Frankl makes it quite clear that psychotherapy and religion have different goals, yet an unintended side-effect of mental health is that faith is regained, and an unintended side-effect of religion is a spiritual anchor and sense of security that the person can find nowhere else.
These unintentional side-effects are the result of the unity of the human organism. Of all therapies, Logotherapy is more likely to produce this kind of unintended side-effect because it assumes this basic unity to human functioning. Logotherapy touches on the spiritual core, and from this core both religion and psychotherapy branch out in two different but closely related directions.
Frankl points out that the logotherapist must be careful not to transfer his personal philosophy to the patient but instead prod the person forward towards a realization of the meaning of his own life. “Logotherapy is ultimately education toward responsibility.” (p. xxii) And what is the responsible thing to do? Frankl puts it succinctly in this statement: “Life is putting its problems to him, and it is up to him to respond to these questions by being responsible; he can only answer to life by answering for his life.” (p. xxi)
The Logotherapist reminds you that life is asking you the questions, not the other way around. The question is not “Why is this happening to me?” – a question neither religion nor psychotherapy has an answer for – but rather “How am I supposed to be responding to this?”
Religion does indeed have answers to this question. However, religion itself calls upon you to utilize your free choice and inner wisdom and develop the spiritual sensitivity required to figure out what God wants particularly from you, in this particular situation. You can’t know what God wants from you if you don’t know how to interpret what’s happening out there in the world and inside, in your inner world.
Logotherapy helps you to perceive the reality you’re facing and to get in touch with your gut feeling, which are essential elements to any decision-making process. (The Doctor and the Soul, p. xxi-xxii)