Humanistic/Existential Theories  Only needs that can be completely satisfied or

even overly satisfied and has a recurring nature.

Maslow: Holistic-Dynamic Theory
Safety Needs
Rogers: Person-Centered Theory
 Man’s yearning for a predictable, orderly world
May: Existential Psychology in which injustice and inconsistency are under
Humanistic/Existential Theories control, the familiar frequent, and the unfamiliar
rare (Maslow, 1970).
Holistic-Dynamic Theory  Needs that cannot be overly satiated.
 When people are not successful on their attempt
Abraham Harold Maslow to satisfy need they suffer to basic anxiety
(Maslow, 1970).
(April 1, 1908- June 8, 1970)
Love and Belongingness Needs
Holistic-dynamic Theory
 Emotionally-based relationships in general, such
 Assumes that the whole person is constantly
as friendship, sexual intimacy and having a
being motivated by one need or another.
supportive and communicative family (Maslow,
 People have the potential to grow toward
1970).
psychological health or self-actualization.
 People who have had their love and
Humanistic Psychology belongingness needs adequately satisfied
from early years do not panic when denied
 Third force love.
 General interest in the phenomenological  People consists of those who have never
approach and the concern for the whole person, experienced love and belongingness, and,
and a conviction in goodness therefore, are incapable of giving love.
 People who have received love and
View of Motivation
belongingness only in small doses (Maslow,
 Holistic approach to motivation: 1970).
The whole person, not any single part or
Esteem Needs
function, is motivated (Maslow, 1970).
 Motivation is usually complex  Self-respect, confidence, competence, and
A person’s behavior may spring from several the knowledge that others hold them in high
separate motives. esteem (Maslow, 1970).
 Motivation for a behavior may be unconscious  Two kinds of esteem needs
or unknown to the person.  Respect from others
 All people everywhere are motivated by the  Self-respect
same basic needs.  Two levels of esteem needs—
 Needs can be arranged on a hierarchy  Reputation is the perception of the
(Maslow, 1943, 1970). prestige, recognition, or fame a person
has achieved in the eyes of others.
Hierarchy of Needs (Maslow, (1970)
 Self-esteem is a person’s own feelings
 Conative needs of worth and confidence.
Have a striving or motivational character.
Self-Actualization Needs
 Basic needs
Can be arranged on a hierarchy or staircase, with  Embracing the B-values.
each ascending step representing a higher need  Include self-fulfillment, the realization of all
but one less basic to survival one’s potential, and a desire to become creative
 Principle of Relative Prepotency in the full sense of the word (Maslow, 1970)
Needs that must be satisfied or mostly satisfied
before higher level needs become activated Transcendence needs

Physiological Needs  Transcend beyond the personal self.

 Physical survival and biological maintenance of Three other categories of needs—aesthetic,

organism. cognitive, and neurotic.
Aesthetic Needs  Serves some aim or goal and motivated by some
deficit need.
 Desire beauty, balance, form and orderly
surroundings (Maslow, 1967). Deprivation of Needs
Cognitive Needs  Lack of satisfaction of any of the basic needs
leads to some kind of pathology.
 A desire to have knowledge and understanding,  Metapathology
curiosity, exploration, need for meaning and  Absence of values, the lack of fulfillment,
predictability (Maslow, 1970). and the loss of meaning in life (Maslow,
Neurotic Needs 1967).

 Non-productive, reactive, perpetuate unhealthy Intinctoid Needs

styles of life, no value in the striving for self-  Innately determined even though they can be
actualization and lead only to stagnation and modified by learning (Maslow, 1970).
pathology (Maslow, 1970).  Determined by the level of pathology upon
Hypothetical average person needs approximate frustration.
level of satisfaction:  Persistent and their satisfaction leads to
psychological health.
 Physiological, 85%; safety, 70%; love and  Species-specific.
belongingness, 50%; esteem, 40%; and self-  Can be molded, inhibited, or altered by
actualization, 10% (Maslow, 1970). environmental influences.

