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person1940s-1994

Rollo May

Disciplines:
psychology
existentialism/existential therapy

Summary

American existential psychologist who introduced European existentialism into American clinical psychology — particularly Heidegger and Kierkegaard — and wrote influential works on anxiety, love, and the daimonic.

Core Contribution

The Meaning of Anxiety: the first modern psychological account of anxiety as a signal of threat to core values, not merely a symptom. Love and Will: the disintegration of love and will in modern America. The Courage to Create: creativity requires confronting anxiety. The daimonic: the internal force that can be either destructive or creative depending on integration.

Notable Works & Achievements

The Meaning of Anxiety

Man's Search for Himself

Love and Will

The Courage to Create

Historical Influences

Kierkegaard Heidegger Paul Tillich

Intellectual Lineage

Existential Psychology Humanistic Psychology

Contemporaries & Peers

Viktor Frankl Abraham Maslow

Minds Influenced

Existential Therapy Irving Yalom

Intellectual Posterity

Existential Therapy Humanistic Psychology

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