Abstract

Every psychological school possesses more or less consciously assumed concrete anthropological conception of human nature which underlies its foundations. Although that conception is not always overtly proclaimed by the followers of a given school, however it is possible to recognize anthropological elements inherent in that school e.g. implicit assumptions or axioms concerning human nature. The so-called "free of assumptions" or fully independent and objective psychological approaches do not exist, seemingly as do not exist "free of assumptions" philosophical traditions they are connected to. The purpose of the present article is to delineate the conception of man in developed by V. E. Frankl logotherapy which constitutes – beside A. Adler’s individual analysis and S. Freud’s psychoanalysis – the third great Viennese psychotherapy school. Logotherapy is a psychological and psychotherapeutic approach that openly admits its connections to philosophy. Consequently, anthropological foundations of logotherapy are explicitly spread by its followers and interested in this issue scholars do not have to analyze - how it is frequently necessary in case of other psychological approaches – its sensu stricto psychological propositions to discover the tacit philosophical assumptions and axioms in its background. The first issue discussed in the present paper is the logotherapy's polemic against reductionistic and deterministic conceptions of man which constitutes an expression of the logotherapeutic concern for taking into account in psychology and psychotherapy the complete and unfalsified picture of human nature. Then, anthropological assumptions underlied the foundations of logotherapy are presented. Those assumptions differ from criticized reductionist conceptions in that that they confer the key-place on the spiritual dimension that unites multidimensional human existence. Subsequently, the anchored in the spiritual dimension specifically human phenomena of freedom, responsibility, and striving for meaning in life and values are delineated. Finally, the place and meaning given by the logotherapy to the human need for religion and religiousness is outlined.