Reversed Order of Needs Comparison of Higher and Lower Needs (Maslow,

1970).
 Sometimes, needs are reversed and deviations in
the order of needs are not variations at all.  Both are instinctoid.
 Understand unconscious motivation underlying  Higher level needs are later on the phylogenetic
behavior to recognize that needs are not or evolutionary scale and produce more
reversed. happiness and more peak experiences.
 Satisfaction of higher level needs is more
Unmotivated Behavior subjectively desirable to those people who have
experienced both higher and lower level needs.
 Some behaviors are not motivated and not all
determinants are motives. Self-Actualization
 Some caused by factors such as conditioned
reflexes, maturation, or drugs. Highest level of human development.
 Motivation is limited to the striving for the
satisfaction of some need. Maslow’s Quest for Self-actualizing Person

Expressive behavior  Ruth Benedict and psychologist Max

Wertheimer: “A Good Human Being”
 Unmotivated, unconscious, has no goals or aim (Hoffman, 1988).
and is merely the person’s mode of expression  Emotional security and good adjustment were
(Maslow, 1970). not dependable predictors of a Good Human
 Unlearned, spontaneous, and determined by Being.
forces within the person rather than by the  “Self-actualizing person”
environment.
Criteria for Self-Actualization
Coping behavior
(Maslow, 1970).
 Attempts to cope with the environment, to secure
food and shelter, to make friends and receive  Free from psychopathology.
acceptance, appreciation, and prestige from  Had progressed through the hierarchy of needs.
others.  Embracing of the B-values.
 Ordinarily conscious, effortful, learned, and  Fulfilled the needs to grow to develop and to
determined by the external environment. increasingly become what they were capable of
becoming
Values of Self-Actualizers 10. Profound Interpersonal Relations
11. The Democratic Character Structure
 Motivated by the “eternal verities,” what he 12. Discrimination Between Means and Ends
called B-values. 13. Philosophical Sense of Humor
 Indicators of psychological health and are 14. Creativeness
opposed to deficiency needs, which motivate 15. Resistance to Enculturation
non-self-actualizers.
 Ultimately all become one, or at least all are Love, Sex, and Self-Actualization
highly correlated.
 Absence of the B-values leads to pathology  Self-actualizing people:
 Deprivation of any of the B-values results in  Capable of both giving and receiving love
metapathology and are no longer motivated by the kind of
 Lack of a meaningful philosophy of life. deficiency love (D-love) common to other
 B-values “metaneeds” indicate the ultimate people.
level of needs.  Capable of B-love
 When metaneeds are not met, they  Love for the essence or “Being” of the
experience illness, an existential illness. other.
 Mutually felt and shared and not
Metamotivation motivated by a deficiency or
incompleteness within the lover.
 Characterized by expressive rather than coping  Unmotivated, expressive behavior.
behavior and is associated with the B-values.
 Differentiates self-actualizing people from those Maslow’s Psychology and Philosophy of Science
who are not.
 Only people who live among the B-values are  Value-free science does not lead to the proper
self-actualizing, and they alone are capable of study of human personality.
metamotivation.  Humanistic holistic approach is not value free
and that has scientists who care about the people
Maslow’s B Values (Maslow, 1964, 1970) and topics they investigate.
 Desacralization
 Justice  A type of science that lacks emotion, joy,
 Completion wonder, awe, and rapture.
 Perfection  Scientists must be willing to resacralize science
 Wholeness or to instill it with human values, emotion, and
 Aliveness ritual.
 Uniqueness  Taoistic attitude
 Goodness  One that would be noninterfering, passive,
 Truth and receptive.
 Autonomy  Psychologists must themselves be healthy
 Beauty people, able to tolerate ambiguity and
 Simplicity uncertainty.
 Totality  Measuring Self-Actualization by Everett L.
 Effortlessness Shostrom (1974)
 Humor Personal Orientation Inventory
 Jonah complex (Maslow, 1970).
15 Tentative Characteristics of Self-Actualizing
People (Maslow, 1970).  Fear of success or the fear of being one's
best which prevents self-actualization, or the
1. More Efficient Perception of Reality realization of one's own potential.
2. Acceptance of Self, Others, and Nature
3. Spontaneity, Simplicity, and Naturalness  It is the fear of one's own greatness, the
4. Problem-Centering evasion of one's destiny, or the avoidance of
