Existentialism, Simply: How to Find Meaning When Life Has No Script
Existentialism isn’t a technique or a diagnosis—it’s an orientation to living.
It begins with “existence precedes essence”: you aren’t born with a preset script; you make a life by how you respond to what meets you. That freedom can feel thrilling and scary at once (Sartre’s “condemned to be free”) because there’s no guaranteed Why. In therapy, we translate this into something usable: naming what matters, accepting responsibility for your next small choice, and rebuilding meaning in the places that feel empty. Viktor Frankl called this work Logotherapy—noticing where the will to meaning is blocked and reopening it through three doors: what you give (creative), what you receive (experiential), and how you meet the hard (attitudinal). You don’t need all three every day; one honest door is enough to begin.
Sometimes meaning comes in the smallest, most local moments—a quiet pause on a bench at Trout Lake, or a slow walk through the forest at UBC where you let the day settle a little. These ordinary experiences count. They’re examples of experiential meaning that help anchor you when life feels unstructured.
Existential Origins
Existentialism is a philosophical movement that is not an independent working theory or therapy, but more so an orientation towards how human beings exist and experience living. Existentialism is focused on existence and what it means to exist. Different from Rationalism and Empiricism, the fundamental principle in Existentialism argues that “existence precedes essence.” First quoted by existential philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, he argued that there cannot be a generalized account of what it means to be human. When man comes into the world, he exists and meanings are created through his own personal existence. Existence is “self-making-in-a-situation” and Existentialists believe in each individual's uniqueness and freedom to choose how they want to exist and how they make meaning of their lives.
Existentialists spoke about the absurdity of existence and how this affects mankind. As humans are inclined towards seeking inherent meanings, more often than not, God, the universe or any higher order we turn to, does not provide us with this meaning. The world is filled with grand acts of irrationality and absurdity. Through evolutionary sociobiology, man’s conscience has become radically free. This freedom implies that man can choose how he exists freely and is personally responsible for who and what he becomes in his existence. One can imagine the calamity such freedom and responsibility could cause to man. This is why Jean-Paul Sartre said, “We are condemned to be free.” Sartre uses the word condemned to infer that this freedom causes a lot of angst for man as he comes to terms with the absence of a predetermined purpose for his existence and must accept the full weight of his freedom.
The absurdity of existence also reveals a paradoxical element within Existentialism: meaninglessness and meaning. The universe is wholly meaningless, yet meaning can be bountifully attained by the freedom of the individual. Along with the freedom to choose, other themes in existentialism are actions and responsibility.
Actions individuals take in their lives are favoured over what they say, as it is actions that bring forth growth and progress to further meanings. Every individual has a responsibility to take action and engage in life. Embodying an Existential orientation towards human beings, Viktor Frankl created a theory of personality called Logotherapy. Logotherapy is based on three assumptions: i) Freedom of Will, ii) Will to Meaning and iii) Meaning of Life.
What is existentialism, simply?
It’s a lens that says: you’re not handed a fixed purpose—you exist first, then make meaning through your choices. In therapy, that becomes practical: we work with freedom, responsibility, and meaning so your days feel more intentional, not just reactive.
Freedom Of Will
Logotherapy posits that each individual exists within a dimensional ontology comprising three unified overlapping dimensions: Psychological, Biological and Spiritual. Logotherapy does not individuate these three dimensions as it sees optimal human functioning dependent upon the rhythm of all three, with special attention paid to an individual's Spiritual dimension.
Importantly, when Frankl uses the term Spiritual, he does not mean it in a strictly religious sense. Instead, he refers to the uniquely human dimension—the part of us that seeks meaning, purpose, and values, and that is capable of self-transcendence. The Spiritual dimension is exceptionally powerful, containing human attributes such as… “will to meaning, ideas and ideals, creativity, imagination, faith, love, conscience, self-detachment, self-transcendence, humour, striving towards goals, and taking on commitments and responsibilities.
