A collection of quotes by Rollo May on psychotherapy, philosophy, theology, life, solitude, introspection, relationships, purpose, strength, myth and inspiration.
44 Notable Quotes By Rollo May, The Father Of American Existential Psychotherapy
The legendary American psychologist Rollo May was also known as the Father of American Existential Psychotherapy’. In the early days of his career, he worked as an English teacher in Greece and attended seminars conducted by the famous psychoanalyst Alfred Adler during his holidays. These seminars encouraged him to study theology and he completed his Bachelors in Divinity. On his return to the U.S he was offered the position of a Congregationalist minister. He resigned from his position in a couple of years to study psychology and was the first student to be awarded a Ph.D. in clinical psychology by the University of Columbia. He further went on to teach in various top schools of the country and wrote many books on psychology. He was awarded for some books like ‘Love and Will’ which brought him the ‘Ralph Waldo Emerson Award’ for humane scholarship. His most acclaimed book was ‘Existence’ which introduced the concept of existential psychology. He was awarded the ‘American Psychological Foundation Gold Medal Award’ for ‘Lifetime Contributions to Professional Psychology’. These quotes by Rollo May on psychology, theology and philosophy will definitely answer some of your riddles about life.
The relationship between commitment and doubt is by no means an antagonistic one. Commitment is healthiest when it is not without doubt, but in spite of doubt. (p. 21)
It is interesting to note how many of the great scientific discoveries begin as myths.
Rollo May
One of the few blessings of living in an age of anxiety is that we are forced to become aware of ourselves.
Rollo May
It is highly significant and indeed almost a rule, that moral courage has its source in such identification through one's own sensitivity with suffering of one's fellow human beings." (p. 16-17)
Rollo May
When we are dealing with human beings, no truth has reality by itself; it is always dependent upon the reality of the immediate relationship.
Courage is not a virtue or value among other personal values like love o fidelity. It is the foundations that underlies and gives reality to all other virtue and personal values. (p. 13)
Artistic symbols and myths speak out of the primordial, preconscious realm of the mind which is powerful and chaotic. Both symbol and myth are ways of bringing order and form into this chaos.
Rollo May
It is dangerous to know, but it is more dangerous not to know.
Rollo May
Poets may be delightful creatures in the meadow or the garret, but they are menaces on the assembly line.
Rollo May
If you do not express your own original ideas, if you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself." -Rollo May
Rollo May
There can be no stronger proof of the impoverishment of our contemporary culture than the popular - though profoundly mistaken - definition of myth as falsehood.
There is no meaningful "yes" unless the individual could also have said "no.
Rollo May
Depression is the inability to construct a future.
Rollo May
Our powerful hunger for myth is a hunger for community. The person without a myth is a person without a home...To be a member of one's community is to share in its myths...
Rollo May
I became a psychotherapist because that's where people will unburden themselves, where they will show what is in their hearts.
Rollo May
One central need in life is to fulfill its own potential.
In other words, the most common problem now is not social taboos on sexual activity or guilt feeling about sex in itself, but the fact that sex for so many people is an empty, mechanical and vacuous experience.
The battle with the gods thus hinges on our own mortality! Creativity is a yearning for immortality.
Rollo May
Life is not a matter for simple optimism--for there is evil; nor for mere pessimism--for there is good. The possibility for good in the face of evil is what gives life tragic meaning.
The “stuffed men” are bound to become more lonely no matter how much they “lean together”; for hollow people do not have a base from which to learn to love.
Rollo May
Suppose the apprehension of beauty is itself a way to truth? Suppose that “elegance”—as the word is used by physicists to describe their discoveries—is a key to ultimate reality?
Rollo May
By the creative act, however, we are able to reach beyond our own death. This is why creativity is so important and why we need to confront the problem of the relationship between creativity and death.
Whereas moral courage is the righting of wrongs, creative courage, in contrast, is the discovering of new forms, new symbols, new patterns on which a new society can be built.
Rollo May
Terapinin amacı uyumdur demek, teraistin, toplumun psiÅŸik polisi olması demektir; bu role mesela ben ÅŸiddetle karşı çıkıyorum
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