Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Neurotic 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. Neurotic anxiety blocks
growth and productive action.
VI. Guilt
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. Both anxiety and guilt are ontological; that is, they
refer to the nature of being and not to feelings arising from specific situations.
VII. Intentionality
The structure that gives meaning to experience and allows people to make decisions about the future is
called intentionality. May believed that intentionality 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.
VIII. Care, Love, and Will
Care is an active process that suggests that things matter. Love means to care, to delight in the presence of
another person, and to affirm that person's value as much as one's own. Care is also an important
ingredient in will, defined as a conscious commitment to action.
A. 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.
B. Forms of Love
May identified four kinds of love in Western tradition: sex, eros, philia, and agape. May believed that
Americans no longer view sex as a natural biological function, but have become preoccupied with it to the
point of trivialization. Eros 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. Philia, an intimate nonsexual friendship between two
people, takes time to develop and does not depend on the actions of the other person. Agape is an altruistic
or spiritual love that carries with it the risk of playing God. Agape is undeserved and unconditional.
IX. Freedom and Destiny
Psychologically healthy individuals are comfortable with freedom, able to assume responsibility for their
choices, and willing to face their destiny.
A. Freedom Defined
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.
B. Forms of Freedom
May recognized two forms of freedom: (1) freedom of doing, or freedom of action, which he called
existential freedom, and (2) freedom of being, or an inner freedom, which he called essential freedom.
C. Destiny Defined
May defined destiny as "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.
D. Philip's Destiny
After some time in therapy, Philip was able to stop blaming his mother for not doing what he thought she
should have done. The objective facts of his childhood had not changed, but Philip's subjective perceptions
had. As he came to terms with his destiny, Philip began to be able to express his anger, to feel less trapped
in his relationship with Nicole, and to become more aware of his possibilities. In other words, he gained his
freedom of being.
X. The Power of Myth
According to May, the people of contemporary Western civilization have an urgent need for myths. Because
they have lost many of their traditional myths, they turn to religious cults, drugs, and popular culture to fill
the vacuum. The Oedipus myth has had a powerful effect on our culture because it deals with such common
existential crises 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.
XI. Psychopathology
May saw apathy and emptiness-not anxiety and guilt-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.
XII. Psychotherapy
The goal of May's psychotherapy was not to cure patients of any specific disorder, but to make them more
fully human. May said that the purpose of psychotherapy is to set people free, to allow them to make
choices and to assume responsibility for those choices.
XIII. Related Research
May's theory of personality does not lend itself to easily testable hypotheses,
and, therefore, it has not generated much research. Nevertheless, Jeff Greenberg
and his colleagues have investigated the concept of terror management, which is based on the notion of
existential anxiety. In general, Greenberg's findings are consistent with May's definition of existential anxiety
as an apprehension of threats to one's existence. However, this research can also be explained by other
psychological theories.