Meaning must be found in the outside world rather than being created in ones own mind
Meaning to ones life can change between people and situations and each has their own responsibilities. By declaring that people are responsible and must actualize the potential meaning of their lives, It must be stressed that the true meaning of ones life is to be discovered in the world rather than within ones own psyche, as though it were a closed system. Viktor Frankl calls this constitutive characteristic “the self-transcendence of human existence.” It denotes the fact that being human always points, and is directed, to something, or someone, other than oneself—be it a meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter. The more one forgets themselves—by giving themselves to a cause to serve or another person to love—the more human they are and the more they actualizes himself. What is called self-actualization is not an attainable aim at all, for the simple reason that the more one would strive for it, the more he would miss it. In other words, self-actualization is possible only as a side-effect of self-transcendence.
References
- Frankl, Victor. (1946). Man’s Search for Meaning Chapter 2 Logotherapy In A Nutshell (p. 122). Boston, MA: Beacon Books.
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Type:🔴 Tags: Psychology Status:☀️