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Rollo May (1909–1994)

Author of Love and Will

28+ Works 3,773 Members 21 Reviews 7 Favorited

About the Author

"The development of an existential psychology in America is in good part the work of Rollo May. He helped bring existentialism to psychology some fifteen years ago, and since then his impact has increased each year. As he says here, he isn't an existentialist in a cultist sense. In American show more psychology, the existential approach is part of a wider trend which includes many views" (Eugene T. Gendlin, Psychology Today). May's psychology is sometimes referred to as humanistic. He is one of the affirmative, "third force" American psychologists who are also critical of the society in which we live. Gendlin writes further: "In. . . Psychology and the Human Dilemma [1966], May offers a wealth of valid and stimulating ideas in a totally engaging and readable fashion. [The human dilemma is that] man is always both an active subject and a passive object ". . . May [says]: "Only in knowing ourselves as the determined ones are we free. This last sentence and his many similar discussions seem to mean that we can't help what happens, but only what attitude we take toward what happens. In fact, he means more than this---in taking an attitude toward what happens we change what happens." In late 1968, May was the subject of an article in the New York Times in which he was said to feel that "one sign that the modern age is dying is that its myths are dying." We are at present in a "limbo" between myths---the situation in which people become disoriented and "alienated." "In the new myths," he said, "I would think that racial variation will be seen as a positive value, that emphasis on one world will replace fragmented nationalism, and that things will be valued more for their intrinsic worth rather than in use---what they can be banked for." As a young man, May taught for a period at the American College in Saloniki, Greece. An ordained Congregational minister, May received his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1949. He worked as supervisory and training analyst at the William Alanson White Institute in New York City and adjunct professor of clinical psychology at the New York University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences for many years. May was instrumental in establishing the Rollo May Center for Humanistic Studies at Saybrook Institute in San Francisco. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Works by Rollo May

Associated Works

The Erotic Impulse: Honoring the Sensual Self (1992) — Contributor — 52 copies
Facing Evil: Light at the Core of Darkness (1988) — Contributor — 47 copies
Philosophy now : an introductory reader (1972) — Contributor — 24 copies

Tagged

(44) anxiety (43) art (32) Counseling (46) courage (10) creativity (80) culture (11) existential psychology (29) existentialism (118) freedom (16) health (11) humanistic psychology (17) love (44) May (19) mental health (17) most-interesting-psychology (12) myth (17) non-fiction (108) philosophy (177) psych (16) psychiatry (26) psycho (14) psychoanalysis (35) psychology (591) psychotherapy (73) read (12) relationships (12) religion (31) Rollo May (43) self (12) self-help (18) sex (16) sexuality (12) sociology (36) spirituality (14) therapy (14) to-read (123) violence (24) will (24) writing (14)

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Reviews

 
Flagged
AnkaraLibrary | 3 other reviews | Feb 23, 2024 |
It was really interesting at first but got bogged down in jargon towards the end.
 
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FourOfFiveWits | 3 other reviews | Sep 19, 2023 |
A pretty good book which analyses the creative process from a psychological point of view. The notion of art as a relation is especially crucial to understand how an enhanced experience of the world is at the core of every artistic practice.
 
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d.v. | 3 other reviews | May 16, 2023 |
I forced myself through this up until this point, because it was a recommendation. The whole thing is shallow and inane, he makes some very silly unfalsifiable claims, but when he does say something falsifiable he doesn't seem to think there's any value in actually finding out whether it's true (so just like Eric Fromm, who he quotes repeatedly). But when he got to the point of saying homosexuality is a "confusion" and gave a case where he said it was caused by bad parenting I just flung it across the room. I wouldn't even curse a second hand book shop with this crap. And don't tell me he's a child of his time, there were plenty of contemporary dissenting voices, including Carl Rogers.

Utter crap that I can't believe people are still falling for in 2019.
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Flagged
RebeccaBooks | 4 other reviews | Sep 16, 2021 |

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Works
28
Also by
4
Members
3,773
Popularity
#6,718
Rating
3.9
Reviews
21
ISBNs
174
Languages
16
Favorited
7

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