Even More About Rollo May

In a day when travel was uncommon and communication less than instantaneous, a few people became the translator of ideas from one area of the world to another. Wundt may have founded psychology but it was Titchener who brought Wundt’s approach to America. In this translation process, some things get lost. Wundt conceptualized psychology as two prongs: (a) a reductionist experimental psychology, and (b) a cultural anthropology approach to human behavior. Titchener apparently didn’t like the latter because it never made it across the ocean with him.

Similarly, most of America’s initial understanding of existentialism is from Rollo May (1909-1994). Although May seems to have been a more faithful reporter than Titchener, there are some differences. May is an American to traveled to Europe, studied with Tillich (an existential theologian), and read widely while recovering from tuberculosis (including a three year stint in a sanatorium). He combines Kierkegaard, Binswanger and Heidegger’s existentialism but flavors it with a bit of American humanism. If you’ve read a lot of existentialist thinking, you might see some differences emerge. If you find these diversions troubling, blame it on ocean travel. Apparently some things get lost at sea.

He emphasized the need for love and man’s capacity to “will.” Combining the two, May sees love as an act of will. It is not the fluffy emotional experience of infatuation. It is the choice, over and over again, to act in the best interest of another. To love is to actively care. It is more than emotion; it comes from the core of our being.

May identifies three types of love: eros, phila and agape. Using these three Greek words for love, you can see the importance of love in our lives. Eros is root of erotic or romantic love. It is also the need to unite with others. Phila (as in Philadelphia) is brotherly love. And agape is the overrides all other loves. It is the unconditional positive regard of Rogers, or the divine love God has for humanity, or self-sacrificing love you have for your family. In any case, it is thoughtful love.

Love is tremendously important because it fills the loneliness and emptiness of life. At some point, we realize that we are going to die. And that realization produces anxiety; an existential angst. May suggests that anxiety can be normal (when it helps you grow) or neurotic (when it traps you in indecision or ineffective coping).

So counter our existential angst, we must choose to love. We must use our will to actively choose the best of the possibilities before us. By our active choice, we can emerge from the background. We can stand out as beings that not only have life but have good life.

Existentialism isn’t about existence. It is more than physical life. An existential life is about essence or being. Existence kicks things off but it is your responsibility to turn it into more than just getting by.

Emerging does not come without effort. We must actively participate in the game of life. Life is not a spectator sport; we must be active players. Participation includes being genuine and authentic; no imitation essence allowed. Existentialism is not about looking honest; you must also be honest.

The honest, authentic pursuit of being is a result of our internal emptiness. This emptiness causes stress and anxiety. Although anxiety is an inevitable human condition, it is cued by a threat to some value you hold dear. If it’s not important to you, you wouldn’t be anxious about it. So anxiety shows us what we value and are afraid to lose.

What we must lose is our reliance on traditional values. We can’t lean on or reaffirm traditional values, we must affirm a new set of values: our values. We must create the values that shape our lives, not borrow them from others.

Discovering self is actually more a re-discovery process. May would not want to say that you don’t currently have a self. But re-discovery emphasizes that the process in not automatic. Discovery comes at the risk of more anxiety and the threat of an internal crisis. After all, we are born into a social context and highly impacted by our interpersonal relationships. But we must more beyond those influences to discover who we are.

Rollo May makes several ontological assumptions. As you know, ontology is the philosophical study of existence and reality. Your ontological assumptions define what you mean by being. For May, one assumption is that living organisms seek to preserve themselves. We are centered on our lives, our fears and our success. Yet May also proposes that we have a need to extend beyond ourselves. We are social creatures and need other people. These two assumptions form the basis of May’s approach.

We begin in innocence. As infants we are wholly integrated organisms. There is nothing false about an infant. We are complete authentic at this stage. But we learn to rebel. As toddlers and later as adolescents, we unthoughtfully reject input. Fortunately, we emerge into a stage of conscious self, where we are aware of who we are and what we do. But May says there is a fourth stage: creative consciousness of self. This is the ability to see outside of our limited viewpoint and to develop-rediscover-our true, integrated, authentic self.

For Rollo May, psychology must be encapsulated in an ontological framework. We must see ourselves in the light of our ontological assumptions are reality, integrity, and what it means to be human. We must center ourselves, use our power of will to choose what we shall be, and to rediscover ourselves and our feelings. When we know our intentions, we can live to our highest values, care for others, and actively love. The process begins with self-awareness and the active deployment of will.

There are some things about ourselves and our lives that we cannot change. May calls this our destiny. We must accept our limitations. But we are more than limitations. We also have possibilities. We can show courage by facing our anxiety head on.

We are motivated by our individual wishes, our daimons. Daimons are specific motives that can be either good or bad. Like Hippocrates, May believes that balance is important. We might be motivated by the need to become one with another (eros). This daimon is good, unless it takes over our lives and blocks out everything else. When we are overcome by our motives (daimons), we suffer from daimonic possession, and need existential exorcism.

We have to balance love and will. All will and no love makes us empty perfectionists. All love and no will results in infantile inactivity, and the believe everything should come to you. True creativity is the combination of love and will. Existentialism emphasizes the possibilities of life: what we can become, what we wish we were. Will is the ability to make our wishes come true.