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Each person from birth to the grave is faced with the constant necessity for deciding between conflicting events. These decisions will determine his style of life. Examples of important choices are those of occupation, mate, or whether or not to relocate. All of these are subject to the difficulties of the decision crisis. The dilemma of people who see the basic need for meaning in their lives is whether to be free to choose the route of authenticity, or to choose the safe but long and dull life of inauthenticity.
With authentic values a person can become more creative. He can then choose a new course of action. Freedom will replace despair and he will gain greater vitality. Instead of being absurd, life can then become meaningful.
Ability to move toward authenticity, however, presupposes a condition of freedom to choose. When one has become free to choose, he will then be in a painful state of non-choice—painful because it is filled with anxiety. This state of freedom to choose means that the decision rests squarely on the patient's shoulders. He is separated from the authoritative support—society, parents, boss—to whom he previously delegated the responsibility for making his decisions.
When one feels anxious, one tends to take the easy way out. A person may imitate others, enslaving himself to them, distracted by the countless demands of living. The result is an inauthentic choice, and a routine, conformist life without meaning or distinction. The person may then become a bored, apathetic social security number. However, with proper support, either in group therapy or through life's circumstances, he will have the courage to assume the responsibility for authentic, meaningful choices.
The task of all psychotherapy is to help free the patient from the restrictions