Meaning in Life: Joel Vos

Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Traditional approaches to meaning 2

Chapter 2 A practical phenomenological approach to meaning 10

Meaning’s location: 11

Scales of meaning 12

Pragmatism 12

Chapter 3 Research on the meaning of meaning 12

Definitions of meaninglessness 14

The Meaning quintet 15

The development of meaning 16

Chapter 4 Working with Meaning 20

Chapter 5 Meaning centred assessment skills 20

Chapter 6 Meaning specific skills 20

Chapter 7 Relational skills 23

Chapter 8 Phenomenological, experiential and mindfulness skills 23

Chapter 9 Existential Skills 28

Chapter 10 A ten centred treatment manual 30

Introduction

Priests and philosophers used to give meaning in life, but was supported by religious dogma, or prolix ideology.

Aims of meaning centred practices is to

1. Live a meaningful life, despite restrictions, by developing meaning enabling skills

2. Increasing quality of life by , increasing hope, optimism, self-efficacy, and social well being

3. Improving mood

4. Improving physical health

General methods

Session structure

Psychoeducation on type of meaning, exploration of relevance in client’s life, client acts on this outside of session or explores.

Session skills

Guided mindfulness to explore meaning experientially.

Definitions

Meaning is a subjective experience, therapists need to be aware of meaning in their life, so they can be reflexive working with clients, i.e. don’t pressure them to do things you need to do.

Theory

We can reduce our suffering by engaging in meaningful activity (de-reflection). Finding the why of life can allow us to be bear any how.

There is a hierarchy of meaning we each have

Chapter 1 Traditional approaches to meaning

4 historical stages of meaning

Meaning is a challenge to materialism. There is in hard science no purpose, just causality. Meaning is a social reality, not a material one.

Teleology

In Medieval times, your position of birth determines what you do, there is little social movement or freedom of choice. So, to live a life is to do your duty in your social position to family ,church and king\queen. Meaning derived from church\state.

Meaning is derived from something being communicated through yourself (e.g. church\state). In medieval times work was communicated through the individual, successfully fulfilling the position into which he was born

Vocation comes from calling. The milkmaid responds to the call of God to milk the cows.

People who left their place in society through illness or choice, then their lives were meaningless. They did not fit into the system and the divine wasn’t communicated through them. So, people who were forcibly removed from the system, were put in institutions, or were killed, as they were meaningless.

Meaningful life was on a hierarchy, God, down and you had to serve those on the higher ranks.

So, there is teleology, fulfil your role, if an acorn, become an oak. There is no love for loves sake, you marry to breed children.

Higher purpose

Choosing meaning in life, seems to have originated from Plato, the hierarchy this time not socially but in terms of reality, and truth, starting at shadows and ending up with the forms and the form of the good. Therefore, meaning is defined as using the rational mind, to connect with the form of the good and to become a philosopher or a mythic hero.

Aristotle takes this mechanics to define the purpose of life, which is to have a good seed, good material and work, will enable the good life, eudaimonia.

Phronesis is practical ethical wisdom

Eudaimonia is most likely when you lead a political\ethical life serving the community and living a philosophical ethical life

Telos\Eudaimonia for Aristotle is the roof on the house, which requires many other things to be there.

Self-denial\discipline

If meaning comes from fulfilment of your position in society\cosmos etc, what then is your position. Well in part you can tell you’re the son of a baker, but also you must be aware of the world around you, your environment and to tune into and live with that.

Stoics did this via ascesis, severe self-discipline via the rational mind.

So, unhappiness\meaninglessness is seen as an outcome of not following the natural\social order, through a lack of using rational skill.

Stoics had an anti-hedonic teleology, they had to deny themselves to serve a higher good\God, for St Augustine.

Scepticism

Theological scepticism

Meister Eckhart criticised the view that everything we do needs to serve a higher purpose

Luther as well, the just shall live by faith alone

Meaning on one hand means to align oneself to a higher purpose, but there is also intrinsic meaning.

Meaning as intrinsic is about intention not meaning as purpose. A new word spawned to capture this, sense, or Sinn, although it took off in Europe but not in UK. Meaning was deprecated to vulgar childlike desire

Existential scepticism

Finding your own way, means questioning your given way, which rests on education and variety of experiences. Meaning also needs to move from an objective to a subjective stance, so the value of experience needs to move likewise.

Scepticism either reductionist or non-reductionist

Reductionist scepticism meaning is nothing other than evolutionary processes: material reductionism, or existential reductionism (we are born in a meaningless state, and we must give our lives meaning to defend against incoherence)

Map\landscape fallacy: just because a map is 2 dimensional doesn’t mean there aren’t 3 dimensions in the landscape.

