Speech therapy is a therapy that helps people find personal meaning in their lives. Speech therapy is a form of therapy in which therapists help clients find personal meaning. The premise of speech therapy is that people seek meaning and purpose in life. Speech therapy is based on the belief that our experiences can help us find meaning in life.
Speech therapy focuses on both the drive and ability of people to create meaning in their lives. Logotherapy is a school of psychology and philosophy based on the idea that we are strongly motivated to live intentionally and meaningfully and that we find meaning in life as a result of an authentic and human response (i.e. meaning is our primary motivation for living and action and allows us to endure pain and suffering Logotherapy assumes that people have a will to meaning, which means that seeing the meaning of pain can prepare a person for suffering.
Philosophers have often advocated the idea that people should live with the meaninglessness of life, but Frankl argues that, instead, people are confronted with an inability to comprehend the infinite nature of meaning, the supersense (Frankl, 1959). Frankel points to the self-transcendence of human existence, which means that everyone can find purpose and meaning by pointing to something or someone other than themselves. Frankl believes that life has no common meaning for all human beings, but a special meaning that changes every moment (Frankl, 1959).
Psychiatrist and psychotherapist Viktor Frankl said that life can have meaning even in the most miserable circumstances and that the motivation to live comes from finding that meaning. Drawing on Viktor Frankl’s experience as a physician, psychiatrist, neurologist, and philosophy student, he formulated his meaning-oriented approach, which promotes freedom of choice and personal responsibility. Trying to survive in a Nazi concentration camp, based on his experience and observations, he developed the theory of logotherapy, according to which, through the search for the meaning of life, people can endure and overcome suffering.
Viktor Frankl coined the term “signotherapy” based on Viktor Frankl’s belief that even finding meaning in pain can be a potential solution to human suffering. Logotherapy was developed by neurologist and psychiatrist Victor Frankl on the premise that a person’s primary drive is to find meaning in life. The meaning seeker is assumed to be the main motivator (Frankl, 1959). Frankl clarifies that this search for meaning has nothing to do with spirituality or religion, but strictly refers to the search for purpose in life or mission (Somani, 2009).
In logotherapy/existential analysis (EEA), the search for the meaning of life is defined as a person’s primary motivational force. LTEA is a globally recognized and empirically based meaning-focused approach to psychotherapy. Logotherapy/existential analysis helps clients to recognize and eliminate the factors that prevent them from achieving meaningful goals in life.
Logotherapy claims that finding meaning in all experiences, good or bad, can help people grow and find purpose in life. According to logotherapy, the attitudes people develop in the face of adversity is another way of finding meaning in life. In speech therapy, adversity is seen as an opportunity, and the therapist helps the client revisit the adversity to find meaning and opportunity for growth. A fundamental premise of speech therapy is to help patients respond more meaningfully to distress.
The main goal of Logotherapy is to find a connection between the patient’s spirit and health. During speech therapy, both the client and the therapist work to find these things. This is also at the heart of logotherapy, the traditional psychotherapeutic practice.
Speech therapy is used when the patient is faced with existential frustration. Logotherapy considers it its task to help the patient find meaning in life (Frankl, 1959). Speech therapy is based not on strength or pleasure, but on the belief that the search for the meaning of life is the main and most powerful motivating and driving force of a person. Spiritually, logotherapy demonstrates that life has meaning or purpose when people suffer from “existential emptiness” that we experience as boredom, apathy, emptiness, and depression (Victor E. Frankl, 2006).
Purpose in life and the meaning of life Constructs appeared in the logotherapy work of the neurologist and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl regarding existential emptiness and the will to meaning, as well as in other works that theorized and defined positive psychological functioning. Frankl argues that people can discover meaning through creative, experiential, and behavioral values (Hatt, 1965). When people realize that their lives have meaning and that they have a purpose, their spirit can tune in to a higher meaning. When a person fails to realize his “Will to Meaning” in his life, he will experience a terrible feeling of meaninglessness and emptiness.
Science shows that having or not having a purpose in life affects our physical and mental health in many tangible ways. Contrary to Freud’s ‘will to pleasure’ and Adler’s ‘will to power’, “speech therapy is based on the idea that we are driven by a ‘will to meaning’ or an inner desire to find purpose and meaning in our lives” (Amelis & Dattilio, 2013). There are clear parallels between the spiritual elements of Alcoholics Anonymous and the concept of revealing personal meaning in speech therapy. Victor Frankel is aware of Rollo May’s criticism and dismisses the idea that speech therapists absolve a person of responsibility; he says speech therapy is actually educating the therapist about his responsibilities.