Will To Live Information

The will to live is a psychological force to fight for survival, particularly when one's life is threatened by an injury or disease such as cancer. Some physicians believe that it plays an important role in one's chances of survival. There are significant correlations between the will to live and existential, psychological, social, and, to a lesser degree, physical sources of distress.^[1] The difference between the wish to die versus the wish to live is a unique risk factor for suicide.^[2]

Background

The will to live is considered to be a very basic drive in man; however, it is not necessarily thought to be the main driving force. Out of Vienna come three schools of psychotherapy: Sigmund Freud's first school involves what has been termed the pleasure principle, or the will to pleasure; Alfred Adler broke away from Freud to create his second school of individual psychology, or the will to power, which has also been more broadly termed the will to superiority and is based in Nietzche's work; Victor Frankl, after spending time in a German concentration camp, developed his third school of Viennese psychotherapy called logotherapy, or the will to meaning. Before all this, as can be seen by studies in fields like zoology and ethology, and also in Schopenhauer's work, there is the very basic and powerful will to live.

Psychologists have established that human beings are social creatures who possess a need to engage in interpersonal relationships. In assessing the will to live it should be borne in mind that it could be augmented or diminished by the relative strength of other simultaneously existent drives. Therefore, one may consider what are the ends that each member of humanity inherently seeks a means to? From this perspective psychologists generally agree that there is the will to live, the will to pleasure, the will to superiority and the will to connection. There is also usually varying degrees of curiosity with regard to what may be termed the will to identity or establishing meaningful personal responses to the questions: "Who am I?" and "Why am I here?" The will to live is a platform without which it would not be possible to satisfy the other drives.

See also

• Schopenhauer's concept of will to live
• Nietzsche
• The philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche
• Each of the following Viennese schools of psychotherapy advocates a very different main driving force in man:
  • Sigmund Freud's will to pleasure – pleasure principle
  • Alfred Adler's will to power – individual psychology
  • Viktor Frankl's will to meaning – logotherapy
• Heinz Ansbacher
• Death drive

References

1. ^ "Understanding the Will to Live in Patients Nearing Death". The Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine (2005)
2. ^ Brown, Gregory K.; Steer, RA; Henriques, GR; Beck, AT (1977-1979), "The Internal Struggle Between the Wish to Die and the Wish to Live: A Risk Factor for Suicide", American Journal of Psychiatry (Am J Psychiatry) 162 (10): 1977–1979, doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.162.10.1977, PMID 16199851

External links

• Attitude - The Will to Live, Ernest H. Rosenbaum, MD, and Isadora R. Rosenbaum, MA.

Categories: Ego psychology | Motivation | Metaphysics |

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