The Existential Neurology of Meaning: A Predictive Processing Synthesis of Längle's Existential Analysis and Frankl's Logotherapy

The therapeutic systems of Viktor Frankl's logotherapy and Alfried Längle's existential analysis, both originating from Vienna, represent a significant yet historically divergent approach to psychotherapy. While Frankl's work centers on the "will to meaning" as a transcendent, top-down force, Längle's "Personal Turn" emphasizes the immanent, bottom-up work on biographical and emotional foundations. This paper leverages the Predictive Processing Framework (PPF) and the Resonance-Inference Model (RIM) as a metatheoretical bridge to synthesize these seemingly contradictory views. We argue that Frankl's "will to meaning" functions as a Master-Prior, a high-level generative model that provides a coherent, purpose-driven narrative, thereby minimizing existential free energy. Längle's four fundamental motivations, in turn, are reinterpreted as hierarchically lower-level priors that must first achieve a state of minimal free energy before the highest-level Master-Prior can be stably activated. This synthesis resolves the historical aporia by demonstrating that Längle's process-based methodology provides the necessary neurobiological and psychological conditions for the sustained actualization of Frankl's philosophical vision. The resulting "existential neurology of meaning" presents a holistic, neurobiologically grounded model that integrates the spiritual, psychological, and bodily dimensions of human existence.