RE: Let's Say I Achieve "Meaning." What Do I Do Next?
September 24, 2016 at 6:17 pm
(This post was last modified: September 24, 2016 at 6:18 pm by InquiringMind.)
(September 24, 2016 at 5:58 pm)Arkilogue Wrote: Perhaps a better approach would not be subjective personal meaning but high levels of harmonious function with environment.
Now this is a good idea. Back before the DSM-III threw the term out, psychologists spoke of "neurosis," and most any life problem a patient had could be classified as in some way neurotic. I've read that neurosis is, at its core, "the failure of the individual to adapt to their environment." For example, a failure for me on this front would be to attempt to maintain the social and relationship habits of Mormonism, even though the people around me aren't Mormon. Or, at a deeper level, to maintain the behaviors that worked for my in childhood, but that are no longer adaptive in my current environment.
So if my goal is to live, not to find meaning, then part of that goal is to become better adapted to my environment.
I like that
