About the book
Der unbewusste Gott (“The Unconscious God”) is the work for which Frankl received his doctorate in philosophy in 1948. In Poland it was published as “Bóg ukryty”.
Main ideas
- Besides the instinctual unconscious (Freud) there is a spiritual unconscious - the source of conscience, love and values.
- Human beings carry an unconscious religiousness - a relationship to transcendence, often repressed.
- Conscience points beyond the human being: “conscience is the voice of transcendence”.
Logotherapy and religion
Frankl - a believing Jew - stressed that logotherapy is open to religion but does not impose it. Religiousness must be spontaneous; it cannot be a “doctor's prescription”. The doctor serves the health of the soul, the pastor its salvation.
Sources
V. E. Frankl, The Unconscious God; Viktor Frankl Institut Wien - biography (1948).