Famous 1972 speech
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Interpretation Malanova SV, Methodological and theoretical foundations of psychology: M., Publishing House of the Moscow Psychological and Social Institute; Voronezh, NPO Modek Publishing House, 2005, p. 188-190., source vikent.ru
Frankl Viktor in many of his works wrote about the meaning of life of an individual.
«one. A person’s desire to find and realize the meaning of his life is an innate motivational orientation of a person, which acts as the main engine of behavior and personality development.
2. Meaning is in the objective world; a person should not choose or “invent” it, but find it by realizing oneself in life and activity.
3. The meaning of life is unique for each person. A person can make his life meaningful by implementing three main ways of his development and focusing on three groups of values:
— by what a person can give to life — creative activity (values of creativity);
— by the fact that a person is included in the experience of the values that he finds in the world (the values of experience);
— through the position taken in relation to the fate and circumstances of his life, which he cannot change (relationship values).
4. The acquired meaning requires from a person its constant implementation, which leads to self-actualization of the personality.
5. A person is free to find and realize the meaning of life, is free to take responsibility for his own destiny, even if his freedom is objectively limited by circumstances. This is possible due to fundamental human qualities:
— The ability to self-transcendence — the possibility of a mental exit of a person beyond himself, in the direction of something that exists outside;
— The ability to self-detachment — the ability in any situation to rise above oneself and above the situation, to look at oneself from the outside.
6. A necessary condition for the mental health of a person is a certain level of tension that arises between a person and an objective meaning localized in the outside world, which a person must realize.
Lack of meaning gives rise to a state of «existential vacuum» in a person, which is the cause of a wide variety of neuroses.
7. There is no meaning of life «in general» — there is a specific meaning of the life of a given person at the moment. The meaning of life changes from situation to situation.
— It is impossible for a person to grasp the “supermeaning” of the world, but such a “supermeaning” exists. It is carried out independently of the life of individual individuals.