5. The Need for Privacy exercising one's talents.
6. Autonomy
7. Continued Freshness of Appreciation  Characterized by attempts to run away from
8. The Peak Experience one’s destiny.
9. Gemeinschaftsgefühl
Person-Centered Theory  Maintenance
 Includes such basic needs as food, air, and
Carl Ransom Rogers safety; but also includes the tendency to
(January 8, 1902- February 4, 1987) resist change and to seek the status quo.
 Expressed in people’s desire to protect their
Overview of Client-Centered Theory current, comfortable self-concept.
 Enhancement
 Founder of client-centered therapy  Willingness to learn and to change, need to
 Experiences as a practicing psychotherapist. become more, to develop, and to achieve
 A consummate therapist but only a reluctant growth.
theorist (Roger, 1959).  Seen in people’s willingness to learn things
 Helping people more than discovering why they that are not immediately rewarding.
behaved as they did.  Three conditions for becoming a fully
 Advocated a balance between tender-minded and functioning or self-actualizing person
hardheaded studies that would expand  Congruence
knowledge of how humans feel and think  Unconditional positive regard
(Rogers, 1986).  Empathy
Person-Centered Theory The Self and Self-Actualization
 Subjectivity of experience, authenticity, and the  When the organism and the perceived self are in
positivity of human motivation. harmony, the two actualization tendencies are
 Nondirective approach nearly identical (Rogers, 1951).
 Client-centered, person-centered, student-  A discrepancy exists between the actualization
centered, group-centered, and person to person. tendency and the self-actualization tendency
 If-then framework. when people’s organismic experiences are not in
harmony with their view of self.
Formative Tendency
Self-actualization
 A tendency for all matter, both organic and
inorganic, to evolve from simpler to more  A subset and anonymous of the actualization
complex forms (Rogers, 1978, 1980). tendency.
 A creative process that is in operation for the  Tendency to actualize the self as perceived in
entire universe. awareness.
Actualizing Tendency Actualization tendency
 An interrelated and more pertinent assumption or  Refers to organismic experiences of the
the tendency within all humans to move toward individual; that is, it refers to the whole person—
completion or fulfillment of potentials (Rogers, conscious and unconscious, physiological and
1959, 1980). cognitive.
 The only motive people possess but not limited
to humans. Two Self subsystems
 Tendencies to maintain and to enhance the
organism are subsumed within the actualizing  A wide gap between the ideal self and the self-
tendency. concept indicates incongruence and an unhealthy
 Realized only under certain conditions: personality.
 People must be involved in a relationship  Psychologically healthy individuals perceive
with a partner who is congruent, or little discrepancy between their self-concept and
authentic, and who demonstrates empathy what they ideally would like to be.
and unconditional positive regard to permit Self-concept
them to actualize their innate tendency
toward self-fulfillment (Rogers, 1961).  Includes all those aspects of one’s being and
 Individual do not need to be directed, controlled, one’s experiences that are perceived in
exhorted, or manipulated in order to spur them awareness (though not always accurately) by the
toward actualization. individual.
 Tendencies to maintain and to enhance the  Self-concept is not identical with the organismic
organism self.
 Portions of the organismic self may be beyond a  A prerequisite for positive self-regard,
person’s awareness or simply not owned by that experience of prizing or valuing one’s self.
person.  Receiving positive regard from others is
 Experiences that are inconsistent with their self- necessary for positive self-regard.
concept usually are either denied or accepted  But once positive self-regard is established, it
only in distorted forms. becomes independent of the continual need to be
 An established self-concept does not make loved.
change impossible, merely difficult.
Barriers to Psychological Health
The Ideal Self
 Most people experience conditions of worth,
 One’s view of self as one wishes to be, it incongruence, defensiveness, and
contains all those attributes, usually positive, that disorganization.
people aspire to possess.
Conditions of Worth
Awareness
 A condition of worth arises when the positive
 Without awareness the self-concept and the ideal regard of a significant other is conditional, when
