Logotherapy, considered the third Vienese school of psychotherapy following Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis, is a type of existentialist analysis that focuses on a will to meaning. It was developed in the 1930s by neurologist and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl. Logotherapy is based on the following principles:

1. People’s will to find meaning in life and the things they do is their main motivation for living.
2. Life has meaning under all circumstances. 
3. Individuals have the freedom to find meaning in all their actions and experiences. This means that people are free to decide and are capable of taking their own stance towards internal (psychological) and external (biological and social) conditions. The importance of this notion is that it provides patients with the possibility for autonomous action to cope with symptoms and to regain control and self-determination.

With logotherapy, patients are aided in perceiving and eliminating any factors that prevent them from pursuing meaningful goals in their lives. In logothreapy, two techniques are widely used: paradoxical intention and dereflextion. Paradoxical intention is used mainly in patients with compulsive disorders and anxiety. Guided by a therapist, clients learn to overcome their obsessions or anxieties by self-distancing and humorous exaggeration. Dereflexion is used mainly in patients with sexual disorders, insomnia, and anxiety disorders. It is believed that these disorders are caused by exaggerated self-observation. Therefore, by drawing the patient's attention away from the symptom or process these disorders may be treated.

The logotherapist does not impose his or her own values or meaning perceptions. Rather, patients are aided, so they become aware of their unrealistic and counterproductive behaviors and attitudes, and develop a new outlook that may help them in feeling fulfillment.