2019 VFI Israel Introductory Assignments

Introduction to Logotherapy

The answers to this worksheet are to be filled out and emailed to

batya.yaniger@gmail.com by the end of the course

Assigned books for reading:

Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl

Quest for Destiny, Teria Shantall

Questions on Man’s Search for Meaning

The power of right choices: the story of Viktor Frankl

Read the story of Frankl’s sufferings in his book: Man’s Search for Meaning, taking note
of every critical choice he made. Using the above title as a guideline, answer the
following questions in an essay form as a description of the story of Frankl’s life. Your
answer should not be much longer than 10 typed pages

 How did Frankl experience his suffering? What was the experience like for him?
What meaning did he find in it? What pivotal choices did he make? What do you
regard as a crucial choice that launched Frankl into his journey of suffering?
 How did he come to realize that suffering was another one of life’s tasks, even its
greatest task, one which he needed not to run away from but to embrace?
 What sustained Frankl, gave him courage, or even inspired him during the time of
his suffering?
 Were there times when Frankl experienced a breakthrough into a higher
dimension, times during which he experienced a sense of profound meaning in the
very midst of his sufferings?
 What would you describe as the outcome or prize of having suffered courageously
at the end of Frankl’s story of suffering?
 What did Frankl’s suffering mean to him? What kind of a person, do you
imagine, did he become as a result of all that he went through? Did the kind of
choices he made during the period of his suffering influence the kind of person he
became? Explain.
 Did Frankl’s suffering present him with a particular calling or mission in life?
How would you describe that particular vocation or life task that he was called
upon to do after the time of his suffering?
 Reflecting on your own sufferings and the costly or crucial choices you had to
make in your own life, how did it influence you? How did you change or grow as
a result of what you went through?
  Do you feel that you have a particular vocation or calling in life? What is your
life’s story?

Your impression of human nature from reading Man’s Search for Meaning

 What horrified you about Frankl's experiences?

 What impressed you about his story?
 How do you understand human nature?

Questions on Quest for Destiny

Look for questions blocked in grey and answer them.

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Project in preparation for meeting six

Participants are to do a ten minute oral presentation on the following list of topics for the
last meeting. It can be a power point presentation, short video, a song, a play, anything at
all that strikes your imagination and gets the point across.

 Nöetic dimension, three dimensions

 A human being is an ‘open system’
 Freedom of Will
 Will to Meaning; fruitful tension in contrast to homeostasis
 Unconditional meaning of life
 Basic trust in life
 Self-transcendence
 Self-detachment
 Self-distancing
 Defiant power/choice
 Nihilism, reductionism and determinism
 Conscience in contrast to superego
 Responsibility
 Therapeutic value of a task
 Do not ask what you expect from life; ask, rather what life expects from you
 Logos is deeper than logic
 Meaning is ‘what is meant’
 Meaning must be found, not invented
 Creative values
 Experiential values
 Attitudinal values
 Existential vacuum
 Tragic triad, neurotic triad and tragic optimism