Rollo May

Rollo May (April 21, 1909, Ada, Ohio - October 22, 1994, Tiburon, California) was an American existential psychologist, authoring the influential book Love and Will in 1969.

Although he is often associated with humanistic psychology, he differs from other humanistic psychologists such as Abraham Maslow or Carl Rogers in showing a sharper awareness of the tragic dimensions of human existence. May was a close friend of the U.S. German-born theologian Paul Tillich. His works include Love and Will and The Courage to Create, the latter title honoring Tillich's The Courage to Be.

Life

May experienced a difficult childhood, with his parents divorcing and his sister suffering a psychotic breakdown. His educational odyssey took him to Michigan State College (where he was asked to leave due to his involvement with a radical student magazine) and Oberlin College for a bachelor's degree in 1930. After graduating he took a position at Anatolia College teaching English in Greece. While there he often traveled to Vienna to attend seminars by Alfred Adler. He returned to the United States to Union Theological Seminary for a BD in 1938. There he became friends with one of his teachers, Paul Tillich, the existentialist theologian, who would have a profound effect on his thinking. After graduation he practiced two years as a Congregationalist minister, then resigned from the ministry and attended Columbia University for a PhD in clinical psychology which he completed in 1949.

May experienced a severe illness, tuberculosis, and had to spend three years in a sanatorium. This was a transforming event in his life as he had to face the possibility of death. During this time he spent many hours reading the literature of Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish religious writer who inspired much of the existential movement, and provided inspiration for May’s theory.

He studied psychoanalysis at the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Psychoanalysis where he met people such as Harry Stack Sullivan and Erich Fromm. In 1949 he received the first PhD in clinical psychology that Columbia University in New York ever awarded. He held a position as lecturer at the New School for Social Research, as well as being a visiting professor at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and other universities. In 1958, with Ernest Angel and Henri Ellenberrger, he edited the book Existence, which introduced existential psychology to the U.S.

He spent the closing years of his life in Tiburon on the San Francisco Bay, where he died in October of 1994.

Work

May was influenced by American humanism, and interested in reconciling existential psychology with other approaches, especially Freud’s. Some of the common themes that unite various existential thinkers are anxiety, boredom, freedom, will, subjectivity, awareness of death, risk, responsibility, and consciousness of existing. Perhaps the central issue that draws these thinkers together, however, is their emphasis upon the primacy of existence in philosophical questioning and the importance of responsible human action in the face of uncertainty.

Existentialism in psychotherapy

With complete freedom to decide and be responsible for the outcome of their decisions comes anxiety about the choices humans make. Anxiety's importance in existentialism makes it a popular topic in psychotherapy. Therapists often use existential philosophy to explain the patient's anxiety. Psychotherapists employ an existential approach by encouraging their patients to harness their anxiety and use it constructively. Instead of suppressing anxiety, patients are advised to use it as grounds for change. By embracing anxiety as inevitable, a person can use it to achieve his or her full potential in life.

May was not a mainstream existentalist in that he was more interested in reconciling existential psychology with other approaches, especially Freud’s. May uses some traditional existential terms in a slightly different fashion than others, and he invents new words for traditional existentialist concepts. Destiny, for example, could be "thrownness" combined with "fallenness"— the part of our lives that is determined for us, for the purpose of creating our lives. He also used the word "courage" to signify authenticity in facing one’s anxiety and rising above it.

He described certain "stages" of development:

• Innocence – the pre-egoic, pre-self-conscious stage of the infant. The innocent is only doing what he or she must do. However, an innocent does have a degree of will in the sense of a drive to fulfill needs.

• Rebellion – the rebellious person wants freedom, but has yet no full understanding of the responsibility that goes with it.

• Decision- The person is in a transition stage in their life where they need to break away from their parents and settle into the ordinary stage. In this stage they must decide what path their life will take, along with fulfilling rebellious needs from the rebellious stage.

• Ordinary – the normal adult ego learned responsibility, but finds it too demanding, and so seeks refuge in conformity and traditional values.

• Creative – the authentic adult, the existential stage, beyond ego and self-actualizing. This is the person who, accepting destiny, faces anxiety with courage.

These are not stages in the traditional sense. A child may certainly be innocent, ordinary or creative at times; an adult may be rebellious. The only attachment to certain ages is in terms of salience: rebelliousness stands out in the two year old and the teenager.

May perceived the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, as well as commercialization of sex and pornography, as having influenced society and planted the idea in the minds of adults that love and sex are no longer directly associated. According to May, emotion has become separated from reason, making it socially acceptable to seek sexual relationships and avoid the natural drive to relate to another person and create new life. May believed the awakening of sexual freedoms can lead modern society to dodge awakenings at higher levels. May suggests that the only way to turn around the cynical ideas that characterize our generation is to rediscover the importance of caring for another, which May describes as the opposite of apathy.

His first book, The Meaning of Anxiety, was based on his doctoral dissertation, which in turn was based on his reading of the 19th century philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. His definition of anxiety is "the apprehension cued off by a threat to some value which the individual holds essential to his existence as a self" He also quotes Kierkegaard: "Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom." In 1956, he edited the book Existence with Ernest Angel and Henri Ellenberger. Existence helped introduce existential psychology to the US.

Bibliography

• The Meaning of Anxiety [1950] 1996, W W Norton revised edition: ISBN 0-393-31456-1.
• Man’s Search for Himself [1953] 1973, Delta reprint: ISBN 0-385-28617-1.
• Existence [1956] 1994, Jason Aronson reprint: ISBN 1-56821-271-2.
• The Art of Counseling [1965] 1989, Gardner Press rev. edition: ISBN 0-89876-156-5.
• Psychology and the Human Dilemma [1967] 1996, W W Norton reprint: ISBN 0-393-31455-3.
• Love and Will [1969] 1989, W W Norton ISBN 0-393-01080-5, Delta reprint: ISBN 0-385-28590-6.
• Power and Innocence: A Search for the Sources of Violence [1972] 1998, W W Norton reprint ISBN 0-393-31703-X.
• The Courage to Create [1975] 1994, W W Norton reprint: ISBN 0-393-31106-6.
• Freedom and Destiny [1981] 1999, W W Norton edition: ISBN 0-393-31842-7.
• The Discovery of Being: Writings in Existential Psychology [1983] 1994, W W Norton reprint: ISBN 0-393-31240-2.
• My Quest for Beauty (1985), Saybrook Publishing ISBN 0-933071-01-9.
• The Cry for Myth [1991] 1992, Delta reprint: ISBN 0-385-30685-7.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• May, Rollo. [1950] 1996. The meaning of anxiety. New York: Ronald Press Co. ISBN 0-393-31456-1.
• May, Rollo. [1965] 1989. The Art of Counseling. Gardner Press rev. edition: ISBN 0-89876-156-5.

External links

• Rollo May page at Mythos & Logos
• Thinking Allowed - Interview with Rollo May Ph.D.
• Rollo May
• Rollo May defines Ecstasy

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