Viktor Frankl's Contribution to Spirituality and Aging

Melvin A. Kimble

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780789011558
• eBook ISBN: 9781317825852
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Mental Health in Psychology
• Index: Social Sciences

Use Frankl's insights and techniques to improve life for your aging clients or parishioners. Viktor Frankl, a holocaust survivor who experienced firsthand the horrors of Auschwitz, saw man as "a being who continuously decides what he is: a being who equally harbors the potential to descend to the level of an animal or to ascend to the life of a saint. Man is that being, who, after all, invented the gas chambers; but at the same time he is that being who entered into those same gas chambers with his head held high and with the 'Our Father'or the Jewish prayer of the dying on his lips."Dr. Frankl's insights led him to found the therapeutic system of logotherapy, which views man as a spiritual being rather than simply as a biological construct. Logotherapy has come to be called the Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy (after Freud's psychoanalysis and Adler's individual psychology). He left a rich legacy of theory and insights especially relevant to the search for meaning in later life. The tenets of logotherapy provide many clues and approaches to what an ever-increasing body of evidence suggests regarding the crisis of aging as a crisis of meaning. Frankl's insightful work increased man's understanding of the spiritual dimension of humanity and the dignity and worth of every person in the face of what he called "the tragic trial of human existence: pain, guilt, and death."Viktor Frankl's Contribution to Spirituality and Aging presents an essential overview of logotherapy and explores:

• the search for and the will to meaning in later life
• the connection between logotherapy and pastoral counselingbringing psychology and theology together to effectively counsel the aging
• the role of logotherapy in the treatment of adult major depression
• aspects of meaning and personhood in dementia
• the search for meaning in long-term care settings

Viktor Frankl's Contribution to Spirituality and Aging represents varying professional perspectives on the application of Frankl's logotherapy for ministry with older adults. The chapter authors represent diverse professional backgrounds in medicine, pastoral theology, the behavioral sciences, and pastoral ministry. They address issues such as death and dying, dementia and depression, and the spiritual meaning of aging, as well as Frankl's conception of the nature of humanity. Everyone interested in the connection between theology and psychology in the context of the aging will want to own this book.

Index

Acceptance, of terminal illness diagnosis, 114,115

Adler, Alfred, 2,9,30-31,61,93

Aging, crisis of, 14

AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) units, in long-term care facilities, 145

Allers, Rudolf, 46-47

Allport, Gordon, 3,37,46

Alzheimer's disease, 68

biomedical approach to, 69

quality-of-life assessment in, 79

Alzheimer's disease patients, in long-term care facilities, 145,146

in community-based residential facilities, 72-81

activities of, 73-75

emotions of, 75-78

humor of, 76-78

values of, 78-81

American Journal of Psychiatry, 3

American Psychiatric Association, Oskar Pfister award, 3

American Society on Aging, 143

Anger, of terminally-ill patients, 114

Anthropology, relationship with therapeutic goals, 12-13

Anxiety

death-related, 54

existential, 111-112

of terminally-ill cancer patients, 111-112

ontological, 125-126,127-128

Tillich's concept of, 111,125-126

Attitudes. See also Values, attitudinal choice of, 92-93

toward suffering, 49,71,104,112,145

in dementia, 71

in terminal illness, 112-113,115

toward unalterable fate, 127

Augustine, 30,142

Auschwitz, 3,4-5,27

Bargaining, by terminally-ill patients, 114-115

Beck, Aaron, 122,123,132

Being, relationship with meaning, 47-48

Bible, large-print and audio versions of, 154

Bible study groups, for long-term care facility residents, 150

Boisen, Anton, 36

Buddha, 108-109

Buhler, Charlotte, 46

Cancer, 98. See also Terminally-ill cancer patients

Caregivers, for dementia patients, 68

Centenarians, 142

C...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Title
• Contents
• About the Contributors
• A Personal Note by the Guest Editor
• Acknowledgments
• Logotherapy: An Overview
• Viktor Frankl Meets Karl Rahner: Two Similar Anthropologies
• A Dialogue Between Viktor Frankl and Charles Gerkin Regarding the Living Human Document and the Search for Meaning
• Logotherapy and Pastoral Counseling
• The Similarities Between Frankl's Logotherapy and Luther's Concepts of Vocation and the Theology of the Cross
• Actions, Feelings, and Values: Foundations of Meaning and Personhood in Dementia
• Bridging Psychology and Theology When Counseling Older Adults
• Logotherapy in the Care of the Terminally Ill
• Logotherapy and Adult Major Depression: Psychotheological Dimensions in Diagnosing the Disorder
• Meaning in Long Term Care Settings: Viktor Frankl's Contribution to Gerontology
• Index