ABSTRACT
Logotherapy provides a helpful counseling theory for pastors and laity engaged in older adult ministry. The paradigm of logotherapy recognizes the spiritual dimension as the inclusive and encompassing dimension for comprehending and integrating human phenomena. Its hermeneutical phenomenological analysis introduces an understanding of personhood which affirms one's capacity to find meaning in life, indeed, even in suffering and dying. Logotherapy is concerned with more than simply the in-stinctual unconscious, its metaclinical tenets provide the therapist with understanding and insights with which to correct the lopsided plethora of nihilistic and reductionistic models of personhood. When practiced by a sensitive counselor and pastoral caregiver, the concepts of logotherapy become a powerful antidote to the diminish- ment of persons and the accompanying disregard for their sanctity and dignity. A revised model of pastoral counseling for the 21st century urgently needs the corrective emphasis of logotherapy which goes beyond the narcissistic premise that individuals need nothing to affirm or satisfy but them.
