Rollo May
Rollo May (April 21, 1909 – October 22, 1994) was an American existential psychologist. He authored the influential book Love and Will during 1969. Although he is often associated with humanistic psychology, his philosophy was influenced strongly by existentialist philosophy. May was a close friend of the theologian Paul Tillich. His works include Love and Will and The Courage to Create, the latter title honoring Tillich's The Courage to Be. Biography May was born in Ada, Ohio in 1909. He experienced a difficult childhood, with his parents divorcing and his sister becoming schizophrenic. His educational career took him to Michigan State College majoring in English and Oberlin College for a bachelor's degree, teaching for a time in Greece, to Union Theological Seminary for a BD during 1938, and finally to Teachers College, Columbia University for a PhD in clinical psychology during 1949. May was a founder and faculty member of Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center in San Francisco.[1] He spent the final years of his life in Tiburon on San Francisco Bay, where he died in October 1994. Accomplishments May was influenced by American humanism, and interested in reconciling existential psychology with other philosophies, especially Freud's. May considered Otto Rank (1884-1939) to be the most important precursor of existential therapy. Shortly before his death, May wrote the foreword to Robert Kramer's edited collection of Rank’s American lectures. “I have long considered Otto Rank to be the great unacknowledged genius in Freud’s circle,” wrote May (Rank, 1996, p. xi). May used some traditional existential terms in a slightly different fashion than others, and he invented 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 resisting anxiety. He defined certain "stages" of development: Innocence – the pre-egoic, pre-self-conscious stage of the infant. An 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 does not yet have a good understanding of the responsibility that goes with it. Decision – The person is in a transition stage in their life such that they need to be more independent from their parents and settle into the "ordinary stage". In this stage they must decide what to do with their life, and 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, self-actualizing and transcending simple egocentrism. 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 association with certain ages is in terms of importance: rebelliousness is more important for a two year old or a teenager. May perceived the sexual mores of the 1960s and 1970s, as well as commercialization of sex and pornography, as having influenced society such that people believed that love and sex are no longer associated directly. According to May, emotion has become separated from reason, making it acceptable socially to seek sexual relationships and avoid the natural drive to relate to another person and create new life. May believed that sexual freedom can cause modern society to neglect more important psychological developments. May suggests that the only way to remedy the cynical ideas that characterize our times 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 d
28 Books Written
In this revised edition of his classic work―the first modern book on anxiety following Freud and Kierkegaard―psychologist Rollo May brings order and lucidity to the subject of anxiety. Rollo May challenges the idea that "mental health is living without anxiety," believing it is essential to being human. He explores how it can relieve boredom, sharpen sensibilities, and produce the tension necessary to preserve human existence. May sees a link extending from anxiety to intelligence, creativity, and originality, and guides the reader away from destructive ways to positive ways of dealing with anxiety. He convincingly proposes that anxiety can impel personal change, as it is only by confronting and coping with it that self-realization can occur.
"Analyzes life as we are living it, and the analysis is truthful and profound."--New York TimesLoneliness, boredom, These are the complaints that Rollo May encountered over and over from his patients. In response, he probes the hidden layers of personality to reveal the core of man's integration--a basic and inborn sense of value. Man's Search for Himself is an illuminating view of our predicament in an age of overwhelming anxieties and gives guidance on how to choose, judge, and act during such times.
"Extraordinary, wise, and hopeful…nearly poetic meditations." ― Boston Globe What if imagination and art are not, as many of us might think, the frosting on life but the fountainhead of human experience? What if our logic and science derive from art forms, rather than the other way around? In this trenchant volume, Rollo May helps all of us find those creative impulses that, once liberated, offer new possibilities for achievement. A renowned therapist and inspiring guide, Dr. May draws on his experience to show how we can break out of old patterns in our lives. His insightful book offers us a way through our fears into a fully realized self.
The heart of the human dilemma, according to Rollo May, is the failure to understand the real meaning of love and will, their source and interrelation. Bringing fresh insight to these concepts, May shows how we can attain a deeper consciousness.
Rollo May brings together the ideas of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and other great thinkers to offer insight into the ideas and techniques of existential psychotherapy, of which he was a major force. He pays particular attention to the causes of loneliness and isolation and to our search for stability in order to move towards a future where responsibility, creativity, and love can play a role.
Rollo May, respected therapist and bestselling author of Love and Will, discusses the relationships between myths and the subconscious, showing how myths can provide meaning and structure for those who seek direction in a confused world. Here are case studies in which myths have helped Dr. May's patients make sense out of an often senseless world.
This revised edition is designed to be used as a primer by the non-professional as well as any kind of counsellor. Some of the issues covered include personality disorders, practical steps, morals and counselling, and religion and mental health.
