VIKTOR FRANKL'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO HUMAN TRINITY HYPNOTHERAPY

By Chaplain Paul G. Durbin Ph.D.

Viktor Frankl taught at the University of Vienna Medical School and later at several schools in the United States. Frankl's first book in English was 'Man's Search For Meaning' which he wrote while in a Nazi prison camp during World War II. During those years, he experienced incredible suffering and degradation but further developed his theory of Logotherapy. "Logos" is the Greek work for "Meaning."

Logotherapy focuses on the meaning of human existence and man's search for meaning. According to Frankl, the striving to find meaning in one's life is the primary motivational force in man. In using the term, "man," Frankl is referring to the "Human Race": male and female. Logotherapy forms a chain of interconnected links; (1) freedom of will, (2) will to meaning, and (3) meaning of life. 

Humans are ultimately self-determining. What one becomes within limits of endowment and environment, he has made for himself. Frankl wrote, "In the concentration camp, we witnessed some of our comrades behave like swine while others behaved like saints. Man has both potentialities within himself: which one is actualized depends on decisions but not on conditions. Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is. After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers and he is also that being who entered the gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips." 

It was Frankl's contention that the pleasure principle of Freud is self-defeating. The more one aims for pleasure, the more his aim is missed. The very "pursuit of happiness" is what thwarts it. Pleasure is missed when it is the goal and attained when it is the side effect of attaining a goal. Hypnotherapist calls this the Law of Reversed Effect: "The harder you try...the more difficult it becomes."

I am reminded that in the Museum of the State House of Mississippi there is an old rusty breastplate and sword. They are relics of the first expedition of Spanish of Florida and the lands to the west. The Spanish came in search of gold, but found only lonely stretches of sand, dense forest, poisonous snakes and insects, wild beast and hostile people. They were at times discouraged, disheartened and ready to quit. On other occasions, they were feverish with hope from the report that gold was just around the bend, just over the hill, or just across the river. It seemed the further they went in search of gold, the further from gold they got. Is this not a parable of life? 

The therapist's role consists of widening and broadening the visual field of the client so that the spectrums of meaning and values become conscious and visible to her. Meaning to life may change, but it never ceases to be. We can discover meaning through creative values, experience values and attitudal values. Meaning can come through what we give to life (creative values), by what we take from the world: Listening to music, reading, enjoying sports, etc. (experience values), and through the stand we take toward a situation we can no longer change such as the death of a loved one (attitudal values). As long as one is conscious, he is under obligation to realize values, even if only attitudal values. Frankl does not claim to have an answer for the client's meaning to life. Meaning must be found but it cannot be given. Logotherapy is an optimistic approach to life for it teaches that there are no tragic or negative aspects which cannot be the stand one takes to translate them into a positive accomplishment.
It is commonly observed that anxiety produces precisely what the client fears. Frankl called this "anticipatory anxiety." For instance, in the cases of insomnia, the client reports that she has been having trouble going to sleep at night. The fear of not going to sleep only adds to difficulty of trying to go to sleep. Fear of test taking, sexual problems (impotence, failure to experience orgasm) are intensified by anticipatory anxiety.

Frankl developed the technique of "paradoxical intention." For instance, when a phobia client is afraid that something will happen to him, the Logotherapist encourages him to intend or wish for, even if only for a short time, precisely what he fears. Hypnotherapists calls this method (or a slight variation of it), "desensitization." There can also be a bit of humor involved with paradoxical intention. I used this method with a lady who ate two bags of popcorn each night and wanted to stop or cut down. During the counseling session, I said to her, "Now, tonight just say to yourself, 'Well, I have been eating two bags of popcorn each night. Tonight, I am going to eat four bags. I am sure that if I can eat two, I can eat four." She began to laugh and said, "That is ridiculous. I don't want four bags. Two bags are too much also. I can be satisfied with one or less." 

You may notice there can be a touch of the ridiculous and humor in the approach. Paradoxical Intention allows the client to develop a sense of detachment toward her problem by laughing at it. This procedure is based upon the fact that problems are caused as much by compulsion to avoid or fight them as by the problem itself. The avoiding and fighting the problem focuses on the problem and strengthens the symptoms. Another part of paradox intention is to exaggerate the problem. By exaggerating the problem and then letting it go, one may observe that the symptom diminishes and the client is no longer haunted by them (circle therapy). 

