While logotherapy’s ultimate goal is to help patients find the meaning of life, its application extends beyond this. Logotherapy offers techniques that can aid individuals who have developed mental disorders, particularly after experiencing an existential vacuum. Logotherapy achieves this by emphasizing internal factors over external ones that affect patients. Unlike conventional psychotherapy, which analyzes patients and attributes neurotic fears to external events and circumstances, logotherapy assumes that individuals can independently make decisions and define their life’s purpose. This foundational belief is crucial in helping people understand that they have control over their fears and anxieties for long-term improvement. But how does this work?

Logotherapy employs a unique approach known as paradoxical intention. In this technique, the patient is encouraged to deliberately engage in the very thing they fear. For example, imagine a nervous friend who dreads blushing in front of others. Through paradoxical intention, the patient is asked to intentionally blush as much as possible when around people. As they attempt to force it, they’ll realize that nothing happens, ultimately shedding their fear of blushing