Logotherapy focuses specifically on this spiritual or noetic dimension to help individuals find authentic meanings within their lives when faced with existential crisis’. A distinct characteristic of man and man alone is his potential to reflect upon himself. The Spiritual dimension enables man to rise above what may appear to be the sole product of his Psychological and Biological dimensions to evaluate himself and construct meanings. This Spiritual dimension houses Spiritual resources such as self-transcendence and self-distancing. Examples of self-distancing include self-comprehension, self-regulation, and self-projection, and examples of self-transcendence include seeking ultimate meaning, situational meaning, and one’s calling.
Existential analysis views personalities as either authentic or inauthentic. An inauthentic personality occurs when the Biological and Psychological dimensions are misaligned with the Spiritual dimension. This misalignment causes an individual to demonstrate maladaptive behaviours in response to their lived experiences, specifically the negative life experiences. The processes of self-transcendence and self-distancing seek to form an alignment between all three dimensions. The creation of adaptive behaviours results from the unification of the ontological dimensions, bringing forth new rigour to carry on in the creation of existential meaning.
Logotherapy and Existentialism are very much one and the same, as both agree that we can never become free from our physiological, psychological and social conditions, but that man is also not determined by these conditions as he has the freedom of will to choose responsibly the way he interprets and perceives the experiences in his existence.
Will To Meaning
The second assumption of personality in Logotherapy is the Will to Meaning. The paradoxical nature of meaninglessness embedded in human existence, a pattern consistently found, is an extremely valuable and needed phenomenon. Human existence is filled with death, suffering, isolation, anxiety and tragedy. These tragedies contribute to the primary motivation of the Will to Meaning that human beings seek out when trying to make sense and find purpose with what they are experiencing. It is in the pursuit of trying to discover and create meanings in the multifarious face of meaninglessness, where, if found, helps human beings to carry on and survive. This Will to Meaning is what helped Viktor Frankl survive the concentration camps during World War 2.
Commonly held views of mental health symptoms, such as anxiety or phobias, have been tainted as abnormal in nature. Views also tout that mental health occurrences need to be corrected in order for an individual to be “normal.” What seems most confusing is the idea that normal is that of a human being who doesn’t experience any mental health symptoms. However, an Existential Logotherapeutic lens would claim that mental health symptomologies are normal given the absurdity of existence along with man’s radically free consciousness, which enlists him to endure repetitive exposure to internal and external conflicts throughout his entire existence. It naturally follows then, that human beings would most definitely experience existential strife or a loss of meaning.
This crisis and loss of meaning can create what Frankl termed an existential vacuum, a place where the Will to Meaning becomes blocked, causing symptoms such as anxiety, depression, aggression and addiction. The question then becomes, how can human beings, in the repetitive face of meaninglessness, rise above to create or find meaning to keep this blockage at bay?
Logotherapy embraces existential tensions and the unavoidable suffering as normal, more so, as necessary, and places a positive value on them. As Frankl (1958) states, “It is the will to meaning that a psychotherapist should evoke...to survive the most unfavourable conditions, can be made only when such survival appears to have meaning” (p.31).
Meaning of Life
The final assumption of the Logotherapy theory of personality is Meaning of Life. Following Existentialism, Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy also believes that each individual is unique and that the meanings individuals attribute to their life through their existence are uniquely their own. Meanings are not universal; they are entirely subjective, shaped by the individual’s internal world and influenced by the value systems absorbed through assimilation into culture, society, and the family system in which we are embedded. Logotherapy views how meanings are created as directly correlated with an individual’s value systems. If needed, examining moral and ethical values and reshaping those values can increase an individual's strength and resiliency.
To help individuals discover a Meaning of Life, Logotherapy highlights three different value systems and terms these routes as the Meaning Triangle. The first is through Creative Values. Individuals are encouraged to be creative and to use their creativity to give back to life through their strengths or unique talents. The second value system is through the Experiential. Through receiving experiences such as nature, art, culture, truth, beauty, connection and love, an individual is able to realize and find meanings. The last value system are Attitudinal Values. The absurdity of existence presupposes that anxiety and suffering are an inherent part of existence. Attitudinal Values are concerned with how individuals conduct themselves in the face of misery or suffering.
