Man’s search for a meaning is not pathological, but rather the surest sign of being truly human. […] How should the clinician respond to this challenge? Traditionally, he is not prepared to cope with this situation in any but medical terms. Thus he is forced to conceive of the problem as something pathological. Furthermore, he induces his patient to interpret his plight as a sickness to be cured rather than as a challenge to be met. […] The doctor should not let himself be seduced by the still prevalent reductionism into devaluating man’s concern for meaning and values to ‘nothing but’ a defense mechanism, a reaction formation, or a rationalization. The ‘nothing-but-ness’ of human phenomena is indeed one of the foremost features in the reductionist image of man.
Viktor E. Frankl, The Feeling of Meaninglessness: A Challenge to Psychotherapy and Philosophy
(via ravenkings)