LOGOTHERAPY: 

"Logos" is a Greek word that means "meaning." Logotherapy focuses on the meaning of human existence and also on man's search for meaning. (When Frankl used the word "man" in this context, he meant "mankind.") According to Logotherapy, the striving to find meaning in one's life is the primary motivational force in man. That is why he speaks of a "will to meaning" in contrast to the pleasure principle or "will to pleasure" on which Freudian psychoanalysis is centered. The will to meaning is more important according to Frankl than the "striving for superiority" stressed by Adlerian psychology. Man does not have to endure meaninglessness of life as some existential philosophers teach or face life with a pessimistic outlook as other existential philosophers would indicate. Frankl sees man as a whole that includes body, mind, and spirit. All three are interwoven so that each affects the other. He uses the example of looking a drinking glass. To look at it from one angle it looks like a drinking glass. To look at the glass from another direction, it looks like a circle. To see the shadow of the glass, the viewer is provided with yet another shape. 

Logotherapy not only recognizes man's spirit, but actually starts with it. It must be kept in mind, however, that within the frame of Logotherapy "spiritual" does not have a religious connotation but refers to specifically human dimensions. In this connection, "Logos" is intended to signify "the spiritual" and beyond that, "the meaning." I would like to point out that Frankl is very friendly toward religion and does not hesitate to use it if his patient is inclined toward religion. Freud once said, "Man is not only often much more immoral than he believes, but also often much more moral than he thinks." Frankl adds that he is often much more religious than he suspects. People are now seeing more in man's morality than an interjected father-image and more in his religion than a projected father-image. Frankl says, "To consider religion a general obsessional neurosis of humanity is already old-fashioned." He stated that we must not make the mistake of looking upon religion as something emerging from the realm of the id, thus tracing it back again to instinctual drives. 

Even the followers of Jung have not avoided this error. They reduce religion to the collective unconscious or to archetypes. Frankl was once asked after a lecture whether he did not admit that there were such things as religious archetypes. "Was it not remarkable that all primitive people ultimately reached a similar concept of God, which seems to point to a god-archetype?" Frankl asks his questioner whether there was such a thing as a Four-archetype. The man did not understand immediately and so Frankl said, "Look here, all people discovered independently that two and two make four. Perhaps we do not need an archetype for an explanation; perhaps two and two really do make four. Perhaps we do not need a divine archetype to explain human religion either. Perhaps God really does exist." 

Though Logotherapy does not focus on helping the patients to regain his belief in God, time and again this is just what occurs, unintended and unexpected as it is. Frankl stated, "It is the business of existential analysis (Logotherapy) to furnish and to adorn as far as possible the chamber of immanence, while being careful not to block the door to transcendence." The Logotherapist has an "open-door policy." Through this door that is left ajar, the religious person can go out unhindered. Conversely the spirit of true religious feelings has free entrance. For the spirit of true religious feelings requires spontaneity. It appears that this "open-door policy" as well as the fact that quite often a person's faith is renewed during Logotherapy is based upon the fundamental assumptions of Logotherapy which form a chain of interconnected links: 1) Freedom of will, 2) Will to meaning, and 3) Meaning to life. 

FREEDOM OF WILL: 
Frankl said that there are two classes of people who maintain that man's will is not free: Schizophrenic patients suffering from delusions that their will is manipulated and their thoughts controlled by other and along side them, deterministic philosophers. Under deterministic philosophers, he includes philosophers, psychologists, theologians, and others who hold to a deterministic view of human beings. The later often admit that we are experiencing our will as free, but this, they say, is self deception.

Psychoanalysis has often been blamed for its so-called pan-sexualism. Frankl states that there is an aspect of Psychoanalysis that is even more erroneous and dangerous: that of pan-determinism. By that Frankl means the view of man that disregards his capacity to take a stand toward any conditions whatsoever. Man is not fully conditioned or determined; he determines himself whether to give in to conditions or stand up to them. In other words, man is ultimately self-determining. Man does not simply exist, but always decided what his existence will be, what he will become in the minute. By the same token, every human being has the freedom to change at any instant. 

