Customer Reviews

Man's Search for Himself

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I'm not an intellect, I'm just a curious college student who takes a slight interest in psychology. I randomly picked this book up out of curiosity. Boy was I suprised at the content in this book. It has opened my eyes up to so many new levels of thinking. It is well organized in that it breaks up the problems that we face in society on a personal basis. It covers dealing with ourselves and how we interact in a society. I would not consider this a self help book but more of a "let's think about what we're doing here" type book. A MUST READ for anyone who is not a mindless robot of society.

Rollo May takes us on a quest in search for our true selves and gives us advice in how to live more meaningful lives. He uses parables and and analogies from Greek classics, biblical stories, and philosophical writings to help make his point. This isn't a "Ten Steps to Live a Better Life" type of book. It is a book that thoroughly and powerfully makes us look within ourselves for meaning.

That this book is dated shouldn't make it any less relevant. Lots of books that are read and appreciated today are timeless because they tap into some truth that is the essence of existence in any age. A hundred years from now, will the ideals qualities of humanity be much different from those of "freedom, responsibility, courage, love, and inner integrity"? Are these not the qualities and principals all people live by in any age in time? For sure, there are elements in there that are dated, but the feeling of emptiness always plagues society. It is perhaps a human consider for every society to feel "emptier" than the one that preceded it.

This is a book that I would recommend anyone who has gotten too used to living, and is taking it for granted. For life is precious, and a shame to waste. Rollo May's method of synthesizing literature, history, legend, psychology and philosophy makes this book accessible, relevant, and important.

Boredom and anxiety are the two hallmarks of human existence that differentiates Homo sapiens from all other animals. The fact that humans have a past, present, and future consciousness makes them alert to many other possibilities of the imagination. Enter Rollo May and his existential psychology, which is a blend of existentialist philosophy, psychology, and literature. Together, they make us aware of what it is to be truly human.

This is not a self-help book, although no reader will go away disappointed. This is a book about integration of our deepest needs, coupled with our unique human biology, that makes us unique among all of earth's habitants. It is a focused look at what we must do to live life optimally by stripping away many of our attachments. These attachments often become security blankets that in turn become a source of alienation from fundamental choices we all must make. Once discarded, and opting for freedom and responsibility, we can live our own autonomous lives.

There are few prescriptions per se. Rather, this is an examination of a life lived well. In May's paradigm, the challenge is to force our inner being to a higher awareness of self-consciousness. He shows us how. I read this book 20 years ago, and reread it recently. It is still fresh and invigorating. It's easy to read, and really quite insightful. If you're unacquainted with May, this is a good place to begin. A delight to read

I just finished reading this book this morning and have thoroughly enjoyed the generous wisdom it contains. May has a keen mind; he draws upon case examples and world literature alike to illustrate his themes and he is a precise craftsman for writing in clear language.

Because it was written in 1953, and boy, don't we know so much has happened since then! the book seems a little dated. But are you going to read it because of it's 'timeliness' with headlines, psychological movements or its spirit of contemporary feel, or because you want to learn about yourself in relation to the world that you live in? Anything can be dated. But not every book can be so beneficial in instruction, whether published this year or in previous years.

I took several notes while reading and consider myself just a little bit of a smarter person having finished reading it. But I'll be wiser when I begin to incorporate the wisdom found within.

For these reasons, I recommend it.

Rollo May takes the reader on an impressive intellectual discovery process that covers everything from Enlightenment thinking to mythology to personal development. Written in the 50's but seemingly timeless, this book flexes all of Rollo May's incredible intellectual free spiritedness. In the end, the reader is challenged to live a better life in the 20th Century.

This is the only book I feel is necessary to read concerning self development and promoting self awareness. His insights are timeless. He defines the dilemmas of human existence and provides the dynamics for finally experiencing true happiness and joy.

I strongly recommend his book for anyone that is or has experienced anxiety or depression. Any therapist or friend of someone experiencing melancholy should value as well. I feel if all of mankind could unlock this treasure we could finally achieve piece and joy on earth.

Though not a "self help" book, this book was by far the most effective self-help book I have.
Here's how it worked for me:
A. First reading, with May's brilliant and insightful observations and descriptions, I couldn't help but see the sad state of today's human condition.
B. Second reading, I clearly saw my neighbors, friends, lovers, coworkers and even family members represented on virtually every page.
C. Third reading, often despite some resistance, I began to see myself.

I like to read books on a variety subjects, but my main areas of interest are history and psychology. Throughout my years of trying to understand psychological thought I never spent much time on Rollo May. I always got the idea that he was an existentialist/humanist, but after reading this book, I've actually see him as much a Neo-Freudian. May draws heavily from Freud. His thoughts on individual anxiety are a little out-dated as he engages in much "mother-bashing" in the tradition of the Oedipus Complex and so forth. He also borrows much from the Neo-Freudians. May's ideas on anxiety in society are quite similar to Fromm's world view, and one can also identify much common ground or overlap with other social psychologists such as Adler, Horney and Erikson.

