Definition
The will to meaning (Ger. Wille zum Sinn) is, according to Frankl, the primary and basic human striving to find and fulfil meaning and to realise values. It is not a secondary rationalisation of drives - it is something specifically human.
Will to meaning versus pleasure and power
Frankl contrasted the will to meaning with:
- the will to pleasure (Freud's pleasure principle),
- the will to power (Adler's striving for superiority).
Happiness and pleasure are, in his view, the result of fulfilling meaning, not a goal that can be pursued directly. “The more one aims at happiness, the more one misses it” - this is the phenomenon of hyper-intention.
When the will to meaning is frustrated
An unfulfilled will to meaning leads to existential frustration and the existential vacuum, and sometimes to noogenic neurosis. Then - as Frankl wrote - people often replace meaning with the pursuit of pleasure, money or power.
Research
The concept was operationalised by James Crumbaugh and Leonard Maholick, authors of the PIL test (1964). Contemporary research on meaning in life (e.g. M. Steger, P. Wong) links it with well-being, resilience and health.
Sources
V. E. Frankl, The Will to Meaning (1969); Man's Search for Meaning.