Besides presenting an incomplete picture of human nature, by their narrow focus on a will to pleasure or will to power, psychoanalysis and individual psychology fail to recognize the genuineness of psychic strivings. The presumption that human endeavors are only a means to an end distorts the image of man.
Being human we strive for morality and we long for something more than earthly honors.
Frankl is not unaware that less than altruistic strivings exist in man, but when we recognize the higher strivings that are buried there then we can coax those strivings out of their potential state when we see them peeking out. Furthermore, if we take a narrow view of man, we will mislabel altruism when it does appear.
It is only when we see the wholeness of a person, when we see a person’s humanity in the higher sense, that this humanity is able to emerge in its fullness. (The Doctor and the Soul, pp. 6-8)