The Existential Vacuum Part II: Why Location Matters

June 25th, 2009

by John R. Sedivy

iStock_000000496347XSmall Yesterday in my article “The Existential Vacuum Part I: Is Something Missing?” I had provided an overview of the concept of the existential vacuum as represented by Viktor Frankl, the author of “Man’s Search For Meaning”. I had also discussed how with the existential vacuum – location matters. Nearly double the amount of American college students felt void of meaning when compared to their European counterparts. Today I will speculate why this is.

Where Does The Existential Vacuum Come From?
Extreme hardship? Not so much, the culprit appears to be boredom. Viktor Frankl explains:

“The existential vacuum manifests itself mainly in a state of boredom. Now we can understand Schopenhauer when he said that mankind was apparently doomed to vacillate eternally between the two extremes of distress and boredom. In actual fact, boredom is now causing, and certainly bringing to psychiatrists, more problems to solve than distress. And these problems are growing increasingly crucial, for progressive automation will probably lead to an enormous increase in the leisure hours available to the average worker. The pity of it is that many of these will not know what to do with all their newly acquired free time.”

So it appears that the more bored we become, the less meaning we perceive in our lives. Makes sense to me. So it appears that one may solve this problem by staying busy – busy in a purposeful way that is of our own doing. As automation progresses and we have more time on our hands, it appears that we have less of an idea of what to do with it. I believe this problem manifests itself when individuals place too much value in their work. Check out this other passage from “Man’s Search For Meaning:”

“Let us consider, for instance, “Sunday neurosis,” that kind of depression which afflicts people who become aware of the lack of content in their lives when the rush of the busy week is over and the void within themselves becomes manifest. Not a few cases of suicide can be traced back to this existential vacuum. Such widespread phenomenon as depression, aggression, and addiction are not understandable unless we recognize the existential vacuum underlying them. This is also true of the crises of pensioners and aging people.”

To me this explains a great deal behind the lack of meaning that some may feel in their lives – especially Americans when compared to Europeans. As Americans, much of our lives revolve around work. In addition, we have achieved much progress in this country – as automation increases, our lives have become easier. As our lives become easier at home and at work with each passing day, what do we do? We work more. When our sole source of meaning vanishes – either through retirement or unemployment, our sole source of meaning also disappears.

Contrast this with the European lifestyle which in general, is more relaxed. It is not uncommon for a European to take a month of vacation, at one time (I had recently spoke with a shopkeeper in Rhodes who just returned from a one and a half month vacation) – this is unheard of in America. This could be the reason behind the difference in the survey referenced in the first part of this article. Americans live to work, Europeans work to live. There are exceptions to every rule, however this seems to be a rational generalization.

One may argue that the survey respondents were college students and therefore not entrenched in a career. This is true, however I believe this strengthens the correlation between career and life meaning. Because the college students did not have a career at that point, they therefore had not established meaning yet. This again explains why the incidence of existential vacuum was double in Americans when compared to Europeans.

To Be Continued…
Tomorrow I will conclude this series by identifying how the existential vacuum manifests itself in human behavior.

The lack of life meaning could stem from placing too much emphasis on work!

-John R. Sedivy of Cape Cod Branding