Chapter 11: Rollo May

Overview of May's Existential Theory

Existential psychology was first popularized in the US by Rollo May, a clinical psychologist by
training. It started in Europe right after WWII and spread to the US. May argued that modern
people often avoid making decisions and taking on responsibilities.

Biography of Rollo May

Born in 1909 in Ohio, Rollo May was educated in Michigan before attending Oberlin College,
where he graduated in 1930. He then spent three years traveling around Eastern and Southern
Europe as a traveling artist. Upon his return to the US, May enrolled at the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign, where he obtained a master of divinity degree. He subsequently served
as a pastor for two years, but eventually gave up his calling to devote himself to the study of
psychology. At the age of forty, May obtained a doctor of philosophy in clinical psychology at
Columbia University. During his career, May lectured or lectured as a professor at various
universities, established a private psychotherapy practice, and published a number of
well-received books on the subject of human condition. He passed away in 1994, aged 85.

Background of Existentialism
The Danish philosopher and theology teacher, Søren Krieger, is widely seen as the originator of
modern existentialism, and like other early existentialists, he stressed the need to find a way to
balance freedom and responsibility. He said that people gain freedom by being more aware of
themselves and taking responsibility for their actions, but that this freedom comes at the cost of
feeling anxious and scared. Existentialism's main tenet is that existence is more important than
essence, and that process and growth should take precedence over product and stagnation. It
also stands against the idea of an artificial separation between subject and object, stresses
people's need to find meaning in their lives, and says that everyone is responsible for who they
are and what they become. Most of them also take a stance against theories that they think
objectify people. Existentialists believe that there is a fundamental connection between humans
and their surroundings, a connection that is expressed through the concept of Dasein, which is
the state of being in the world. We experience our Dasein in three distinct ways: Umwelt (the
environment around us), Mitwelt (our world with other people), and eigenwelt (our relationship
with ourselves). Humans are cognizant of their existence as living beings, yet they are also
cognizant of the possibility of not being or being nothing. The most apparent form of nonbeing is
death, which can be experienced as a retreat from life's events.

The Case of Philip

Rollo May used the case of Philip (a mid-50s architect) to illustrate his concept of existentialism.
Despite his success as an architect, Philip began to experience intense anxiety when the
relationship between him and Nicole (a mid-40s writer) deteriorated into a confusing and
confusing situation. Unsure of his future and with a low level of self-esteem, he sought therapy
from Rollo May. Ultimately, Philip came to terms with the fact that his issues with women were
rooted in his early experiences with an unpredictable mother and an elder sister who suffered
from serious mental health issues. However, it was not until he accepted that his need to care
for unpredictable Nicole was simply a part of his history with unstable women that his mental
health began to improve.

Anxiety
Anxiety is when you feel like your life or something connected to it could be taken away from
you. When you become free, it's inevitable that you'll experience some kind of anxiety, whether
it's something that's good and constructive or something that's painful and destructive. There
are two types of anxiety: normal anxiety and neurotic anxiety. Normal anxiety is something that's
proportional to the threat, doesn't involve repressing yourself, and can be managed on a
subconscious level. Neurotic anxiety, on the other hand, is a reaction that's not proportional to
the threat and causes you to repress and defend yourself. It's felt when your beliefs are turned
into a set of rules. Neurotic anxiety stops you from growing and doing things right.

Guilt
Guilt occurs when an individual disregards their own capabilities, fails to comprehend the needs
of another, or remains unaware of their dependency on nature. Anxiety and guilt are both
ontological; they refer to an individual’s state of being, rather than feelings that result from
specific experiences.

Intentionality
Intentionality is the conceptual framework that provides meaning to experience and enables
individuals to make decisions about their future. May argued that intentionality allows individuals
to transcend the concept of subject and object, as it allows them to recognize that their
intentions are the result of both self and environment.