self would not exist. the individual feels that in some respects he is
 Symbolic representation (not necessarily in prized and in others not (Rogers, 1959).
verbal symbols) of some portion of our  Become the criterion by which we accept or
experience (Rogers, 1959). reject our experiences.
 Synonymously with consciousness and  Eventually, we may come to believe those
symbolization. appraisals of others that are consistent with our
negative view of self, ignore our own sensory
Three Levels of Awareness (Rogers, 1959) and visceral perceptions, and gradually become
 Some events are experienced below the threshold estranged from our real or organismic self.
of awareness and are either ignored or denied.  Our perceptions of other people’s view of us are
 Some experiences are accurately symbolized and called external evaluations.
freely admitted to the self-structure.  These evaluations do not foster
 Experiences that are perceived in a distorted psychological health but, prevent us from
form. being completely open to our own
experiences resulting to incongruence.
Denial of Positive Experiences
Incongruence
 Not only the negative or derogatory experiences
that are distorted or denied to awareness.  Incongruence between self-concept and
 Compliments, even those genuinely dispensed, organismic experience is the source of
seldom have a positive influence on the self- psychological disorders.
concept of the recipient.  Develops when the organismic self and
 They may be distorted because the person perceived self do not match.
distrusts the giver, or they may be denied  People will become defensive and use distortion
because the recipient does not feel deserving of and denial as attempts to reduce incongruence.
them.  People become disorganized whenever distortion
 Compliment from another also implies the right and denial are insufficient to block out
of that person to criticize or condemn, and thus incongruence.
the compliment carries an implied threat. Vulnerability
Becoming a Person  The greater the incongruence between perceived
 An individual must make contact—positive or self (self-concept) and organismic experience,
negative—with another person (Rogers, 1959). the more vulnerable people are (Rogers, 1959).
 People are vulnerable when they are unaware of
Positive regard the discrepancy between their organismic self
and their significant experience.
 A need to be loved, liked, or accepted by another  Vulnerable people are unaware of their
person. incongruence and are likely to become anxious,
threatened, and defensive.
Anxiety and Threat  Qualities of congruence, unconditional positive
regard, and empathic understanding are not easy
 Are experienced as we gain awareness of such an for a counselor to attain.
incongruence.  Rogerian therapy can be viewed in terms of
 Anxiety conditions, process, and outcomes.
 A state of uneasiness or tension whose cause
is unknown. Conditions
 Threat
 Awareness that our self is no longer whole  Anxious or vulnerable client must come into
or congruent. contact with a congruent therapist who also
 In order to prevent this inconsistency between possesses empathy and unconditional positive
organismic experience and perceived self, we regard for that client (Rogers, 1959).
react in a defensive manner.  Client must perceive these characteristics in the
 Defensiveness therapist.
 Protection of the self-concept against  Contact between client and therapist must be of
anxiety and threat by the denial or distortion some duration.
of experiences inconsistent with it (Rogers, Counselor Congruence
1959).
 Self-concept is a many faceted phenomenon.  Congruence exists when a person’s organismic
experiences are matched by an awareness of
Two chief defenses them and by an ability and willingness to openly
They keep our perception of our organismic express these feelings.
experiences consistent with our self-concept—which  To be congruent means to be real or genuine, to
allows us to ignore or block out experiences that be whole or integrated, and to be what one truly
otherwise would cause unpleasant anxiety or threat. is.
 A congruent therapist is not passive, not aloof,
 Distortion and definitely not “nondirective.”
 Misinterpreting an experience in order to fit  Congruent therapists are not static.
it into some aspect of our self-concept.  Incongruence can arise from either of the two
 Denial points dividing feelings, awareness and
 Refusing to perceive an experience in expression.
awareness, or at least keeping some aspect
of it from reaching symbolization. Unconditional Positive Regard

