Rollo May's Contributions to Existential Psychology - Essay Example

Rollo May Personal Background Rollo may was born in 1909 in Ada, Idaho. He briefly attended Michigan s before being asked to leave because of his involvement with radical student politics (Reeves 1977). He then attended Oberlin College where he ultimately received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1930. After his graduation, he left for Greece where for a brief period he taught English to foreign speakers. It was during this period that May began traveling to Vienna to attend lectures by then seminal psychologist Alfred Adler, who would have a profound impact on May’s intellectual development (Reeves 1977). During this period May decided that he wanted to study theology and moved back to the United States to attend school at the Union Theological Seminary; in 1938 he received his bachelor of divinity degree and went on to work as a minister for two years (Reeves 1977). One of the turning points in May’s life was when he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and spent three years living in a sanatorium. During this period he faced death and spent long hours alone, in contemplation; he became particularly interested in existentialist philosophy, reading such seminal writers as Soren Kierkegaard, who had a profound influence on his personal philosophy and intellectual development (Reeves 1977). It wasn’t long before May became wary of his career as a Congregationalist minister, and as a result he quit his job and began to study psychoanalysis at the White institute (Reeves 1977). It was here that he met such seminal thinkers as Harry Stack Sullivan and Erich Fromm. Later May would enroll at Teacher’s College, Columbia University to pursue his doctorate in psychology (Reeves 1977). His time spent as a minister greatly influenced his intellectual pursuits at Columbia, as his friendship with existentialist theologian Paul Tillich soon led to his further pursuit of humanist philosophies, and ultimately existential psychology. In 1949 May received his PhD in clinical psychology from Columbia. May later went on to become a teacher at the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Psychoanalysis (Reeves 1977). May also worked as a lecturer at the New School for Social Research and was an itinerant professor at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton (Reeves 1977). May also wrote an extensive amount of books on psychology and the human experience, perhaps the most famous of which are Love and Will and the Meaning of Anxiety. May died in October 1994 at Tiburon in San Fransisco. Major Contributions to Psychology May’s major contributions to the field of psychology were from his involvement and development of what has been termed existential psychology. In 1958 Mays was one of the editors of the first book of existential psychology ever published. Along with Ernest Angel and Henri F. Ellenberger, the book Existence was published in 1958 (Hergenhahn 1998). The book included translations of a number of seminal European existential and phenomenological thinkers, including Eugene Minkowski, Ludwig Binswanger, and Erwin Straus. The text also included some of May’s early writings on the subject, including his essays "The Origins and Significance of the Existential Movement in Psychology" and "Contributions of Existential Psychotherapy." While these essays still demonstrated the existential psychology movement at its nascent, their insights and intellectual rigor would lay the foundation for the movement to come, acting as important texts for future thinkers in the field of humanistic psychology (Hergenhahn 1998). In the essay "The Origins and Significance of the Existential Movement in Psychology", May (1994) argues that the psychologist must take a more active and participatory role in the client’s life for the therapy to have its full functional value. This theory would be on to greatly influence other humanist psychologists, such as Carl Rogers (Hergenhahn 1998). For May, the specific framework of existential psychology is important as it goes beyond simple surface formulations and examines the true essence of human nature. As the name attests, May’s theoretical approach is advances from historical existential thought – namely Soren Kierkgaard, Fredrick Nietzsche, and even novelists Franz Kafka and Albert Camus. It also is greatly influenced from Martin Heidegger’s phenomenological philosophy (Abrams 2008). Perhaps the core of existential psychology can be identified in these existential beliefs. Existential philosophy emphasizes the importance of individual human agency in determining thoughts and actions. This is differentiated from the psychoanalytic school of thought that emphasizes the importance of childhood development and unconscious repression in determining human behavior and psychic dysfunctions, or the behaviorist approach that emphasizes repetition and conditioned human impulse in determining human behavior (Abrams 2008). Following this core understanding of human behavior, Rollo May’s existential psychological approach works towards helping the individual come to terms with their own personal agency and responsibility in a world where they are ultimately free (Reeves 1977). Even as May emphasizes individual freedom, his psychology understands that society plays a significant role in affecting the individual’s life, motivation, and ability to function; as a result, much of the existentialist therapeutic process functions through aiding the individual in determining their place in an oftentimes conflicting and challenging social structure (Reeves 1977). While May disagrees with Freudian psychoanalysis on these core issues, his psychology also shares a