Chapter 11- May: Existential Psychology

Question 1

Soren Kierkegaard, the ______ philosopher and theologian, is usually considered to be the founder of modern existentialism. He 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 ______ and dread.

Answer 1

Danish, anxiety

Question 2

Five common elements are found among existential thinkers:

Answer 2

1) existence takes precedence over essence, meaning that process and growth are more important than product and stagnation
2) oppose the artificial split between subject and object
3) they stress people’s search for meaning in their lives
4) they insist that each of us is responsible for who we are and what we will become
5) take an anti-theoretical a position, believing that series tend to objectify people

Question 3

According to May, The basic unity of person and environment is expressed in the German word ______ meaning to exist there and is generally written as:

Answer 3

Dasein, being-in-the-world

Question 4

According to Mae, alienation is the illness of our time, and it manifests itself in three areas:

Answer 4

1) separation from nature
2) lack of meaningful interpersonal relations
3) alienation from one’s authentic self

Question 5

According to May, this is the environment around us, the world of objects and things that would exist even if people had no awareness. Includes biological drives, such as hunger and sleep, and such natural phenomena as birth and death

Answer 5

Umwelt

Question 6

According to Mae, this is our relations with other people

Answer 6

Mitwelt

Question 7

According to Mae, this is our relationship with our self. Means to be aware of oneself as a human being and to grasp who we are as we relate to the world of things into the world of people

Answer 7

Eigenwelt

Question 8

According to Mae, people are both aware of themselves as living beings and also aware of the possibility of _______ or ________. Death is the most obvious form, which can also be experienced as retreat from one’s life

Answer 8

Nonbeing, nothingness

Question 9

Describe Rollo May’s case of Philip

Answer 9

Philip was a successful architect who experienced severe anxiety when his relationship with Nicole took a puzzling turn. Uncertain of his future and suffering from low self-esteem, Philip went into therapy and eventually was able to understand that his difficulties with women we’re related to his early experiences with A mother who is unpredictable and an older sister who suffered from severe mental disorders. He began to recover only after he accepted that his need to take care of unpredictable Nicole was merely part of his personal history with unstable women

Question 10

May believed that people experience this when they become aware that their existence or some value identified with it might be destroyed. The subjective state of the individual’s becoming aware that his or her existence can be destroyed, that he can become nothing

Answer 10

Anxiety. The acquisition of freedom inevitably leads to anxiety, which can be either pleasurable and constructive or painful and destructive

Question 11

According to Mae, this is the type of anxiety which is proportionate to the threat, does not involve repression, and can be handled on a conscious level

Answer 11

Normal anxiety

Question 12

According to May, this type of anxiety is 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 and blocks growth and productive action

Answer 12

Neurotic anxiety

Question 13

According to Mae, this arises whenever people deny their potentialities, fail to accurately perceive the needs of others, or remain blind to their dependence on the natural world

Answer 13

Guilt

Question 14

Both anxiety and guilt are _______, that is they refer to the nature of being and not to feelings arising from specific situations

Answer 14

Ontological

Question 15

According to Mae, the structure that gives meaning to experience and allows people to make decisions about the future is called: 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

Answer 15

Intentionality

Question 16

According to Mae, this is to recognize the essential humanity of the other person, to have an active regard for that person’s development. It is an active process that suggests that things matter

Answer 16

Care

Question 17

According to Mae, this is a delight in the presence of the other person and an affirming of that person’s value and development as much as one’s own

Answer 17

Love

Question 18

According to Mae, this is the capacity to organize one selves so that movement in a certain direction or toward a certain goal may take place. A conscious commitment to action

Answer 18

Will

Question 19

Mae believed that modern society is suffering from an unhealthy division of ____ and ___. Love has become associated with sensual love or sex, where as will has come to mean a dogged determination or willpower

Answer 19

Love and will

Question 20

May identified for kinds of love in Western tradition:

Answer 20

Sex, eros , Philia, and agape

Question 21

According to Mae, this is a biological function that can be satisfied through sexual intercourse or some other release of sexual tension. Americans no longer view it as a natural biological function, but have become preoccupied with it to the point of trivialization

Answer 21

Sex

Question 22

According to Mae, this is a psychological desire that seeks an enduring union with a loved one. It may include sex, but it is built on care and tenderness

Answer 22

Eros

Question 23

According to May, this is an intimate nonsexual friendship between two people, takes time to develop and does not depend on the actions of the other person

Answer 23

Philia

Question 24

According to Mae, this is an altruistic or spiritual love that carries with it the risk of playing God. It is undeserved and unconditional. Esteem for the other, the concern from the others welfare beyond any gain that one can get out of it.

Answer 24

Agape

Question 25

According to May, this comes from an understanding of our destiny, 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.

Answer 25

Freedom

Question 26

May recognize two forms of freedom:

Answer 26

Freedom of doing-existential freedom

Freedom of being-essential freedom

Question 27

According to Mae, this is the freedom to act on the choices that one makes

Answer 27

Existential freedom

Question 28

According to May, this is the design of the universe speaking through the design of each of us. It includes the limitations of our environment and our personal qualities, including our mortality, gender, and genetic predispositions

Answer 28

Destiny. Freedom and destiny constitute a paradox because freedom gains vitality from destiny, and destiny gains significance from freedom

Question 29

According to Mae, these are conscious and unconscious beliefs systems that provide explanations for personal and social problems. He contended that the people of Western civilizations have an urgent need for them and lacking them to believe in, they have turned to religious cults, drug addiction, and popular culture in a vain effort to find meaning in their lives

Answer 29

Myths. The Oedipus myth has had a powerful effect on our culture because it deals with such common existential crisis as birth, separation from parents, sexual union with one parent and hostility toward the other, independence in one’s search for identity, and finally death

Question 30

Mae saw ______ and ______, not anxiety or depression, as the chief existential disorders of our time. People have become alienated from the natural world, from other people, and from themselves. Psychopathology is a lack of ______ and an inability to fulfill one’s _______.

Answer 30

Apathy and emptiness. Connectedness, destiny

Question 31

The goal of may’s psychotherapy was not to cure patients of any specific disorder, but rather to make them more fully _______

Answer 31

Human. To set people free and allow them to make choices and to assume responsibility for those choices

Question 32

One existential topic to receive some empirical attention has been existential anxiety and _______ management(May)

Answer 32

Terror.

Question 33

Jamie Goldenberg and colleagues found that cultural worldviews and self-esteem function to defend people against thoughts of _____, so when death becomes salient people respond by cleaning more closely to cultural worldviews and bolstering their self-esteem. They tested whether increasing death awareness increases the disgust reaction and found that disgust reactions were greatest after death had been made salient and even more so when there had been a delay between mortality salience and disgust evaluations

Answer 33

Death. People distance themselves from animals because animals remind them of their own physical bodies and death. Disgust serves the function of defending us against the existential threat posed by our inevitable death

Question 34

Research sparked by may’s care management has found that for people who value health and fitness, thoughts of death are related to ______ interest in health-related behaviours

Answer 34

Greater

Question 35

May’s theory rates low in four areas

Answer 35

It’s ability to generate research, to be falsified, to guide action, and on internal consistency

Question 36

May’s theory rates average on ______, and high on _______

Answer 36

Parsimony, organization

Question 37

When it comes to the concept of humanity, may rates high in five areas

Answer 37

Free choice, teleology, social influences, optimism, and uniqueness

Question 38

When it comes to the concept of humanity, Mae takes a middle position on the issue of

Answer 38

Conscious or unconscious forces

Question 39

This person’s 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. He took the view that modern people frequently run away both from making choices and from assuming responsibility

Answer 39

Rollo May