Man is influenced by the biological, psychological or sociological. Yet one of the main features of human existence is the capacity to rise above such conditions and transcend them. In the same manner, man ultimately transcends himself: a human being is a self-transcending being. In relationship to the predictability of an individual, Frankl relates the story of Dr. J. Dr. J. was what Frankl would call a satanic figure, who was known as the "mass murderer of Steinhof." When the Nazis started their euthanasia program, he held all the strings in his hands and made fantastic efforts to see that not one single psychotic individual escaped the gas chamber. 

After the war, a patient asked Frankl if he knew Dr. J. After Frankl's affirmative reply, he continued, "I made his acquaintance in Ljubljanka, a Russian prison camp. Dr. J. had been captured by the Russians and was in that prison camp. There he died of cancer of the urinary bladder. Before he died, however, he showed himself to be the best comrade you can image. He gave consolation to everybody. He lived up to the highest conceivable moral standard. He was the best friend I ever met during my long years in prison." 

Frankl said that the freedom of a finite being such as man is freedom within limits. Man is not free from conditions, be they biological or psychological or sociological in nature. Man always remains free to take a stand toward these conditions: he always retains the freedom to choose his attitude toward them. Man is free to rise above the plane of somatic and psychic determinants of his existence. By the same token a new dimension is opened. Man enters the dimension of the noetic (spiritual), in counter-distinction to the somatic and psychic phenomena. He becomes capable of taking a stand not only toward the world but also toward himself. He can be his own judge and the judge of his own deeds. In short, the specifically human phenomena linked with one another, self- consciousness and consciousness, would not be understandable unless we interpret man in terms of being capable of detaching himself from himself, learning the "plane" of biological and psychological, passing into the "space" of the noological. Noological is the specifically human dimension that is not accessible to animals. 

A human being is not one thing among others; things determine each other, but man is ultimately self-determining. What he becomes - within limits of endowment and environment, he has made of himself. Frankl writes, "In the concentration camps, for example, in this living laboratory and on this testing ground, we watched and witnessed some of our comrades behave like swine while others behaved like saints. Man has both potentialities within himself; which one is actualized depends on decisions but not on condition. Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is. After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips." 

For Frankl, the WILL TO MEANING is the basic striving of man to find and fulfill meaning and purpose in life. Man is open to the world. He is so in contrast to animals, which are not open to the world (welt) but is bound to an environment (unwelt) which is specific to their species. Man is reaching out for the world; a world, which is replete with other beings to encounter and meanings to fulfill. Such a view is profoundly opposed to those motivational theories based on the homeostasis principle. Those theories depict man as if he were a closed system. According to them, man is basically concerned with maintaining or restoring equilibrium, and to this end with the reduction of tensions. Homeostasis principles also assume that man is driven by the goal of gratification of drives and satisfaction of needs. Frankl believes there is more to man's quest than those put forth by homeostasis principles so quotes Charlotte Buhler, who "conceives of man as living with intentionality, which means living with purpose. The purpose is to give meaning to life...the individual...wants to create values...the human being has a primary or native orientation in the directions of creating and of values." 

Thus the homeostasis principle does not yield a sufficient ground on which to explain human behavior, particularly such human phenomena as the creativity of man oriented towards values and meaning. It was Frankl's contention that the pleasure principle is self-defeating. The more one aims at pleasure, the more his aim is missed. The very "pursuit of happiness" is what thwarts it and this self-defeating quality of pleasure-seeking accounts for many sexual neuroses. Time and again therapists are in a position to witness how both orgasm and potency are impaired by being made the target of intention. Pleasure is missed when it is the goal and attained when it is the side effect of attaining a goal. Attaining the goal constitutes a reason for being happy. If there is a reason for happiness, happiness comes: automatically and spontaneously. Only if one's original concern with meaning is frustrated is one either content with power or intent on pleasure. Both happiness and success are mere substitutes for fulfillment and that is why the pleasure principle and striving for superiority are mere derivatives of the will to meaning. 

Self-actualization is not man's ultimate destination. It is not even his primary intention. Self- actualization, if made an end in itself, contradicts the self-transcendent quality of human existence. Like happiness, self-actualization is an effect, the effect of meaning fulfillment. Frankl says that his is in accordance with Maslow's own view since he admits that the "business of self-actualization" can best be carried out "via a commitment to an important job." The important thing is not pleasure and happiness as such but for that which causes these effects, be if fulfillment of a personal meaning or the encounter with another human being. 

