Many people know the Austrian psychiatrist Viktor Frankl from his best-known work ”Man's Search for Meaning” he wrote in a Jewish concentration camp. In the aftermath of Freud's psychoanalysis, Frankl had developed logotherapy - a value- and meaning-based therapy before the Second World War - the principles of which he was able to study in practice in the inhumane and horrific conditions of the concentration camps. He stated that a person's ability to realize their values (live a purposeful life) really is completely independent of their life circumstances. In the concentration camps, where the conditions were conducive to realizing their most animalistic survival impulses, he noticed that those people who shared from their own, protected or defended the weaker and in other ways made their existence in horrific conditions worthwhile, were more likely to survive the experience than those who gave into their impulses and completely renounced their human values.

Frankl also questioned the most frequently presented version of the hierarchy of needs, stating that the "will to purpose" is our fundamental need and not at the top of the hierarchy of needs "after the more essential needs have been met. "A person can feel that he is living a very satisfying life even if according to Western standards, his "basic needs" are not satisfied, but he knows that he takes care of his loved ones, feels connected to something larger or is working towards the things he knows truly valuable in his life. On the other hand, a person who "has everything" according to the same measure - family, home, education, work, nice clothes and car, status, friends - can easily experience frustration and apathy in his life, if he does not feel that his existence has any real value. Deep down, it is not enough to live only for ourselves, but in terms of a full life, we must connect what we do and ourselves outside of ourselves, towards the world and other living beings - only that gives us a deep sense of self-worth. The question easily arises, does all this really matter? Why wake up in the morning, to go to work to make money to sustain a pointless existence on this earth, ending your purposeless life to the inevitable death?
Such questions can arise in a person's consciousness at the latest during a middle age crisis, which can also be called a crisis of meaning by another name, most typically between the ages of 35 and 45. Of course, they can start to haunt at any point in life, when life pulls the very foundation from under our feet on which our entire existence has been based and makes us question our old operating principles, goals and even the reason for living. In this case, logotherapeutic conversation support can be helpful, or a person can begin to reflect independently on questions such as:
"What is wrong in the world and how could contribute to a change it to better?",
" Who is in trouble or unwell and how could I help them?",
" What are ultimately the most important things in life?,
" What kind of person do I want to be remembered as?",
"If not me, then who?",
"What am I naturally good at and how could my skills benefit and bring value to the world?",
"What's stopping me for being of service?",
"What cause do I feel passionate about?" etc.
The more we avoid making space for these often scary questions, the harder we must run away or distract ourselves from to inner void with hurry, projects, knowledge, food, social media, endless goals, shopping, etc.
The basic assumptions of Frankl's logotherapy include the belief that life's meaning is a constant - it is up to us to realize and discover it, no one else can show or tell it to another from the outside. It is worth reflecting on the questions that lead to this realization of the meaning by writing about it or talking with a trusted friend. Sometimes the purpose of a difficult life situation is to teach us needed life skills such as patience, humility, the ability to ask for help, flexibility, the ability to love better and to trust life (or that the difficulty does have a purpose). The school is rarely just comfortable, but just knowing that " this is another course in the school of life" makes us a more decent person to our loved ones or we can realize how we can draw from the experience for the benefit of others in the future - both give the suffering a meaning and make it a little easier to bear. Our inner compass, your real pure conscience (not culture, not family, not friends), is the part of us that recognizes the meaningful way to act and to position ourselves in relation to life's events and it knows where life is challenging us to grow!
You are warmly welcome to reflect on the meaning of your life in Logotherapeutic Guidance at Utula Nature's Restorative Retreat in summer 2025 (May 26 - September 15, 2025). The retreats are 1- 4 weeks, they are semisilent and they start with a 6 day digital fast.
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