Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionIII. Humanistic/Existential
Theories- May: Existential
Psychology
© The McGraw−Hill^367
Companies, 2009Chapter 12 May: Existential Psychology 361May’s concept of myths is comparable to Carl Jung’s idea of a collective un-
conscious in that myths are archetypal patterns in the human experience; they are av-
enues to universal images that lie beyond individual experience (see Chapter 4). And
like archetypes, myths can contribute to psychological growth if people will embrace
them and allow them to open up a new reality. Tragically, many people deny their
universal myths and thus risk alienation, apathy, and emptiness—the principal in-
gredients of psychopathology.
Psychopathology
According to May, apathy and emptiness—not anxiety and guilt—are the malaise
of modern times. When people deny their destiny or abandon their myths, they
lose their purpose for being; they become directionless. Without some goal or desti-
nation, people become sick and engage in a variety of self-defeating and self-
destructive behaviors.
Many people in modern Western societies feel alienated from the world
(Umwelt), from others (Mitwelt), and especially from themselves (Eigenwelt). They
feel helpless to prevent natural disasters, to reverse industrialization, or to make con-
tact with another human being. They feel insignificant in a world that increasingly
dehumanizes the individual. This sense of insignificance leads to apathyand to a
state of diminished consciousness (May, 1967).
May saw psychopathology as lack of communication—the inability to know
others and to share oneself with them. Psychologically disturbed individuals deny
their destiny and thus lose their freedom. They erect a variety of neurotic symptoms,
not to regain their freedom, but to renounce it. Symptoms narrow the person’s phe-
nomenological world to the size that makes coping easier. The compulsive person
adopts a rigid routine, thereby making new choices unnecessary.
Symptoms may be temporary, as when stress produces a headache, or they
may be relatively permanent, as when early childhood experiences produce apathy
and emptiness. Philip’s psychopathology was tied to his early environment with a
disturbed mother and a schizophrenic sister. These experiences did not causehis
pathology in the sense that they alone produced it. However, they did set up Philip
to learn to adjust to his world by suppressing his anger, by developing a sense of ap-
athy, and by trying to be a “good little boy.” Neurotic symptoms, therefore, do not
represent a failure of adjustment, but rather a proper and necessary adjustment by
which one’s Daseincan be preserved. Philip’s behavior toward his two wives and
Nicole represents a denial of his freedom and a self-defeating attempt to escape from
his destiny.
Psychotherapy
Unlike Freud, Adler, Rogers, and other clinically oriented personality theorists, May
did not establish a school of psychotherapy with avid followers and identifiable tech-
niques. Nevertheless, he wrote extensively on the subject, rejecting the idea that psy-
chotherapy should reduce anxiety and ease feelings of guilt. Instead, he suggested
that psychotherapy should make people more human: that is, help them expand their