# The Will to Meaning * Author: [Viktor E. Frankl](https://www.amazon.com/Viktor-E-Frankl/e/B000APVZJU/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1) * ASIN: B00N21QACQ * ISBN: 0142181269 * Reference: [[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N21QACQ]] * [Kindle link](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N21QACQ) --- In an age such as ours, in which traditions are on the wane, psychiatry must see its principal assignment in equipping man with the ability to find meaning. — location: [82](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N21QACQ&location=82) --- To detach oneself from even the worst conditions is a uniquely human capability. — location: [235](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N21QACQ&location=235) --- What holds for vision is also true of cognition. The challenge is how to attain, how to maintain, and how to restore a unified concept of man in the face of the scattered data, facts, and findings supplied by a compartmentalized science of man. — location: [285](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N21QACQ&location=285) --- Well, man, too, projected into a dimension lower than his own seems to be a closed system, be it of physiological reflexes or psychological reactions and responses to stimuli. Those motivational theories, e.g., which still adhere to the homeostasis principle, deal with man as with a closed system. — location: [339](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N21QACQ&location=339) --- Now the apparent closedness of man in the biological and psychological dimensions no longer contradicts the humanness of man. Closedness in the lower dimensions is very compatible with openness in a higher one, be it the openness of a cylindrical cup, or that of a human being. Now it may also have become understandable why sound findings of research in the lower dimensions, however they may neglect the humanness of man, need not contradict it. — location: [345](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N21QACQ&location=345) --- And, last but not least, there are noogenic neuroses, as I have called them. They originate in spiritual problems, in moral conflicts, or in that conflict between a true conscience and the mere superego which I referred to at the outset of this chapter. — location: [363](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N21QACQ&location=363) --- Confining himself to the dimension of psychiatry, however, implies projecting a given phenomenon into the dimension of psychiatry. This is perfectly legitimate as long as the psychiatrist is aware of what he does. Even more, projections are not only legitimate but also obligatory in science. Science cannot cope with reality in its multidimensionality but must deal with reality as if reality were unidimensional. However, a scientist should remain aware of what he does, if for no other reason than to avoid the pitfalls of reductionism. — location: [395](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N21QACQ&location=395) --- Charlotte Bühler1 has rightly pointed out, “from Freud’s earliest formulations of the pleasure principle, to the latest present version of the discharge of tension and homeostasis principle, the unchanging end-goal of all activity all through life was conceived of as the re-establishment of the individual’s equilibrium.” — location: [414](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B00N21QACQ&location=414)Similar to arguing for reducing suffering and increasing pleasure. But to me part of pleasure is in overcoming challenges