The search for meaning

Viktor Frankl was a famed psychologist and neuroscientist who survived the holocaust and counselling suicidal inmates at the concentration camp in which he was held. 

He developed 'logotherapy', a distinct field within psychology that explores the belief that human nature is motivated by the search for a life purpose. Frankl's position is that the contemporary, popular search for individual happiness is flawed, and even ill judged. Happiness does not come from satiating each desire, and ensure private pleasures, but rather from purposeful work and giving to others. Meaning can be in three forms - a craft/labour one is compelled to bring to the work, relationships strong and meaningful enough to give the individual purpose, or the choice to determine one's own response to inescapable suffering, witnessed by Frankl during the holocaust. These three categories all serve to give us the requisite purpose that inevitably leads to joy and contentment, when we carry these responsibilities out.

Interesting article here: http://www.businessinsider.com/a-lesson-about-happiness-from-a-holocaust-survivor-2014-10