As a. Even though May published The Meaning of Anxiety in 1950, it is safe to say that his concerns are even more relevant today, particularly with the advent of the depersonalization of our world due to the computer age (Reeves, 1977). Psychoanalytic Theory. It was during his time in the sanitarium that May theorized about anxiety and came to one of the most important conclusions in his career. Rollo Reese May was born on April 21, 1909, in Ohio, and grew up in Marine City, Michigan. May compared this concept to Adlers theory that much of what we as individuals, and also society as a whole, are arises from our efforts to compensate for inferiority. The woman and the man find their true selves only when they are fully present to each other. However, when looking at the specific form of anxiety related to taking academic tests, Black Americans and Chilean students demonstrate higher levels of test anxiety than White Americans (Clawson, Firment, & Trower, 1981; Guida & Ludlow, 1989). Thrown-ness. This can be particularly important for those who have little or no advantage in our society. In the world of psychology, Rollo May was a complete innovator. According to May (1967), the human dilemma arises out of our capacity to experience ourselves as both subject and object at the same time. Trained in a fairly traditional format as a psychoanalyst, May considered the detachment with which psychoanalysts approached their patients as a violation of social ethics. However, the recognition that we are not perfect, that each of us has good and evil within, prohibits us from moral arrogance. So anxiety would be a reasonable reaction. Rollo May believed that anxiety underlies nearly every crisis. We need to work toward eliminating the pathway to terrorism, so we will not need to use the military and/or FBI to track down individuals (except, of course, in extreme cases such as terrorism that results from psychological disorder - e.g., consider the case of Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber). Rollo May. True to his training in psychodynamic theory, May believed that the psychological patterns resulting in the inability to cope have their origin in childhood, particularly due to poor early relations between the infant and its parents, since an infants essential values arise from the security patterns established between the infant and its caregivers (as in Eriksons first psychosocial crisis: trust vs. mistrust, see Chapter 7). One of the most important factors seems to be the infants subjective interpretation of rejection by its primary caregiver, and that subjectivity is influenced by expectations that form later in life (e.g., middle- and upper-class children, who expect more support from their parents, are especially prone to react to rejection with neurotic anxiety; May, 1950). May talked about four types of love in Western tradition: sex, eros, philia, and agape (May, 1969). In an insightful and easily readable book entitled Islam versus Terrorism, Firooz Zadeh (2002) discusses how Islam opposes violence and murder, especially of innocent women and children. When an individuals sense of selfhood is challenged by dramatic changes in society, it can be a very painful experience. It also has three modes- umuelt, mitwelt, and eigenwelt. Freedom is the goal of personality development, and although this freedom brings with it anxiety, it is through facing this anxiety that the possibility of freedom arises (May, 1950). The suggestion that we are no longer in charge of our own lives, that we are driven by psychological determinism, seems strange to those who believe that never before have people had such power, both in terms of individual freedom and in the collective conquest of nature. He has the extraordinary, if often taxing, privilege of accompanying persons through their intimate and profound struggles to gain new integration. As a caution to those psychologists who cannot see beyond their theories, May wrote: Now I am certainly aware, if I may say so without sounding patronizing, that the compelling need for honesty is one of the motives which leads psychologists to seek quantitative measuresI am also aware that research in our day has to be carefully set up so that the results are teachable and can be built upon by others. Theory Of Personality By Rollo May Concepts In Psychology Rollo May Rollo May was born April 21, 1909, in Ada, Ohio. The problem reaches its extreme, however, when one powerful group directs its hostility in an organized fashion toward another group. 244; May, 1969). This is a personality theory textbook, with an emphasis on culture. Normal anxiety is often overlooked in adults since it is not particularly intense, especially compared to neurotic anxiety, and it can be managed constructively. Returning to the misconception in the minds of many Americans that terrorism is synonymous with Islam, lets examine where known terrorist organizations are located around the world. The preceding quote is how May began The Cry for Myth, the last book of his career (May, 1991). So I have followed events in the Middle East carefully ever since, and when Al Qaeda attacked us in New York, I saw it as the latest in a continuation of events in my own life since 1979. But for Muslims, the idea of a secular democracy, one that is not guided by Allah, is simply inconceivable. 255-256; Diamond, 1996). 