May’s Existentialism and the Epistemic Inventory 2
Introduction
Rollo May was one of the leading existentialist psychologists in the twentieth century. His writings have shaped contemporary discussions of man’s struggle with
“being in the world,” and the difficulty inherent in such a task.
A brief review of May’s biography is useful in understanding the philosophical path which he chose. May was born in Ada, Ohio, the first of six children born to parents who had great difficulty in their marriage. His mother and sister both suffered from mental illness, and their instability caused May to spend much of his internal life in an introspective solitude produced by psychic pain.
After briefly attending Michigan State University and Oberlin College, May traveled across Europe where he taught English. He was intensely lonely, and it was at this point that he had one of two epiphanies which would shape his belief in existentialism. May began thinking of his own and other’s inner beauty, and he enrolled in Union Theological Seminary in order to study his newfound optimism. It was during this time that he studied psychoanalysis with Alfred Adler and philosophy with Paul
Tillich. He practiced psychotherapy privately in the 1940’s and received his Ph.D. from
Columbia University at the age of 1940. During this period, May experienced a second life-changing event: he spent three years in a sanitarium after contacting tuberculosis.
This period of solitude allowed him time to read and theorize about man’s ultimate responsibility for his own existence. May noted that this view of man as controller of his ultimate destiny could also be translated into the realm of therapeutic encounters (Feist,
1990). May’s epiphany through personal isolation was similar to other existentialist authors (e.g., Viktor Frankl) and gives his psychology a depth borne of great