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Cover of Guideposts to Meaning

Guideposts to Meaning

Discovering What Really Matters

Joseph Fabry

A handbook for finding meaning in your life, regardless of the situation.

  • Edited by Charles McLafferty, Jr.
  • Second edition
PaperbackAmazonBarnes & Noble

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Published2021
First published1988
Pages206
ISBN9781948523059

About this book

Human beings not only have a will to pleasure (Sigmund Freud) and a will to power (Alfred Adler), but also a will to meaning (Viktor Frankl). The person therefore is not merely a collection of drives, but also has a uniquely human component—a human spirit. This noëtic dimension gives each individual the ability to face the inevitable blows of fate that life gives us with courage, creativity, and insight. It is not us who question Life, Frankl noted, it is Life that questions us, and to which we must answer.

But how do we do that?

Guideposts to Meaning offers step-by-step processes for discovering what really matters in your life—the personal meanings, beliefs, and values that can truly make your life worth living.

“In the psyche you are driven by emotions, instinct, needs. In the spirit you are the driver.”p. 6

From the book

Frankl sees life as a puzzle with a hidden picture—like a line drawing of trees, clouds, flowers, and houses, with a caption that says: “Find the bicycle in this picture.” You have to turn the drawing this way and that until you discover the bicycle hidden in the confusion of lines. You have to turn life this way and that until you discover meaning.p. 4

Meaning cannot be given to you by society or your parents. Nor can psychiatrists prescribe it like a pill; they may describe meaningful responses to your situation, but it is up to you to discover what is meaningful for you.p. 4

Alcoholics Anonymous long ago found that the best person to help an alcoholic is a recovered alcoholic. Logotherapists have found that the best person to help someone in crisis is another person who is struggling with the same crisis and has discovered meaning in spite of it. Widows can help other widows, people in wheelchairs can help others with similar disabilities, the incurably sick can help others who are terminally ill. In helping another, the helping person achieves self-transcendence that leads to meaning.p. 7

On Joseph Fabry

Dr. Fabry assists his readers to overcome frustration, find direction in situations of emptiness, doubt, and despair, and presents them with comprehensive exposition of my thoughts in popular language.

Viktor FranklAuthor of Man’s Search for Meaning

Contents

  1. Publisher’s Note
  2. Acknowledgments
  1. 1Rx: Search for Meaning1
  2. 2Socratic Dialogue11
  3. 3Dereflection37
  4. 4Modulation of Attitudes47
  5. 5Guideposts to Self-Discovery55
  6. 6Guideposts to Choices65
  7. 7Guideposts to Uniqueness79
  8. 8Guideposts to Responsibility93
  9. 9Guideposts to Self-Transcendence103
  10. 10Values111
  11. 11Meaning in Marriage and Family Life123
  12. 12Sharing Groups135

Appendices

  1. A-HExercises in the discovery of meaning151–191
  1. References and Reading List

About Joseph Fabry

Draft, for review

Joseph Fabry was born in Vienna in 1909 and took a Doctor of Law degree at the university there. As a Jew he had to flee in 1938, first to Belgium, where he was held in a detention camp, then to England, and eventually to the United States. He had not studied English until 1938; by 1942 he was writing radio scripts for the Voice of America, and later became an editor at the University of California at Berkeley.

Fabry reached logotherapy’s central insight on his own, before he had read Frankl. He later read Man’s Search for Meaning, which verified insights he had already found. For example: the question “why did it happen to me” had no answer; instead, we should ask what is still possible in our most difficult situations. On meeting Frankl in San Francisco he found, in his own words, “my personal gropings justified by a professional.”

He founded the Institute of Logotherapy, directed its publication program, edited the International Forum for Logotherapy, and taught at John F. Kennedy University in Orinda, California.

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