Within the depth-psychology corpus, 'meaning' functions simultaneously as a psychological necessity, a philosophical problem, and a transcendental category resisting complete conceptualization. The literature divides, broadly, along three axes. First, the existential-therapeutic axis — most fully developed by Frankl and Yalom — treats meaning as the primary motivational force in human life, whose absence generates what Frankl names the 'existential vacuum' and Yalom frames as the central fourth existential concern. Here meaning is both empirically measurable (via instruments such as the Purpose in Life test) and clinically urgent: meaninglessness breeds depression, aggression, and addiction. Second, the Jungian-archetypal axis, articulated most finely by von Franz and Edinger, distinguishes meaning from mere causal order: meaning is not abstract logical arrangement but a living, felt event — a 'quantum leap in the psyche' that touches feeling as much as cognition, always irreducibly personal and never simply identical with discursive thought. Jung himself insists it is a transcendental notion, participating in the 'absolute knowledge' of the unconscious. Third, the mythological-symbolic axis, represented by Campbell and Noel, locates meaning in ritual, symbol, and the hero's willingness to disengage from collective identity toward deep psychic structure. Across all three axes, a persistent tension runs between meaning as something discovered or received and meaning as something self-constituted — a tension Yalom crystallises in the paradox of the meaning-seeking being adrift in a universe offering no pre-given design.
The realization of 'meaning' is therefore not a simple acquisition of information or of knowledge, but rather a living experience that touches the heart just as much as the mind… a 'quantum leap' in the psyche.
Von Franz, following Jung, argues that meaning is a transcendental, ineffable illumination that bypasses discursive logic and constitutes a qualitative transformation of consciousness rather than an informational gain.
, Psyche and Matter, 2014thesis
Meaning, on the contrary, implies feeling reactions and ethical decisions; it contains a personal nuance.
Von Franz distinguishes meaning from mere order by insisting that meaning demands personal, affective engagement and ethical response, making it inherently subjective and relational rather than abstract.
, Psyche and Matter, 2014thesis
How does a being who needs meaning find meaning in a universe that has no meaning?
Yalom formulates the central existential paradox: human beings are constitutively meaning-seeking yet inhabit a contingent universe that provides no pre-ordained design or cosmic blueprint.
, Existential Psychotherapy, 1980thesis
The question, 'What is the meaning of my life?' is almost the same as the question, 'Who am I?' … Thus we can say: Meaning is found in subjectivity.
Edinger identifies the quest for personal meaning with the question of identity itself, arguing that authentic meaning can only be discovered through inward, subjective experience rather than external collective sanction.
, Ego and Archetype: Individuation and the Religious Function of the Psyche, 1972thesis
The feeling of meaninglessness… is not a matter of pathology; rather than being the sign and symptom of a neurosis, it is, I would say, the proof of one's humanness. But… it is potentially pathogenic.
Frankl distinguishes meaninglessness as a fundamentally human existential condition from its pathological consequences, arguing it generates depression, aggression, and addiction when the existential vacuum goes unaddressed.
, Man's Search for Meaning, 1946thesis
Modern secular humans face the task of finding some direction to life without an external beacon. How does one proceed to construct one's own meaning — a meaning sturdy enough to support one's life?
Yalom traces the modern crisis of meaning to the collapse of cosmic and religious guarantors, leaving individuals with the existential task of self-constructing a durable value system.
, Existential Psychotherapy, 1980thesis
There is no pre-existing design, no purpose 'out there.' How could there be one when each of us constitutes our own 'out there'?
Yalom challenges the naive assumption embedded in clinical complaints about meaninglessness, insisting that existential ontology requires meaning to be constituted by the subject rather than discovered as an external given.
, Existential Psychotherapy, 1980supporting
Once a sense of meaning is developed, it gives birth to values — which, in turn, act synergistically to augment one's sense of meaning.
Yalom describes the generative relationship between meaning and values, arguing that a coherent meaning schema is prerequisite to any stable ethical orientation and system of purposive action.
, Existential Psychotherapy, 1980supporting
The concept of 'order' is not identical with the concept of 'meaning.' Even an organic being is, in spite of the meaningful design implicit within…
Von Franz cites Jung to establish a crucial conceptual distinction between acausal order — the structural regularity of nature — and meaning, which requires a conscious or feeling subject to be realized.
, Psyche and Matter, 2014supporting
Finding meaning is critical for successful adjustment… meaning is not clearly defined and consistently defined. Different writers…
Neimeyer surveys the bereavement literature to show that while the necessity of finding meaning after loss is broadly asserted, the term itself remains conceptually underdetermined across the field.
, Meaning Reconstruction and the Experience of Losssupporting
Frankl has made a significant contribution in placing the issue of meaning before the therapist and in his many penetrating insights into the clinical implications of the search for meaning.
Yalom credits Frankl with decisively introducing meaning as a central therapeutic concern, even while critiquing the theoretical scaffolding of logotherapy.
, Existential Psychotherapy, 1980supporting
The universe makes 'meaning' manifest by its very existence, form and life.
Von Franz, drawing on Ruyer's speculative cosmology, suggests that meaning is not merely a human projection but an ontological feature disclosed by the universe's participable structure.
, Psyche and Matter, 2014supporting
The meanings they attach can be defined as their cognitive representations of reality… meanings are critical in understanding family grieving.
Neimeyer operationalizes meaning as cognitive construal of reality, demonstrating through grief narratives that the meanings attached to loss fundamentally shape the course and form of mourning.
, Meaning Reconstruction and the Experience of Losssupporting
In appreciating a story through mythical intentionality one must look beyond the literal (visible) meaning of the story to its deeper (invisible) existential meaning.
Campbell argues that mythological meaning operates on a non-literal, existential register, requiring a shift in consciousness from pragmatic to mythical intentionality for the story's deeper significance to emerge.
, The Power of Myth, 1988supporting
Meaning is in dis-engaging from the collective unit… a common theme is 'death and personal rebirth' or 'a passing back and forth of an immortal through a veil.'
Campbell, via Noel, locates religious meaning in the individual's symbolic separation from collective identity and initiation into deeper psychic and cosmic structure.
, Paths to the Power of Myth: Joseph Campbell and the Study of Religion, 1990supporting
Both a framework and a belief that one is fulfilling that framework is necessary to a sense of life meaning.
The Life Regard Index distinguishes two necessary components of life meaning — possessing an orienting framework and experiencing oneself as fulfilling it — offering an empirically grounded structural model.
, Existential Psychotherapy, 1980aside