I remember reading an autobiographical account of a Jewish psychiartists' years spent in a concentration camp during WWII. His professional experience gave him the perspective and opportunity to observe humanity in an almost primal state where unendurable suffering penetrated every aspect of their lives. He wrote in retrospect that men who lost the will to live, that is- who forsook a core or central Life Purpose- were apparently more vulnerable to disease and perished in sorrow and despair. Those who survived all retained their life's Purpose. It afforded them with the strength and virtue needed to emerge from such an atrocity This author (sorry i forget his name) after his liberation, spent the remaining years of his life in the counseling field and emphasised the necessity for every person to take hold of an inspirational LIFE PURPOSE. It appears to me that a defined Purpose is synonymous with survival....
-Insight received from reading; "Man's Search for Meaning"