What goes on in man when he is oriented toward meaning is revealed in the fundamental difference between being driven to something on the one hand and striving for something on the other. Man is pushed by drives but pulled by meaning and this implies that it is always up to him to decide whether or not he wishes to fulfill the later. Meaning fulfillment always implies decision-making, thus a will to meaning rather than a drive to meaning.

Contrary to the homeostasis theory, tension is not something to avoid unconditionally. Some tension, such as the tension aroused by meaning to fulfill, is inherent in being human and is indispensable to mental well-being. Man is oriented toward meaning and he should be confronted with meaning. 

Logotherapy does not spare the patient a confrontation with the specific meaning that he has to carry out and which we have to help him find. An American doctor once asked Frankl to tell him the difference between Logotherapy and Psychoanalysis in one sentence. Frankl asked the doctor to tell him the essence of Psychoanalysis. The doctor replied, "During Psychoanalysis, the patient must life down on a couch and tell you things that are at times very disagreeable to tell." Frankl jokingly replied, "In Logotherapy, the patient may remain sitting erect, but must hear things that sometimes are very disagreeable to hear." 

Meaning must not coincide with being: meaning must be ahead of being. Meaning sets the pace for being. Pacemakers and peacemakers: Pacemakers confront us with meaning and values, while peacemakers try to alleviate the burden of meaning confrontation. Man is responsible for the fulfillment of the specific meaning of his personal life. He is also responsible before something, or to something, be it society, or humanity, or God, or his own consciousness. Many people interpret their existence not just in terms of being responsible in general terms but rather to someone, namely God. 

Logotherapy, as a secular theory, must restrict itself to factual statements, leaving to the patient the decision about how to understand his own being, responsibility, and meaning: whether along the line of religious beliefs or agnostic conviction. Logotherapy must remain available to everyone. Capitalizing on responsibleness to this extent, a Logotherapist cannot spare his patient the decision for what, to what, or to whom he is responsible.

MEANING OF LIFE:
The meaning of life differs from person to person, from day to day, and from hour to hour. What matters is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment. Everyone has his own specific mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Each person's task is as unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it. It is the individual's responsibility to come to an understanding of the meaning of his or her life. 

This emphasis on responsibleness is reflected in this saying, "So live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as your are about to act now." This invites man to imagine first that the present is past and second that as the present is changed so is the past. Such a precept confronts the individual with life's finiteness and the finality of what he makes out of both his life and himself. Logotherapy attempts to make the individual fully aware of his own responsibility, but must leave to him the option for what, to what or to whom he understands to be responsible. The Logotherapist's role consists in widening and broadening the visual field of the patient so that the spectrum of meaning and values becomes conscious and visible to him. 

Meaning of life may change, but it never ceases to be. We can discover the meaning of life through CREATIVE VALUES, EXPERIENCE VALUES, AND ATTITUDINAL VALUES. To put this in different words; meaning can come through what we give to life (creative values), by what we take from the world (experience values) such as listening to music, reading a book, etc., and through the stand we take toward a fate we no longer can change (attitudinal values) such as the loss of a loved one , the loss of an arm, etc. Even when one's activities are very limited because of an illness or injury, life still offers an opportunity for the realization of attitudinal values. What is significant is the person's attitude toward his unalterable fate. The way in which he accepts, what courage he manifests in suffering and the dignity he displays in doom and disaster is the measure of his human fulfillment. A person's life retains its meaning up to the last, until he draws his last breath. As long as a person remains conscious, he is under obligations to realize values, even if those are only attitudinal values. 

Individuals needs some content in their lives and Frankl said, "If we can help them find an aim and a purpose in their existence, in other words, if they can be shown the task before them. 'Whoever has a reason for living endures almost any mode of life.' says Nietzsche. The conviction that one has a task before him has enormous psychotherapeutic values." 

Frankl does not claim to have an answer for the individual's meaning to life. Meaning must be found but it cannot be given. The individual must find it spontaneously. The Logotherapist is convinced, and if need be persuades his patients, that there is a meaning to fulfill, but he does not pretend to know what the meaning is. Along with the freedom of will and the will to meaning, there is meaning to life: a meaning for which man has been in search all along and also that man has the freedom to embark on the fulfillment of that meaning. 

