The “Will to Meaning” is, undoubtedly, an impactful and significant reading. I admire how this one book succinctly, clearly, and completely summarized multiple, interconnected, complex concepts and ideas, and lucidly presented practical conclusions in simple and easy to understand language.
I will elaborate on two of Frankl’s ideas, that are most relevant to my professional work.
I will elaborate on two of Frankl’s ideas, that are most relevant to my professional work.
In the final analysis Frankl concluded that the pleasure principal is self-defeating. The more one tries to achieve pleasure, the more this aim is missed. The very pursuit of happiness thwarts it.
“Normally pleasure is never the goal of human strivings but rather is, and must remain, an effect, more specifically the side effect of attaining a goal. Attaining the goal constitutes a reason for being happy.”
In other words, if there is a reason for happiness, happiness ensues, automatically and spontaneously, as it is. If there is a reason for happiness, there is no need to pursue is.
More importantly, one cannot pursue happiness. The more one makes happiness the objective of his motivation, the more it becomes the object of one’s attention. Precisely, by doing so, it loses sight of the reason for happiness, and the happiness, thus, necessarily fades away.
Pleasure, rather than being the end of man’s effort, is, the effect of meaning fulfillment.
Both happiness and success are mere substitutes for fulfillment, and that is why the pleasure principle as well as the will to power are mere derivatives of the will to meaning.
I have observed the frustration of my clients, toiling daily and unsuccessfully for a sense of happiness itself. Now, with the understanding of the “will of meaning”, I have better comprehension of why they were not able to achieve happiness. It is akin to suddenly becoming aware of why you have not reached the goal of happiness, while you have been running toward it and trying to reach it every day, but all your efforts were frustrated. The exasperating and unachievable daily marathon and fiasco of running after happiness itself, inevitably leads to neuroses.
Realizing the simple structure, shown in the diagram above, a person can completely change his/her life, discover his/her own meanings and start to live that meaning. Bringing this concept to the clients’ consciousness can be a turning point in working with them. I feel grateful for this discovery. I fully agree with it. At a personal level, I feel that will be and can be joyful after the realization of my current or global meanings, which I live and strive for, every day.
The second idea from the book is as following:
“Suffering is something that has to be eliminated by all means and all costs”. However, it is a fact that some suffering is unavoidable. Man, as a living being, sooner or later, must die and before doing so, must suffer – despite the advanced of science. Closing one’s eyes before these existential “facts of life” means reinforcing our neurotic patients’ escapism. Avoiding suffering as much as possible is desirable, but what about inescapable suffering? Logotherapy teaches that since painful fate cannot be changed or avoided, it can be accepted and transmuted into something meaningful. Suffering is inevitable, which means that there is hope for pain to end. It liberates one by opening the possibility of ending the pain without necessarily having to remove the cause of suffering, e.g., guilt and death.
This assumption covers not only the pain from suffering but all facets of the tragic triad - pain guilt and death.
This has very important practical implications. The understanding of this concept by the client can completely change the direction of the client’s thoughts and make him/her more free to pursue meaning in his/her life.
All subsequent conclusions of this book are very important. However, those require separate essays.
At the end of my essay I would like to emphasize once again the great importance of what I have read in this book, for my professional work. Every idea of this book can be used in my work and I can observe the results within a short span of time. I appreciate the authors’ endeavors and their contribution to my profession.
“Normally pleasure is never the goal of human strivings but rather is, and must remain, an effect, more specifically the side effect of attaining a goal. Attaining the goal constitutes a reason for being happy.”
In other words, if there is a reason for happiness, happiness ensues, automatically and spontaneously, as it is. If there is a reason for happiness, there is no need to pursue is.
More importantly, one cannot pursue happiness. The more one makes happiness the objective of his motivation, the more it becomes the object of one’s attention. Precisely, by doing so, it loses sight of the reason for happiness, and the happiness, thus, necessarily fades away.
Pleasure, rather than being the end of man’s effort, is, the effect of meaning fulfillment.
Both happiness and success are mere substitutes for fulfillment, and that is why the pleasure principle as well as the will to power are mere derivatives of the will to meaning.
I have observed the frustration of my clients, toiling daily and unsuccessfully for a sense of happiness itself. Now, with the understanding of the “will of meaning”, I have better comprehension of why they were not able to achieve happiness. It is akin to suddenly becoming aware of why you have not reached the goal of happiness, while you have been running toward it and trying to reach it every day, but all your efforts were frustrated. The exasperating and unachievable daily marathon and fiasco of running after happiness itself, inevitably leads to neuroses.
Realizing the simple structure, shown in the diagram above, a person can completely change his/her life, discover his/her own meanings and start to live that meaning. Bringing this concept to the clients’ consciousness can be a turning point in working with them. I feel grateful for this discovery. I fully agree with it. At a personal level, I feel that will be and can be joyful after the realization of my current or global meanings, which I live and strive for, every day.
The second idea from the book is as following:
“Suffering is something that has to be eliminated by all means and all costs”. However, it is a fact that some suffering is unavoidable. Man, as a living being, sooner or later, must die and before doing so, must suffer – despite the advanced of science. Closing one’s eyes before these existential “facts of life” means reinforcing our neurotic patients’ escapism. Avoiding suffering as much as possible is desirable, but what about inescapable suffering? Logotherapy teaches that since painful fate cannot be changed or avoided, it can be accepted and transmuted into something meaningful. Suffering is inevitable, which means that there is hope for pain to end. It liberates one by opening the possibility of ending the pain without necessarily having to remove the cause of suffering, e.g., guilt and death.
This assumption covers not only the pain from suffering but all facets of the tragic triad - pain guilt and death.
This has very important practical implications. The understanding of this concept by the client can completely change the direction of the client’s thoughts and make him/her more free to pursue meaning in his/her life.
All subsequent conclusions of this book are very important. However, those require separate essays.
At the end of my essay I would like to emphasize once again the great importance of what I have read in this book, for my professional work. Every idea of this book can be used in my work and I can observe the results within a short span of time. I appreciate the authors’ endeavors and their contribution to my profession.