Disorganization  Positive regard is the need to be liked, prized, or

accepted by another person (Rogers, 1980).
 Sometimes defenses fail and behavior becomes  When this need exists without any conditions or
disorganized or psychotic (Rogers, 1959). qualifications, unconditional positive regard
 Has the same origins as normal defensive occurs.
behavior  A therapist with unconditional positive regard
 A discrepancy between people’s organismic toward a client will show a non-possessive
experience and their view of self. warmth and acceptance, not an effusive,
 People are particularly vulnerable to effervescent persona (Rogers, 1961).
disorganization during therapy.  To care about another without smothering or
 Behavior is still consistent with the self-concept, owning that person.
but the self-concept has been broken and thus the  Therapists have UPR when they are
behavior appears bizarre and confusing. “experiencing a warm, positive and accepting
attitude toward what is the client”.
Psychotherapy  Accept and prize clients without any restrictions
 In order for vulnerable or anxious people to grow or reservations and without regard to the clients’
psychologically, they must come into contact behavior.
with a therapist who is congruent and whom they  Do not evaluate clients, nor do they accept one
perceive as providing an atmosphere of action and reject another.
unconditional acceptance and accurate empathy.  A client-centered therapist must be actively
involved in a relationship with the client.
Empathic Listening
 Exists when therapists accurately sense the  More integrated
feelings of their clients and are able to  Basic trust of human nature
communicate these perceptions so that clients  Greater richness in life
know that another person has entered their world
of feelings without prejudice, projection, or Philosophy of Science
evaluation.  Science begins and ends with the subjective
 Empathy “means temporarily living in the experience, although everything in between must
other’s life, moving about in it delicately without be objective and empirical (Rogers, 1968).
making judgments” (Rogers, 1980).  Scientists should be completely involved in the
 A powerful tool, which along with genuineness phenomena being studied.
and caring, facilitates personal growth within the
client. The Chicago Studies
 Enables clients to listen to themselves and
become their own therapists.  Allowed the problem to take precedence over
 Sympathy suggests a feeling for a client, methodology and measurement.
whereas empathy connotes a feeling with a  Did not formulate hypotheses simply because the
client. tools for testing them were readily available but,
 Self-pity by sensing vague impressions from clinical
 A deleterious attitude that threatens a experience and gradually forming these into
positive self-concept and creates testable hypotheses.
disequilibrium within the self-structure.  Investigate both the process and the outcomes of
client-centered therapy (Rogers, 1961; Rogers &
Stages of Therapeutic Change (Rogers, 1959). Dymond, 1954).
1. Unwillingness to communicate anything about Self-Discrepancy Theory
oneself.
2. Clients become slightly less rigid.  Cornerstone of mental health was the
3. They more freely talk about self, although still as congruency between how we really view
an object. ourselves and how we ideally would like to be.
4. Begin to talk of deep feelings but not ones  If these two self-evaluations are congruent, then
presently felt. one is relatively adjusted and healthy.
5. They have begun to undergo significant change  If not, then one experiences various forms of
and growth. mental discomfort, such as anxiety, depression,
6. Experience dramatic growth and an irreversible and low self-esteem.
movement toward becoming fully functioning or
Motivation and Pursuing One’s Goals
self-actualizing.
7. Become fully functioning “persons of  A source of psychological distress is
tomorrow”. incongruence, or when one’s ideal self does not
sufficiently overlap with his or her self-concept
Outcomes
and this incongruence can be represented in the
 The basic outcomes of client-centered counseling goals the person chooses to pursue.
are congruent clients who are open to  Organismic valuing process (OVP)— a natural
experiences and who have no need to be instinct directing us toward the most fulfilling
defensive. pursuits.
 Theoretically, successful clients will become
persons of tomorrow, or fully functioning
Existential Psychology
persons.
Rollo May
Persons of Tomorrow
Background of Existentialism
 A fully functioning person (Rogers, 1951)
 More adaptable  Shortly after World War II, Existential
 Open to their experiences psychology—began to spread from Europe to the
 Trust in their organismic selves United States.
 Live fully in the moment  Existential psychology is rooted in the
 Harmonious relations with other philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich
 Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Basic Concepts
and other European philosophers (May,1967;
May, 1981). Being-in-the-World
 The first existential psychologists and  We exist in a world that can be best understood
psychiatrists were also Europeans, and these from our own perspective.
included Ludwig Binswanger, Medard Boss,  Basic unity of person and environment is
Victor Frankl, and others. expressed in the German word Dasein, meaning
 Modern existential psychology has roots in the to exist there and generally written as being-in-
writings of Søren Kierkegaard concerned with the-world.
the increasing trend in postindustrial societies  Alienation is the illness of our time, and it
toward the dehumanization of people (May, manifests itself in three areas:
1967).
 Separation from nature
 Concerned with both the experiencing person
 Lack of meaningful interpersonal relations
and the person’s experience.
 Alienation from one’s authentic self.
 Understand people as they exist in the world as
