thy Dr. Viktor Frankl, a famous Austrian psychiatrist, and psychotherapist speaks of three inescapable human experiences. They are Pain, Guilt, and Death, and he calls them “The Tragic Triad.” These experiences, by nature, are negative in themselves. But, how can we stay positive in the midst of these inescapable realities and many more that we encounter daily as existential human beings? Frankl suggests a psychological approach known as Logotherapy. The Greek term logos means “Word” or “Will” of God in religious circles. In a broader sense, it can be viewed as “that which gives reason for being.” Frankl prefers the simple translation of logos as “meaning.” Logotherapy means healing through meaning.
The underlying assumption of Logotherapy, according to Frankl, is; life has meaning under all circumstances; people have a will to meaning, and people have the freedom under all circumstances to activate the will to meaning and to find meaning.
Frankl also speaks about “a tragic optimism.” This means that a person remains optimistic despite the “tragic triad” through Logotherapy. A triad consists of those human experiences that may be conditioned by pain, guilt, and death. It raises a fundamental question. How is it possible to say yes to life despite all these negative experiences? He suggests that it is better to pose the question differently by asking, ‘can life retain its potential meaning in spite of its tragic aspects?’ After all, life is potentially meaningful, even with those experiences that are most miserable.
And this, in turn, triggers the human capacity to turn life’s negative aspects into positive or constructive experiences. In other words, making the best of any given situation. “The best,” however, in Latin means ‘optimum.’ Therefore, according to Frankl, the human potential allows us to turn suffering into a human achievement and accomplishment, guilt into an opportunity to change oneself for the better, and our transitoriness as an incentive to take responsibility in life.
Dr. Frankl speaks from the personal struggles and suffering he experienced in Hitler’s Concentration Camp during World War II. He has an amazing story of hardships and personal losses, which led him to develop a new life perspective, Logotherapy.
In reality, we live or at least perceive sometimes that the world we live in is broken and stands in need of healing from its brokenness, selfishness, destructiveness, divisiveness, and defenselessness. As human beings, we stand in need of healing physically, spiritually, emotionally, and psychologically. We are wounded as humanity but not crushed; diverted but not crashed; disobedient but not forsaken, lost hope but not hopeless. We stand today in need of healing therapy for individual persons and the world at large in the midst of existing chaos and confusion.
Today’s need is not the why’s, what’s, who’s, and how’s for the healing of ourselves and the world, but a meaningful approach to find purpose and meaning in life to go through pain, guilt, and death. The Word, the Eternal Word, the Logos is the Way, the Truth, and the Life in our lives. When you have the right attitudes, the healing will take place in our lives!