Critiques

Correlation, not causation: biology and meaning

Applying theory to itself, if everything is an evolution outcome then isn’t the theory of evolution an evolutionary product

Functionalism: the skyscrapers of meaning McMeanings

Different strands of societal revolution, flower power, Paris 68, human potential movement, which challenge meaning, which is a social group scepticism. Which in part says we need to change how we do things, the norm isn’t good enough, and partly opens a new approach, or is more nihilistic: punk.

Functionalism: a hybrid of teleological meaning and scepticism

McMeanings: instant but unsatisfying

Comes from adopting the new (commercial) thing.

Feeling culture: The anti-Copernican revolution, the individual doesn’t rotate around universal experience, rather the individual is the centre around which experience rotate.

Hedonic culture.

We demand instant gratification with ready-made meaning: possessions, experiences (holidays) , looks, status etc.

Technical meaning making

It has been suggested that the meaning we make in life, is related to the way we organise our work and use technology.

Artisan sees product through from start to end, meaning is whole. Meaning is goal orientated, but for the next person up the hierarchy.

Modern worker drops in does their bit, meaning related to this structure, is instant, and has less engagement with the overall context. Meaning is also goal orientated, but for the self. Individuals had bucket lists, became managers to their own lives, and demanded that they achieve certain goals\tasks.

If meaning became like something on a shelf, that we could replace, and divorced from its context, then we would divorce meaning from its socially, historically, embodied aspect that is meanings foundation. This puts meaning as a goal and not a process

Whilst there is goal-based meaning, there is also intrinsic meaning and process based meaning, where we make our meaning.

Mechanical functionality.

Becker: meaning is about increasing economic utility and efficiency, so love is about each other’s well-being, so when you love it is meaningful if you have more utility because of it, i.e. meaning is transactional

Aiming and reaching the max.

Weber: Calvinist teleology life like to the maximum

Sloterdijk: you create all your goals and then you must maximize them

You are free in the content but not in the process, you must excel in whatever you choose in life.

The skyscraper is the symbol for our obsession with infinitely reaching higher and higher, and indeed once someone builds the highest someone else wants to build higher.

Meaning is something that we rank, and make, rather than discover.

Becoming our public image

Whilst meaning is subjective it needs to be socially valued. If there is no objective value, then social value is used instead. Thus, we need a positive social image. Our self-image is based on our social image.

Capitalism

Capitalism is economic teleology; individuals serve the market. Capitalism uses meaning now to sell product, or meaning is the produce, i.e. self-help books, lifestyle products. Meaning selling product, the meaning of Nike products , sporty, just do it, etc or adidas, cool. Meaning is used to create greater employee efficiency.

Mental health crisis

Capitalism creates capitalist life syndrome , superficial meaning (hedonistic, materialistic, self-orientated), a functionalist approach to meaning, which in turn creates mental suffering for people excluded from this, or indeed having but suffering with this.

			Reference
1	Chronic lack of fulfilment	Functional meanings only provide temporary satisfaction	Verhaeghe (2014)
2	Addiction	Chronic lack of fulfilment, sees people going from kick to kick and getting ever more extreme	Kunneman (2009)
3	Fat ego	Individuals become self-obsessed as they focus on hedonic, materialistic and self-orientated meanings	Kunneman (2003)
4	Uncertainty	There is no absolute value, no god, so we live in uncertainty and are risk averse.	Beck (1992); Bauman (2013)
5	Guilt	We set and work to our own goals, and if we don’t achieve them then we feel guilt. We over inflate the power we have in our lives, and are unrealistic as to the influence of society, and the state.	Verhaeghe (2014)
6	Flexible relationships	Social circles are determined subjectively and less by geography, and socio-economic position	Sennett (2011)
7	Commitment	Long term commitment replaced by short term, low perseverance	Sennett (2007), Benn (2003)
8	Choice Overload	No teleological objective criteria, low internal awareness criteria, therefore there is choice overload	Schwartz (2004), Swenson (2014), Kahneman (2012)
9	Double Standard	Falsely tolerant, in name but not in spirit, lack of honesty, political correctness	Pfaller (2002), Zizek (1996)
10	Little happiness	We are richer, but unhappier	World Happiness Report (2016), Skidelski & Skidelski (2012)
11	Neo Conservatism	People in the face of meaninglessness become more extreme in views	Gray (2004)

Historical trend

Meaning as teleological, then sceptical\functional and then phenomenological

Western meaning

See it as a fixed thing that you can discover cognitively and replace if it tires you.

