Rollo Reese May Flashcards
Rollo Reese May’ Theory
Existential Psychology
People are living in the world of present experiences and ultimately being responsible for who they become.
Existential Psychology
What is existentialism?
First, existence takes precedence over essence.
Second, existentialism opposed the split between subject and object.
Third, people search for some meaning to their lives.
Fourth, hold that ultimately each of us is responsible for who we are and what we become
Fifth, existentialists are basically antitheoretical
Basic concepts of existentialism
Being-in-the-world
Nonbeing
Basic unity of person and environment is expressed in German word meaning to exist there or exist in the world.
Dasein
To exist in the world
Being-in-the-world
Alienation is the illness of our time, and it manifests itself in 3 areas
- Separation from nature
- Lack of meaningful interpersonal relations
- Alienation from one’s authentic self
3 simultaneous modes in their being-in-the-world
Umwelt
Mitwelt
Eigenwelt
Umwelt
The environment around us
Mitwelt
Our relations with other people
Eigenwelt
Relationship with our self
Being-in-the-world necessitates an awareness of self as a living, emerging being. This awareness in turn, leads to the dread of not being
Nonbeing or nothingness
Subjective state of the individual’s becoming aware that their existence can be destroyed, that he can become ‘nothing’
Anxiety
Proportionate to the threat, does not involve repression, and can be confronted constructively on the conscious level
Normal anxiety
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
Neurotic anxiety
Arises when people deny their potentialities, fail to accurately perceived the needs of fellow humans or remain oblivious to their dependence on the natural world
Guilt
Structure that gives meaning to experience and allows people to make decisions about the future
Intentionality
Opposite of apathy
State in which which something does matter
Care
Delight in the presence of the other person and an affirming of that person’s value and development as much as one’s own.
Love
Capacity to organize one’s self so that movement in certain direction or toward a certain goal may take place
Will
Forms of love
Sex
Eros
Philia
Agape
Biological function that can be satisfied through sexual intercourse or some other release of sexual tension.
Sex
Psychological desire that seeks procreation or creation through an enduring union with a love one.
Built in care and tenderness
Eros
Platonic relationship
Intimate nonsexual friendship between two people.
Philia
Esteem for the other, the concern for the other’s welfare beyond any gain that one can get out of it; disinterested in love, typically the love of God for a man
Highest form of love
Agape
Individual’s capacities to know that he is the determined one.
Freedom
Forms of freedom
Existential freedom
Essential freedom
Freedom of action— freedom of doing
Freedom to act on the choices that one makes
Existential freedom
Freedom of being
One need not be imprisoned to attain
Essential freedom
