Abstract
Chapter 6 provides an overview of Viktor Frankl’s existential psychology (logotherapy) as it pertains to faculty members’ search for meaning in unusually personal scholarship. This framework has therapeutic implications for readers with unusually personal connections to their research and also for mainstream scholars who want to live and work meaningfully in academic settings. Major themes include: Logotherapy as “healing through meaning”; the tragic triad of irretrievable loss, unavoidable suffering, and guilt; creative, experiential, and attitudinal values; uniqueness and responsibility; What is a human being?, the somatic, psychogenic, and noetic dimensions; and What is human life?, the freedom of will, the will to meaning, and the meaning of life. These concepts are explained and interpreted using examples from Frankl’s publications and the Part I case studies.
My life has meaning because of my goal.
—Ronald Mallett, Theoretical Physicist, 2017
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Notes
- 1.
For example, the English title of Der Unbewusste Gott (Frankl 1948) is The Unconscious God (1975). This is misleading. In order to remain faithful to Frankl’s intended meaning, the translation “God of the Unconscious” would be a closer approximation of his intent (Ann V. Graber, personal communication, November 12, 2004).
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Esping, A. (2018). Introduction to Part II: Franklian Existential Psychology. In: Epistemology, Ethics, and Meaning in Unusually Personal Scholarship. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73718-8_6
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