THE TRAGIC TRIAD OF HUMAN EXISTENCE: 
The tragic triad of human existence is made up of pain, guilt, and death. There is not a human being who may say that he has not experienced pain, which he has not suffered and that he will not someday die. Speaking of the tragic triad should not mislead the reader to assume that Logotherapy is pessimistic. Logotherapy is an optimistic approach to life for it teaches that are no tragic and negative aspects that cannot be, by the stand one takes to them, transmuted into positive accomplishments. 
One prerogative of being human is the ability to change and a constituent of human existence is the capability of shaping and reshaping oneself. In other words, it is a privilege of man to become guilty and his responsibility to overcome guilt. Man does not have the freedom to undo what he has done, but he does have the freedom to choose the right attitude to guilt. A man who has failed by a deed cannot change what happened, but by repentance he can change himself. 

As for pain, man by virtue of his humaneness is capable of rising above and taking a stand to his suffering. A human being, by the very attitude he chooses, is capable of finding and fulfilling meaning in suffering. It is a basic tenet of Logotherapy that man's main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain, but experience meaning to his life. That is why man is even ready to suffer, on the condition, that his suffering has meaning. Suffering does not have meaning unless it is absolutely necessary. For instance, a dangerous growth that can be cured by surgery must not be shouldered by the patient as though it were his cross. This would be masochism rather than heroism. In spite of suffering, life can have meaning up to the last moment and it retains this meaning literaly to the end. Life's meaning is an unconditional one for it even includes the potential meaning of suffering and death. 

Frankl proposes the question, "can death make life meaningful?" Death does make life meaningful for if we were immortal, we could postpone every action forever. With the fact of death, we are under the imperative of utilizing our life time to the utmost, not letting the singular opportunities pass unused. Man's position in life is like that of a student at final examination: in both cases, it less important that the work be completed but that what is done is of high quality. The student must be prepared for the bell to ring signaling that the time at his disposal has ended and in life, we must always be ready to be "called away" (to die). 

THE EXISTENTIAL VACUUM: 
The existential vacuum is a widespread phenomenon of the twentieth century. This is due to a twofold loss that man has undergone since he became truly a human being. At the beginning of human history, man lost some basic animal instincts in which an animal's behavior is embedded and by which it is secured. Such security is closed for man as he has to make choices. Beyond this, man has suffered another loss in his more recent development: the traditions that had fortified his behavior are now rapidly diminishing. No instinct tells man what he has to do and no tradition tells him what he ought to do and often he does not even know what he basically wishes to do. Instead he wishes to do what other people do (conformism) or he does what other people wish him to do (totalitarianism) or he refuses to follow anyones directions or guidance (rebellionism). 

The existential vacuum is often experienced as a state of boredom. Frankl refers to this let down due to leisure time as the "Sunday Neurosis." This kind of depression affects people who become aware of the lack of content and meaning in their lives when the rush of the busy week is over and the void within themselves becomes manifest. 

The existential vacuum leads to a neurosis that shows itself in four main symptoms. 1) First, there is the planless day-to-day attitude toward life. 2) The second symptom is the fatalist attitude toward life. The day-to-day man considers planned action unnecessary while the fatalist considers it impossible. 3) The third symptom is collective thinking. Man would like to submerge himself in the masses. The conformist or collectivist man denies his own personality. 4) The fourth symptom is fanaticism. While the collectivist ignores his own personality, the fanatic ignores that of others. For the fanatic, only his views are valid. Ultimately, all four symptoms can be traced back to man's fear of responsibility and his escape from freedom. These attitudes lead to nihilism that is that response to life that says that being has no meaning. A nihilist is one who considers that life is meaningless. Responsibility and freedom comprise the spiritual domain of man so today man must be reminded that he has a spirit and that he is a spiritual being. The spirituality of man it a "thing-in-itself."

Man has freedom in spite of his instincts, inherited disposition, and environment. Certainly man has instincts, but these instincts do not have him. One can accept or reject his instincts. Regarding heredity, Frankl talks about twins, one of which was a cunning criminal and the other a cunning criminologist. Both were born with cunning, but each used it differently. As for environment, it does not make the man, but everything depends on what man makes of it: on his attitude toward it. 

