Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionIII. Humanistic/Existential
Theories- May: Existential
Psychology
(^358) © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2009
352 Part III Humanistic/Existential Theories
anxiety with the realization that, from that moment forward, everything had changed
(May, 1981).
Neurotic Anxiety
Normal anxiety, the type experienced during periods of growth or of threat to one’s
values, is experienced by everyone. It can be constructive provided it remains pro-
portionate to the threat. But anxiety can become neurotic or sick. May (1967) de-
fined neurotic anxietyas “a reaction which is disproportionate to the threat, in-
volves repression and other forms of intrapsychic conflict, and is managed by
various kinds of blocking-off of activity and awareness” (p. 80).
Whereas normal anxiety is felt whenever values are threatened, neurotic anxi-
ety is experienced whenever values become transformed into dogma. To be ab-
solutely right in one’s beliefs provides temporary security, but it is security “bought
at the price of surrendering [one’s] opportunity for fresh learning and new growth”
(May, 1967, p. 80).
Philip’s neurotic anxiety was evident in his attachment to unpredictable and
“crazy” women, an attachment that began in early childhood. During the first 2 years
of his life, his world was inhabited primarily by just two other people—his mother
and a sister two years older than Philip. His mother was a borderline schizophrenic
whose behavior toward Philip alternated between tenderness and cruelty. His sister
was definitely schizophrenic and later spent some time in a mental hospital. So
Philip learned early that he had to attach himself to women but also that he had to
rescue them as well. “Life, then, for Philip would understandably not be free, but
rather would require that he be continuously on guard or on duty” (May, 1981, p. 30).
Philip’s neurotic anxiety blocked any new and successful ways of behaving to-
ward Nicole. His approach seemed to be a recapitulation of childhood behaviors to-
ward his mother and sister.
Guilt
Anxiety arises when people are faced with the problem of fulfilling their potentiali-
ties. Guiltarises when people deny their potentialities, fail to accurately perceive the
needs of fellow humans, or remain oblivious to their dependence on the natural
world (May, 1958a). Just as May used the term “anxiety” to refer to large issues deal-
ing with one’s being-in-the-world, so too did he employ the concept of guilt. In this
sense, both anxiety and guilt are ontological;that is, they refer to the nature of being
and not to feelings arising from specific situations or transgressions.
In all, May (1958a) recognized three forms of ontological guilt, each corre-
sponding to one of the three modes of being-in-the-world, that is, Umwelt, Mitwelt,
and Eigenwelt.To understand the form of guilt that corresponds to Umwelt,recall
that ontological guilt need not stem from one’s own actions or failures to act; it can
arise from a lack of awareness of one’s being-in-the-world. As civilization advances
technologically, people become more and more removed from nature, that is, from
Umwelt.This alienation leads to a form of ontological guilt that is especially preva-
lent in “advanced” societies where people live in heated or cooled dwellings, use
motorized means of transportation, and consume food gathered and prepared by