"Being Needed" as Meaning: The Problem of "Existential Vacuum" Among Higher Vocational College Students Based on Logotherapy and Its Educational Response
Lin Dan¹, Wang Xiaoning¹,²
(1. Faculty of Education, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, Jilin 130000, China;
2. College Students’ Mental Health Education Center, Jilin Institute of Chemical Technology, Jilin, Jilin 132000, China)
[Abstract] Frankl refers to the spiritual distress caused by the lack of sense of meaning as "existentialvacuum", His logotherapy theory holds that the fundamental driving force of human beings is the pursuit of themeaning of life. The "existential vacuum" of higher vocational college students presents psychological symptomssuch as loss of sense of meaning, pervasive negative emotions and alienation from real relationships at thespiritual, emotional and behavioral levels, Its root causes lie in the concealment of free will, the atrophy of willto meaning, and the blockage of three sources of meaning. In response to this problem, logotherapy advocatesenhancing free will, stimulating will to meaning, and realizing the meaning of life. This paper introduces theconcept of "needed-value education", puts forward the core proposition that "heing needed is meaning", andconstnucts three practical paths: existence confirmation, value identification and meaning realization. These threepaths support each other under the framework of group education: existence confirmation serves as the logicalstarting point, value identification acts as the intermediary link, and meaning realization fiunctions as theintegration and sublimation. Together, they construct the operational paradigm of "being needed is meaning" toaddress the "existential vacuum" problem of higher vocational college students.
[Keywords]Logotherapy; Higher vocational college students; Existential vacuum; Needed-value education
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