Non-western see meaning as dynamic, intuitive, social

Axial age

Comes from Karl Jaspers, who saw in 3-8BC the emergence of a different type of leader across different societies that were questioning dogma\empire, so Buddha, Confucius, Zoroastrian, Neoplatonists.

Meaning was to be found more phenomenologically rather than a rule bound teleological approach.

So, the dharma in Vedic books talked about finding meaning in the way what you lived, morally, with desires etc, and this could be achieved via yoga (?). So, there are 4 ways to live, and you can find out by introspection (?) if you are achieving these ends. So, its about intention and awareness (?).

In Buddhism\Hinduism\Daoism they phenomenologically bracket everyday experience to allow the true reality show itself, e.g. there is no self.

Meditation as a process of engaging with the phenomenon.

In these Asian religions, meanings become something experienced and acted on, not a purely cognitive aspect as it is in the west.

Morita therapy

Japanese, behaviourally based, moved from the hot inside flow of experiencing from the cold outside flow of theorising

Ikagi: meaning comes at the intersection between what you love, what you are good at what the world needs, and what it will pay for.

Aristotle’s four causes

Form, material, efficient and purpose

Material: what are the materials that cause the current being ( I am made of water, and food)

Form What has arrange this matter, my DNA

Efficient: what triggered the changing of this matter into this form, my parents had sex

Purpose: Social, evolutionary, some would say God?

Meaning in ancient Greek philosophy was complex, then it was simplified in Judeo\Christian tradition to teleological, hierarchical, and your position in the social\cosmic\divine order what to do.

Simple meaning the latter, in German is Meinung, the former more complex Sinn.

There are differences in the concepts and words used between English speaking places, continental Europe, Japan and China over meaning, there are also considerable overlap.

Meaning can be understood as a dynamic journey, which is Sinn, or a more static concept which is Meinung.

Implications for practice

Are the clients meaning forced on them or chosen. What do they think of the other options for meaning. You need to investigate the influence of the client’s socio\culture context on their meaning

What is the therapists meaning, how can that influence therapy.

Medieval meaning\teleology

It’s on a ladder, we are on a position, animals at the bottom, king at the top, the ladder is held in place by a skyhook, god, or the greater good.

Sceptical meaning: flat earth, meaning comes from biology\physics, meaning is man made.

Functionalism: meaning is manmade, you need to excel in whatever you choose. The teleology is now functional, you choose the ladder (which is socially acceptable) and must climb to the top

Chapter 2 A practical phenomenological approach to meaning

A move from external meaning=teleology to internal meaning, allowing the meaningful to show itself, e.g. authenticity. Doing things to achieve something so goal driven activity or doing things that are intrinsically rewarding.

Phenomenology offers a third way, to the consequence of teleology\functionalist, i.e. the meaning of something is what it’s for, or the sceptical reductionism of what created it, biology, matter etc.

Phenomenology wants to describe what it is, although there is a hierarchy of meaning, there is an investigation as to what is meaningful, it is the phenomenology of meaning.

Scepticism breaks down meaning to understand how this meaning is enabled, phenomenology sees the components of how meaning is given. I give it meaning because it has beauty, as I value education etc.

We could phenomenologically unpeel until there is nothing left, there can be no assumption of a core, although pragmatically unpeeling is reported to be helpful.

James wrote there is no separate\atomistic phenomena, it is our mind that separates.

Sartre said before we can interpret individual essences, we have already interpreted a lebensworld, self, social context, existence.

To be able to phenomenologically engage with meaning we must return to pre-objective, pre-reflective, pre-ontological, the chaos!

Humans don’t cope with meaninglessness and will always put meaning\coherence\narrative on emptiness. So even sensory deprivation there becomes hallucinations to fill the void.

Perceptual steps (!)

1. Raw experience no subject\object (!)

2. Interpretation

3. Contextual our interpretation historically

4. Aware of self of experience

Phenomenological steps

1. Bracketing

a. Remove all meanings that do no bring authentic meaning, i.e. teleology, sceptical, or reductionist (!).

b. Set aside social pressure, or individual hopes

2. Describing

a. Describe don’t explain experiences.

3. Equalisation

a. Don’t put any hierarchy of importance on the experience.

Gellasenheit: allowing the phenomena to show itself (from itself)

How can you intuit what is authentic meaning

Meaning’s location:

Our behaviours reveal our intuitive hierarchy

They can often unconsciously show our meaning hierarchy.

Social:

Our meanings come from our social contexts, our tribes.

Double Hermeneutics

Ie counter transference, how is the therapists’ meanings affecting the recounting of the clients meanings. There is a real skill between being authentic and not being directive. The continuum can be between client focused to self-focused.

