Many people confuse restlessness with illness. Viktor Frankl disagrees, and the image he uses to explain why is that of a bow.
The bow that needs to be tensioned
Restlessness is not an illness, it is a vital force, says Frankl. It is like a tensioned bow: only under tension does it shoot the arrow of achievement. Without this tension, the spirit remains immobile, inert and without direction. Existential tension is the living distance between who a person already is and who they can still become.
Why it's not neurosis
It is easy to confuse this tension with pathological suffering, but Frankl makes a point of separating the two things. THE noogenic neurosis It is born from a void of meaning, a purpose that is never resolved, a plant that withers due to lack of light. Healthy existential tension is the opposite of emptiness: it is the living movement of someone who already has a direction and is heading towards it, even without having reached it yet.
Meaning is not something that stands still
Meaning, for Frankl, is not something that is found outside, ready, waiting. It is constructed, discovered in the dialogue between the person and life itself, even in storms, even in pain. This is why existential tension is necessary: without it, there would be no movement towards anything, no self-transcendence possible.
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What is existential tension, for Frankl?
It is the healthy restlessness between what the person already is and what they can still become, between the meaning they have already found and the meaning they still seek. Frankl insists that this tension is not illness, it is vital force.
Is existential tension synonymous with neurosis?
No, and that is the central distinction that Frankl makes. Neurosis (including noogenic neurosis) arises from an unresolved void of meaning. Healthy existential tension is the opposite of emptiness: it is the living movement toward a purpose not yet achieved.
Continue: What is Noogenesis · What is Self-Transcendence · The three psychological phases in concentration camps
Home class (Community NousCast): Em Busca de Sentido, de Viktor Frankl