What the heck is the "existential vacuum"?

Question

Joy Behar has a book entitled with that, and she's mentioned it as a joke in her HBO special. I found it funny, but want to know EXACTLY what she means?

Answer 1

It is a lack of meaning and purpose. People experience it as 'something missing' in their lives; a hole which seems to need filling. It can also manifest as a kind of directionless boredom: not having anything to do and feeling uninclined to do anything. Like any vacuum, it tend to suck surrounding things into it - creating a kind of artificial meaning where none was before (links below).

It is named after the existentialists, who often suggested that there is no intrinsic meaning of life. If you wanted to be more accurate in reference, what is missing is what they would call 'essence', so it is really an 'essential vacuum'.

But then many words tend to refer only obliquely to what they're really referring to. So it goes.

For a good demonstration of the pervasiveness of this phenomenon, type 'what is the meaning of life' into the serch bar in Yahoo Answers. If you get less than thousands of hits I would be greatly surprised.

Answer 2

I'm not exactly sure what Joy Behar means by it, since I am not familiar with her HBO special, but I have provided a link below that describes the phenomenon in elegant detail from the viewpoint of an existentialist-psychologist.

The website provides information about Viktor Frankl, a Nazi Holocaust survivor who was one of the 20th century's greatest psychologists. He is often credited with coining the "existential vacuum" metaphor. The essay at the website is a worthwhile read.

Answer 3

It is a ‘blind spot’ within every human being where all thought, felling and awareness can’t see past that point. It is a condition of consciousness void, nothing is received and nothing is transmitted, no motion, everything seems suspended out of time and place, colors have no tone and music has no rhythm.
It’s like hell experienced within however with a sense of detachment.
It’s a black hole that requires tremendous energy to commit suicide.