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.

He is often associated with other humanistic psychologists such as Abraham Maslow or Carl Rogers, but May relied more on a philosophical model rather than a medical model or a behavioral model. He 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. May is best known for his work on the human struggles of living in the modern world. He believed that to successfully handle the trials of life, we must come face to face with such issues as anxiety, loneliness, choice and responsibility. Like other existential therapists, he argued that it is easier to avoid pain, choice and responsibility in our world than face them. However, when we avoid the painful parts of our life we become alienated from the world, others and ourselves — and as a consequence of our avoidance feel pain, anxiety and depression. He advocated facing life's challenges with purpose and meaning, which he called having true religion, as a path to healing and mental health.

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.

While studying for his doctorate, 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. As a result of this traumatic experience, May developed a new fondness for existential philosophy, which matched his belief that his struggle against death, even more than medical care, determined his fate in suriviving the disease.

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. May did not speak of anxiety as a symptom to be removed, but rather as a gateway for exploration into the meaning of life? Existential 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. In an interview with Dr. Jerry Mishlove, May said of anxiety:

What anxiety means is it's as though the world is knocking at your door, and you need to create, you need to make something, you need to do something. I think anxiety, for people who have found their own heart and their own souls, for them it is a stimulus toward creativity, toward courage. It's what makes us human beings.

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.

Mental health and religion

In his book The Art of Counseling, May explores the relationship between mental health and religion. He agrees with Freud that dogmatic religion appeals to man's neurotic tnedencies but diverges from this viewpoint by explaining that true religion, the fundamental affirmation of the meaning of life, is "something without which no human being can be healthy in personality". He further states that Freud was attacking the abuse of religion as it is used by some to escape from their life challenges. The neurotic cannot believe in himself, others or the universe and the road to mental health is to find meaning and trust in himself, others and the universe. He agrees with Jung that for most people over 35, whose problems would be resolved by finding a religious outlook on life. Jung believed that those patients actually fell ill because they had lost the sense of meaning which living religions of every age have given to their followers, and only those who regained a religious outlook were healed. May believes this is true for people of all ages, not just those over 35; that all people ultimately need to find meaning and purpose, which true religion can provide. He claims that every genuine athesist with whom he had dealt had exhibited unmistakable neurotic tendencies. May describes the transformation, mostly through the grace of God, from neurosis to personality health :

"The person rises on the force of hope out of the depths of his despair. His cowardice is replaced by courage. The rigid bonds of his selfishness are broken down by a taste of the gratification of unselfishness. Joy wells up and streams over his pain. And love comes into the man's life to vanquish the loneliness. He has at last found himself—and found his fellowmen and his place in the universe. Such is the transformation from neurosis to personality health. And such is what it means, likewise, to experience religion.

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.

Legacy

Dr. May was one of the founding sponsors of the Association for Humanistic Psychology, and a genuine pioneer in the field of existential psychology and clinical psychology. He was awarded the Distinguished Career in Psychology Award by the American Psychological Association. He was the author of numerous classic books, including The Courage to Create, Love and Will, The Meaning of Anxiety, Freedom and Destiny, and Psychology and the Human Dilemma.

Notes

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
• The Human Dilemma - Interview with Rollo May Ph.D.
• Rollo May
• Rollo May defines Ecstasy

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