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Meaningful Living: A Logotherapeutic Guide to Health
Discusses the search for meaning in modern life, describes the approach of logotherapy, and shares actual case studies of troubled individuals
- GenresPsychology
140 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
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November 21, 2023
I'll start by saying I'm pretty surprised that I'm giving this a 5. I don't even think it's like a rounded up 4.5 or nuthin'. I really loved reading this book. But, without even finishing the first chapter, I was ready to just throw it in the trash. Lukas kicks off with what I read as a conservative screed, a Luddistic (socially & technologically, if the definition can carry) whingeathon about how the world is losing its way, people (even women) are unrealistically expecting to have orgasms during their over-abundance of sexual encounters, & art is no longer pretty landscapes & realistic portraits. I mean, this is in the mid-80s - she's still around, I wonder how she's handling the internet & smartphones & the general acceptance of cannabis use. She just sounded like a horrible stick-in-the-mud, & frankly, a not particularly nice or warm person & certainly no one I'd like to be at a dinner party with. I suspected from her randomly placed & strangely frequent complaints about sexual perversion that she was homophobic. Whether she was or not, & whether she is or not, I guess I can't say. But she does cure the only two homosexuals mentioned in the book. Sets them straight as their thankfully-abandoned pathway to Hell was.
Anyway... it's safe to say she turned me off quickly, which is all the more reason to respect her work as a logotherapist.
Lukas is the consummate professional. Whatever her beliefs - religious or socio-political - they never (or rarely) seem to come out in her actual cases (of which the book gives us three dozen examples). She is caring, creative, & careful with her patients. She even seems to have a bit of a sense of humour. She is not afraid to ask her patients or former patients for advice with what to do with other patients she is struggling with (obviously all anonymized). She seems to keep in touch with former patients, & you could tell how impactful her therapy was to some of the cases in this book. One section just left my heart glowing with joy, when an entire letter from someone who - after struggle - had success for the first time in her life with this therapy. This young lady had gone from a useless & unloving family to an orphanage to getting kicked out of school to failing multiple apprenticeships to the verge of becoming a teenage prostitute... & by the end, well:
You told me a good trick which I tried when I was in the dumps. It helped. I really am grateful. Dear Dr. Lukas, I like you very much. I believe I can trust you more than I trust anyone. Please believe me. The talisman you gave me I always have with me at work. It helps me every time I need it. Dear Dr. Lukas, I have a big request, please don't think I'm mushy. I'd like a snapshot of yourself. As a souvenir. It would make me very happy.
Few successes feel as successful as the success of the underprivileged.
As an actual guidebook on logotherapy, it was great. Lukas systematically goes through... everything. I don't want to retread it all in the review, but the four main techniques of logotherapy are:
- Modification of attitudes
- Paradoxical intention
- Dereflection
- The appealing technique
Each getting a full chapter, & there are many sub-techniques & relations between techniques that are brought up also. She gives examples of exceptions & when certain techniques are not a good idea, when is a bad time to attempt something or other. She backs up pretty much all her succinct (if not sometimes repetitive, which I find very forgivable in a book such as this) advice with her own case studies. At the end, she questions what it is to be a good logotherapist, & admits her own faults. Shit, by the end, I'd used the logotherapeutic techniques to modify my attitude toward her conservative bullshit that seeped out every now & then so that I could laugh at the wildness - the juxtaposition between this entirely collected & seemingly open therapist & someone you could picture outside an abortion clinic waving homemade signs around.
In any case, I copied out many many phrases & paragraphs & even entire pages of useful information from this book, & I intend to read one of her more textbookish works in the next year. One of the main takeaways to keep at the front of the mind is the very real effects of feedback-loops. That & I think I'm a solid believer in the logotherapist's distaste toward typical psychotherapy's obsession with childhood trauma.
As Frankl says in the foreword, "books on logotherapy are directed less to psychotherapists than to patients... [readers] can apply the ideas of logotherapy to themselves, sometimes making the intervention of a professional therapist unnecessary... Books on logotherapy are 'bibliotherapy.'"
Anyway... it's safe to say she turned me off quickly, which is all the more reason to respect her work as a logotherapist.
Lukas is the consummate professional. Whatever her beliefs - religious or socio-political - they never (or rarely) seem to come out in her actual cases (of which the book gives us three dozen examples). She is caring, creative, & careful with her patients. She even seems to have a bit of a sense of humour. She is not afraid to ask her patients or former patients for advice with what to do with other patients she is struggling with (obviously all anonymized). She seems to keep in touch with former patients, & you could tell how impactful her therapy was to some of the cases in this book. One section just left my heart glowing with joy, when an entire letter from someone who - after struggle - had success for the first time in her life with this therapy. This young lady had gone from a useless & unloving family to an orphanage to getting kicked out of school to failing multiple apprenticeships to the verge of becoming a teenage prostitute... & by the end, well:
You told me a good trick which I tried when I was in the dumps. It helped. I really am grateful. Dear Dr. Lukas, I like you very much. I believe I can trust you more than I trust anyone. Please believe me. The talisman you gave me I always have with me at work. It helps me every time I need it. Dear Dr. Lukas, I have a big request, please don't think I'm mushy. I'd like a snapshot of yourself. As a souvenir. It would make me very happy.
Few successes feel as successful as the success of the underprivileged.
As an actual guidebook on logotherapy, it was great. Lukas systematically goes through... everything. I don't want to retread it all in the review, but the four main techniques of logotherapy are:
- Modification of attitudes
- Paradoxical intention
- Dereflection
- The appealing technique
Each getting a full chapter, & there are many sub-techniques & relations between techniques that are brought up also. She gives examples of exceptions & when certain techniques are not a good idea, when is a bad time to attempt something or other. She backs up pretty much all her succinct (if not sometimes repetitive, which I find very forgivable in a book such as this) advice with her own case studies. At the end, she questions what it is to be a good logotherapist, & admits her own faults. Shit, by the end, I'd used the logotherapeutic techniques to modify my attitude toward her conservative bullshit that seeped out every now & then so that I could laugh at the wildness - the juxtaposition between this entirely collected & seemingly open therapist & someone you could picture outside an abortion clinic waving homemade signs around.
In any case, I copied out many many phrases & paragraphs & even entire pages of useful information from this book, & I intend to read one of her more textbookish works in the next year. One of the main takeaways to keep at the front of the mind is the very real effects of feedback-loops. That & I think I'm a solid believer in the logotherapist's distaste toward typical psychotherapy's obsession with childhood trauma.
As Frankl says in the foreword, "books on logotherapy are directed less to psychotherapists than to patients... [readers] can apply the ideas of logotherapy to themselves, sometimes making the intervention of a professional therapist unnecessary... Books on logotherapy are 'bibliotherapy.'"
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