On the Boundaries Between Classical Demarcations and Transdiagnostic Approaches to Psychopathology: The Case of Meaning in Life and the Lack Thereof

This chapter has two aims: (1) to analyze the position of meaning in life and the lack thereof as a contemporarily refined construct in the classical demarcations between mental disorder and non-disorder and in transdiagnostic psychopathology, and (2) to assess the advantages and disadvantages of each system for this construct in particular. As the chapter shows, meaning in life is a case of a construct that conceptually fits the underlying philosophical assumptions of both systems and therefore there is some leeway to choose. I argue that, on pragmatic grounds, the transdiagnostic approach to psychopathology has a few advantages over the classical approach in the case of meaning in life and the lack thereof. The chapter concludes with some remarks on aspects of meaning in life that neither system addresses and points to future directions.