"May is an existential analyst who deservedly enjoys a reputation among both general and critical readers as an accessible and insightful social and psychological theorist. . . . Freedom's characteristics, fruits, and problems; destiny's reality; death; and therapy's place in the confrontation between freedom and destiny are examined. . . . Poets, social critics, artists, and other thinkers are invoked appropriately to support May's theory of freedom and destiny's interdependence."—Library Journal "Especially instructive, even stunning, is Dr. May's willingness to respect mystery. . . .There is, too, at work throughout the book a disciplined yet relaxed clinical mind, inclined to celebrate . . . what Flannery O'Connor called 'mystery and manners,' and to do so in a tactful, meditative manner."—Robert Coles, America
Stressing the positive, creative aspects of power and innocence, Rollo May offers a way of thinking about the problems of contemporary society. Rollo May defines power as the ability to cause or prevent change; innocence, on the other hand, is the conscious divesting of one's power to make it seem a virtuea form of powerlessness that Dr. May sees as particularly American in nature. From these basic concepts he suggests a new ethic that sees power as the basis for both human goodness and evil.Dr. May discusses five levels of power's potential in each of us: the infant's power to be; self-affirmation, the ability to survive with self-esteem; self-assertion, which develops when self-affirmation is blocked; aggression, a reaction to thwarted assertion; and, finally, violence, when reason and persuasion are ineffective.
Here Rollo May discusses our loss of our personal identity in the contemporary world, the sources of our anxiety, the scope of psychotherapy, and the ultimate paradox of freedom and responsibility. Whether reflecting on war, psychology, or the ideas of existentialist thinkers such as Sartre and Kierkegaard, Dr. May everywhere enlarges our outlook on how people can develop creatively within the human predicament.
The noted psychotherapist draws upon his long career and upon the world of art to chronicle a search for the wellsprings of human creativity and for the personal and social functions and purposes of art
The author shares his memories and impressions of the influential German theologan and teacher and briefly discusses his teachings
Εκείνο που κάνει το βιβλίο αυτό ιδιαίτερα ελκυστικό και χρήσιμο είναι ότι ο Rollo May γράφει μ' έναν απίστευτα ευανάγνωστο τρόπο, εξηγώντας στον αναγνώστη του θεμελιώδεις-σύνθετες έννοιες με απλό, σαφή και συνοπτικό τρόπο.Προσφέρει μια πολύ καλύτερη δυνατότητα κατανοήσεως- των ψυχολογικών ζητημάτων του υγιούς ανθρώπου,- της ανθρώπινης αγωνίας (το φυσιολογικό άγχος δείχνει έμπρακτα ότι ό άνθρωπος έχει αξίες) και- της ευδαιμονίας - ευτυχίας.Οι αλήθειες που αποκαλύπτονται σ' αυτό το βιβλίο είναι πολύτιμες και με το πέρασμα του χρόνου γίνονται πολυτιμότερες...Ο Rollo May αναζήτησε με πάθος ν' ανακαλύψει το είναι: και στον ίδιο του τον εαυτό, και στους άλλους ανθρώπους.Στην κουλτούρα μας διστάζουμε να μιλήσουμε για το είναι μας, το πιο μύχιο, βαθύ και αποκαλυπτικό....όμως το είναι συνδέεται με τα θεμελιώδη: τον έρωτα, τον θάνατο, το άγχος, την σχέση, την μέριμνα για τον άλλο...Ένα βιβλίο-σταθμός για μια βαθύτερη κατανόηση του εαυτού μας και των άλλων.
Philosophy and religion"People suffer personality breakdowns because they do not have meaning in their lives."ContentsI. The Thirst for MeaningII. But What Kind of Meaning?III. Freedom and DestinyIV. Too Much Freedom Makes Us MadV. Creativity and SinVI. What is Healthy Religion?VII. HappinessVIII. A Theology of LifeIX. Grace and Clarification
The nature of dream life is studied in this account of a young woman's analytic sessions over a period of three years
A lecture by Rollo May ( the spokesman of Existential Psychology in America) about the significance of death and how confronting it forthrightly can deepen our consciousness and sense of being.https://archive.org/details/RolloMayT...
Rollo May Quotes: Top 40+ Notable Quotes By Rollo May, The Father Of American Existential Psychotherapy
by Rollo May
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The legendary American psychologist Rollo May was also known as the Father of American Existential Psychotherapy’. In the early days of his career, he worked as an English teacher in Greece and attended seminars conducted by the famous psychoanalyst Alfred Adler during his holidays. These seminars encouraged him to study theology and he completed his Bachelors in Divinity. On his return to the U.S he was offered the position of a Congregationalist minister. He resigned from his position in a couple of years to study psychology and was the first student to be awarded a Ph.D. in clinical psychology by the University of Columbia. He further went on to teach in various top schools of the country and wrote many books on psychology. He was awarded for some books like ‘Love and Will’ which brought him the ‘Ralph Waldo Emerson Award’ for humane scholarship. His most acclaimed book was ‘Existence’ which introduced the concept of existential psychology. He was awarded the ‘American Psychological Foundation Gold Medal Award’ for ‘Lifetime Contributions to Professional Psychology’.
The Problem of Will and Intentionality in PsychoanalysisPresidential address to the William Alanson White Psychoanalytic Society, May 20, 1966
"We can overcome anxiety to the extend that we have values which are stronger than the threat involved. " Rollo May
Three articles by Rollo May, the prominent existential psychologist, on Religion, Psychotherapy, and the Achievement of Selfhood I) A Perspective on Emotional Illness and HealthII) Emotional Problems and the Loss of SelfhoodIII) Issues in the Achieving of Selfhood
Journal of Religion and Health, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Oct., 1961), pp. 31-40
Book by May, Rollo