Frankl referred to Freud who said, "Try to subject a number of very strongly differentiated human beings to the same amount of starvation. With the increase of the imperative need for food, all individual differences will be blotted out and in their place, we shall see the uniform expression of the one unsatisfied instinct." Frankl's response was, "In the concentration camps we witnessed the contrary: we saw how, face with identical situations one man degenerated while another attained virtual saintliness." 

PARADOXICAL INTENTION: 
It is commonly observed that anxiety often produces precisely what the patient fears. Frankl calls this anticipatory anxiety. For instance, in cases of insomnia, the patient reports that she has trouble going to sleep. The fear of not going to sleep only adds to the difficulty of trying to go to sleep. Many sexual problems may be traced back to the forced intention of attaining the goal of sexual intercourse: as in the male seeking to prove his potency or the female her ability to experience orgasm. It seems that anticipatory anxiety causes precisely what the patient fears. It is upon this fact that Logotherapist bases the technique know as "paradoxical intention." For instance, when a phobic patient is afraid that something will happen to him, the Logotherapists encourages him to intend for precisely what he fears. Hypnotherapist uses the same techniques in "desensitization" and "circle therapy." Frankl tells the story of a young physician who sweated excessively when in the presence of his chief. At other times, he was not bothered by excessive sweating. The patient was advised to resolve deliberately to show the chief just how much he really could sweat. He was to say to himself, "I only sweated out a litre before, but now I'm going to pour out at least 10 litres." Through this paradoxical intention, he was able to free himself of his excess sweating. The treatment consists not only in a reversal of the patient's attitude toward his phobia but also that it is carried out in a humorous way if possible. This procedure is based on the fact that, according to Logotherapeutic teachings, phobias and obsessive-compulsive neuroses is partially due to the increase of anxieties and compulsions caused by the endeavor to avoid or fight them. (The subconscious cannot tell the difference between a fear and a wish and so attempts to bring either into reality.) A phobic person usually tries to avoid the situation in which his anxieties arise, while the obsessive-compulsive tries to suppress and fight his problem. In either case, the result is a strengthening of the symptoms. If we can succeed in bringing the patient to the point where he ceases to flee from or to fight his symptoms, then we may observe that the symptoms diminish and the patient is no longer haunted by them. 

LOGOTHERAPEUTIC TECHNIQUE WITH CASE HISTORY: 
The therapist is always faced with the seemingly impossible twofold task of considering the uniqueness of each person, as well as the uniqueness of the life situation with which each person has to cope. The choice of an appropriate treatment method to be applied in any concrete case depends not only upon the individuality of the patient involved, but also upon the personality of the therapist. More important than the method used is the relationship between the patient and the therapist. The relationship between two persons is the most significant aspect of the therapeutic process, an even more import factor than any method or technique. 

MR. WILDER'S CASE HISTORY: 
Mr. Wilder, a 70-year-old man, came to me because he could not get over the death of his wife. Since his wife's death about a year before, he felt that he had no meaning and had lost the will to live. He worried about many things, much of which was beyond his control. He said, "I worry about everything from the state of the economy to may own personal safety. I have no reason to get up in the morning. I spend most of my time at home and some days I do not even get dressed. I just spend the day in my pj's. I still go to church, but that is about all." In Frankl's terms, Mr. Wilder had lost his MEANING TO LIFE. Though I could not give Mr. Wilder his meaning, I could help him discover meaning for himself. Meaning must be found but it cannot be given. The individual must find it for himself. Because of his lost of meaning, Mr. Wilder was experiencing the Existential Vacuum. One thing that Mr. Wilder had going for him was that he was still going to church and that was sustaining him although he may not have realized it. A good relationship had developed with Mr. Wilder while he was a patient at the hospital and he had confidence in me as a therapist. 

I had three sessions with Mr. Wilder over a month's period. We discussed the grief process and worked together to help him accept his wife's death and accept his worth as a person. We also worked to increase his self-confidence and to find him meaning for life. During his second session, I asked him, "What is it you can do to help others?" He thought for several minutes and responded, "In our church newsletter, I read about the need for volunteers at the hospital near my home. I would rather volunteer here at Methodist, but as you know I live across town. Maybe I could volunteer to work at the hospital near my home." I share with you some suggestions, imagery, and healing stories used with Mr. Wilder. 

