Franklian Existentialism and Transformative Learning: Unlikely Co-Captains in Uncertain Times

Dimensional ontology is Viktor E. Frankl’s theory that contends humans are composed of their biological, psychological, and noological (spiritual) dimensions. Frankl maintains that it is in the noological dimension where humans freely choose their responses to the environmental, psychological, and biological conditions that befall them. Frankl’s humanistic existentialism is a pushback against depth psychology – which broadly is the belief that human behaviour can be ascribed to hidden motives such as drives, instincts, or the dictates of the unconscious. Some scholars have applied the ideas of Carl Jung, a depth psychologist, to their theorizing of transformative learning. Broadly, the aim of this conceptual paper is to chart new courses for scholars to explore spiritual and psychological aspects of transformative learning, more specifically, routes separate from depth psychology. It opens with brief reviews of humanism, existentialism, and depth psychology, before exploring how Franklian existentialism might enrich the already fertile and expansive terrain of transformative learning.