CHAPTER 18
MAY: EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY
I. Overview of May’s Existential Theory
Existential psychology began
in Europe shortly after World War II and spread to the United States, where
Rollo May played a large part in popularizing it. A clinical psychologist by training,
May saw people as living in the world of present experiences and ultimately
being responsible for who they become. However, most people surrender their
freedom and run away from assuming responsibility. On the other hand, some
people are able to challenge their destiny, cherish their freedom, and live
authentically with other people and with themselves.
II. Biography of Rollo May
Rollo
May was born in 1909, in Ada, Ohio, the oldest son and second born of six
children. May, who was not close to either parent, spent his childhood in
Michigan, where he claimed to have learned more from the St. Clair River than
from school. After graduating from Oberlin College in 1930, he spent three
years roaming throughout eastern and southern Europe as an itinerant artist.
When he returned to the United States, he entered the Union Theological
Seminary, where he met and became friends with Paul Tillich. After receiving a
Master of Divinity degree, he served for two years as a pastor, but quit in
order to pursue a career in psychology. He received a Ph.D. in 1949 at the age
of 40. During his professional career, he served as lecturer or visiting
professor at a number of universities, conducted a private practice as a
psychotherapist, and wrote a number of popular books on the human condition. He
died in 1994 at
age 85.
III. Background of Existentialism
Søren
Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher and theologian, is usually considered to be
the founder of modern existentialism. Like later existentialists, he emphasized
a balance between freedom and responsibility. People acquire freedom of action
by expanding their self-awareness and by assuming responsibility for their
actions. However, this acquisition of freedom and responsibility is achieved at
the expense of anxiety and dread. Since Kierkegaard, existentialists have
applied their ideas to art, literature,
and psychology.
A. What Is
Existentialism?
Existentialist
have a wide variety of beliefs, but the first tenet of existentialism is that existence
takes precedence over essence, meaning that process and growth are more
important than product and stagnation. Second, existentialists oppose the
artificial split between subject and object. Third, they stress people’s search
for meaning in their lives. Fourth, they insist that each of us is responsible
for who we are and what we will become. Fifth, most existentialists take an
anti-theoretical position, believing that theories tend to objectify people.
B. Basic Concepts
Existentialism
rests on two basic concepts: being-in-the-world and nonbeing.
1. Being-in-the-World
People
live in a world that can best be understood from their own perspective. Thus, a
basic unity exists between them and their environment, a unity expressed by the
term Dasein,
or being-in-the-world. Three
simultaneous modes of the world characterize people in their Dasein: Umwelt,
or the environment around them; Mitwelt, or their world with other
people; and Eigenwelt, or people’s relationship with themselves.
2. Nonbeing
If
people can be aware of themselves as living beings, then they can also be aware
of the possibility of nonbeing or nothingness.
Death is the most obvious form of nonbeing, which can also be experienced as
retreat from life’s experiences. People attempt to escape the dread of nonbeing
by constricting their existence, compulsively using alcohol and other drugs, or
engaging in promiscuous sexual behaviors.
IV. The Case of Philip
Rollo May helped illustrate his notion of
existentialism with the case of Philip, a successful architect in his mid-50s.
Despite his apparent success, Philip experienced severe anxiety when his
relationship with Nicole (a writer in her mid-40s) took a puzzling turn.
Uncertain of his future and suffering from low self-esteem, Philip went into
therapy with Rollo May. Eventually, Philip was able to understand that his
difficulties with women were related to his early experiences with a mother who
was unpredictable and an older sister who suffered from severe mental
disorders. However, he began to recover only after he accepted that his “need”
to take care of unpredictable Nicole was merely part of his personal history
with unstable women.
V. Anxiety
People experience anxiety
when they become aware that their existence or something identified with it
might be destroyed. The acquisition of freedom inevitably leads to anxiety,
which can be either pleasurable and constructive or painful and destructive.
A. Normal Anxiety
Growth
produces normal anxiety, defined as that which is proportionate to the threat,
does not involve repression, and can be handled on a conscious level.
B. Neurotic Anxiety
Neurotic
anxiety is a reaction that is disproportionate to the threat and that leads to
repression and defensive behaviors. It is felt whenever one’s values are
transformed into dogma. Neurotic anxiety blocks growth and productive action.
VI. Guilt
Guilt
arises whenever people deny their potentialities, fail to accurately perceive the
needs of others, or remain blind to their dependence on the natural world. Both
anxiety and guilt are ontological;
that is, they refer to the nature of being and not to feelings arising from
specific situations. Ontological guilt can stem from (1) Umwelt, when people become separated from nature; (2) Mitwelt, when people fail to anticipate
the needs of others; and (3) Eigenwelt, when
people deny their own potentialities or fail to fulfill them.
VII. Intentionality
The
structure that gives meaning to experience and allows people to make decisions
about the future is called intentionality. May believed that intentionality
permits people to overcome the dichotomy between subject and object, because it
enables them to see that their intentions are a function of both themselves and
their environment.
VIII. Care, Love, and Will
Care is an active process that suggests that things matter. Love means
to care, to delight in the presence of another person, and to affirm that
person’s value as much as one’s own. Care is also an important ingredient in
will, defined as a conscious commitment
to action.
