Surveys done by Frankl and others have repeatedly shown that the vast majority of people need something to live for and it is very important to them to find a purpose and meaning to their lives.
It’s incredible that we should need a survey to find out what “most people” think in order to believe in our own inner longings. But we’re so out of touch with ourselves. We say one thing and think something else. I remember when growing up we had Mad Magazine in the house, and it had a certain cartoon showing one conversation going on verbally and a very different conversation, depicted in balloons over their heads, showing what they were really thinking.
We are often not even consciously aware of our thoughts and feelings, or we’re aware but unable to admit it to ourselves. Talking about values can be one way of running away from inner conflicts. In such cases it’s useful to find out who the real person is underneath the façade. A friend just unmasked a hidden motive in me a couple of days ago by asking, “Why do you think G-d is expecting you to do what’s impossible for you to do”? Until then I was prepared to do something senseless. As soon as I realized and confronted my wrong perception I stopped.
The trouble is, sometimes psychologists take this digging too far. In their efforts to unmask hidden motives, they fail to recognize when they’ve hit upon something genuine. Frankl adds tongue-in-cheek, that when a therapist insists on hunting for ulterior motives after she has already hit upon something authentic this only “unmasks” her own “hidden motive” to debase and depreciate the client’s finer human qualities.