Multiple worlds

Meanings inhabited in the following areas

Inner world

physical world

Social world

Spiritual world

Becoming who you are

Meaning derived from self.

Scales of meaning

There is the meaning of all of life, and meanings within life. There are small meanings that can aggregate into a bigger one.

Micro, miso and macro level meanings

Micro as subjective, specific.

Meso, as pattern making, as aggregators of the micro. So hedonic, social, self-orientated are examples of categories, meso level meanings.

Macro meanings are meanings for life.

Pragmatism

Is meaning top down\bottom up?

Is meaning discovered \ constructed.

Teleology has a purpose (higher in this context)

Functional purposeful and sceptical, i.e. anything can be valued.

Do I trust my intuition for meaning, um, I must work reasonably hard to find meaning and it is fleeting, good book for instance a play, etc. I can’t demand something be meaningful e.g. clown workshop or drama

Chapter 3 Research on the meaning of meaning

Meaning seems to be about the combination of motivation, values, understanding, situational commitment, worthiness of the self and self-regulation

Some authors argue that meaning is what we use to manage the existential givens of freedom and responsibility.

Motivation

Motivation: a desire, energy to move in a certain direction, consciously\unconsciously, implicit in this is that there is something valuable to be had that is currently out of reach. The motivation doesn’t need to achieve its goal, but with the direction and energy, other things can emerge that can be meaningful.

Is the desire for meaning a drive? A will to meaning? A desire for self-transcendence, for growth?

It is tricky, when you act, you transcend, you get something different to what is now. You could argue it is a need, for food, or it is a repetition on the same, another day at work, but then are these things meaningful. They might not fill the person with joy but is this only because they get their needs met. Is the question of meaning in therapy only the question of what unmet needs are getting met, meaning increases when you aren’t getting your needs met, e.g. haven’t eaten for a week, a piece of bread becomes very meaningful.

So, with a client, what is your current motivation, what led you to choose these, was it important once to you and now no longer?

Values

Motivations are mostly based on values. Values being indicating something is important.

Understanding

Meaning needs to cohere with a person’s worldview (or can change it, x is meaningful, and it is different to my worldview)

Worthiness

Meaning in life, gives life a worthiness, may also give a person worthiness, so increase self-esteem. This sounds like reflective value. I do the valuable thing, it makes me and my life valuable.

Situational commitment

Of course, you need to act on your meanings for them to realise.

Regulation

You need to act on meaningful action but also need to be flexible in the face of obstacles and also regulate the amount of meaningful action you do. If helping others is your thing but you, do it so much that you forget to eat, then this would be a problem.

Existential Meaning

Meaning as a response to, a defence from freedom, responsibility, mortality and physical limitation.

What is the meaning of life? It can be only answered by each man, and it will only be true for a moment.

The effect of meaningful moments is when you feel most alive.

Definitions of meaninglessness

Both meaningful experiences and meaningless experiences go together.

Primary meaninglessness

Fundamental absurdity, meaning is an arbitrary construction by humans, there is no fundamental meaning, so everything is meaningless

Secondary meaninglessness

Existential guilt.

What I choose as meaningful is arbitrary, I could have chosen many others, and indeed I forsake everything else, in choosing this. This relates to decision making problems, perfectionism and FOMO. To experience something, you experience the nothing of all the other things you didn’t do.

Tertiary meaninglessness

A lack of meaning, the experience that at this moment there is not meaning, there could\should be but there isn’t.

Difficulties with meaning

Existential indifference

One thing no more important than the other. Relates to disassociation, autism, schizoid traits.

Structural existential emptiness

Life is empty, regardless of the quantity and quality of meanings that are received, i.e. they are not satisfied. I have desires I may get them partially met but I am still hungry

Hopeless and helpless

Clients feel hopeless and helpless due to experience of meaninglessness. Helpless as repeated attempts to find meaning have failed, learned helplessness

Many to one\One to Many Multiplicity

Equifinality, every meaning\outcome can be achieved in a number of ways

Mult finality every outcome can server a number of purposes so every meaning can mean a number of things.

The Meaning quintet

Materialistic Hedonic

Things you acquire, achieve, or feel. E.g. health, money, success and fun

Self-orientated types of meaning (self as object?)

Values of self, e.g. being resilient, or self-efficacy, being capable, self-relation (acceptance, worth, compassion)

Social types of meaning

Care for others, community, friends and family, following social values

Larger types of meaning

Transcendent meaning, i.e. self-growth, society growth (politics). Spirituality.

