Who she is
Elisabeth Lukas (born 1942 in Vienna) - psychotherapist, student of Viktor Frankl, author of dozens of books on logotherapy, many of them translated into Polish. Frankl particularly valued her style of practising logotherapy.
Work
- In 1986 she opened the South German Institute of Logotherapy in Fürstenfeldbruck near Munich, the first to offer professional training in logotherapy.
- She introduced the concept and method of attitude modulation, popularised the concept of pathoplasticity, and developed logotherapeutic work with families and prevention.
- She developed the Logo-Test for assessing the sense of meaning.
- She writes about dignity as a specifically human property of existence and about values as “lighthouses” that must light up before one wants to take a step towards them.
Selected books available in Polish
- Psychoterapia z godnością (with Heidi Schönfeld; Kraków Institute of Logotherapy),
- Odkryj sens, zmienisz życie - 52 short descriptions of logotherapeutic interventions, often ending in unexpected ways.
In Poland
Lukas's thought underpins especially the Kraków school of logotherapy (Kraków Institute of Logotherapy), alongside the Lublin school that grew out of the Catholic University of Lublin - see Logotherapy in Poland. Lukas also took part in the logotherapy congress in Kraków in 2026.
Sources
Viktor Frankl Institut Wien - biography (1986); Wikipedia; E. Lukas, H. Schönfeld, Psychotherapy with Dignity; E. Lukas, works on logotherapeutic practice.