223-224; Carr, 2002). Anxiety gives rise to hostility, and hostility gives rise to increased anxiety. At this point there is little chance that they can leave the terrorist organization alive. Today, we face a similar problem in the war on terrorism. How do they differ? Thus, Blacks in America, even if they have lived here for generations, still experience the effects of their displacement from Africa when the culture they carried with them is at odds with Western cultural expectations (Okeke at al., 1999), and even more so when an individual seems to be at odds with most members of their own cultural group (Copeland, 2006). Politics, a wonderful topic for lively debates, is dependent on opposing viewpoints. Finally, May believed that our sexual freedom was actually a new form of Puritanism. 22 terms. (pg. In America, our constitution provides for separation of church and state, and that separation has become an important tradition. Finally we have agape, a selfless love beyond any hope of gain for oneself. In this sense, May had chosen to allow the daimonic to take over his self in the interest of self preservation. In the pursuit of freedom, May suggested that sometimes individuals might reasonably oppose the standards or morality of their society. Moghaddam (2005, 2006) proposes a metaphor for how one becomes a terrorist, based on climbing a staircase, in which options are perceived to become more and more limited as one climbs the stairs. Art - and creative activities of all kinds - can provide comparatively healthy outlets for the constructive expression of anger and rage. AnnTran101. How have they brought meaning to your life? The threat may be either physical or psychological, such as facing death from tuberculosis or being imprisoned in a concentration camp (which, of course, brought the threat of death in addition to the loss of freedom), or the threat may challenge some other value that the individual identifies with their existence or personal identity (such as the loss of a career, a divorce, a challenge to patriotism in time of war, etc.). Creativity cannot, however, always substitute for psychotherapy. Based on this model, Moghaddam proposes four steps that are necessary to stop terrorism by interrupting the formation of new terrorists. They find they both need each other, not only physically but psychologically and spiritually as well. Finally, can the ultimate answer to terrorism be found in promoting democratic governments in every nation? He collaborated with Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, and Gordon Allport to present a symposium on existential psychology, in conjunction with the 1959 annual convention of American Psychological Association, which led to the publication of a book on the subject (Reeves, 1977). Humanism and Existentialism are similar, but one difference is noted: Humanists see people as basically good; existentialists see human nature as neutral. Any subsequent breakdown of intercultural communication, which is more likely during periods of high anxiety, can either lead to or enhance pre-existing hostility, prejudice, discrimination, and scapegoating (Whitley & Kite, 2006). As of 1999, at least twenty-eight well-organized terrorist groups existed, and when one takes into account factions within those groups and smaller, yet still identifiable, groups, as many as eighty-three terrorists groups have been identified around the world (Henderson, 2001). The second paradox is that the new emphasis on technique in sex and love-making backfires (May, 1969). The compelling drive to get at the truth is what improves us all as psychologists, and is part and parcel of intellectual integrity. Become a Member! Case in point: Americas failure in the war on drugs. Accordingly, he says: We must take precisely the opposite approach to terrorism. In its passion for form, the mind is actively forming and re-forming the world in which we live (May, 1975). As casual sex became common, even expected, individuals had to face expressing their own morality as just that: their own! May believed that creatively taking charge of your life required courage. In the twentieth century, especially in Western culture, we have lost our myths, and with them we have lost our sense of existence and our direction or purpose in life. Terrorism and Islam are not one and the same. For whatever reason, good or bad, these specific events take on mythic proportions and greatly influence the course of our lives. He gave a series of radio talks on existential psychology on a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation show, he served as a visiting professor at Harvard and Princeton, and he continued writing. His doctoral dissertation was published as The Meaning of Anxiety (May, 1950), a book that heavily cites the work of Freud and Kierkegaard on anxiety, as well as Fromm, Horney, and Tillich (May, 1950; Reeves, 1977). Rollo May is a renowned American existential psychologist since he was the first person to introduce the concept of existentialism in the United States of America. He said that some of this anxiety is normal, and only in extreme cases does it become neurotic anxiety. 