Existential\philosophical meaning

Value of life itself. My meaning, painting my picture. The meaning attached to being alive, the fact that I am unique, free, connected.

Frankl triad

Meaning is built around phenomenological modes, productivity-creativity and attitudes.

The development of meaning

Many studies show how meanings are internalised from the social context during upbringing, and most strongly develop in the teenage years.

Every meaning seems to develop from what an individual must, can and does not want to do in life.

Must

Authority figures tell us what our meaning must or must not be. Although then they have their values\meanings, but they forget the origins. Teleological societies the must is what social\cosmic position you have been born into, develops the musts.

Functional societies the musts are what commercials say and what the public generally say, e.g. Facebook.

Can

During the life course individuals develop an idea of what they can\cannot do. This has a major influence on what their meanings are. You rarely have meaning that you don’t think you are capable of.

Wants

In adolescence, individuals develop what they want, which might be independent from their upbringing, and possibly their social context.

Overlap

Internalised musts, becomes wants

Cold reflections on meaning of life

We may not want a meaning of life, we just want to feel alive.

When we experience life from a reductionist sceptical life, we experience life from the outer not the inner experience.

Theorising

Some people think that as they know the map, they don’t need to go to the territory.

So, I have objective explanations, therefore I have no need for inner experiences.

Lack of awareness

We may not be aware of the constraints we live within, so don’t explore meaning as we can’t. As we are not aware of life beyond the constraints

Automatic pilot

We go about our days with a lack of awareness. We hurry; we rationalise. Automatic pilot saves times and energy but divorces you from meaning.

Following others

We follow others meaning rather than our own.

Hyper reflection

I must sleep or I won’t be able to perform tomorrow, which means you focus strongly on not sleeping, when you do sleep, implicitly how great this is as I didn’t not sleep. So, anxiety builds up around not sleeping, which in turn makes it harder to sleep, puts unrealistic demands on you, sometimes you won’t sleep. You can become obsessed with yourself, exaggerate minor failures, have a negative self-image and unrealistic demands.

In both these instances hyper reflection and hyper intention, the client is standing outside their lived experience. They are managing themselves from a distance.

Crisis

4 types

Meaning: what makes life worth living

Spiritual: what are we called to do in life

Identity: who am I

Existence: what does life demand on me.

The hot flow of a meaningful life

Flow

Describes absorption where the individual meets the challenges of a situation (? But what about flow without problem). Theres a merging of action and awareness, the inner chatter is reduced. Flow happens when you are just doing something, not trying to get somewhere, as that somewhere would be on your mind

Mindfulness

As in grounded in the present. Being aware, without, judging, trying to change anything, observing (so disengaged). Mindfulness on one hand through observing, can help clients disengage from their experience, but if they are rigid or on automatic pilot, then it can help them observer more, as they reduce their rigidity to one thing and see more.

Peak experiences

A euphoric mental state, where you lose sense of time and space. People can hang on to these moments during their lives. Anchors of hope. However, they become like teleological goals where they want\expect these, and feel meaningless as they aren’t here.

If you define meaning by the peak, then it gets difficult. You can always have the highest, as you will have to have higher still. The idea is to both be able to have meaning in the highest and in the gentler, the blackberry and the summit.

Happiness

Meaning doesn’t offer quick happiness more of a slow burn.

So, raising children is meaningful, but it’s not the quick stuff or a great holiday.

Rather it’s like the deep currents in the sea, rather than the waves.

It provides a meaningful life as caregiver, educator but doesn’t provide immediate happiness due to the stress, and teleological functions.

Quick happiness, is drink\drugs, goals, fulfilling one’s desires from reality

Slow happiness is about connecting with the real world and getting meaning from that.

Authenticity

Whilst there might not be a self that we can be authentic to, there do seem to be degrees of authenticity. When we play roles, act in certain ways for other people, there can be a sense of being closer to feeling authentic to me or not. In some way coming back to the felt sense, how much does doing this in this way carry me forward or is it for someone else.

Being inauthentic might be related to feeling that I am a being that it is worth listening to

Life satisfaction

Life satisfaction as achieving your meaning goals? Teleological, functional or phenomenological. Although if their meaning isn’t meaningful, as its someone else’s or cultures, then there wouldn’t be satisfaction. So, you need to lead a meaningful and satisfying life, so your meaning satisfies you.

To lead a meaningful life, we must assume that the world is coherent, fair, understandable etc, otherwise we couldn’t have future projects, we would need to be protecting ourselves against, illness, economic crashes etc.

However, of course these assumptions can be challenged by personal, or public tragedies, and are.