However, much of the book is quite good and he does end on more existential notes as he gets down to finding meaning in life and "valuation". To this end he gets more into Nietzsche and other existential thinkers such as Camus, Satre, Kafka and Kierkegaard.

It is also a good book in terms of the multitude of sources used by the author to illustrate his points. He opens the door to thinking in existential ways to literary and dramatical works such as "Death of a Salesman" by Miller and "The Age of Anxiety" by T.S. Elliot. May also spends considerable time discussing stories from the Bible as a way to understanding psychological and philosophical ideas, and even makes comparisons to Greek mythology.

I would place this book along side Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning" as essential reading to understanding the existential view in psychology.

Rollo May's Man's Search for Himself is a thought-provoking work about the process of self-discovery. The book covers topics such as anxiety, man's preference of security over freedom, and the discipline needed to develop a self-actualized personal style. Frequent references to Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (Viking Critical Library) or T.S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men" date the work, but May's insights are still applicable and valuable. May believed that feeling anxious and hollow was a characteristic malady of the 1950's conservative and conformist "Organization Man;" I would counter that such feelings aren't the product of a particular society or era but more of an symptom of the inherently existentialist dilemmas of the human condition. Recommended.

May begins by identifying the common threads of modern men who possess attitudes of passivity, apathy, and boredom. These "hollow men" who are strangers to themselves, feel largely insignificant, harbor resentment towards the monotonous treadmills of life, fear abandon and isolation, suffer from directionless and despondency, and have little to look forward to. At the core is a loneliness and a floating, ubiquitous anxiety whose sources appear nebulous. But with psychological acumen, May attempts to shed light on these sources. An individual may be bereft of adequate stability, the progeny of worried parents, or the victim of cruel life events. But often individual difficulties are symptomatic of epidemics at large. May points out that we are in a transition age. In the twilight of religion, we inherit our values from long anonymous men while the vitality of their traditions is lost to us. The products of an industrial age, we lead vacuous lives of routine, while competitive rewards are few and far between and emptiness springs from powerlessness in a world at scale. And while the latter-day influence of science and reason is both momentous and pervasive, in expelling such "absurdities" as witchcraft, we also expelled our connection with imagination, wonder, and mystery, throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Still more discomforting is our tendency to combat such problems with maladaptive strategies: buttressing ourselves with authoritarian institutions that cater to our desires to be led by the absolutes of "authority and miracle" but only perpetuate our problem of dependence; averting inner confrontation with campaigns of busyness, self-pity, or intellectualization; and suspending our attentions from illuminating revelations to concerns of immediacy. We are raised to control our "uncivilized" emotions, to suppress our unconscious desires as bestial and barbaric, and to puritanically compartmentalize our now taboo sexual lives. In our Cartesian dichotomy of mind and body, we are understandably detached from our feelings. But under Freudian influence we realize the ego is less in control than we'd like to admit and possess occasional contempt for a consciousness regarded as weak but demanding with its many thou-shalt's and thou-shalt-not's.

While this does paint a bleak diagnosis, it does not imply a bleak prognosis. Anxiety implies conflict, and conflict (which in this age is often between Self and Society, or between different internalizations) can be harmonized. At present, our task is to learn how to live vibrantly, to learn how to embrace the "pregnant moment" by living each one with freedom, honesty, and responsibility. The starting place is self-awareness. In genuinely understanding and honoring our inward motives, we achieve a greater integrity of self, which is needed to move from dependence towards integration and freedom. Consciousness can help be our guide here, tapping into the deeper wisdoms of the self and the past. Learning how to attune to the unconscious is equally important. Inevitably, a leap is required. As we attempt to develop a deeper intimacy with ourselves, replacing dependency with individual values and choices is required, but naturally comes with doubt, imperfect acuity, and sometimes regret. Meeting anxiety with courage is the "will to live".

If it is any consolation, an unsettled world is a world in which man will certainly be forced to confront himself. Loss of innocence can be seen as the birth of spiritual man (see Adam and Prometheus) as opposed to a bitter end, loneliness or illness can be opportunities to cultivate inner resources and centers of strength (which we may have neglected to develop), anxiety can be perceived as a signal of conflict calling one's attention rather than a burden to bear, and fear of moving ahead into the unknown can be grounds for wonder, friendship, and love. In this era, the Socratic decree to "know thyself" becomes the most difficult task of all, but also the most important. This creative (and daily) process of transcendence demonstrates, to quote Miller, the "indestructible will of man to achieve his humanity".