To understand the importance the Rebbe saw in Frankl's method, we will present three letters in which the Rebbe mentions logotherapy and delve into them a bit:
In a letter about a mental health patient, the Rebbe refers to Frankl as "a professor who found courage in his soul" and writes:
And to note in connection with your writing that the aforementioned [individual] is under treatment with a doctor dealing with mental health: Although it is not entirely clear to which doctor you are referring, for (due to our iniquities), there is a certain type of these doctors [psychologists] that begin treatment by speaking [negatively] about God, about the honor of Heaven, and about honoring parents, etc. [meaning, they claim that pursing these causes the patient a great deal of harm], and [they even claim that there might not be any importance to these aforementioned values]. It requires great scrutiny to determine whether these methods are profitable in the end, even if he [the doctor] is well-known and important, and whether or not, in the end more is lost than gained. [However,] clearly several of these doctors [i.e., psychologists] have brought benefit and healed in honest ways. This is especially true since one professor found the courage in his soul to declare and announce that (contrary to the method of the founder of this type of treatment—the known one [i.e., Freud]) faith in God, religious inclination in general that brings content to life, etc., etc., is one of the most effective ways for healing.
It is interesting to see that one of the important points the Rebbe highlights in Frankl's innovation is his regard for “the honor of Heaven and honoring one’s parents.” This connects especially to how Divine Providence guided Frankl and his method through his commitment to the Fifth Commandment—the commandment that connects honoring Heaven with honoring one’s parents. The Midrash tells that when God spoke the Ten Commandments, the first commandments elicited a suspicious reaction from the nations who claimed that, “God is seeking His own honor.” But when the fifth commandments—honoring one’s parents was heard—the nations acknowledged the first four commandments as well.
In a letter to a neurologist, the Rebbe says that
The state of [a certain patient’s] health proves (if proof is deemed necessary for this) the power that faith has, especially when connected to and expressed in actual deed, public activity, fulfillment of mitzvot, etc., for stabilizing a person's mental tranquility.... Despite the approach that because faith and religion demand that a person accept the yoke of Heaven—and therefore restrain and suppress their instincts and urges—they are undesirable,... I found particular interest in Dr. Frankl's (Vienna) articles on this. But to my dismay, it seems that his method has not spread, nor has it been adopted as would have been appropriate.
In the third letter, the Rebbe refers to those who diverged from Freud's method, and to Frankl in particular, as evidence that Freud's method is not an absolute truth as the recipient believes:
It is particularly interesting that Dr. Viktor Frankl, a professor at the University of Vienna, makes purpose in life the cornerstone of his psychoanalytic method.