Care, Love, and Will

Care is an alive process that plans that belongings matter. Love wealth to care, to savor the
closeness of another man, and to ratify that person's advantage nearly as an individual's own.
Care is again an main factor in will, delimited as an alert obligation to operation. (A) Union of
Love and Will - May trusted that our up-to-date organization has missed sight of the valid nature
of love and will, equating love accompanying sexuality and will accompanying decision. He
further grasped that with regard to the welfare of mankind, healthy crowds are smart to integrate
love and will cause two together to indicate care, choice, operation, and blame. (B) Forms of
Love - May identified four types of love in Western ethics: sexuality, eros, philia, and amazed.
May trusted that Americans no longer view sexuality as an instinctive organic function, but have
enhanced busy stylish pithy trivialization. Eros is an intellectual desire that inquires about a
lasting union accompanying a cherished one. It can contain sexuality, but it is erected on care
and affection. Philia, an intimate nonsexual companionship middle from two points between two
nations, delays the evolution and does not believe the conduct of the additional person. Agape
is an unselfish or otherworldly love that wins cognizant of the risk of bringing about death for a
sufferer. Agape is unjustified and absolute.

Freedom and Destiny

Psychologically healthful things are comfortable accompanying privilege, smart to adopt
responsibility for their selections, and not quite face their fate. (A) Freedom Defined - Freedom
emanates an understanding of our destiny. We are free when we identify that oblivion is a likely
unspecified moment and when we are willing to occur changes, even regardless of unaware
what those changes will cause. (B) Forms of Freedom - May recognized two forms of privilege:
(1) privilege of achievement, or immunity of action, that he named experiential immunity, and (2)
freedom of being, or a central privilege, that he named essential freedom. (C) Destiny Defined -
May outline fate as "the design of outer space expressive through the design of each one of us."
In other words, our fate involves the disadvantages of our atmosphere and our personal kinds,
containing our death, grammatical rules applying to nouns that connote sex or animateness,
and genetic predispositions. Freedom and fate establish a puzzle, because freedom gains
energy from fate, and fate gains importance from freedom. (D) Philip's Destiny - After few show
up medicine, Philip was smart to stop blaming welcome mom for not achieving what he thought
she should have accomplished. The objective cues of welcome teens had not changed, but
Philip's emotional ideas had. As he got near conditions with welcome fate, Philip started to be
able to express welcome anger, to feel less captured in welcome connection with Nicole, and to
enhance more knowledge of welcome potential. In other words, he gained the welcome
privilege of being.

The Power of Myth

In the opinion of May, the inhabitants of modern Western society have a pressing need for
mythologies. Having lost a large number of their ancestral myths, they have resorted to religious
sects, psychoactive substances, and pop culture to substitute for the absence of them. In terms
of its impact on our culture, the Oedipal myth addresses a wide range of existential crises, such
as childbirth, separation from one's parentage, sexual intercourse with one's parentage and
hostility towards the other, autonomy in the search for one's identity, and ultimately, death.

Psychopathology
May identified apathy and emptiness (as opposed to anxiety and guilt) as the primary existential
crises of our era. Individuals have become disconnected from the natural world in Umwelt, from
others in Mitwelt, and from themselves in Eigenwelt. Psychopathology is the concept of a lack of
connection and an inability to fulfill one's destiny.

Psychotherapy
May's aim in psychotherapy was to make patients more human, rather than to cure them of any
particular disorder. According to May, the aim of psychotherapy was to liberate individuals,
enabling them to make decisions and take responsibility for those decisions.

Related Research
May's personality theory does not provide a straightforward framework for testing hypotheses,
and thus has not generated a large body of research. Jeff Greenberg and his colleagues,
however, have explored the concept of existential anxiety in the context of terror management.
Generally, Greenberg's findings concur with May's conceptualization of existential anxiety, which
is the fear of a threat to one’s existence. Other psychological theories may also contribute to this
research.

Critique of May
Some critics of May’s psychology have rightly accused it of being anti-theoretic, while others
have accused it of being anti-intellectual. May’s anti-theoretic approach necessitates a new
science-one that views uniqueness and personal liberty as essential concepts. However, by the
standards of contemporary science, May’s theory scores poorly on most metrics. At present, his
theory scores very low on the following metrics: Its ability to generate research, Its ability to be
falsified, Its ability to guide action, Its internal consistency (due to its lack of operationally
defined terms), Its average score on the criterion of parsimony, Its organizational power due to
its broad coverage of the human condition

Concept of Humanity
May saw humans as complicated creatures, capable of great good and great evil. He saw
people who had lost touch with the world, with other people, and most of all, with themselves.
When it comes to the idea of humanity, May puts a lot of emphasis on free will, spirituality, social
relationships, and individuality. But when it comes to conscious or subconscious forces, his
theory falls somewhere in between.