Chapter 4 Working with Meaning

Meaning centred therapies: logo analysis, logotherapy

Frankl techniques: de-reflection, paradoxical intent and modulation of attitudes

Frankl 3 principles. We have a will to meaning, we are free, we can find meaning in any situation

Difficulties with meaning

Clients:

1. don’t believe in their self-efficacy

2. feel life is meaningless and therefore no meaning is possible

3. Are blocked

a. Are focused on things which then excluded what is important to them

b. Have tried and failed to do meaningful things

c. Too many important things can get satisfaction of any

d. Focusing on the wrong things, e.g. materialistic, hedonic

e. Are focussed on others’ meanings, or what they must do, not what they want to do

f. Thinking too much and feeling too little

g. Difficulty in accepting life changes

CBT can cause problems as it gets the client to focus more on themselves, hyper reflection, when con

Chapter 5 Meaning centred assessment skills

Assess in a phenomenological, holistic way, so in a non-pathologizing way.

What led you to seek help, what are the difficulties , what is the context of all of this, and then to ask holistic questions, how are things, in your body, your relationships, meaning generally, have things changed recently

Pathoplastics=coping with problems.

Chapter 6 Meaning specific skills

Long term meanings provide better benefits than short term ones.

Distinguish between pleasure and meaning

Pleasure, is I like when I have it, meaning is more than that, sets an example, makes life worth living, Seemingly slightly more than the thing, e.g. eating honey, if you eat the amazing honey it seems meaningful as there is more to it than just the honey. Likewise, if being generous is meaningful to you, then when you are, it feels important, it feels that you are doing something worthwhile and valuable with your life. Something you might be proud of. It not just important to me. .

Notice 3 things during last week that were meaningful, place them in order, in a mountain picture.

Clients either speaking generally about their problems, or fixatedly about their problems (hyper reflection) can make their problems worse

Goal focused meaning process

1. Understand meaning in general in their life

2. Decide what is most important

3. Find out what gets in the way of getting it: specify a goal

4. Break goal down into subgoals

5. Plan, with contingencies

6. Act

7. Evaluate

Goals

Are best when SMART, not too far in the future, important, focused on something positive not removing something negative.

Creating small playful projects can help with motivation.

Lower the bar, don’t be a perfectionist, as this will avoid disappointment and frustration, start small, achieve, feel good

Create a new thing\behaviour etc with a safety net, so that you can try out the new behaviour, and if it doesn’t work out you can always go back to the previous way of doing things, not such a big risk.

Stimulating the client to connect with past, present and future legacy

Obsession with the present

In our current era, the individual is king, and meaning comes from what I define. They are standardly immediately experienced, and quickly replaced, and it all happens in the present. When you add in the mindfulness revolution, the present is the main time zone, share price is important, short term returns it is all about the now.

Obsession with the past.

The causal nature of our world, plus Freud, gives a focus on the past, to explain why I am the way I am

Obsession with the future

This is a focus on legacy. Frankl focuses on the future via the meaning some of which takes time to realise, i.e. social meaning, Can be an interesting question for clients

What was the legacy you were given, what is the legacy you live, and what will be the legacy you hand on.

This can give a powerful sense of belonging, to your ancestors and for your descendants. This connects to the stream of life that flows through us, which can give more meaning to us rather than our individual being.

Legacy

What legacy were you given? How did you change it, overcome its difficulties, how did it affect your values and living now. How are you living your legacy now, and what do you leave the world around you, from this and from when you die.

Memory

Mood congruent and so can be helpful to ask mood incongruent questions. Also being specific can help, specific, experiential questions, can revitalise that memory.

Transcendence

Of time: life lives through you with legacy

Of society: you are part of something outside you, in concept, relationship

Of experience: when you do x, then you are in peak experience and forget yourself

Family

Loyal to our parents even if it is detrimental to us. If something goes wrong in our relationship, then we must be to blame I’m stupid etc, rather than the parent being anything than perfect. So, cutting ties with them might not be helpful for our mental health, this doesn’t mean you need a physical connection, but being aware of the connection might be right for you.

Self-compassion

Meaning can also come from being compassionate to yourself. Warm, supportive when times are hard, not ignoring, criticising. Do this via, letter writing, internal attitude, action. Meaning can also be enabled by self-compassion, as it reduces destructive behaviours.

Chapter 7 Relational skills

Similarity between relational depth and meaning (peak experience)

Core conditions is useful.

Tune in with tempo of client

Relationship is useful

Chapter 8 Phenomenological, experiential and mindfulness skills

You can engage with meaning from a cold distant theoretical position, or from a hot inside experiential position.

