PSY 3303 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Viktor Frankl, Existential Crisis, Retail Therapy

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 3303
• Professor: Mariusz Michal Zadrag

Document Summary

We should not concern ourselves with the question of what the general meaning of life is. There is no answer to the question what is the meaning of life? it is like asking, what is the best move in chess? . The meaning of life differs from person to person, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person"s life at a given moment (p. 110) Each situation in life represents a challenge to be solves, and a meaning to be confronted and revealed. Social pressures are the wind, and you have to counteract that from within. What is the meaning in life is the right question. Meaning is special because it emerges and it confronts. We should recognize that it is life itself that asks us the very question.