 Three simultaneous modes in their being-in-
thinking, active, and willing beings.
the-world:
 Balance between freedom and responsibility.
 Acquisition of freedom and responsibility is  Umwelt, or the environment around us
achieved only at the expense of anxiety.  Mitwelt, or our relations with other people
 Existentialism also permeated 20th-century  Eigenwelt, our relationship with our self.
literature through the work of the French writer
Nonbeing
Jean-Paul Sartre and the French-Algerian
novelist Albert Camus;  Awareness, in turn, leads to the dread of not
 Religion through the writings of Martin Buber, being: that is, nonbeing or nothingness (May,
Paul Tillich, and others; 1958).
 World of art through the work of Cezanne,
Matisse, and Picasso The Case of Philip (May, 1981)
 Freedom of being rather than the freedom of
Anxiety
doing.
 After World War II, European existentialism in  The subjective state of the individual’s becoming
its various forms spread to the United States. aware that his existence can be destroyed, that he
 For nearly 50 years, the foremost spokesperson can become ‘nothing’ (May, 1958).
for existential psychology in the United States  A threat to some important value
was Rollo May.  Confrontation can lead to stagnation and decay,
but it can also result in growth and change.
What Is Existentialism?
 The acquisition of freedom inevitably leads to
 Existence takes precedence over essence. anxiety (May, 1981).
 Existence means to emerge or to become,  “Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.”
suggest process and is associated with
Normal Anxiety
growth and change.
 Essence implies a static immutable  Proportionate to the threat, does not involve
substance, refers to a product and is repression, and can be confronted constructively
associated with growth and change; essence on the conscious level (May, 1967).
signifies stagnation and finality.
 Existentialists affirm that people’s essence is Neurotic Anxiety
their power to continually redefine  A reaction which is disproportionate to the
themselves through the choices they make. threat, involves repression and other forms of
 Existentialism opposes the split between intrapsychic conflict, and is managed by various
subject and object. kinds of blocking-off of activity and awareness
 People search for some meaning to their lives. (May, 1967).
 Existentialists hold that ultimately each of us  Experienced whenever values become
is responsible for who we are and what we transformed into dogma.
become.
 Existentialists are basically antitheoretical. Guilt
 Arises when people deny their potentialities, fail  Will requires self-consciousness. Implies some
to accurately perceive the needs of fellow possibility of either/or choice. Will gives the
humans, or remain oblivious to their dependence self-direction, the maturity to wish. Will protects
on the natural world (May, 1958). wish, permits it to continue without running risks
 Both anxiety and guilt are ontological, refer to which are too great.
the nature of being and not to feelings arising  WISH do not require consciousness. It does not
from specific situations or transgression. implies possibility of either/or choice. Wish
 Three forms of ontological guilt with gives the warmth, the content, the imagination,
modes of being-in-the-world the child’s play, the freshness, and the richness
 Separation guilt (Umwelt) to will.
Result of our separation from nature
 Guilt that stems from our inability to Union of Love and Will
perceive accurately the world of others  Suffering from an unhealthy division of love and
(Mitwelt) will (May, 1969).
 Associated with our denial of our own  Our task is to unite love and will.
potentialities or with our failure to  Neither blissful love nor self-serving will have a
fulfill them (Eigenwelt). role in the uniting of love and will.
Intentionality  For the mature person, both love and will mean a
reaching out toward another person.
 The structure that gives meaning to experience  Both involve care, both necessitate choice, both
and allows people to make decisions about the imply action, and both require responsibility.
future (May, 1969).
 Action and intentionality is inseparable. Forms of Love (May, 1969).
 Bridge the gap between subject and object.  It requires self-affirmation and the assertion of
 Intentionality is sometimes unconscious. oneself.
Care, Love, and Will  A blend of the four forms of love requires both
self-assertion and an affirmation of the other
CARE person.
 It also requires an assertion of one’s freedom and
 To care for someone means to recognize that a confrontation with one’s destiny.
person as a fellow human being, to identify with
that person’s pain or joy, guilt or pity (May, SEX
1969).
 Care is an active process, the opposite of apathy.  Sex is a biological function that can be satisfied
 Care is a state in which something does matter. through sexual intercourse or some other release
 Care is not the same as love, but it is the source of sexual tension (May, 1969).
of love.  Power of procreation, the drive which
perpetuates the race, the source at once of the
LOVE human being’s most intense pleasure and his [or
her] most pervasive anxiety”.
 To love means to care, to recognize the essential
humanity of the other person, to have an active EROS
regard for that person’s development.
 Love as a “delight in the presence of the other  Eros is a psychological desire that seeks
person and an affirming of [that person’s] value procreation or creation through an enduring
and development as much as one’s own” (May, union with a loved one (May, 1969).
1953).  Eros is making love; sex is manipulating organs.
 Without care there can be no love—only empty  Eros is the wish to establish a lasting union; sex
sentimentality or transient sexual arousal. is the desire to experience pleasure.
 Care is also the source of will.  Eros is built on care and tenderness.

