>Carl Jung, one of the most prolific psychotherapists of the 20th century, remarked that about a third of his cases were suffering from “no clinically definable neurosis, but from the senselessness and emptiness of their lives. This can be defined as the general neurosis of our times.”
I don't agree with his methods, but the Unabomber was a brilliant mathematician (and, incidentally, a victim of the MK Ultra experiments) and wrote on this subject in his manifesto. He observed that our modern lives are far removed from the hunting/gathering of our ancestors. We evolved to seek frequent small stimuli - hunting for mushrooms, picking fruit, occasionally chasing down an animal - and the rewards tended to be immediate and tangible. Now most humans spend all day working in one specialization with intangible rewards that come in the form of payment every few weeks. It's much harder for most humans to find natural meaning in these tasks, and they don't typically feel critical to survival because, well, we really are quite comfortable most of the time!
I don't agree with his methods, but the Unabomber was a brilliant mathematician (and, incidentally, a victim of the MK Ultra experiments) and wrote on this subject in his manifesto. He observed that our modern lives are far removed from the hunting/gathering of our ancestors. We evolved to seek frequent small stimuli - hunting for mushrooms, picking fruit, occasionally chasing down an animal - and the rewards tended to be immediate and tangible. Now most humans spend all day working in one specialization with intangible rewards that come in the form of payment every few weeks. It's much harder for most humans to find natural meaning in these tasks, and they don't typically feel critical to survival because, well, we really are quite comfortable most of the time!