Man's Search for Himself

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Decision – The person is in a transition stage in their life such that they need to be more independent from their parents and settle into the "ordinary stage". In this stage they must decide what to do with their life, and fulfilling rebellious needs from the rebellious stage. May was born in Ada, Ohio in 1909. He experienced a difficult childhood, with his parents divorcing and his sister becoming schizophrenic. His educational career took him to Michigan State College majoring in English and Oberlin College for a bachelor's degree, teaching for a time in Greece, to Union Theological Seminary for a BD during 1938, and finally to Teachers College, Columbia University for a PhD in clinical psychology during 1949. May was a founder and faculty member of Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center in San Francisco.[1] To create oneself is to transcend the fit of old masks, to move beyond those dependencies of childhood, to seek unfamiliar places that haven’t yet been explored.

Frankl observed that among the fellow inmates in the concentration camp, those who survived were able to connect with a purpose in life to feel positive about, and then immersed themselves in imagining that purpose such as conversing with an (imagined) loved one. According to Frankl, the way a prisoner imagined the future affected his longevity. People often, however, compartmentalize much of their lives. They use their reason to study, save themselves for fun on the weekends, distract themselves from feeling pain and fear by watching television and posting on social media. They put on shows for other people, for an invisible audience in their minds. They become performers rather than humans, caring about their actions, based on the reactions of others to their actions. The originality and uniqueness which is always part of a spontaneous feeling can be understood in this light. For just as there never was exactly that situation before and never will be again, so the feeling one has at that time is new and never to be exactly repeated. It is only neurotic behavior which is rigidly repetitive.”May was influenced by American humanism, and interested in reconciling existential psychology with other philosophies, especially Freud's.

Freedom means openness, a readiness to grow; it means being flexible, ready to change for the sake of greater human values. To identify freedom with a given system is to deny freedom — it crystallizes freedom and turns it into dogma. To cling to a tradition, with the defensive plea that if we lose something that worked well in the past we will have lost all, neither shows the spirit of freedom nor makes for the future growth of freedom.” Individuals will constantly struggle to discover what they want, how they feel, and what they can do to live fully, because there are many external pressures that will prevent them from being aware.Lawrence Langer, Versions of Survival: The Holocaust and the Human Spirit (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1982), p. 24. According to a survey conducted by the Book-of-the-Month Club and the Library of Congress, Man's Search for Meaning belongs to a list of "the ten most influential books in the United States." [1] At the time of the author's death in 1997, the book had sold over 10 million copies and had been translated into 24 languages. [2] [3] Editions [ edit ] Through his power to survey his life, man can transcend the immediate events which determine him. Whether he has tuberculosis or is a slave like the Roman philosopher Epictetus or a prisoner condemned to death, he can still in his freedom choose how he will relate to these facts.”

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Fein, Esther B. (20 November 1991). "New York Times, 11-20-1991". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 28 April 2020 . Retrieved 21 April 2020.After going over the roots of the predicament and the etiology of the malady, May launches into what could aptly be called a neo-Freudian counter to Roger's and Maslow's humanistic psychology. At times it was incredibly insightful; at other times, it was infuriatingly limited; and at yet other times, painstakingly plodding in the writing and analysis. In short, it captured the best and the worst of the Freudian tradition. In his diagnosis, May was in abundant company, including the authors mentioned above. He was also clearly following in the footsteps of Freud and among others Karen Horney. In this vein, one of the frustrating limitations of the Freudian and neo-Freudian tradition was the use of individual case histories as evidence to support their theories. May was a product of this tradition and falls victim to this limitation. At best, an individual case history is an illustration; it is by no means a proof of concept. There are more than a few striking examples where this led May askew and on occasion to gross over-generalization. As a diagnostic tool for the culture, his replacement of the Orestes complex for Oedipus still seems incredibly off the mark. American has, historically and until the very recent past, been a culture that left the business and public sphere to men and largely delegated the home quarter's to the wives. While there are certainly individuals who deal with overbearing mothers, America has never been a matriarchy outside of the domestic quarters. Kitap adından da anlaşılacağı üzere bir insanın benlik inşası ve bulunduğu zamanla ve mekanla bütünleşmesi hakkında yazılmış. Yazarın sade, alıcı ve anlaşılır bir üslubu var; psikoloji kitabı diye kitabı terimlere boğmamış. Benim ise bu kitap hakkında en çok hoşuma giden şey salt psikolojik olarak değil de edebiyat, felsefe, sosyoloji ve hatta uluslararası ilişkilerden bile yararlanarak, sosyal bilimlerin hemen hemen her dalına değinerek ve psikolojiyi ayırmaktan ziyade dış unsurlarla birleştirerek yorumlaması. Çok yönlü bir kitap olması ve okuduğum diğer psikolojik kitaplardan bu yönde ayrılması beni oldukça tatmin etti.