THE GOOSE IN THE BOTTLE: 
As you relax peacefully and comfortable, I would like to share with you a story. You have told me about how you worry about many things, so may you allow this story to speak to you its message. This is the story about a teacher who said to his students, "Let's make-believe we place a goose egg into a bottle. The goose egg hatches and the goose begins to grow. Your assignment is to get the goose out of the bottle without breaking the bottle or injuring the goose." 

One student thought and thought about this at great length. How could he get the goose out of the bottle without hurting the goose or breaking the bottled? Not being able to figure it out, he became so frustrated with the question that he could not sleep. The next morning at class, he raised his hand and was recognized by the teacher. The student said, "You must get the goose out of the bottle. This problem is driving me out of my mind. I can't figure it out." "Very well," said the teacher and continued, "Bring me the bottle with the goose inside." It was only then that the student realized he had been struggling with a situation that did not actually exist...And so it is with some of the things you have been worrying about...They either do not exist or they are beyond your power to change...so let them go. 

BUILDING SELF-CONFIDENCE: 
"These suggestions and instructions I'm telling you now are going into the storehouse of your subconscious mind and are progressively having a greater influence over you. Each day these suggestions are becoming more effective and they help you in many different ways: Physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually...These things that I say are influencing your thoughts, your feelings, and your actions in a positive and helpful way...Even after you come out of this hypnotic state these suggestions continue influencing you just as surely as they do while you are in the hypnotic state. You find ways to affirm yourself and find meaning for life...You feel better and better about yourself. You experience improvements in your life...The improvements are progressive. As each day passes, you continue improving more and you can be sure it is permanent and lasting...You can be calm and relaxed during your daily life and that causes your mind to be more clear, more alert, and causes you to feel better about life. This enables you to be more efficient in you life and it keeps increasing your self-confidence, your self-reliance, your self-acceptance and your self-esteem. You continue developing a more relaxed attitude, greater concentration, and keep achieving more outstanding accomplishments in your life...You find ways to make your life more meaningful. It's a cycle of progress that keeps growing stronger each day and causes you to continue advancing and enables you to experience life with meaning. You have many talents, many skills, and many abilities, therefore, you have many reasons to have confidence in yourself. You enjoy life more each day. Your happiness keeps increasing and you are more optimistic...You feel more productive, more useful, more healthy, experience more happiness and experience meaning for life."

THE TURNING POINT: PRINCE ANDREW: 
Sometimes ago while visiting a book store, I saw a book, 'The Turning Point'. Though I did not buy that book, it brought to mind that each of us faces many turning points in our life. You are facing a turning point in your life today and you have the chance to make a positive change in your life. There is an interesting incident in the book, War and Peace concerning Prince Andrew. The Prince had gone though a long period of grief and depression that had sapped his strength. He thought that his life had no meaning or purpose. As he traveled over his land in the winter, he passed an old oak tree that was bare of laves and looked dead. He thought to himself, "I am like that tree." It was not until the following spring that he traveled back across the same route where he had seen the old oak tree. Feeling as old, as tired, as meaningless, as depressed as ever, he came to the old oak tree. To his surprise, noticed the oak tree had come to life. It had new leaves and new growth. The tree that he had identified himself was new, green, growing, and beautiful. It was a turning point for him as he realized new life, new meaning, new hope, and new purpose was available to him as it was for the tree. New hope, new purpose, new meaning can be yours.... About a month after our last session, I talked to Mr. Wilder on the phone. He told me that he was working as a volunteer at the hospital near his home. He said, "Now I have a reason to get up in the morning and I am enjoying life again." 

There is meaning to life and it is unconditional meaning. Life has meaning and neither suffering nor dying can distract from it. This has been demonstrated by many individuals in our own day but also by a man who lived in Biblical times. Referring to Habakkuk, Frankl wrote of an unconditional trust in the ultimate meaning and unconditional faith in the ultimate being, God. He quotes Habakkuk's (3:17-18) triumphant hymn "Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labor of the olive tree shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in God of my Salvation." Frankl concluded his book, 'The Will to Meaning', with that Biblical quotation and this statement, "May this be a lesson to learn from this book."