I feel quite sure that there is a connection between Edith Stein, Viktor Frankl, and Christotherapy. In reading Edith Stein's (now she is St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, by the way) book Finite and Eternal Being she makes very clear the obligation of philosophy to consider the reality beyond what human reason can naturally reach. That is, if philosophy claims to deal with reality.

"If philosophers then want to remain faithful to their goal, if they want to understand that which is (das Seiende) in the light of its ultimate causes, they will be compelled by their faith to extend their reflections beyond that which is naturally accessible to them. There are existents which are beyond the reach of natural experience and natural reason but which have been made known to us by revelation; and they confront the receptive human mind with entirely new tasks". p 21. Finite and Eternal Being.

I won't quote Frankl as to not prolong this post, but Frankl introduced the spiritual level into psychology (and psychiatry) along the same arguments, I think. What is interesting is that he did this after Stein's work and after both were in the concentration camps. (She died there).Frankl was firstmost a philosopher and both he and Stein knew Heiddegger and common philosophic works. So, did Stein influence Frankl? Also, Fr. Tyrrell knew Frankl and Christotherapy in a way follows in a way Frankl but with discernment and discretion and in such a way as to bring healing to the psyche and spirit. So, is this common thread simply as matter of the Zeitgeist or is the connection genetic?

--J