Emilio Aguinaldo College

School of Arts and Sciences

PSYCHOLOGY PROGRAM
Congressional East Avenue, Brgy.Burol Main, City of Dasmariñas, Cavite
(+63)046-4164342 loc. 148
www.eac.edu.ph/cavite

THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

ROLLO MAY’S EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY

I. OVERVIEW OF EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Shortly after World War II, a new psychology- existential psychology- began to spread from Europe to the
United States. Existential psychology is rooted in the philosophy of Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzche,
Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, and other European philosophers. The first existential psychologists and
psychiatrists were also Europeans, and these included Ludwig Binswanger, Medard Boss, Victor Frankl, and
others.
For nearly 50 years, the foremost spokesperson for existential psychology in the United States was Rollo
May. During his years as a psychotherapist, May evolved a new way of looking at human beings. His approach
was not based on any controlled scientific research but rather on clinical experience. He saw people as living in
the world of present experiences and ultimately being responsible for who they become.

II. BIOGRAPHY OF ROLLO MAY

Rollo May was born in Ohio in 1909, but grew up in Michigan. After graduating from Oberlin College in
1930, he spent 3 years as an itinerant artist roaming throughout eastern and southern Europe. When he returned
to the United States, he entered the Union Theological Seminary, from which he received a Master of Divinity
degree. He then served for 2 years as a pastor, but quit in order to pursue a career in psychology. He received a
PhD in clinical psychology from Columbia in 1949 at the relatively advanced 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. May died in 1994 at age 85.
Summary
- born in Ohio in 1909, but grew up in Michigan
- he spent 3 years as an itinerant artist roaming throughout eastern and southern Europe.
- he entered the Union Theological Seminary, from which he received a Master of Divinity degree.
- He then served for 2 years as a pastor, but quit in order to pursue a career in psychology.
- He received a PhD in clinical psychology from Columbia in 1949 at the relatively advanced 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.
- May died in 1994 at age 85.

III. BACKGROUND OF EXISTENTIALISM

Modern existential psychology has roots in the writings of SOREN KIERKEGAARD, a Danish
philosopher and theologian. He was concerned with the increasing trend in postindustrial societies toward the
dehumanization of people. He opposed any attempt to see people merely as objects. Kierkegaard regards people
as thinking, active, and willing beings. Like later existentialists, Kierkegaard 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.

What is existentialism?
Although philosophers and psychologists interpret existentialism in a variety of ways, some common
elements are found among most existential thinkers. The following are the tenets of existentialism.

1. Existence takes precedence over essence. Meaning that process and growth are more important than
product and stagnation.
2. Existentialism opposes the split between subject and object.
3. Existentialists stress people's search for meaning in their lives
4. Existentialists hold that ultimately each of us is responsible for who we are and what we become.
5. Existentialists are basically antitheoretical. Believing that theories tend to objectify people.

Basic Concepts of Existentialism

1. Being-in-the-world- the basic unity of person and environment. It is expressed in the German word Dasein,
meaning to exist there. The hypens in this term imply a oneness of subject and object, of person and world.
Many people suffer from anxiety and despair brought on by their alienation from themselves or from their
world.
 a phenomenological approach that intends to understand people from their own perspective
3 Modes of being-in-the-world or Dasein,
a. Umwelt- the environment around us
b. Mitwelt- our relationships with other people
c. Eigenwelt- our relationships with our self

2. Nonbeing- nothingness like death. “Death is the one fact of my life which is not relative but absolute, and
my awareness of this gives my existence and what I do each hour an absolute quality” (May, 1958).
 People are both aware of themselves as living beings and also 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.
 Other forms: addictions, promiscuous sexual activity, other compulsive behaviors, blind conformity to
society’s expectations

May’s Concept of Anxiety

May defined anxiety as the subjective state of the individual’s becoming aware that his or her existence
can be destroyed, that he can become nothing. May called anxiety a threat to some important value. Anxiety
exists when one confronts the issue of fulfilling one’s potentialities. This confrontation can lead to stagnation
and decay, but it can also result in growth and change.
Kierkegaard states that “anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.” Anxiety like dizziness, can be either
pleasurable or painful, constructive or destructive. Moreover, anxiety can be either normal or neurotic.
 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.

Normal Anxiety and Neurotic Anxiety

 May defined normal anxiety as that “which is proportionate to the threat, does not involve repression,
and can be confronted constructively on the conscious level.”
 Neurotic anxiety is a reaction which is disproportionate to the threat, involves repression and other
forms of intrapsychic conflict, and is managed by various kinds of blocking-off of activity and
awareness.
 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.

Guilt
Guilt arises when people deny their potentialities, fail to accurately perceive the needs of fellow humans,
or remain oblivious 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. Forms of guilt correspond to
the 3 modes of being-in-the world which includes umwelt, mitwelt, and eigenwelt.