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. However, when he chose to fight the disease, when he asserted his will to live, he began to make steady progress and, indeed, he recovered. Consider the different loves in your life. Having covered a variety of famous myths in the book, including Dantes Divine Comedy, Marlows Faust, Captain Ahab in Moby Dick, and Poes The Raven, May concludes: In each of these dramas the liberation of both woman and man is possible only when each achieves a new myth of the other sex, leading to a new significant psychological relationship. (pg. This page titled 9.4: Rollo May and Existential Psychology is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Mark D. Kelland (OpenStax CNX) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request. But I do urge that we not let the drive for honesty put blinders on us and cut off our range of vision so that we miss the very thing we set out to understand - namely, the living human being. Culture has significant effects on the nature and amount of anxiety that people are likely to experience in their lives. Ontology (under Heideggar) the study of being. What differentiates anxiety from fear, is that fear is a reaction to a specific event, whereas anxiety is vague and diffuse. Cultural beliefs often help to overcome fears of mortality by convincing individuals that they are of greater value than other, lower animals. According to Dr. C. George Boeree, (1998, 2006) on May's personality Theories, stated that Rollo Reese May, used different terms and invented new words from some of existentialism old ideas, for example the word destiny is the same as thrownness and it is combined with the word fallenness, which mean that part of people's lives that is . He attended the summer school taught by Alfred Adler. To do so would be to take away a part of full humanity. OpenStax CNX; November 4, 2015. 113, May, 1975). Similar to Viktor Frankl, Mays life had taken a dramatic turn during this time, an uncontrollable event that threatened his life: May contracted tuberculosis. If each of us lives within the present moment, working to fulfill our potential, being true to whom we are and the situations within which we live, May proposes that we will experience joy and gratification: Does not the uncertainty of our time teach us the most important lesson of all - that the ultimate criteria are the honesty, integrity, courage and love of a given moment of relatedness? Individuals living in desperate conditions may move to the first floor on the staircase toward terrorism, where they evaluate their perceived options to fight unfair treatment. For example, during a robbery you may fear a man with a gun, but in America today many people are anxious about terrorism. Much of his thinking can be understood by reading about existentialism in general, and the overlap between his ideas and the ideas of Ludwig Binswanger is great. Our message must be this: even if you have legitimate grievances, if you resort to terrorism as a means toward eliminating them we will simply not listen to you, we will not try to understand you, and we will certainly never change any of our policies toward you. Will alone is not the driving force that leads us to responsible and authentic lives. The war on terror has led us to depose both Saddam Hussein in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan, and to replace them with democratically elected governments. Sex and eros are closely related, but they are different. They are not opposed to democracy per se, indeed it has been argued that Islam is likely to eventually lead to pluralist democracies (Aslan, 2005). wtrust. Theories of Personality - Gordon Allport. Some are primarily political, and some are primarily religious. According to Zadeh, the highest cost to society results from state terrorism. So what appears to be essential to promoting stability in the Middle East, and elsewhere, is an effort to support contextual democracy, that is, forms of democracy that fit with the culture of the people who will create and participate in that democracy (Aslan, 2005; Moghaddam, 2005, 2006; Shedinger, 2004; Zadeh, 2002). Those who claim they are absolutely right can be dangerous, since such an attitude can lead to dogmatism, or worse, fanaticism (May, 1975). Many Iraqi and Afghan civilians, as well as additional coalition military personnel, have also died. May felt that we must understand anxiety in relation to freedom, or rather, as the fear that we will lose our freedom. Has this been the case? His childhood was not particularly pleasant: His parents didn't get along and eventually divorced, and his sister had a psychotic breakdown. Fairly notorious organizations have come from Northern Ireland (e.g., the Irish Republican Army and the Ulster Defense Association), throughout mainland Europe (e.g., the Red Army Faction in Germany, the Red Brigades in Italy, and Action Directe in France), throughout the Middle East (e.g., Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Palestinian group Hamas, the Stern Gang that fought for the establishment of Israel, and Al Qaeda), Africa, Asia, Latin America, Canada, and the United States (e.g., the Animal Liberation Front, Aryan Nations, the Black Panthers, and the Ku Klux Klan). Since humans are not simply driven by instinct and fixed action patterns, in contrast to every other creature on earth we must create ourselves. For example, if a psychoanalyst helps a patient to be the best they can be, and the person happens to earn their living in an unseemly or criminal way, it hardly seems proper (Stagner, 1988). May believed that existential psychology occupied a space somewhere between the two extremes that existed, and continue to exist, in psychology: behaviorism vs. humanism. For May, who was . It should not be necessary here to describe the many terrible acts of violence that followed. 