Meaning of life

To have meaning or to be meaning? As has been argued by Erich Fromm, a functional life isn’t always a meaningful life and a meaningful life isn’t always functional. The demands made on the individual are steadily increasing and so too is the pressure to find meaning in your own life. Pressure to succeed and the restraints imposed by necessary functionality are all too quickly giving rise to an all-pervading culture of consumerism. Is this sustainable? What happens if instead of following guidelines, we find ourselves in a position where rebellion or creative thinking is required? Indeed, if finding meaning depends on combining functionality with enjoying life, then creativity might be the answer.

This conference is not about providing you with the perfect recipe or about recommending “gurus”, but about initiating discussion about creative behaviours and opening the way to a good life.

Language: German

 

– Opening –

10.00 – Wolfgang Schmidbauer

Creativity as the meaning of life

As soon as we are faced with the challenge of survival, the question as to what the meaning of life is seems to fade into insignificance. When we are young and healthy, however, and are looking for a comfortable place in society, this question seems to be of the utmost importance. From a psychological point of view, the sense of having a meaning to one’s life is closely associated with one’s sense of self-worth. It is impossible, however, to find and to fix this sense of meaning as it is constantly re-defined and depends to a great extent, not on external recognition, but on one’s own particular actions and achievements.

Wolfgang Schmidbauer is a pychologist, psychoanalysist and psychotherapist. In his book, Helpless Helpers (Die hilflosen Helfer), published in 1977, he first defined the concept of so-called “Helper syndrome”(Helfersyndrom).

 

11:15  – Ariadne von Schirach

Stop striving for optimisation. For a new way of living.

We all want to be attractive and stay young forever. We strive for happiness, health, success. We desire recognition, security and love. And we believe that if we sufficiently improve ourselves and do everything correctly at all times, then this is exactly what we’ll get. Processes of optimisation are everywhere. We’ve lost touch with nature. But more significant perhaps, is the fact that the demands which we make on ourselves are becoming ever more excessive.

The philosopher Ariadne von Schirach teaches at the Berlin University of the Arts (Universität der Künste in Berlin), she also works for Deutschlandradio Kultur and Philosophie Magazin. Her book, The Dance around desire (Der Tanz um die Lust), published in 2007, has become a bestseller.

 

 

12:30

Lunch break

 

14:00  – Bas Kast

And suddenly, it just CLICKED! Or, how do we come up with good ideas?

How do come up with good ideas? Bas Kast has analysed the current body of scientific research which seeks to provide answers to this question and has put the most promising methods to the test. He has worn data glasses, he has had his brain wired and has buttered his bread on the wrong side. This provided the basis for his book And suddenly, it just CLICKED!”(Und plötzlich macht es KLICK!), in which Kast questions the strategies recommended by gurus and provides us with the tools we need to discover our own creativity. In an interactive lecture the author will challenge his audience to demonstrate their creativity.

Bas Kast is a psychologist, journalist and author who writes bestselling books about neurology, love and gut instinct.

 

 

15:15  – Werner Bartens

Putting a stop to unsuitable guidelines. What’s important is what affects us emotionally.

In his books The Medicine of Happiness – What really works (Glücksmedizin – Was wirklich wirkt) and That’s enough – Putting a stop to unsuitable guidelines (Es reicht – Schluss mit den falschen Vorschriften), Werner Bartens expresses his frustration with the never-ending stream of advice with which we are all now confronted. The majority of these tips, although they are well-meaning, are impossible to follow and often result in only one thing – a guilty conscious. Bartens’ credo? The individual should go back to relying on his instincts and emotions. In his latest book, How Contact Helps (Wie Berührung hilft), Bartens emphasises the healing power of emotional closeness and attention.

Dr. Werner Bartens is a doctor, chief editor of Süddeutsche Zeitung and the author of numerous popular, non-fiction books.

 

 

16:30 – Gregor Eisenhauer

Write your obituary before someone else does it for you. Five steps to living forever.

Write your obituary before someone else does it for you. Five steps to living forever.

As our egos become increasingly reliant on market conditions, more and more books are published which offer advice and give us reason to believe that we’re capable of freeing our thoughts, our behaviours and our emotions from market influences.

The consciousness industry works hand in hand with the consumer industry. Individuality is bought and sold as though it were a consumer good. Our final remaining freedom is the right to give meaning to our own lives. We are still able to give our lives a meaning which is not pre-defined in the catalogues of spiritual department stores. But how do we go about doing this? Don’t wait – write your own obituary while you still can. Eisenhauer describes how this can be done in five simple steps.

The philosopher Gregor Eisenhauer writes obituaries for the newspaper Berliner Tagesspiegel. He is also able to provide succinct answers to The ten most important questions in life (Die zehn wichtigsten Fragen des Lebens).

 

 

Supported by