Experiential acceptance can relate to meaning, which relates to the word Sinn, which is the elevated sense of meaning on the continent. The English word meaning, etymologically relates to Meinung as an outcome of a purpose/order forced on the experience.

Basic attitude of acceptance

When clients come into therapy, then can be helpful to offer acceptance:

Acceptance that bad events can be integrated into a meaningful life.

Using discontent as a compass

What are your emotions trying to tell you?

Stimulating clients to immerse themselves in the flow of meaningful experiences

Developing self-distance

Clients can avoid their experiences as they find them too overwhelming. It can be helpful to self-distance, i.e. observer oneself, observer one’s feelings.

Identify unhelpful attitudes.

Experiences\emotions can be like a compass directing where we want to go in our life, attitudes can be like a magnet holding the compass still , e.g. I must be perfect, I shouldn’t etc

Unhelpful attitudes

		Help
Provisionary attitude	No plans, goals, indecisiveness, lack of commitment, not action orientated	Experiment with small goals
Fatalistic	Deterministic, no meaning	Acct the things I cannot change, have the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference
Collectivist	Follow the herd, no individuality or responsibility	Explore individuality, focusing
Fanatical	Idealised meaning	Look to expand meanings
Passive, due to anticipatory anxiety	Avoidance and powerful responses Pas	ERP
Obsessive	Perfectionism, rumination etc	Mindfulness
Hyper intention	Excessive forcing of something, excessive control, addiction	Let go of control, appreciate the flow of experience
Hyper reflection	Monitoring one’s performance, health, sleep, mistakes etc	Sense of humour, dialogue with self, understand our view of ourselves may not be true
Pyramidal meaning system	Small number of important meanings	Parallel meaning system, 4 of 5 meanings

Stimulate a dual attitude

I.e. holding things that seem opposite together, seeing how they can co -exist, seeing how their opposition comes from a false premise

Stimulating clients to engage in the flow of experience

There is no problem that can’t be made worse than by worrying.

If you spend too much time worrying, you will feel like a helpless victim

Hyper Intention

Focus on doing something, focus on sleeping, not sleeping, experience how bad not sleeping is, exacerbate the problem.

When you hyper reflect, or are hyper intentional, you leave the flow of experience, you are so focussed on yourself, or on an action, you disconnect from your overall connection with the world.

Both Hyper intention\reflection suggests there is no alternative, this must happen in this way or bad things

De-reflection interventions


Alternative list making	Instead of focusing on the awfulness of not sleeping, do other things that are meaningful
Mindfulness	Observe!
Just do	Having to do, so you can’t reflect
Paradoxical intent	Do the feared thing, Panic=faint, make your anxiety worse, and in doing this, reduce anticipatory anxiety, change the relationship from victim to author
Sense of humour	Laugh at it

Phenomenologically exploring whether there are any hierarchies in the client’s experiences of meaning

Clients can have meaning diaries, when they feel a meaningful moment and, in the flow, and then group them. Then categorise them in the meaning quintet.

Alternatively, therapists can teach clients about the meaning quintet and then ask them to identify examples of those during the last week.

Clients can then rank meaning to develop their own hierarchy

Self-transcendence


Love, hope and will	Cannot be demanded
Social and higher meaning	Social, something bigger than you
Existential and higher meaning
Spiritual
Cosmic, the big plan

Socratic questions

Memories are affected by current mood so ask specific questions

Ask from others point of view (systemic) what would bob think if he saw you doing x

What needs to be the case for this to be true

Does the problem relate to certain time periods, now, past, future. How might this change in the future, has this always been the case.

Implications. If you do x, how does this effect the world around you

Broadening: do you see any patterns here

Using focusing, mindfulness, and meditation exercises

Focusing: holistic experience, the experience before the words

Mindfulness=from doing to being

Mindfulness can aggravate hyper reflection

Using non-verbal techniques

Meaning is not only a verbal activity.

Analyse dreams

Examples of non-intellectualising exercises


Act as if
Art	Prescribe, meaning
Childhood memories	Earliest memories, favourite fairy tales, what was important to you back them, what did you hope for the future, what was painful and frightening, what was your worldview
Collage
Drawing	Draw your life
Empty chair	See a dilemma from multiple perspectives and speak to and from them
Fast Forward technique	What will happen in 5 years\your death bed if you carry on like this. On your death bed what would be your biggest regret
Guided fantasy	Guided imagery of what the client most wants, or friend giving eulogy
Letter writing	Write a letter to past\future you, or to people that have left your life, or to you who has lost meaning
Lifeline	Draw a timeline, highs\lows around meaning. Represent different types of meaning,
Life mosaic	Sketch your life with symbols and stick figures
Logo anchor\hook	Most meaningful time, experience it, what happened before and after
Logo drama
Magic wand	If you had a magic wand, what would you get
Other techniques	Nothing stimulated me

Chapter 9 Existential Skills

Meaning centred treatment are more effective when existential topics are also addressed.