WILL PHILIA

 Capacity to organize one’s self so that movement  An intimate nonsexual friendship between two
in a certain direction or toward a certain goal people built the foundation of eros (May, 1969).
may take place (May, 196  Philia cannot be rushed; it takes time to grow, to
develop, to sink its roots.
AGAPE  Destiny does not mean preordained or
foredoomed. It is our destination, our terminus,
 Agape is an esteem for the other, the concern for our goal.
the other’s welfare beyond any gain that one can
get out of it; disinterested love, typically, the The Power of Myth
love of God for man (May, 1969).
 Agape is altruistic love. It is a kind of spiritual  Myths are not falsehoods but are conscious and
love that carries with it the risk of playing God. unconscious belief systems that provide
 It does not depend on any behaviors or explanations for personal and social problems
characteristics of the other person. (May, 1991).
 It is undeserved and unconditional.  Myths are the stories that unify a society.
 They are essential to the process of keeping our
Freedom and Destiny souls alive and bringing us new meaning in a
difficult and often meaningless world.
 Freedom and destiny are a normal paradox of  People communicate with one another on two
life. levels.
 Freedom and destiny are thus inexorably  Rationalistic language
intertwined; one cannot exist without the other. Truth takes precedence over the people who
 Freedom and destiny give birth to each other. are communicating.
FREEDOM  Through myths
Total human experience is more important
 Freedom is the individual’s capacity to know than the empirical accuracy of the
that he is the determined one (May, 1967). communication.
 Existential Crises in Oedipus Myth (May,
DETERMINED- DESTINY 1990)
 Birth
 Freedom is the possibility of changing, although
 Separation or exile from parents and home,
we may not know what those changes might be.
 Sexual union with one parent and hostility
 Freedom entails being able to harbor different
toward the other
possibilities in one’s mind even though it is not
 Assertion of independence and the search
clear at the moment which way one must act.
for identity
Forms of Freedom (May, 1981)  Death.

 Existential Freedom Psychopathology

 Freedom of action, freedom of doing.
 Apathy and emptiness—not anxiety and guilt—
 Freedom of being.
are the malaise of modern times.
 Essential Freedom
 When people deny their destiny or abandon their
 Freedom of being.
myths, they lose their purpose for being; they
 Existential freedom often makes essential
become directionless.
freedom more difficult.
 Without some goal or destination, people
DESTINY become sick and engage in a variety of self-
defeating and self-destructive behaviors.
 Destiny itself is our prison—our concentration  Psychopathology as lack of communication—
camp that allows us to be less concerned with the inability to know others and to share oneself
freedom of doing and more concerned with with them.
essential freedom.  Psychologically disturbed individuals deny their
 Destiny as “the design of the universe speaking destiny and thus lose their freedom.
through the design of each one of us” (May,  They erect a variety of neurotic symptoms, not to
1981). regain their freedom, but to renounce it.
 Our ultimate destiny is death, but on a lesser  Symptoms narrow the person’s
scale our destiny includes other biological phenomenological world to the size that makes
properties such as intelligence, gender, size and coping easier.
strength, and genetic predisposition toward  The compulsive person adopts a rigid routine,
certain illnesses. thereby making new choices unnecessary.
 Neurotic symptoms, therefore, do not represent a
failure of adjustment, but rather a proper and
 necessary adjustment by which one’s Dasein can
be preserved.
Psychotherapy
 Psychotherapy should not reduce anxiety and
ease feelings of guilt.
 Psychotherapy should make people more human
through helping them expand their consciousness
so that they will be in a better position to make
choices (M. H. Hall, 1967).
 Purpose of psychotherapy is to set people free.
 Psychotherapy must be concerned with helping
people experience their existence, and that
relieving symptoms is merely a by-product of
that experience.
 Existential therapists have no special set of
techniques or methods that can be applied to all
patients. Instead, they have only themselves,
their own humanity to offer.
 They must establish a one-to-one relationship
(Mitwelt) that enables patients to become more
aware of themselves and to live more fully in
their own world (Eigenwelt).
 Establishing an I-thou encounter in which both
therapist and patient are viewed as subjects
rather than objects.
 In an I-thou relationship, the therapist has
empathy for the patient’s experience and is open
to the patient’s subjective world.
 Therapy as partly religion, partly science, and
partly friendship.

References:
Engler, B. (2014). Personality theories: an
introduction. Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Feist, J., Feist, G. J., & Roberts, T.-A. (2018).
Theories of personality. McGraw-Hill.