Presaging Frankl’s emphasis on the congenital want for some sense of which means and goal in life, Carl Jung states, “I’ve noticed {that a} life directed to an purpose is normally higher, richer, and more healthy than an aimless one.”
In his Pink Ebook (see my earlier submit), Jung, sounding fairly existential, writes, “That means is a second and a transition from absurdity to absurdity, and absurdity solely a second and a transition from which means to which means”
He additional remarks: “Occasions signify nothing, they signify solely in us. We create the which means of occasions. That means is and at all times was synthetic. We make it…That which you want comes from your self, specifically the which means of the occasion… Occasions haven’t any which means. The which means of occasions is the best way of salvation that you simply create.”
The Function of That means and Absurdity
Otto Rank, writes his biographer E. James Lieberman, believed that “That means—given, discovered or created—permits one to like life and reside it. We create which means as a result of we can’t exist with out it.” And as Jung equally observes, “Man can’t stand a meaningless life.”
He goes on to say, “…the shortage of which means in life is a soul-sickness whose full extent and full import our age has not as but begun to grasp. The soul longs to find its which means.”
Curiously, Jung views which means and meaninglessness as current in a mutually interdependent dialectical relationship: “As day requires night time and night time requires day, so which means requires absurdity and absurdity requires which means” (p. 162). He additional contends that “Actuality is which means and absurdity” (p. 242). Lastly, in his autobiographical Reminiscences, Goals, Reflections (1961), on the query of life’s which means, Jung concludes, “which factor we predict outweighs the opposite, whether or not meaninglessness or which means, is a matter of temperament.…Most likely as in all metaphysical questions, each are true: Life is—or has—which means and meaninglessness. I cherish the anxious hope that which means will preponderate and win the battle.” Sounding very similar to Nietzsche, Jung writes in his maturity: “Meaninglessness inhibits fullness of life and is subsequently equal to sickness. That means makes a terrific many issues endurable—maybe all the things.”
Historically, from Freud’s depth psychology ahead, one of many foremost strategies of creating which means within the psychotherapy course of is through the usage of interpretation, not simply of goals, a way Freud launched, however of conduct, expertise, and goal or existential actuality. Such interpretation is usually supplied by the psychotherapist however, in actual fact, it’s a course of we every have interaction in consistently each consciously and unconsciously. We interpret or attempt to make sense of our experiences, the environment, of others and ourselves. And such interpretation of actuality profoundly informs how we see ourselves, our world, and our place in it.
As Could (1991) factors out, this means of decoding existential actuality begins quickly after start and is carried, primarily unconsciously, into childhood, adolescence, and maturity, frequently influencing our sense of self and actions. One of many foundational options of psychoanalytic remedy specifically is to advertise higher consciousness of those typically out of date, limiting, distorted and inaccurate self and world views in order to achieve higher potential to regulate, modify, revise, or, in some circumstances, select to utterly jettison and change them.
Existential Remedy vs. Jungian Evaluation
A major instance of this vital course of could be discovered within the gradual de-identification with one’s authentic persona and its eventual acutely aware recreation or revision bringing it into nearer alignment with what Jung known as the Self. One vital distinction between existential remedy and Jungian evaluation is that the Jungian analyst offers or proffers which means to the affected person through his or her interpretation of each waking and dreaming expertise or of archetypal patterns or motifs noticed within the affected person’s conduct or attitudes, whereas most existential therapists shy away from providing such interpretations or explanations, in hopes that the affected person will uncover or create some which means for him or herself, or, if unable to take action, will study to simply accept, tolerate and reside with life’s seeming meaninglessness and absurdity.
In any respect occasions, any use of interpretation by the psychotherapist should not take the type of some authoritarian pronouncement from on excessive however somewhat be supplied humbly and gently as one thing to be thought-about somewhat than pressured upon the affected person or consumer. Finally, it’s at all times the individual’s accountability to simply accept it or not.
However there are lots of pathways towards discovering which means apart from psychotherapy, reminiscent of by means of creativity, relationship, and dedication to or engagement in a trigger, profession, or way of life. Frankl (1985) holds: “We are able to uncover this which means . . . in three other ways: (1) by creating a piece or doing a deed; (2) by experiencing one thing or encountering somebody; and (3) by the angle we take towards unavoidable struggling.” Creativity, be it within the type of creative exercise or different productive optimistic pursuits can clearly present a way of significance and which means to existence. (Sadly, for some, participating in evil deeds serves the identical goal.) Romantic love can, no less than quickly, make life really feel extra significant, as can different kinds of relationships like friendship or household, or with animals, pets, and different non-human creatures and even machines—therefore our love affair with know-how.
Psychology Important Reads
However, as Frankl provides, there may be additionally the angle we select to take towards our psychological or bodily struggling that may make life extra significant. Maybe, just like the biblical Job, we are able to select to view existential and even neurotic struggling as not solely an inevitable and inescapable a part of life however as one thing that has intrinsic psychological and non secular significance. In each existential and Jungian psychotherapy (and what I name Existential Depth Psychology, a synthesis of the 2) we work towards amelioration of pointless struggling each time doable however acknowledge that not all struggling could be eradicated: some should be accepted, tolerated, and transcended. Such struggling could be seen as being the polar reverse of happiness as shadow is to gentle: One can’t exist with out the opposite. As an example, within the lifetime of Ludwig van Beethoven, his biographer J.W.N. Sullivan (1960) states, “To be keen to endure with a purpose to create is one factor; to understand that one’s creation necessitates one’s struggling, that struggling is without doubt one of the best of God’s presents, is nearly to achieve a mystical answer to the issue of evil. . . . ” (p. 155).
Reworking Struggling into That means
Right here we have now an instance of intentionally shifting one’s acutely aware angle towards affected by seeing it as insignificant, unfavourable, and evil to viewing it as a substitute as an unavoidable, pure, and even worthwhile and important a part of the expertise of life. Such a shift transforms affected by meaningless to significant phenomenon. One other instance is the acceptance of illness or illness as an inextricable counterpoint to well being and wellness, and studying to simply accept and hear fastidiously to 1’s signs and struggling with a purpose to discern their significant message. On this sense, let’s imagine that meaningfulness (and meaninglessness, for that matter) is itself within the last evaluation an existential selection: we possess the liberty to decide on to see life, in all its myriad manifestations, as significant or meaningless, relying upon our disposition to take action. Whereas life might consist, as Jung suggests, of some dialectical mixture and interaction of which means and meaninglessness, with some measure of existential meaninglessness acknowledged and accepted, it’s the subjective expertise of which means that makes the target meaninglessness of life extra bearable.
