What to Do When there is Nothing to Do: The psychotherapeutic value of Meaning Therapy in the treatment of late life depression

Authors

  • J. H. Morgan Senior Fellow in the Behavioral Sciences Foundation House/Oxford (UK) Karl Mannheim Professor of the History & Philosophy of the Social Sciences Graduate Theological Foundation (USA)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/hcs.2013.126

Keywords:

geriatric logotherapy, late life depression, end of life ennui

Abstract

Psychotherapeutic treatment with the goal of cure, of course, is the standard within the healing professions but when we are dealing with late life depression where there is no hope for longevity, the agenda necessarily must shift from cure to care, from treatment with the goal of renewed healthy living to a focus upon the palliative aspects of a limited prognosis. Here, then, the clinician is faced with the challenge of existential intervention with an emphasis upon the “moment” rather than the future. The encroachment of ennui upon the elderly, particularly and especially those who have been actively engaged in a full life of service such as the clergy, physicians, teachers, and attorneys, can be a traumatic and debilitating experience.When hope for the future is not being sought but rather an effective and celebrative address to the existential realities confronting the elderly patient who is facing decline and death, the quest for those “happy moments” conjured in the patient’s memory constitute a promising field of treatment.Geriatric logotherapy is uniquely constructed to do just that.

Author Biography

J. H. Morgan, Senior Fellow in the Behavioral Sciences Foundation House/Oxford (UK) Karl Mannheim Professor of the History & Philosophy of the Social Sciences Graduate Theological Foundation (USA)

John H. Morgan, Ph.D.(Hartford), D.Sc.(London), Psy.D.(Foundation House, Oxford), is the Karl Mannheim Professor of the History and Philosophy of the Social Sciences at the Graduate Theological Foundation (IN) and Senior Fellow of Foundation House, Oxford (UK). He has held postdoctoral appointments to Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, and has been a National Science Foundation Science Faculty Fellow at the University of Notre Dame. Three times he has been appointed postdoctoral Research Fellow to the University of Chicago. In 2010, he was a Visiting Scholar at New York University and in 2011 was made Visiting Scholar to Harvard University for the second time in his career. Dr. Morgan was appointed to the Board of Studies of Oxford University’s international summer school in 1995 and has been teaching a doctoral-level seminar at Oxford University since 1998 where he is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Oxford Centre for Religion in Public Life. The author of over thirty books in the history and philosophy of the social sciences, his recent publications include Beginning With Freud: The Classical Schools of Psychotherapy (2010) andPsychology of Religion: A Commentary on the Classic Texts(2011) and most recently (2012)Clinical Pastoral Psychotherapy.Presently, he is chair of the Clinical Pastoral Psychotherapy Doctoral Programs (Ph.D. and Psy.D.) at the Foundation.

References

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(1987) Morgan, John H. From Freud to Frankl: Our Modern Search for Personal Meaning. Bristol, IN: Wyndham Hall Press.

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in FOUNDATION THEOLOGY, Chapter 5 (South Bend, IN: GTF Books).

(2009) Morgan, John H. Beyond Divine Intervention: The Biology of Right and Wrong. Lima, OH: Wyndham Hall Press.

(2010) Morgan, John H. Clinical Pastoral Psychotherapy: A Practitioner’s Handbook for Ministry Professionals. Mishawaka, IN: Graduate Theological Foundation.

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(2012b) Morgan, John H. “Geriatric Logotherapy: Exploring the Psychotherapeutics of Memory in Treating the Elderly,” Psychological Thought, Vol. 5, #2, 2012:99-105.

(2012c) Morgan, John H. “Pastoral Nurture of the Elderly: The ‘Happy Memory’ in Geriatric Logotherapy”in CLINICAL PASTORAL PSYCHOTHERAPY: A Practitioner’s Handbook for Ministry Professionals Expanded 2nd Edition (Mishawaka, IN: GTF Books, 2012).

(2012d) Morgan, John H. “Medication and Counseling in Psychiatric Practice: Biogenic Psychopharmacology and Psychogenic Psychotherapy (Partnering in the Treatment of Mental Illness),” in CLINICAL PASTORAL PSYCHOTHERAPY: A Practitioner’s Handbook for Ministry Professionals Expanded 2nd Edition (Mishawaka, IN: GTF Books, 2012).

(2013) Morgan, John H. “Late-Life Depression and the Counseling Agenda: Exploring Geriatric Logotherapy as aTreatment Modality,” International Journal of Psychological Research 6(1), 2013, pp. 8-15.

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Published

2013-11-15

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 1 (2013): Translating Happiness: Medicine, Culture and Social Progress

Section

Invited Articles

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