The Psychology of Meaning in Dark Times

"Viktor Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist, neurologist, and Holocaust survivor who came to a hard-earned conclusion under the most extreme conditions imaginable: Meaning is not a luxury-it is a psychological necessity. While imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz, Frankl watched people lose everything that typically anchors identity and hope-status, safety, family, control. What he observed was striking. Survival did not hinge on optimism, toughness, or even physical strength. It hinged on whether someone had something to live for. Not happiness. Not success. Meaning."

"From these observations, Frankl developed logotherapy, a therapeutic framework rooted in the idea that the primary human drive is not pleasure (as Freud proposed) or power (as Adler suggested), but purpose. Humans can endure extraordinary hardship, Frankl believed, as long as life still feels meaningful. Pathways to Meaning In Man's Search for Meaning, Frankl outlines three primary pathways through which meaning can be found. The first is creating-bringing something into existence that did not exist before, whether through work, expression, or contribution."

Meaning functions as a psychological necessity that enables endurance under extreme deprivation. Survival depends on having something to live for rather than on optimism, toughness, or physical strength. A therapeutic framework called logotherapy posits purpose as the primary human drive instead of pleasure or power. Meaning can be discovered through creating, loving, or by the attitude adopted toward unavoidable suffering. Suffering is not inherently meaningful; meaning arises from the stance taken when cure or exit is impossible. Bearing hardship well requires staying human, maintaining connection, and acting according to values even when problems remain unresolved.

Read at Psychology Today