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. According to Dr. C. George Boeree, (1998, 2006) on May's personality Theories, stated that Rollo Reese May, used different terms and invented new words from some of existentialism old ideas, for example the word destiny is the same as thrownness and it is combined with the word fallenness, which mean that part of people's lives that is . He believed that psychology had become trapped in a misguided desire to define everything scientifically, and according to rules that then determined each psychologists view of the world and their patients. Accessibility StatementFor more information contact us atinfo@libretexts.org. This is essentially the same idea, though in different form, used by Heidegger and Sartre in describing the unique nature of human beings. It does not matter whether the actions of the United States were right or wrong, whether they really were in our best interests or not. There is a state of alienation from the body, a separation of emotion from reason, and the use of the body as a machine. By Neha Kashyap Neha is a New York-based health journalist who has written for WebMD, ADDitude, HuffPost Life, and dailyRx News. Chapter 9.4: Rollo May and Existential Psychology. Although many people may believe themselves to be acting out of higher ideals, most of us are, in reality, acting according to psychologically determined factors of which we are unaware. Tillich, whose classes May regularly attended, introduced May to the works of Kierkegaard and Heidegger. In therapy, Adler focused on the guiding fiction of a childs life, something May considered to be synonymous with a myth. Since memory is the mother of creativity, and memory depends upon myth, May believed that the myths that form the identity of our culture are essential for the formation of our self. The United States helped to train Osama bin Laden and the Taliban fighters in Afghanistan when we wanted them to fight the Russians. 9; May, 1991). We then retain it as a myth, and rely on that myth for future guidance in similar situations. Agape is exemplified in the bond between a parent and their child. In addition, Moghaddam suggests supporting contextualized democracy, educating against categorical thinking, and promoting interobjectivity and justice. In each instance, how one allows the daimonic to take over is influenced by personal responsibility (Reeves, 1977). He considers todays terrorism to be nothing more than a modern permutation of warfare against civilians in order to break their support for either leaders or policies that the terrorists oppose, the origins of which are as old as human conflict itself. The relationship between anxiety and hostility, according to May, involves a vicious circle. Pursuing this creativity is not easy, however. May rejected Skinners arguments that all human behavior can be understood in terms of stimuli and responses, declaring that there is ample evidence in both clinical practice and everyday life of people being active participants in their view of, actions in, and reactions to their world. Among other things, he allowed people to better understand the adverse experiences of human beings. In other words, through our perceptual processes we influence the world around us; we affect the very things that we perceive. Neurotic anxiety is, simply, the opposite of normal anxiety. Nevertheless, creativity is at the very core of the psychotherapeutic project: The patient is encouraged to become more creative in psychologically restructuring his or her inner world, and then to continue this creative process in the outer world, not only by accepting and adjusting to reality, but, whenever possible, by reshaping it, Creativity can be broadly defined as the constructive utilization of the daimonic. As an Air Force nurse, she was sent to England to help prepare a hospital for wounded military personnel being evacuated from the Middle East (fortunately casualties were minimal). There are two implications: humans have no existence a part from the world; world has no meaning a part from people in it, and that it is a dynamic state focused on fulfilling one's potentials. When May did not know whether he would live or die from tuberculosis, he realized that his feelings of helplessness were turning into passivity, and that this was sure to lead to his death (as he had seen with others). to exist is to change. One of the reasons we need to be courageous is that we must fully commit ourselves to pursuing a responsible creation of the future, but at the same time we must recognize that sometimes we will be wrong. Yes, and in the worst possible way: we switch sides as it serves our political and economic interests. According to May, violence is bred in impotence and apathy (May, 1972). Because this is the best way for us to find an effective means to end terrorismSeeing the world from the terrorists point of view does not mean condoning terrorism; rather, it means better understanding terrorism so as to end it. As Mays career continued, he became a supervisory and training analyst at the William Alanson White Institute, and an adjunct professor of psychology in the graduate school at New York University. That anxiety is considered normal if it is 1) not disproportionate to the objective threat, 2) does not involve mechanisms of intrapsychic conflict, and 3) does not require defense mechanisms for its management (May, 1950). It comes from the contradiction between the two - the result of which is a paralysis of will. No one can tell when or where terrorists may strike, or even whether they will be foreign terrorists (such as in the World Trade Center attacks) or American terrorists (such as the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City or the D.C. sniper killings). It does not show itself in panic or other dramatic symptoms. One thing that will not be addressed in this section, because it does not exist, is an easy answer to these problems. Carr also addresses the other most important implication of treating terrorism as warfare: it must be met with warfare, but that warfare must not be excessive, such that it might also be viewed as terrorism. Two factors in helping to prepare people to kill are the intense indoctrination in the belief that