Values as Guideposts: A Review of Nataliia Chabaniuk’s Article “Values as Guideposts in Finding Meaning in Life During Wartime”
Nataliia Chabaniuk
Candidate of Psychological Sciences, Logotherapist, First Deputy Head
Zhytomyr Police Academy
Review prepared by Iryna Chyrva, Logocounsellor
In her article “Values as Guideposts in Finding Meaning in Life During Wartime,” published in the Journal of Social and Practical Psychology in 2023, Nataliia Chabaniuk examines how the structure of a person’s value system—pyramidal or parallel—influences their ability to retain meaning in life during the crises Ukrainians encounter daily in wartime. The article combines theory and practice, showing how the way values are organized can strengthen or weaken psychological resilience. The following is a condensed account, with a link to the full article at the end.
For almost four years, Ukraine has been living through the full-scale war waged by Russia, the aggressor state. During war, people reconsider their lives. The future seems uncertain, and familiar necessities can become unavailable: clean air, warmth at home, water, food, and contact with loved ones. Relentless losses bring pain and raise questions about why this has happened and how to go on living. Persistent anxiety and, at the same time, apathy become constant companions for Ukrainians. People feel that they are losing something important and cannot always recognize new values. Against this background, the author turns to axiology and Logotherapy as a framework for understanding why some people fall into despair while others retain an inner source of support. There is growing interest in which individuals are more susceptible to crises and depression, and how Ukrainians can be helped to remain resilient in difficult times.
Meaning and values are central concepts in Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy. Drawing on the ideas of Max Scheler, Viktor Frankl, Elisabeth Lukas, Heidi Schönfeld, Timo Purjo, and Joseph Fabry, logotheory distinguishes between two types of value systems: pyramidal and parallel.
A pyramidal value system may increase vulnerability to depressive reactions when the pyramid collapses. In such a system, a person has one supreme value; this overvalued focus is revered, while other values are treated as secondary and less worthy. Examples include a man who lives solely for his career or a woman who lives solely for her family. The man is satisfied with his work; the woman, with her family. But what happens when the man’s career ends in retirement, or when the woman’s family changes because her children grow up and leave home, or when a divorce occurs? Each person has lived with one central focus, and each risks losing it.
If the highest value is lost, those below it prove too weak to sustain the person through that loss. The person descends into a sense of hopelessness. As the author emphasizes, this one-dimensional, “pyramidal” organization of life is particularly vulnerable during war, loss, and radical change. Rebalancing values toward a “parallel value system,” in which several areas of life coexist on an equal footing, can gradually help the person move out of this distress.
A person with a “parallel” value orientation has several spheres of value that coexist: career, family, friends, hobbies, creative activity, particular interests, and faith. If one value disappears, others remain. A man whose career ends, or a woman whose family breaks apart, can find meaning in other areas. The article emphasizes the protective function of this multidimensional system for mental health. “Parallel values” provide a kind of safeguard against an empty, meaningless life. Moreover, communication with others is usually easier for someone with a parallel value system, because shared interests and mutual understanding are easier to find. By contrast, a pyramidal value system carries a risk of misunderstanding and judging people who do not place the same value at the top of their own life’s pyramid.
To help someone move toward a parallel value system, it is necessary to understand clearly what that person values.
In Logotherapy, the terms “meaning” and “value” often appear together: everything that potentially holds meaning must be valuable, and when something valuable is realized, meaning is experienced.
Values are universal, whereas meaning is always concrete and depends on the situation and the person. Max Scheler’s philosophy introduced a clear structure of values. He distinguished vital, spiritual, ethical, aesthetic, and the highest, “holy,” values. Universal human values include goodness, beauty, truth, freedom, justice, wisdom, health, and spiritual development. Scheler described love as an absolute value. Higher values help a person recognize the significance of their own existence. Through this lens, the author shows how an orientation toward spiritual, ethical, and “holy” values can sustain a sense of meaning even when basic and vital values are threatened.
Viktor Frankl distinguished three principal paths to meaning: creative activity, or creating something; experiencing something valuable, such as the beauty of nature or art, or a relationship; and attitudinal values, or choosing one’s attitude in circumstances that cannot be changed.
Values provide the foundation on which a person identifies what matters and what is undesirable, evaluates actions, and seeks guidance. Attitudinal values hold a special place. Viktor Frankl regarded them as the highest values because they are the most difficult to realize. They concern pain rather than joy, and a person can choose them when misfortune has occurred, hope has been lost, or insurmountable obstacles have been encountered.
It is precisely in such situations that a person has a choice of attitude toward their circumstances. They may express anger, become immobilized by despair, or achieve a heroic degree of acceptance, showing courage and inner freedom. In the present war, this is especially visible in the actions of people who retain their dignity in the face of mortal danger. Such an attitude testifies to the strength of values and the capacity to choose meaning even in suffering.
One example is the conduct of Hero of Ukraine Oleksandr Matsiievskyi, who, while being executed by Russian fighters, chose an attitudinal value and courageously exclaimed “Glory to Ukraine!”, thereby expressing the strength of the Ukrainian people’s spirit. This example makes the logotherapeutic concept of attitudinal values particularly tangible and concrete for Ukrainian readers as a way of responding to an unavoidable reality.
In conclusion, strengthening and broadening a person’s value system increases psychological resilience. People with a rich system of values find the “meaning of the moment” more readily. Values serve as guideposts that help people maintain direction even as life changes. Regularly reconsidering one’s values and sustaining a parallel value system can help prevent feelings of emptiness and reveal meaning even in difficult times. Nataliia Chabaniuk’s article shows that logotherapeutic work with values can be an important resource for supporting Ukrainians’ mental health during war. Moving from a pyramidal system toward a more flexible, parallel understanding of one’s values offers a concrete direction for psychotherapy and counselling practice.
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