few notable characteristics. May recognizes the existence of an unconscious that is subject to the individual’s repressed desires; however, May doesn’t believe that resolving unconscious repression should be made the core approach of the therapeutic process. May’s existential psychology also shares with Freud the identification of a developmental process; however May’s understanding of the development process differs greatly from Freud’s stages of psychosexual development (Abrams 2008). May’s developmental process consists of an innocence, rebellion, decision, ordinary, and creative. It’s notable that May’s stages are less structurally rigorous than Freud’s stages of psychosexual development that consists of six regimented stages, and, indeed, May’s phases function more as general guideposts of self-actualization (Abrams 2008). The final stage of self-actualization – the creative stage – is also akin to a sort of Buddhist understanding of transcendence wherein the individual’s egocentrism is transcended for ultimate self-actualization. While May’s work as an editor and essayist for a number of seminal texts helped originate and set the groundwork for the existential psychological approach, it’s perhaps the number books on human nature that have made the greatest and most lasting contribution to psychology. May was a prolific writer and produced over fourteen books that expounded on his existential psychology and also explored the nature of the human experience. In one of May’s early works – the Meaning of Anxiety (1996) – May explores the nature of anxiety. While the overriding view of psychological practice was, and continues to be, that anxiety constitutes a psychic abnormality, in this work May argued that one of the primary consequences of living in a conflicted and challenging world is the existence of anxiety; as such, if the individual weren’t to have anxiety it would then be considered a psychic malaise. In another work – Man’s Search for Himself (2009) – May further expands on his existential psychological approach, addressing the means by which individuals can explore their deeper biological functions and accept the challenges of freedom and responsibility in creating a well-lived life. May’s influence remains today, with many psychologists continuing to practice existential humanist methods. While existential humanism has gained significant acceptance among a minority of psychologists, it continues to face opposition from a number of theorists. The main objection is similar to the same elements that separated the existentialist approach from the psychoanalytic approach in the 1950s – namely that May’s psychology lacks the scientific compartmentalization that is necessary for a ‘true’ therapeutic psychology (Hergenhahn 2008). Ultimately, May’s response is that such systematized psychotherapies (one might consider the cognitive-behavioral approach) that offer regimented patterns and further structural emphasis fail to address the underlining elements of human nature that give rise to the psychic dysfunctions; instead May claims this is the goal of existential therapy. Intellectual Milieu As May emerged out of a psychoanalytic movement that for a number of years had dominated the intellectual landscape, many of his existential humanist theories can be read as a direct reaction to this milieu (Hergenhahn 2008). One such notable example concerns the role of the patient-client relationship. Psychoanalytic thought had promoted an intimate patient-client relationship, the analysis was always to be filtered through a clinical lens, with the psychoanalysis being responsible for in-depth analysis through a specific interpretive method; indeed, the emphasis Freud gives to transference in much of his theoretical writings demonstrates the caution given to patient-therapist interaction (Hergenhahn 2008). Conversely, May’s and subsequent humanist psychology, particularly the Carl Roger’s client-centered therapy, are a direct refutation of these psychoanalytic principles in that they emphasize a more organic and participatory interaction between the client and the therapist. Indeed, this eventually will come to be a highly important element in humanist psychology. Conclusion While May’s contributions to existential psychology and subsequently the larger humanist psychology movement are perhaps the most important contributions he made to the field of psychology, his insights to the basic structure of human existence are perhaps his most contributions. In this regards, May was more than a psychologist in the traditional sense, but in keeping with the philosophy inspired nature of his psychological approach, he attempted to understand human kind through all its complexities and challenges. Indeed, while his texts are undeniably intellectually rigorous, they also have the sense of artistry of novelists who possess substantial insight into the human condition. Ultimately then, it’s May’s skill in dealing and responding to life’s existential abyss and sburdity that makes him one of the 20th century’s seminal thinkers. References Abrams, M. (2008) Personality theories: critical perspectives. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications. Hergenhahn, B. R. (2008) An Introduction to the history of psychology. New York, NY: Wadsworth Publishing. May, R. (2009) Man’s search for himself. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company. May, R. (1996) The meaning of anxiety. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company. May, R. (1994). The discovery of being: writings in existential psychology. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company. Reeves, C. (1977) The psychology of Rollo May. Princeton, NJ: Proquest Info & Learning. Read More