Here is a very important concept in logotherapy, created by Viktor Frankl. It is called noodynamics.
“*What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task. He needs not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.
Man needs not homeostasis but what I call ‘noodynamics,’ that is, the existential dynamics in a field of polar tensions, where one pole is represented by a meaning to be fulfilled and the other by the human being who has to fulfill it.
And it should not be thought that this is valid only under normal conditions; it is even more valid for neurotic individuals. If architects want to strengthen a dilapidated arch, they increase the load on it, for thus the parts are joined more firmly together. Thus, if therapists want to foster the mental health of their patients, they should not be afraid to create a reasonable amount of tension by reorienting them toward the meaning of human life.*”
— Viktor Frankl
I decided to present this concept because there are beliefs that the meaning of life is happiness, which implies a life free of inner conflict and suffering. For most people this is probably so; it is the right goal for them. For other individuals, however, it is exactly the opposite. These are people born with the potential to be innovators and creators in life.
In order to realize this potential, they need the energy produced by the inner tension between what they are and what they are meant to become. And the dead end of their inner conflicts creates the conditions for creativity, because neither side of the conflict is sufficiently satisfying for the solution to be found.
The solution is always something third. Something new. And this applies to meaning as well.
Kameliya
Note: The quotations are translated from Bulgarian and are not presented as verbatim citations.
