Meaning in life as the aim of psychotherapy: A hypothesis

Abstract

The literature on meaning in life written by contemporary philosophers has yet to be systematically applied to literature on the point of psychotherapy. My broad aim in this chapter is to indicate some plausible ways to merge these two tracks of material that have run in parallel up to now. More specifically, here I articulate the hypothesis that psychodynamic and humanistic therapy, clinical psychology, and counseling psychology as such, not a particular branch of them, are best understood as enterprises in search of meaning in life, in the way many present-day philosophers understand this phrase, and I also provide good reason to take this conjecture seriously.