Читать книгу Meaningful Living Across the Lifespan - Moses N. Ikiugu - Страница 20

Our discussion of Frankl’s theory is consistent with McNamee’s (2007) suggestion that: ‘Human beings are meaning junkies. It is not enough for people to just experience the world as it is; we are desperate to make sense of it’ (p.1 of 15). However, McNamee’s perspective of ‘meaningfulness’ is not existential, but seems to belong to a Western middle class understanding of life meaning found in the puritan values of hard work and healthy leisure which evolved over the 19th century (Flanders 2006; James, 2006). The dominance of this perspective of meaning originated from the growth of the middle classes during the 19th and 20th centuries, when there was a demand for a variety of professional occupations consistent with a rapid economic development. Such professional disciplines included engineering, teaching, medicine, and banking among others. The professionals defined themselves by their work, and were eager to distinguish themselves from the laboring classes in the neighbouring streets. These distinctions were based on a range of values: cultural, spiritual, educational, and familial. They were visible in the evident disparities in health between the wealthy and the poor.

The poor were very often held to blame for their own condition. Eugenic ideas of natural fitness and unfitness for genetic survival were used to spread fear that the healthy and wealthy might be contaminated by the rising numbers of diseased and impoverished people (James, 2006, Werskey, 1994). During that time in Britain, a third of the population was barely able to feed itself properly (Marr, 2009; Werskey, 1994). Even today, while there have been overall improvements in health, significant differences in life expectancy – between 71 for men and 78 for women in Glasgow compared to 85 for men and 87 for women in Chelsea and Kensington - remain the same as they were in the 1930s (National Records of Scotland 2011; Thomas, Dorling, & Smith, 2010). These disparities are still held to be natural [and perhaps pre-ordained] (Dorling, 2011). Under these circumstances of gross disparities, many working class people related ‘meaning’ to the value of their experiences and their place as witnesses to history. Their perceptions of quality of life were recorded in written autobiographies (Ragon 1986; Vincent 1981) as well as in folk songs (Buchan, 1997; Copper, 1975; Lloyd, 1969).

Thus, even within a particular culture the search for meaning can represent different things for different people. For those in the upper socio-economic status, meaning is perceived differently in comparison to the understanding by those in the lower socio-economic ranks. Even Frankl (2000, 1992, 1969) acknowledged that there is no one universal definition of the construct of meaningfulness. Rather, meaning is embedded in the concrete engagement in tasks that help individuals achieve specific goals, particularly transcendental missions in life, or to create desired legacies which are intended to continue once their lives are over (Frankl, 1969).

One complication when considering how people maintain a meaningful existence in the modern world is that technological gains appear to have eliminated many of the evolutionary challenges which gave meaning and purpose to life. For example, people no longer need to walk because they can get around by driving; they don’t need to climb stairs because they can use a lift; and they do not even need to retain and recall information because they can access the internet through their phones. Many tasks that in the past made people feel competent (one of the ways in which people experience meaning in life) have disappeared. Instead of dealing with the challenges of survival, the problem facing the modern human being has become the question of what to survive for. The paradox is that people have an unprecedented ability to survive and to stay alive even in cases of severe injury or illness, but have ‘nothing to live for’ (Frankl, 1978, p. 21).