Читать книгу Meaningful Living Across the Lifespan - Moses N. Ikiugu - Страница 23

Frankl’s (1992) diagnosis of a social illness of meaninglessness may be appealing to those who are sensitive to the unjust consequences of economic changes, but the search for meaning by human beings involves much broader questions. Adams (1979, p. 125) points out that of the ‘problems connected with life […] some of the most popular are: Why are people born? Why do they die?’ Most people will have considered questions of this nature at various points in their lives. The search for meaning is a perennial human quest, and therefore should be a concern for occupational therapists and occupational scientists as part of their consideration of holism, client centeredness, meaningful and purposeful doing, and human functioning in relation to the environment. Occupational therapists in particular need to facilitate the process of answering these questions by their clients in order to optimize meaningful living. Frankl’s promotion of hope through transcendentalism provides the kinds of answers that would be available in religion. In this chapter, meaningfulness will be discussed as it has been defined by philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, theologians, and scholars from other disciplines. This definition will be a basis for exploring in subsequent chapters: how human beings have gone about searching for meaning throughout history; and how they can learn to live meaningfully through what they do (their occupations) every day of their lives.