Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionIII. Humanistic/Existential
Theories- May: Existential
Psychology
(^354) © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2009
348 Part III Humanistic/Existential Theories
the products of the industrial revolution, they become more alienated from the stars,
the soil, and the sea. Alienation from the world includes being out of touch with
one’s own body as well. Recall that Rollo May began his recovery from tuberculosis
only after realizing that it was he who had the illness.
This feeling of isolation and alienation of self from the world is suffered not
only by pathologically disturbed individuals but also by most individuals in modern
societies. Alienation is the illness of our time, and it manifests itself in three areas:
(1) separation from nature, (2) lack of meaningful interpersonal relations, and
(3) alienation from one’s authentic self. Thus, people experience three simultaneous
modes in their being-in-the-world: Umwelt,or the environment around us; Mitwelt,
or our relations with other people; and Eigenwelt,or our relationship with our self.
Umwelt is the world of objects and things and would exist even if people had
no awareness. It is the world of nature and natural law and includes biological drives,
such as hunger and sleep, and such natural phenomena as birth and death. We can-
not escape Umwelt;we must learn to live in the world around us and to adjust to
changes within this world. Freud’s theory, with its emphasis on biology and instincts,
deals mostly with Umwelt.
But we do not live only in Umwelt.We also live in the world with people, that
is, Mitwelt.We must relate to people as people, not as things. If we treat people as
objects, then we are living solely in Umwelt.The difference between Umweltand
Mitweltcan be seen by contrasting sex with love. If a person uses another as an in-
strument for sexual gratification, then that person is living in Umwelt,at least in his
or her relationship to that other person. However, love demands that one make a
commitment to the other person. Love means respect for the other person’s being-
in-the-world, an unconditional acceptance of that person. Not every Mitweltrela-
tionship, however, necessitates love. The essential criterion is that the Daseinof the
other person is respected. The theories of Sullivan and Rogers, with their emphasis
on interpersonal relations, deal mostly with Mitwelt.
Eigenwelt refers to one’s relationship with oneself. It is a world not usually ex-
plored by personality theorists. To live in Eigenweltmeans to be aware of oneself as
a human being and to grasp who we are as we relate to the world of things and to the
world of people. What does this sunset mean to me?How is this other person a part
of my life? What characteristics of mineallow me to love this person? How do Iper-
ceive this experience?
Healthy people live in Umwelt, Mitwelt,and Eigenweltsimultaneously (see
Figure 12.1). They adapt to the natural world, relate to others as humans, and have a
keen awareness of what all these experiences mean to them (May, 1958a).
Nonbeing
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: that is, nonbeingor noth-
ingness.May (1958a) wrote that
to grasp what it means to exist, one needs to grasp the fact that he might not exist,
that he treads at every moment on the sharp edge of possible annihilation and can
never escape the fact that death will arrive at some unknown moment in the
future. (pp. 47–48)