Key points

Though often characterized as "values neutral," psychotherapy cannot help but make some normative assumptions.

In some cases, patients are seeking to work through existential issues in therapy.

Logotherapy, invented in the mid-twentieth-century by Viktor Fankl, recognizes the human need for meaning.

Frankl's approach can serve as a model, for reasons contemporary moral philosophy can help us understand.

I. The Hidden Norms of Therapy

In the popular imagination , therapy is construed as a morally neutral activity. Therapists on TV and in the real world practice and recommend non-judgment to their couch-bound clients. While the catchphrases have evolved — “How does that make you feel?” has been replaced more recently by “Notice, don’t evaluate” — the core idea remains the

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