Viktor Frankl & Sigmund Freud; The Loser Won

An unfortunate turn of events allowed Sigmund Freud to prevail in "psychoanalytic" circles. Freud basically viewed man as all-animalistic. He could not distinguish clearly the difference between man and animal. Yes, of course, man was "higher" than animal but only by implication he had higher functional faculties of thought and intelligence. But in essence he remained animalistic at the core.

Contrast that with the psychology of Victor Frankl who claimed that the basic motivation that drives man is meaningfulness in life, rather than mere lustful yearnings, as Freud would have you believe is the essence of man. While Frankl deems man with lofty intentions, Freud deems man as a clever dog, with no redeeming values.

Never mind that both these theorists did not pin down the actual spiritual components and differences that distinguish man and animal, as does Chassidus, especially that of the classical "Tanya" (by the first Lubavitcher Rebbe). And never mind that significant differences exist between Jew and Gentile regarding their atomic, spiritual components. But at least Frankl made well his case by raising mankind beyond the animalistic, by describing his essence as one that craves meaning in life.

There are practical implications in their differing views too. With regard to religion, for example, Freud would have you think of its practice as some sort of illness. Frankl, of course, would not.

Much like we regret the prevalence of Pasteur's theory of illness versus that of Beauchamp's throughout the last century to guide medical research, and therefore today's "mainstream" medicine stands bereft of cures for most, if not all, chronic degenerative disease, and why so little emphasis is given to the value of good food, so too psychiatry and psychology today suffer from the prevalence of Freudian perspective, when in fact his view relegates man and animal to the same qualitative scale, and therefore most of current psychology cannot formulate a means to self-actualize one's needs, at least to the extent that Frankl's perspective would have allowed.

(By the way, here's an revealing story related to Dr. Victor Frankl, one of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.)