their actions are for a greater good and secrecy. Rollo May introduced European existential thought into American psychology. In The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror, Michael Ignatieff (2004) argues that terrorism must be met with force, and that such force is a lesser evil than the terrorism that necessitated the response. During an interview with Kirk Schneider-one of May's proteges and . Heidegger's existential analysis. May realized that if there is no limit to what we can accomplish, then there really arent any problems any more, we only need to wait until our potentiality catches up with our situation and the problem solves itself. May carefully pointed out that using the terms vague and diffuse to describe anxiety should in no way diminish our understanding of the intensity and painfulness that anxiety can bring. First, we must dispense with misconceptions. In order to remain in Europe, May took a teaching position with the American College at Salonika in Greece. Rollo May - Existentialism QUICK REVIEW: What Is Existentialism? For example, if a culture is relatively stable and unified, there will be less anxiety throughout that culture (May, 1950). Only by remaining open to the influence of others can we likewise influence them, so love must have an honest purpose, and purpose must be taken with care. Personality Theory in a Cultural Context (Kelland) 9: Viktor Frankl, Rollo May, and Existential Psychology . 288; May, 1991). (pg. A clinical psychologist by training, May took the view that modern people frequently run away both from making choices and from assuming responsibility. In HCBT, the addition of Rollo Mays concept of courage (May, The Courage to Create, 1975) (May, Rollo May Papers) has been added, and is represented in figure 1. The most significant factor is the condition in which many people live on the ground floor, before they even consider climbing that staircase. When the Iranian revolution under Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the Shah of Iran, and the revolutionaries captured the American embassy in Tehran and took sixty-six people hostage (fifty-two of those hostages were held for well over a year before being released), I was in the United States Marine Corps Reserve. 276; May, 1953). But to pressure Islamic countries into accepting the secular democracy that we hold so dear is, according to Robert Shedinger (2004), equivalent to declaring war on Islam. . In the foreword to Love and Will (May, 1969) May acknowledged that some of his readers might find it odd that he combined the two topics in one book, but he felt strongly that the topics belong together. He described the world we live in as an age of anxiety. Intentionality is a bridge between subject and object (May, 1969). People assign meaning to life and take responsibility for their actions as they try to live in accordance with their chosen values. May considered anxiety to be the underlying cause of nearly every crisis, whether domestic, professional, economic, or political. Existential . However, Al Qaeda is still committing acts of terrorism, Iraq is descending once again into bitter sectarian violence (rising to the level of civil war), and Americans continue to die fighting in Afghanistan as our intended date for withdrawal slowly draws near (after 13 years!). May suggests that a healthy child of eight, who is fulfilling his capacity of self-conscious choice for a child of eight years old, is more of a person than a neurotic adult who is 30 years old. Thus, it is important to live each moment with freedom, honesty, and responsibility. His later books include works on dreams, symbolism, religion, and love. This is reminiscent of what Karen Horney called the tyranny of the should. According to May, anxiety is the apprehension cued off by a threat to some value which the individual holds essential to his existence as a personality (pg. If we do not have that, we are not building for the future anyway; if we do have it, we can trust the future to itself. 24-25; Dershowitz, 2002). Today, however, many societies are in dramatic flux, due in large part to the powerful trend toward globalization. 5 minutes Thanks to Rollo May, we're all able to see personal challenges and adversity in a different way. The two are very similar in their theories of personality, philosophical viewpoints, and how one should live their life to experience freedom. In addressing the Middle East in particular, Fathali Moghaddam wrote: Islamic communities in many parts of the world are experiencing a profound and historic identity crisis, one tragic manifestation of which is terrorism. At the time, there were no effective treatments for this contagious disease, many people died from it, and like many others May had to spend several years at a sanitarium (Saranac Sanitarium in upstate New York). He eventually settled in California, where he died in 1994. While at the seminary, he became a lifelong friend of Paul Tillich, a well-known existential theologian. May considered Sigmund Freuds greatest discovery to be the uncovering of unconscious desires and motives. When we respond to terrorist acts, we must consider what we want that response to accomplish: Terrorism requires us to think carefully about who we are as free peoples and what we need to do in order to remain so. (pp. He described this experience as the product of his innocence, and that because he was innocent he allowed the bacteria infecting his body to do violence to him. Everyone faces challenges in life, but not everyone sees the same challenges as actual threats. We want to be loved completely. 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