanimous in affirming their tendency to respect and accept such religious manifestations, but they also shared their difficulties in dealing with them, mainly due to their failure to approach the topic during their professional training. Full article

There has been extensive research and examination dedicated to the advantages and disadvantages of entrepreneurship, both in general and specifically for African Americans. Significant research has been devoted to understanding the economic outcomes of African American men, and there is an area of opportunity to study how African American men, specifically, can leverage entrepreneurship to increase the probability of successful economic outcomes for themselves and their families. Entrepreneurial research has the potential to be leveraged to combat waning labor force participation rates and heightened unemployment rates among African American men. Leveraging the theories of Trust, Goal-Orientation, Logotherapy, and Social Identity Theory, a study was conducted among United States-based business owners. The sample size was forty-one African American male business owners. The results demonstrate how these African American men have leveraged entrepreneurship to build social capital and wealth, while improving their standard of living, as well as highlight the hurdles and barriers they have endured during the process of business ownership. The majority of African American owned business are owned by African American men, and this study provides insights into the phenomenology of African American male entrepreneurs. Full article

Depression, stress, anxiety disorders, and PTSD are some of the mental health problems that are prevalent among immigrant populations despite being underdiagnosed. Stigma, difficulties in adapting, cultural barriers, and reduced access to mental health support can seriously hamper their ability to build resilience and recover. Other limitations include assuming that therapies can be universally applied, the lack of sufficient evidence on mental health issues of this population, and the use of therapeutic models developed on Caucasian populations. Here, professional guidance to find the meaning of life through interventions such as logotherapy could help them in this process. The present work systematically reviewed studies investigating the effectiveness of logotherapy in diverse populations and its relevance to a Muslim immigrant population in Europe. Following PRISMA guidelines and the keywords ‘logotherapy, mental health problems, immigrant, and treatment’, the search identified 16 relevant studies conducted since 2005. The studies revealed that logotherapy could be implemented through paradoxical intention, de-reflection, Socratic dialogue, and attitude modification. All these techniques have the potential to help the client to realize long-term relief for underlying stressors associated with migration and settling in a new location. Though data on logotherapy are still scarce, it is evident that it deserves more research so that a structured, evidence-based, and effective therapy for Muslim immigrants in Europe can be developed and tested. In this regard, we propose that the four logotherapy techniques have huge potential in helping psychiatrists develop an effective therapy for mental health problems among these immigrant populations confronting adversity. Full article

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has posed risks to public mental health worldwide. University students, who are already recognised as a vulnerable population, are at elevated risk of mental health issues given COVID-19-related disruptions to higher education. To assist universities in effectively allocating resources to the launch of targeted, population-level interventions, the current study aimed to uncover predictors of university students’ psychological wellbeing during the pandemic via a data-driven approach. Methods: Data were collected from 3973 Australian university students ((median age = 22, aged from 18 to 79); 70.6% female)) at five time points during 2020. Feature selection was conducted via least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) to identify predictors from a comprehensive set of variables. Selected variables were then entered into an ordinary least squares (OLS) model to compare coefficients and assess statistical significance. Results: Six negative predictors of university students’ psychological wellbeing emerged: White/European ethnicity, restriction stress, perceived worry on mental health, dietary changes, perceived sufficiency of distancing communication, and social isolation. Physical health status, emotional support, and resilience were positively associated with students’ psychological wellbeing. Social isolation has the largest effect on students’ psychological wellbeing. Notably, age, gender, international status, and educational level did not emerge as predictors of wellbeing. Conclusion: To cost-effectively support student wellbeing through 2021 and beyond, universities should consider investing in internet- and tele- based interventions explicitly targeting perceived social isolation among students. Course-based online forums as well as internet- and tele-based logotherapy may be promising candidates for improving students’ psychological wellbeing. Full article

This study designed an intervention based on logo-autobiography to reduce Korean college students’ stress and depression and help them find meaning in their lives amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. A quasi-experimental design was used to conduct group interventions among college students. A total of 22 and 26 participants were included in the experimental and control groups, respectively. The experimental group received six sessions of a logo-autobiography for college students (LAC). The effects of the LAC interventions were assessed at baseline, post-intervention, and four weeks after the program’s end to determine their retention rate. The effects of group, time, and the group-by-time interaction were verified using generalized estimating equations with an autoregressive correlation structure. The experimental group exhibited significantly lower levels of stress and depression and higher levels concerning the meaning of life than the control group. However, only the effects on stress and the meaning of life continued four weeks after the intervention’s end. Based on this study’s results, LAC can be considered a useful method for reducing stress and depression in college students who have just started their adult life, as well as for aiding them in their pursuit for the meaning of life. Full article

Psychotherapy is a comprehensive biological treatment modifying complex underlying cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and regulatory responses in the brain, leading patients with mental illness to a new interpretation of the sense of self and others. Psychotherapy is an art of science integrated with psychology and/or philosophy. Neurological sciences study the neurological basis of cognition, memory, and behavior as well as the impact of neurological damage and disease on these functions, and their treatment. Both psychotherapy and neurological sciences deal with the brain; nevertheless, they continue to stay polarized. Existential phenomenological psychotherapy (EPP) has been in the forefront of meaning-centered counseling for almost a century. The phenomenological approach in psychotherapy originated in the works of Martin Heidegger, Ludwig Binswanger, Medard Boss, and Viktor Frankl, and it has been committed to accounting for the existential possibilities and limitations of one’s life. EPP provides philosophically rich interpretations and empowers counseling techniques to assist mentally suffering individuals by finding meaning and purpose to life. The approach has proven to be effective in treating mood and anxiety disorders. This narrative review article demonstrates the development of EPP, the therapeutic methodology, evidence-based accounts of its curative techniques, current understanding of mood and anxiety disorders in neurological sciences, and a possible converging path to translate and integrate meaning-centered psychotherapy and neuroscience, concluding that the EPP may potentially play a synergistic role with the currently prevailing medication-based approaches for the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders. Full article

The aim of this paper is to adduce the meaning of Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy and existential analysis—the spirit of logotherapy—in the two-fold sense of its core teachings, as well as its emphasis on the spiritual dimension of the human person. Firstly, I situate Frankl’s tri-dimensional ontology—his philosophical anthropology—within a Platonic perspective, asserting that it was Plato who first gave us a picture and model of mental health which he based on the harmony of the disparate parts of the personality—the aim to become One instead of Many, which finds a modern parallel in Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy, which likewise stresses the importance of inner wholeness (an anthropological oneness) despite our ontological differences. Classical Greek philosophers all pointed to the Logos as source of order—to the horizon of meaning-potentials, so I visit the various understandings of this term from the pre-Socratics to Frankl, albeit briefly, to avoid semantic confusion in what is to follow. I then discuss in some detail the exact meaning that logos/spirit has in Frankl’s philosophical conceptualisations. Disorders of logos may be seen in various psychopathologies and pnemopathologies which I go on to consider, highlighting the differences between various terms that are commonly left unclarified. Next, I adumbrate the differences between psychotherapy and logotherapy, which ultimately revolves around the difference between instincts and spirit before demarcating the boundaries between religion (as salvation) and logotherapy (as sanity). The question I pose next is: what exactly constitutes the spiritual in logotherapy, as in life? An example is given to concretise the conceptual considerations previously elucidated before drawing on another distinction, that between “ultimate meaning” and “the meaning of the moment”. The paper concludes with a brief excursus into the work of Ken Wilber by way of enabling us to appreciate and better understand the monumental significance of Frankl’s contribution to the field of transpersonal studies in relation to his refusal to collapse, confuse or conflate the higher dimensions of the person into lower ones. Full article