Viktor Frankl, an Austrian psychologist who barely survived the Holocaust and Nazi death camps, described existential emptiness as one of the defining experiences of the modern world. If anyone had earned the right to define existential suffering, it was probably him. In April of the current year, from the day Frankl was released from the captivity of A concentration camp, which is a useful reminder that the ideas of the field of existential psychology were not only theoretical or purely theoretical. philosophy.
An existential vacuum is perhaps best described as an all-pervading inner void that results from a lack of meaning.
An image of going through the motions of an active life while just feeling like something important is missing. In career it goes on, relationships remain, routines are maintained, but beneath the surface of consciousness there is a deep void that sees neither further achievement nor mindless distraction. Most people try both, often at the same time, and are surprised that they don’t work.
When the external map no longer matches the new internal territory, the result is true confusion: stressnervousness, emotional turmoil, and often accompanied by restlessness that is difficult to define or explain concretely. For some, it may be similar burnraw frustration or frustration. For others, it is a vague dissatisfaction without any clear reason, which can be its own kind of chaos.
Frankl and other prominent existential psychotherapists are clear on one important point: existential emptiness is not a symptom of psychopathology; this is not a character flaw, a labor productivity problem, or something better morning routine will solve. Rather, the existential vacuum is a signal from the human psyche, and it turns out that the psyche is wildly accurate in detecting and pointing to absences: true direction, true attraction, and a life that feels honestly lived, not just fulfilled.
So how do we actually escape the emptiness of existence and the despair that accompanies it?
Admit what you’re really dealing with
The first step is accurate recognition, which is harder than it sounds. The existential vacuum is a masterful imitator, often mistaken for burnout, relationship dissatisfaction, career ambivalence, or the creeping doubt that everyone has figured out something you haven’t. Many people spend a lot of time and energy rearranging the furniture in their lives (ie new job, new relationship, new city, etc.) without recognizing that the building itself needs attention.
Instead of reflexiveWhat is wrong with me?” try to rely on a more interesting and compassionate question:
“What is this experiment trying to say?”
The difference between these two questions is not small; one is judgment and judgment, the other is open.
Surviving existential pain requires a genuine willingness to stay with the discomfort to hear what it communicates, which is really, really hard, but really worth it. When it comes to existential issues, there are no short-term solutions, and the sooner they are adopted, the less energy will be spent searching for them.
You should also know that the existential vacuum is not indefinite, but it asks us to develop the mental muscles that resist the reflexive reach for immediate relief. Again, it’s very uncomfortable, but leaning into this existential vacuum surprisingly allows momentum to build in the mood. Additionally, having a skilled witness, such as an existentially inclined therapist, who can sit with the uncertainty without rushing to a solution, makes the difference between enduring the vacuum and actually moving through it.
Grieve what is lost
We often suffer at the precise moment in existence when the old structures that once organized our sense of meaning and purpose have quietly and independently disintegrated. Unfortunately, no one sent a note. The scaffolding collapsed overnight, and one morning a man standing in the middle of his life looks around and sees that very little of it makes sense now.
Canadian philosopher Tom Attig writes about it sadnessdescribes what happens when our usual ways of living in the world are disrupted. He called this the need to “relearn the world,” which means actively reorganizing our lives on a deep psychological, philosophical, embodied, and emotional level. In other words, we need to re-examine fundamental assumptions we didn’t even know existed and try to embrace life despite the overwhelming pain. This practically means that this is not just a weekend project, despite your busy schedule and inactivity will not be an effective strategy.
Re-learning the world happens gradually through small, honest and active actions with our experience of loss. It also just requires more understanding. Existential vacuums are usually filled by authentic connection with others, by opening oneself to new experiences or new psychological relationships, by being willing to grieve the past, and by regaining contact with deeper layers of experience that may have been neglected or repressed (often for very understandable reasons and often for a long time).
The grief here is real, and it deserves to be experienced from a place of openness, not optimized or medicated. For many, this connection must take place in a space that can compassionately hold complexity and actively welcome existential uncertainty without assigning homework.
Let the vacuum of existence reshape you
As psychologists and profound therapists have recognized for more than a century, the human psyche has a constant and somewhat incongruous need to live authentically. It tolerates many shows, unconscious childhood adaptations and other unique forms of delay from the ego, but never indefinitely. When the fit between inner and outer life is not good enough, the psyche has a way of making its preferences known. Existential vacuum is one of its direct methods.
If it remains empty, it should be considered that the call is not to return to the life before it, but to reorganize around something more important and sincere. People who embrace this experience emerge with a clearer sense of what is truly important to them, develop a greater tolerance for uncertainty, can access greater mental flexibility, feel more alive, and develop a life that works even if it isn’t easy.
Unfortunately, this process almost always involves loss of some kind: old identities, old certainties, relationships, old ways of being, and/or roles that once fit and no longer work. On the other side of this loss is what Frankl called the will to meaning, not as an abstraction, but as a lived experience of direction, of engaging the chaotic and authentically inhabiting one’s life.
A vacuum is not the end of meaning, but often the beginning of an honest relationship with it. Although we have little choice in what life offers us, such as who lives or dies, what diseases or circumstances befall us, Frankl (who had the most reason to know this) insisted that one existential freedom always remains: the freedom to choose how we react to the situation at hand.
It’s nothing; in fact, there are a lot of….
Movement through a vacuum literally rarely happens in isolation. Finding the right place and the right person through it, being with you is the very expression of will in Frankl’s sense.