MCP: find meaning within the existential givens

Existentialist: engage with the existential givens and find meaning if possible.

Existential therapy, response to the reduction of people to drives, behaviours, or cognitions.

Life’s givens

1. Thrown into existence

2. Being alive

3. Free to make decisions

4. Responsible for my life

5. Physically limited and mortal

6. Part of a physical\social world

7. Being in possibilities

8. An irreducible totality

9. Primarily in daily life, (doing the dishes, lebensworld, not peak experience)

Facing life’s givens can result in existential moods:

1. Death anxiety

2. Existential urgency (shortness of life)

3. Existential guilt (having made the most out of possibilities)

4. Existential isolation (that we are born, live and die alone)

5. Existential overwhelm (possibilities)

6. Fear of taking responsibility and life anxiety (Living the right life?)

7. Meaninglessness

Some therapists focus too much on existential givens\moods, and are ineffective because of that, there are many ways into existential themes, and everydayness seems one.

Frankl

Tragic triad

Suffering, death and guilt.

Serenity prayer

God give me the serenity to accept those things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.

Loss

Can be helped by integrating the loss before it, during and after it. So pre illness, and post death, making the illness part of the story, the loss of function.

Coping styles

A flexible array of coping styles is the most efficacious.

Don quixote: fighting the unfightable.

Paradox

How to couple belief and doubt, so to fully believe your truths, and to doubt them such you can be open to change.

Managing paradox: do a mindful exercise and whilst client is in that experience then get them to focus on the paradox . Paradox seems to be able to be managed by meta style of beliefs. When you think of life is meaningless, but I can have meaning, you are working on two different type of objects, so moving up a scale of existence, life the container or beings.

Yalom: people face life’s givens and existential moods, and manage them with denial, and symptoms

Dual attitude: attempting to live a meaningful life, despite life’s givens

Freedom as the last word for some existential therapists, responsibility the last word for meaning centred practitioners.

Negative freedom: freedom from being stopped to do things

Positive freedom: your freedom to do what is most important to you

Freedom, meaning and responsibility.

I don’t know about this, I can feel guilty about not living the life I want sometimes, other times, I’m not too bothered, and can just enjoy the pleasures and avoid the pains. But my freedom as responsibility to be act meaningful, I am free to choose to have a responsibility or not.

Chapter 10 A ten centred treatment manual

1.Introduction : what is meaning and why might this be relevant when we are physically ill? A.Introduction: aim and agenda for today; looking back at last week’s session

2.Assessment of meaning: how do we experience meaning, and how has this changed as a result of the disease? B.Emotional check-in: exploring any important developments since the last session, and reconnecting with each other

3.Resilience as meaning : how can we cope in a meaningful way with challenges in life and specifically with the disease? C.Didactics and group discussion: explanation of theory, usually interactive with examples from the group

4.Materialistic meanings: how can we experience practical activities, belongings, physical experiences and productivity as meaningful? D.Guided experiential exercise: an experiential or mindfulness exercise is used to help focus on inner experiences instead of merely theoretically speaking about meaning

5.Self-oriented meanings: how can we experience self-development, care for ourselves and self-expression as meaningful? E.Guided self-reflective exercise: the experiential exercise flows automatically into an exercise in which the clients are asked to reflect on some questions related to the topic of the session (e.g. ‘Find examples of moments that felt particularly meaningful.’)

6.Social meanings : how can we experience our social relationships, community, children and caring for others as meaningful? F.Self-expression: clients are invited to share their experiences

7.Higher meanings : how can we experience larger goals, striving for justice and spirituality as meaningful? G.Self-evaluation: clients are invited to evaluate in an individual exercise followed by a group discussion what was the most meaningful aspect of today, and decide on possible changes in daily life

8.Being-here as meaning: how can we experience meaning in the mere fact that we are alive, are free to make decisions and may be grateful? H.Session evaluation : clients are invited to evaluate today’s session and write down ‘the three most important messages of today’

9.Applying meaning in daily life : how can we apply meaning in daily life – how can we set goals, create a plan, make changes, cope with challenges, evaluate and adjust our goals?

10.Ending and starting: what can we use from these sessions in daily life, and how can we continue living a meaningful life?

Based on

Breitbart and Poppito (2014) for clients with advanced cancer which is based on the Franklian triad (experience, creativity, attitude)

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