Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionIII. Humanistic/Existential
Theories- May: Existential
Psychology
(^366) © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2009
360 Part III Humanistic/Existential Theories
From earliest times and in diverse civilizations, people have found meaning in
their lives by the myths they share with others in their culture. Myths are the stories
that unify a society; “they are essential to the process of keeping our souls alive and
bringing us new meaning in a difficult and often meaningless world” (May, 1991,
p. 20).
May believed that people communicate with one another on two levels. The
first is rationalistic language, and on this level, truth takes precedence over the peo-
ple who are communicating. The second is through myths, and on this level, the total
human experience is more important than the empirical accuracy of the communi-
cation. People use myths and symbols to transcend the immediate concrete situation,
to expand self-awareness, and to search for identity.
May (1990a, 1991) believed that the Oedipus story is a powerful myth in our
culture because it contains elements of existential crises common to everyone. These
crises include (1) birth, (2) separation or exile from parents and home, (3) sexual
union with one parent and hostility toward the other, (4) the assertion of indepen-
dence and the search for identity, and (5) death. The Oedipus myth has meaning for
people because it deals with each of these five crises. Like Oedipus, people are re-
moved from their mother and father and are driven by the need for self-knowledge.
People’s struggle for self-identity, however, is not easy, and it may even result in
tragedy, as it did for Oedipus when he insisted on knowing the truth about his ori-
gins. After being told that he had killed his father and married his mother, Oedipus
put out his eyes, depriving himself of the ability to see, that is, to be aware, to be
conscious.
But the Oedipus narration does not end with denial of consciousness. At this
point in Sophocles’ trilogy, Oedipus once again is exiled, an experience May saw as
symbolic of people’s own isolation and ostracism. As an old man, Oedipus is seen
contemplating his tragic suffering and accepting responsibility for killing his father
and marrying his mother. His meditations during old age bring him peace and un-
derstanding and the ability to accept death with grace. The central themes of Oedi-
pus’s life—birth, exile and separation, identity, incest and patricide, repression of
guilt, and finally, conscious meditation and death—touch everyone and make this
myth a potentially powerful healing force in people’s lives.
The Oedipus myth holds meaning for people
even today because it deals with existential
crises common to everyone.