Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionIII. Humanistic/Existential
Theories- May: Existential
Psychology
(^352) © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2009
346 Part III Humanistic/Existential Theories
Although he was philosophically aligned with Carl Rogers (see Chapter 11), May
took issue with what he saw as Rogers’s naive view that evil is a cultural phenome-
non. May (1982) regarded human beings as both good and evil and capable of cre-
ating cultures that are both good and evil.
Background of Existentialism
Modern existential psychology has roots in the writings of Søren Kierkegaard
(1813–1855), Danish philosopher and theologian. Kierkegaard was concerned with
the increasing trend in postindustrial societies toward the dehumanization of people.
He opposed any attempt to see people merely as objects, but at the same time, he op-
posed the view that subjective perceptions are one’s only reality. Instead,
Kierkegaard was concerned with boththe experiencing person and the person’s ex-
perience. He wished to understand people as they exist in the world as thinking, ac-
tive, and willing beings. As May (1967) put it, “Kierkegaard sought to overcome the
dichotomy of reason and emotion by turning [people’s] attentions to the reality of the
immediate experience which underlies both subjectivity and objectivity” (p. 67).
Kierkegaard, like later existentialists, emphasized a balance between freedom
and responsibility.People acquire freedom of action through expanding their self-
awareness and then by assuming responsibility for their actions. The acquisition of
freedom and responsibility, however, is achieved only at the expense of anxiety. As
people realize that, ultimately, they are in charge of their own destiny, they experi-
ence the burden of freedom and the pain of responsibility.
Kierkegaard’s views had little effect on philosophical thought during his com-
paratively short lifetime (he died at age 42); but the work of two German philoso-
phers, Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) and Martin Heidegger (1899–1976), helped
popularize existential philosophy during the 20th century. Heidegger exerted con-
siderable influence on two Swiss psychiatrists, Ludwig Binswanger and Medard
Boss. Binswanger and Boss, along with Karl Jaspers, Victor Frankl, and others,
adapted the philosophy of existentialism to the practice of psychotherapy.
Existentialism also permeated 20th-century literature through the work of the
French writer Jean-Paul Sartre and the French-Algerian novelist Albert Camus; reli-
gion through the writings of Martin Buber, Paul Tillich, and others; and the world of
art through the work of Cezanne, Matisse, and Picasso, whose paintings break
through the boundaries of realism and demonstrate a freedom of being rather than
the freedom of doing (May, 1981).
After World War II, European existentialism in its various forms spread to the
United States and became even more diversified as it was taken up by an assorted
collection of writers, artists, dissidents, college professors and students, playwrights,
clergy, and others.
What Is Existentialism?
Although philosophers and psychologists interpret existentialism in a variety of
ways, some common elements are found among most existential thinkers. First, ex-
istencetakes precedence over essence.Existence means to emerge or to become;
essence implies a static immutable substance. Existence suggests process; essence