Logotherapy and religion

Last 2nd September marked the 26th anniversary of the Austrian psychiatrist Viktor E. Frankl, well known throughout the world for being the creator of the third Viennese school of psychiatry, Logotherapy. Religion was not a distant topic for Frankl, and his thoughts can shed an interesting light on it.

Within the studies being carried out to catalogue the personal archive of John B. Torelló, many of the almost fifty articles he wrote for the journal Studi Cattolici have been found.

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Friendship with the founder of Logotherapy and religion

The friendship between Viktor Frankl and Don Juan Bautista Torelló that led to a mutual influence on their thinking dates back to the early 1960s. Frankl quotes Professor Torelló five times in his last autobiography (Dem Leben Antwort geben, BELTZ, Weinheim, 2017) even to justify logotherapy as a current in psychiatry with his words. John B. (Juan Bautista) Torelló was the one who baptised Frankl’s daughter and on several occasions reviewed some of his books (such as the forewords to the Italian versions of “Man’s Search for Meaning” and “Der unbewusste Gott“).

The fruit of this friendship is also the article: “Logoterapia e religione” which Frankl published in February 1966 in the journal Studi Cattolici. Attached are photos of the article and its transcription. For more information on logotherapy, please consult the website of the Viktor Frankl Institut in Vienna.