Man's Search for Himself

Great book everyone should read at least once in a lifetime. I have so much liked his writings I will get all his books! His words make sense and relate to the today world very well!

Perfect for gift!

Rollo May's understanding on the pressures of being human in this world are extraordinary. Writing in the shadow of World War Two, and the recent ending of the Korean war with its fears of global destruction, May introduces the idea of a new anxiety that treatens the person from the outside. Because of this, he sees a greater emphasis put on the familial, and interpersonal relationships of life. His emphasis on the "morbid dependencey," on mother, the regressive giving up of one's responsible growing up into maturity is quite profound. His chapter entitled, "THE STRUGGLE TO BE," with its sections called "Cutting The Psychological Umbilical Cord," and "The Struggle Against Mother," are very relevant to our own time even though May wrote nearly fifty years ago. Also the way May describes the loneliness, anxiety, guilt, and purposelessness of modern man hits the mark of the 21st century's post-modern environment. May's use of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Fromm, Eliot, Freud, Spinoza, Tillich, Goethe, Kafka, and Jesus in relevant and understandable ways, shows the breath of his scholarship. He writes as one who is in the midst of his cultural commentary. As a practicing psychoanalyst, and existential philosopher he describes the depth of a person's struggles with his/her own essential meanings, and the height of the society's struggle with dealing with the trivializtions of the important issues of life. Rollo May has given us a masterpiece on understanding the predicament that so many people find themselves in: estrangement from themselves, from God, from other people, and from their own culture.

Many of Rollo May's ideas on how society is shaped and the problems arising in our culture are even more prevalent in our current age, and the fact he was able to figure all this out during that time shows how ignorant we are for letting these problems spread to even greater lengths.This book has given me many insights throughout only 200 pages, giving me much to think about in terms of how I should process and integrate the information and where I now want to take my life.

Book in fab shape and arrived on time. Only read a few pages so can't review but it's looking good.