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Dana teaches social sciences at the college level and English and psychology at the high school level. She has master's degrees in applied, clinical and community psychology.
Have you ever wondered about the meaning of life? We all wonder why we are here at times and what our purpose is, don't we? These philosophical questions usually become more pressing in the face of tragedy and suffering as we try to make sense of something that seems so senseless. These are the types of questions that lay at the foundation of Rollo May's work.
Rollo May was an influential American psychologist who helped establish a new branch of psychology called existential psychology. Existentialism focuses on man's search for meaning and purpose in life.
May came to existentialism through personal hardship. His earliest education centered on English and theology, and he spent the earliest part of his career teaching English abroad. However, May was stricken by tuberculosis, a bacterial lung infection, and was hospitalized for several years. During this illness, May began to explore the meaning of life in the face of death. This curiosity eventually led May to study clinical psychology. In fact, he was the recipient of the first PhD in clinical psychology granted by Columbia University.
In many ways, Rollo May's work stems from humanistic psychology, which focuses on the capacity for growth and achievement in human beings. May took these ideas a step further as he explored the purpose of anxiety in human beings. He proposed that anxiety emerged as a result of uncertainty in life and of looming death. May determined that human beings fear death because we cannot comprehend our own lack of existence.
However, May believed that facing these feelings of anxiety and fear was a necessary experience if personal growth and meaning were to be achieved in life. May focused on the concept of freedom as the pinnacle of human existence. Freedom, in May's theory, represents the power to choose and direct one's life. May also explored the concepts of love and will as crucial in negotiating life's challenges.
Rollo May's existentialist theory lays out four unique states that commonly emerge throughout life as human beings negotiate their existence. Think about your behaviors and motivations in your life. More than likely, these change pretty frequently depending on the situation you inhabit at given time. This is similar to the way Rollo May's four states of existence play out.
The state of innocence, according to Rollo May, basically represents a lack of will or intention. There is no intentional or decisive behavior in this state; people just exist. To understand this more clearly, think of an infant. We often describe infants as innocent because they are not in control of much in their own lives. They do not really carry out independent actions or plans. If they do something wrong, we don't blame them because we feel that they did not know any better. This is the same idea that Rollo May conveys with the state of innocence. People in this state are just being. They are not actively involved in or negotiating life's challenges.
Most of us think of teenagers when we think of rebellion, don't we? This is probably because teenagers begin to test the boundaries in life as they try to figure out who they are. May's idea of the state of rebellion is similar in that he believes that human beings often desire something yet do not understand the work that must go into getting it or the meaning behind it. Think of that teenager again. Most teenagers want a car when they turn sixteen. However, most do not have the money to purchase a car and do not grasp the risks and responsibilities associated with owning a car. This example gives you an idea of what Rollo May meant by this stage. People want things but do not grasp the full scope of obtaining or maintaining these things. In short, there is no substance behind the desire.
Most of us would not be especially excited about being described as 'ordinary' because it would mean that we are just average or regular. This notion of being average or regular is similar to how Rollo May's theory defines the state of ordinary existence. May believed that many people just give in to the day-to-day monotony of life rather than challenging things or being creative. This is why this stage is termed 'ordinary.' Individuals who have entered the state of ordinary surrender their free will and creativity according to Rollo May.
If the previous states of existence sounded negative to you, this one probably will not. The state of creative existence might be viewed as Rollo May's peak of human life. Human beings who are in this state are actively contributing to the world in meaningful ways. These people welcome life's anxiety and face it with confidence to overcome it rather than with defeat or surrender. May explains that the creative state of being is one where the humanistic ideal of self-actualization is possible. In other words, these individuals grasp their purpose in life, love others, and may feel that they understand the meaning behind human beings' existence.
Rollo May was an existential psychologist who hailed from the United States of America. He has been labeled as the father of existentialism. May's work focused on people's search for meaning and purpose in life. Rollo May began his exploration into life's meaning through the exploration of human conditions such as anxiety, love and free will.
These inquiries led May to the development of various states of existence. The state of innocence exists when individuals have no free will. The state of rebellion results from desire that lacks understanding and responsibility. The state of ordinary existence occurs when individuals surrender to the grind of life. Finally, the state of creative existence comes into being when people welcome life's challenges as part of their purpose in life.
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