How to live life so that it is worth it? This philosophical question has occupied great psychotherapists. Here are four ways that some of them offer.
«Improve relationships with others»
Alfred Adler
“Most of life’s tasks can only be accomplished by working together. Everyone should help his neighbor; everyone should feel their connection with their comrades.” According to the psychologist and educator Alfred Adler (1870-1937), the quality of our life depends primarily on the quality of social ties.
Our difficulties are the result of poor adjustment to life in the community. To develop our “social sense,” to coordinate efforts with the interests of other people, to build fair relationships, free from striving for superiority or inferiority, these, in his opinion, are the goals that lead us forward.
«Understanding Human Nature» (Academic Project, 1997).
«Become yourself»
Carl Rogers
“Deep down, every person asks: “Who am I really? How can I get in touch with my true self, which underlies my superficial behavior? How can I become myself?
The humanist psychologist and educator Carl Rogers (1902–1987) created a client-centered approach based on the belief that the only goal of the psychotherapist and, more broadly, the teacher, educator, and parent is to help the individual emerge in all their uniqueness. To become fully a person, realizing and using one’s abilities and resources — such, in his opinion, is the meaning of existence.
“The Formation of Personality. A look at psychotherapy” (Eksmo-Press, 2001).
«Learning to Love»
Erich Fromm
«If I really love one person, then I love all people, I love the whole world, I love life.»
Psychoanalyst and sociologist Erich Fromm (1900-1980) believed that love is the essence of life: it is the source and condition of our happiness, and its lack is the difficulties that we experience. But we, Fromm points out, all too often forget that love is an art: it involves work and learning and requires us to free ourselves from stereotypes imposed by family and society that prevent us from creating our own unique way to love, and therefore live.
«The Art of Loving» (AST, Neoclassic, 2017).
«Find your calling»
Viktor Frankl
“Not the least of the lessons that I managed to learn from Auschwitz and Dachau was that the greatest chances of surviving even in such an extreme situation were, I would say, those who were sent to the future, to the work that awaited them, to the meaning they wanted to realize.» Although the psychoanalyst and philosopher Viktor Frankl (1905–1997) began developing his theory even before he was sent to a concentration camp, he came out with an even stronger conviction: only the feeling that we have a calling to fulfill gives meaning to life even in the most hopeless moments.
«Man in search of meaning» (Progress, 1990).