Pleasure, Power, and Purpose

Sigmund Freud and Viktor Frankl went to the same school. Not at the same time. Freud was 49 years older than Frankl. Frankl admired Freud. When Viktor was 15, he began writing Freud letters. Freud replied to each one with a postcard. Frankl sent an article he had written to Freud and Freud published it in his International Journal of Psychanalysis in 1924. Frankl was 19. The two met once, when Frankl was a university student. Frankl introduced himself and Freud responded by reciting Viktor’s address which he knew from addressing those postcards.

In Frankl’s significant book Man’s Search for Meaning, he compares the primary motivational forces that are at the heart of each of the three schools of psychotherapy that emerged from Vienna. He compares his own approach with the approaches of Sigmund Feud and Alfred Adler. He states that according to his approach, “the striving to find meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man. That is why I speak of a will to meaning in contrast to the ‘pleasure principle’ (or, as we could also term it, the will to pleasure) on which Freudian psychoanalysis is centered, as well as in contrast to the will to power on which Adlerian psychology, using the term ‘striving for superiority,’ is focused.”

Pleasure, power, and meaning (or purpose) are all powerful motivational factors for human beings. Freud, Adler, and Frankl were correct about that. Does it matter which we choose as the primary reason for living?

To answer this question, we must look at a little more history. Viktor Frankl spent three years in Nazi concentration camps. His father, mother, brother, and wife did not survive. During his time in the camps, Frankl’s belief that meaning must be the primary motive for living was strengthened. Frankl observed that those who had a firm grip on meaning were more likely to survive the suffering and abuse experienced there. Others gave up more easily, yielding to the pain and power inflicted on them.

Next, we must also look at a little Bible history. You know the story. Adam and Eve are hanging out in the greatest garden ever with the enjoyable and fulfilling tasks of taking care of things and each other. To top it off, they take a nightly walk with God himself in the pleasant evening air. Perfect relationships, perfect work, perfect life. Then, out of nowhere, the serpent shows up. The serpent challenges the goodness of it all by suggesting that Eve and Adam’s life would be better if they went their own way: “Make your own choices. Fulfill your desires. You can do it.” And they did. But it didn’t work out the way that liar said it would. They no longer had perfect relationships, perfect work, perfect life.  

Embedded in this story is a bedrock truth. If your own pleasure or power become the primary goal of your life, your life will be twisted, fragmented, and hollow. Excessive self-focus destroys. But, if your heart is changed so your focus is more on others, then your relationships, work, and life will be complete.

This biblical truth affirms that Frankl was right to put meaning and purpose as the primary directive force in life. When one does so, pleasure and power are made subservient to purpose; personal pleasure and power are used in service to others. Only in this way can we live out the enjoyable and fulfilling tasks of taking care of things and each other.

Is your counseling work with people person-centered or therapist-centered? If the primary focus of your conversations with people is their purpose and meaning, you are person-centered. If the primary focus is your power to make change happen and the satisfaction that you are doing effective work, you are self-centered in your work. Person-centered work will usually lead to growth in the other person. Therapist-centered work might lead to problems solved some of the time.

If you choose to be person-centered, reaffirm that choice every day. There are powerful forces all around us that demand that therapists be people of power. Resist those forces. Instead, love people well. Listen deeply. Hear them. See them. Know them. Help them understand the significance God created into them. Help them exercise their will to meaning.