Man's Search for Meaning

The Will to Meaning
Man’s search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life and
not a “secondary rationalization” of instinctual drives. This meaning
is unique and speci c in that it must and can be ful lled by him
alone; only then does it achieve a signi cance which will satisfy his
own 
will
to meaning. There are some authors who contend that
meanings and values are “nothing but defense mechanisms, reaction
formations and sublimations.” But as for myself, I would not be
willing to live merely for the sake of my “defense mechanisms,” nor
would I be ready to die merely for the sake of my “reaction
formations.” Man, however, is able to live and even to die for the
sake of his ideals and values!
A public-opinion poll was conducted a few years ago in France.
The results showed that 89 percent of the people polled admitted that
man needs “something” for the sake of which to live. Moreover, 61
percent conceded that there was something, or someone, in their
own lives for whose sake they were even ready to die. I repeated this
poll at my hos- pital department in Vienna among both the patients
and the personnel, and the outcome was practically the same as
among the thousands of people screened in France; the di erence
was only 2 percent.
Another statistical survey, of 7,948 students at forty-eight colleges,
was conducted by social scientists from Johns Hopkins University.
Their preliminary report is part of a two-year study sponsored by the
National Institute of Mental Health. Asked what they considered
“very important” to them now, 16 percent of the students checked
“making a lot of money”; 78 percent said their rst goal was
“finding a purpose and meaning to my life.”
Of course, there may be some cases in which an individual’s
concern with values is really a camou age of hidden inner con icts;
but, if so, they represent the exceptions from the rule rather than the
rule itself. In these cases we have actually to deal with pseudovalues,
and as such they have to be unmasked. Unmasking, however, should
stop as soon as one is confronted with what is authentic and genuine

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in man, e.g., man’s desire for a life that is as meaningful as possible.
If it does not stop then, the only thing that the “unmasking
psychologist” really unmasks is his own “hidden motive”—namely,
his unconscious need to debase and depreciate what is genuine, what
is genuinely human, in man.

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