Lecture ( ). May Flashcards
Rollo May’s approach of lookung at human being
clinical experience
He saw people as living in the world of
present experiences and ultimately being responsible for who they become
May believed that many people
Many people, May believed, lack the courage to face their destiny, and in the process of fleeing from it, they give up much of their freedom
Having negated their freedom, they likewise
Having negated their freedom, they likewise run away from their responsibility.
May birth order
the first son of the six
children
Parent status
neither was very well educated
Relationship to the parents
May was not particularly close
to either of his parents, who frequently argued with each other and eventually
separated.
5 Elements of Existentialism
1) existence takes precedence over essence
2) existentialism opposes the split between subject and object
3) people search for some meaning to 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
Existence suggests? Essence refers to?
Existence suggests process; essence refers to a product.
People are both subjective and objective and must search for truth by
People are both subjective and objective and must search for truth by living active and authentic lives.
A phenomenological approach to understanding humanity
Being-in-the-World
basic unity of person and environment is expressed in the word
Daesin
illness of our time
Alienation
Alienation manifests itself in three areas;
(1) separation from nature, (2) lack of meaningful interpersonal relations,
and (3) alienation from one’s authentic self.
2 Basic Concepts of Existentialism
Being in the World and Nonbeing
Nonbeing
dread of not being:
Nonbeing can also be expressed
can also be expressed as blind conformity to society’s expectations or as generalized hostility that pervades our relations to others
Anxiety defined by May
The subjective state of the individual’s becoming aware that his or her existence can be destroyed, that he can become nothing.
Anxiety exists when
Exists when one confronts the issue of fulfilling one’s potentialities which can lead to stagnation and decay, but can also result in growth and change.
2 Types of Anxiety
Normal and Neurotic Anxiety
Normal Anxiety
Experiences which are proportionate to the threat, does not involve repression, and can be confronted constructively on the conscious level.
Neurotic Anxiety
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.
Guilt
Arises whenever people deny their potentialities, fail to accurately perceive the needs of others, or remain blind to their dependence on the natural world.
Three Forms of Ontological Guilt
Separation Guilt, Inability to perceive accurately the world of others (Mitwelt), Denial of our own
potentials
result of our separation from nature
Separation Guilt
can never perfectly judge the needs of
other people
Inability to perceive accurately the world of others
Denial of our own potentialities or with our failure to fulfill them.
Denial of our own potentials
Intentionality
Gives meaning to experience and allows people to make decisions about the future
source of love and will
Care
Care
to recognize that person as a fellow
human being, to identify with that person’s pain or joy, guilt or pity.
Care is a state in which
something does matter
Love is to recognize
To recognize the essential humanity of the other person, to have an active regard for that person’s development
Love
delight in the
presence of the other person and an affirming of [that person’s] value and development as much as one’s own”
Will
The capacity to organize one’s self so that movement in a certain direction or toward a certain goal may take place
May claimed that modern society is suffering from
an unhealthy division of
love and will
Sex
Biological function that can be satisfied through sexual intercourse or some other release of sexual tension
Eros
psychological desire
that seeks procreation or creation through an enduring union with a loved one
Eros is built
on care and tenderness
Eros can be regarded as
salvation of sex
Philia
an intimate
nonsexual friendship between two people.
4 Forms of Love
Sex, Eros, Philia, Agape
Agape
esteem for the other, the concern for the other’s welfare beyond any gain that
one can get out of it; disinterested love, typically, the love of God for man
Freedom
“freedom is the individual’s capacity to know that he is the determined one
Two Forms of Freedom
Existential and Essential Freedom
Existentential Freedom
freedom of action—the freedom of doing particularly on the choices that one makes
freedom of being
Essential Fredom
Destiny
the design of the universe speaking through the
design of each one of us”
our destination, terminus or goal
Destiny
As we challenge our destiny,
we gain freedom
As we achieve freedom,
we push at the boundaries of destiny.
Myths are not falsehoods;
rather
Myths are not falsehoods;
rather, they are conscious and
unconscious belief systems that provide explanations for personal and
social problems
stories that unify a society
Myths
Myths are essential to
essential
to the process of keeping our souls
alive and bringing us new meaning
in a difficult and often meaningless
world”
two levels in which May believed people communicate with one another
rationalistic language and myths
Rational Language
truth
takes precedence over the people who are communicating.
Myths
total human experience is more important than the
empirical accuracy of the communication
People use myths and symbols to
People use myths and symbols to transcend
the immediate concrete situation, to expand self-awareness, and to search for identity.
May saw psychopathology as
as lack of communication—the inability to know
others and to share oneself with them.
May rejects the idea that psychotherapy should
should reduce anxiety and ease feelings of guilt.
May’s suggestion in psychotherapy
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
Purpose of psychotherapy
set people free
Existential therapists must
must establish a one-to-one relationship (Mitwelt) that enables patients to become
more aware of themselves and to live more fully in their own world (Eigenwelt).
May described therapy as
partly religion, partly science, and
partly friendship
Cultural myth
Belief systems, both conscious and unconscious, that provide explanations for personal and social problems.