Intentionality
Intentionality is the structure that gives meaning to experience and allows people to make decisions
about the future. Action implies intentionality, just as intentionality implies action; the two are inseparable.
 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

Care, Love, and Will

 Care is a state which something does matter, or is an active process that suggests that things matter.
 Love is a delight in the presence of the other person and an affirming of value and development as much
as one’s own.
 Will is the capacity to organize one’s self so that movement in a certain direction or toward a certain
goal may take place. Care is also an important ingredient in will, defined as a conscious commitment to
action.

*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.

Forms of Love
1. Sex- a biological function that can be satisfied through sexual intercourse or some other release of
sexual tension.
2. Eros- psychological desire that seeks procreation or creation through an enduring union with a loved
one. It may include sex, but it is built on care and tenderness.
3. Philia- intimate nonsexual friendship between two people, takes time to develop and does not depend
on the actions of the other person. This can also lead to erotic relationships.
4. Agape- esteem for the other, the concern for the other’s welfare beyond any gain that one can get out
of it; disinterested love. It is also is an altruistic or spiritual love that carries with it the risk of playing
God. Agape is

Freedom and Destiny

A blend of the four forms of love requires both self-assertion and an affirmation of the other person. It also
requires an assertion of one’s freedom and a confrontation with one’s destiny. Healthy individuals are able both
to assume their freedom and to face their destiny.
 Psychologically healthy individuals are comfortable with freedom, able to assume responsibility for
their choices, and willing to face their destiny.

Freedom- it refers to the individual’s capacity to know that he is the determined one. It entails being able to
harbor different possibilities in one’s mind even though it is not clear at the moment which may one must act.
 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.

Forms of Freedom
Existential freedom- it is the freedom to act on the choices that one makes. (freedom of doing, or freedom of
action)
Essential freedom- it is the freedom of being. (freedom of being, or an inner freedom)

Destiny- 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.

The Power of Myth

May was concerned with the powerful effects of myths on individuals and cultures. Myths are not falsehoods;
rather, they are conscious and unconscious belief systems that provide explanations for personal and social
problems. May (1991) compared myths to the support beams in a house—not visible from the outside, but they
hold the house together and make it habitable.
May’s Concept of Psychopathology
According to May, apathy and emptiness are the malaise of modern times. When people deny their destiny
or abandon their myths, they lose their purpose for being; they become directionless. Without some goal or
destination, people become sick and engage in a variety of self-defeating and self-destructive behaviors.
 May saw apathy and emptiness—not anxiety or depression—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.

May’s Psychotherapy
According to May, the purpose of psychotherapy is to set people free. He suggested that psychotherapy
should make people more human: that is, help them expand their consciousness so that they will be in a better
position to make choices. These choices, then, lead to the simultaneous growth of freedom and responsibility.
Basic to Rogers and May’s notion is that therapy is a human encounter; that is, an I-thou relationship with
the potential to facilitate growth within both the therapist and the patient.
Another technique May used was the suggestion that the patient must hold a fantasy conversation with his
dead mother. In this conversation, the patient must speak for himself and his mother.
 The goal of May's psychotherapy was not to cure patients of any specific disorder, but rather to make
them more fully human. May said that the purpose of psychotherapy is to set people free, that is to allow
them to make choices and to assume responsibility for those choices.

Criteria for Evaluating a Theory Concept of Humanity

Characteristics Theory Determinism More Freedom
vs. Freedom
Capacity to generate Research Very low Optimism Vs. Optimistic
Pessimism
Falsifiability Very low Causality Vs. More Teleological
Teleology
Ability to Organize Data Average Conscious Vs. Middle
Unconscious
Ability to Guide Action Weak Biological Vs. Middle
Social
Influence
Internal Consistency Poor Uniqueness More on uniqueness
Vs. Similarities
Parsimony Moderate
Prepared by:

BAUTISTA, JUNO C. MP-CP, RPm

Psychology Program Head

References:

Feist, Feist & Roberts (2017). Theories of Personality, 9th Edition. United States of America: McGraw-Hill

Feist, Feist & Roberts (2013). Theories of Personality, eight Edition. United States of America: McGraw-Hill

Bischof, L.J. (1970). Interpreting Personality Theories 2nd Edition. New York: Harper & Rows, Publishers.

Burger, J.M. (1986). Personality Theory and Research. California: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Feist, J & Feist, F. (2008). Theories of Personality, Seventh Edition. United States of America: McGraw-Hill

Teh, L.A. & Macapagal, M.J. (editors) (2008). General Psychology for Filipino Students. Manila, Philippines:
Ateneo De Manila University Press.