A. Union of Love and
Will
May believed that our modern society has lost sight of the true nature of love and will, equating love with sex and will with will power. He further held that psychologically healthy people are able to combine love and will because both imply care, choice, action, and responsibility.
B. Forms of Love
May
identified four kinds of love in Western tradition: sex, eros, philia, and
agape.
1. Sex
May
believed that Americans no longer view sex as a natural biological function,
but have become preoccupied with it to the point of trivialization. During the
past century or so, we have gone from an overly repressive attitude toward sex
to an over-concern with having as many sexual escapades as possible.
2. Eros
Eros is a psychological desire that seeks an enduring union with a
loved one. It may include sex, but it is built on care and tenderness. Eros can
lead to the psychological growth of both partners.
3. Philia
Philia
is an intimate nonsexual friendship between two people. It takes time to
develop and is not contingent on the actions of the other person.
4. Agape
Agape is an altruistic or spiritual love that carries with it the risk
of playing God. Agape is both undeserved and unconditional.
IX. Freedom and Destiny
Psychologically
healthy individuals are comfortable with freedom, able to assume responsibility
for their choices, and willing to face their destiny.
A. Freedom Defined
Freedom
comes from an understanding of our destiny. We are free when we recognize that
death is a possibility at any moment and when we are willing to experience
changes, even in the face of not knowing what those changes will bring.
B. Forms of Freedom
May
recognized two forms of freedom: freedom of doing, which he called existential
freedom, and freedom of being, or essential freedom.
1. Existential
Freedom
Existential
freedom is the freedom of action, as exemplified by the ability to move from
place to place, to voice one’s opinions, to change jobs, and so forth.
2. Essential Freedom
Essential
freedom is the freedom of being, an inner freedom, a type of liberty that is
only achieved if we face our destiny and recognize our mortality.
C. Destiny Defined
May
defined destiny as “the design of the universe speaking through the design of
each one of us.” In other words, our destiny includes the limitations of our
environment and our personal qualities, including our mortality, gender, and
genetic predispositions. Freedom and destiny constitute a paradox, because
freedom gains vitality from destiny, and destiny gains significance from
freedom.
D. Philip’s Destiny
After some time in therapy, Philip was
able to stop blaming his mother for not doing what he thought she should have
done. The objective facts of his childhood had not changed, but Philip’s
subjective perceptions had. As he came to terms with his destiny, Philip began
to be able to express his anger, to feel less trapped in his relationship with
Nicole, and to become more aware of his possibilities. In other words, he
gained his freedom of being.
X. The Power of Myth
May
believed that the people of Western civilization have an urgent need for myths and, because they have lost many
of their traditional myths, they turn to religious cults, drugs, and popular
culture to fill the vacuum. May compared myths to the structural beams of a
house—not easily visible but the strength that holds the house together. The
Oedipus myth, for example, has had a powerful effect on our culture because it
deals with such common existential crises as birth, separation from parents,
sexual union with one parent and hostility toward the other, independence in
one’s search for identity, and finally death.
XI. Psychopathology
May saw
apathy and emptiness—not anxiety and guilt—as the chief existential disorders
of our time. People have become alienated from the natural world (Umwelt), from other people (Mitwelt), and from themselves (Eigenwelt). Psychopathology is a lack of
connectedness and an inability to fulfill one’s destiny.
XII. Psychotherapy
The goal
of May’s psychotherapy was not to cure patients of any specific disorder, but
to make them more fully human. May said that the purpose of psychotherapy is to
set people free, to allow them to make choices and to assume responsibility for
those choices. Existential psychotherapy de-emphasizes techniques while
stressing the personal qualities of the therapist, who is both a friend and an
interpreter of the client’s private meanings.
XIII. Related Research
May’s
theory of personality does not lend itself to easily testable hypotheses and,
therefore, it has not generated much research. Nevertheless, Jeff Greenberg and
colleagues (Goldenberg et al., 2000; Greenberg et al., 1994; Greenberg et al.,
1992; McGregor et al., 1998; Pyszczynski, Greenberg, & Solomon, 2000;
Schimel et al., 1999) have investigated the concept of terror management, which
is based on the notion of existential anxiety. In general, the findings of
Greenberg and his colleagues are consistent with May’s definition of
existential anxiety, but they can also be explained by other psychological
theories.
XIV. Critique of May
May’s
psychology has been legitimately criticized as being anti-theoretical and
unjustly criticized as being anti-intellectual. May’s anti-theoretical approach
calls for a new kind of science—one that considers uniqueness and personal
freedom. However, according to the criteria of present science, May’s theory
rates low on most standards. Currently, his theory is very low on its ability
to generate research and to guide action; low on internal consistency (because
it lacks operationally defined terms), average on parsimony, and high on its
organizational powers due to its consideration of a broad scope of the
human condition.
XV. Concept of Humanity
May
viewed people as complex beings, capable of both tremendous good and immense
evil. People have become alienated from the world, from other people, and, most
of all, from themselves. On the dimensions of a concept of humanity, May rates
high on free choice, teleology, social influences, and uniqueness. On the issue
of conscious or unconscious forces, his theory takes a middle position.