Well-Being: Contributions Of Positive Psychology And Logotherapy

The study and promotion of well-being became very popular in the twentieth century. However, it is not a new topic; it has its roots in Greek philosophy, where thinkers discussed eudaimonia, a form of happiness derived from a good spirit, genius, or consciousness (eu: good, daimon: spirit). Martin Seligman’s speech as president of the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1998, where he pointed out that psychology as a science aims to both heal what is broken and promote the best of each person, led to the development of a corpus of research on human well-being, positive and virtuous aspects of behavior, known as positive psychology. According to positive psychology theory, well-being is comprised of five elements: positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning in life, and accomplishments, with a cross-cutting axis formed by character strengths. Logotherapy or therapy of meaning is a form of existential analysis developed by Dr. Viktor Frankl based on his experiences as a prisoner of war in Nazi concentration camps. Frankl first introduced logotherapy in 1926 to an academic audience during a conference held at the Academic Association for Medical Psychology, founded by Fritz Wittels, Maximilian Silbermann, and Frankl himself. Logotherapy involves a set of principles and techniques for therapeutic work, both individually and in groups, designed to awaken the individual’s spiritual or noetic dimension, which remains healthy but can lie dormant. The core of logotherapy emphasizes the importance of a meaning in life for personal development, considering the development of values such as creation, experience, and attitude, and the lack of meaning as a form of noogenic neurosis experienced by many people. Positive psychology integrates the development of a meaning in life as a fourth element of well-being, and similarly, it includes this concept in its classification of character strengths under the virtue of transcendence, particularly represented in the strength of spirituality. The central approaches of positive psychology and logotherapy allow us to identify the meeting points between the two approaches and their contributions to the current understanding of well-being.