Southwick writes, “The way in which he accepts, bears his Cross, what courage he manifests in suffering, what dignity he displays in doom, is the measure of his human fulfillment (p.134).
In sum, Meaning of Life has potentialities under all circumstances of living, positive or negative and value systems are highly implicated in this process. As Nietzsche states, “He who has a Why to live for, can bear almost any How.”
Frankl eloquently explains that this does not imply that we are simply to ask, “What is the meaning of my life?” But instead, we are to pay close attention to how life questions us, and to respond Responsibly and Authentically to its questions. Frankl promotes that humans cannot TRY to be happy or TRY to pursue happiness, but that happiness ensues when we are engaged with the world in self-transcendent meaning— Lao Tzu.
Culmination
Viktor Frankl viewed Logotherapy as an open therapy which could be combined with other therapeutic interventions. The focus on Meaning in Life in clinical practice has been researched, showing its validity. To think about the motivations of human beings as directly related to their Will to Meaning is a fascinating postulate that, during its time of inception, was indeed different from other existing psychotherapeutic postulates.
The paradoxical nature of meaninglessness and meaning as a way of understanding the cyclical motion of the potentialities of human motivation affords us a shift from the mere myopic, commonly found ways in which we interpret mental health symptoms. Logotherapy offers many openings and pathways to examine the Existential struggles that humans constantly face.
The orientation of Logotherapy is Humanistic and empowering of the individual and the individual’s capacities to sustain their own existence. The therapeutic interventions embedded in each of Frankl’s three assumptions hope to evoke within individuals freedom of choice, actions and a responsibility towards the way they discover meaning within their existence.
Quick Answers
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You arrive without a fixed role; meaning is made through your choices and relationships over time.
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We pair values and responsibility with nervous-system care so meaning-making is lived (small actions), not just intellectual.
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A meaning-centred approach built on freedom of will, the will to meaning, and personal meaning—accessed through creative, experiential, or attitudinal “doors.”
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That’s a meaning gap, not a character flaw. Start small: name one value for today and match it with one act you can actually do.
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Suffering isn’t a goal; it’s inevitable. The attitudinal door asks: How do I meet what I didn’t choose with dignity and proportion?
Keep Reading
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Ameli, M., & Dattilio, F. M. (2013). Enhancing cognitive behavior therapy with logotherapy: Techniques for clinical practice. Psychotherapy, 50(3), 387–391. doi:10.1037/a0033394
Das, A. K. (1998). Frankl and the realm of meaning. Journal of Humanistic Education and Development, 36(4), 199-212.
Frankl, V. E. (1958). On logotherapy and Existential Analysis. The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 18(1), 28–37. doi:10.1007/bf01871876
Frankl, V. E., & Batthyány, A. (Ed.). (2010). Marquette studies in philosophy: Vol. 60. The feeling of meaninglessness: A challenge to psychotherapy and philosophy (D. Hallowell, Trans.). Marquette University Press.
Flynn, T. R. (2006). Existentialism: A very short introduction. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Lao Tzu. (1961). Tao The Ching (J. Wu, Trans ).New York, NY: Shambhala Classics
Martínez, E. Y., & Flórez, I. A. (2014). Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy: A Socratic Clinical Practice. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 45(1), 37–48. doi:10.1007/s10879-014-9281-0
Sartre, JP. (1956). The Wisdom of Sartre (H. Barnes, Trans). New York,NY: Citadel Press
Southwick, S. M., Lowthert, B. T., & Graber, A. V. (2016). Relevance and Application of Logotherapy to Enhance Resilience to Stress and Trauma. Logotherapy and Existential Analysis, 131–149. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-29424-7_13
Yalom, I. D., & Josselson, R. (2014). Existential psychotherapy. In D. Wedding & R. J. Corsini (Eds.), Current psychotherapies (10th ed.) pp. 273-308. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole
