Dmitry Leontiev read for us the book by Rollo May “Man in Search of Himself”.
“This book was written by Rollo Maine 60 years ago, it is about the “age of anxiety”, the loss of value and integrity of the human person in post-war America. But as it turns out, these difficulties also resonate with our experiences today. After all, both a society that has achieved material prosperity and a bureaucratic state dictate to a person in their own way strict rules of existence, forcing him to abandon his own goals and objectives and live a life that is not his own. Acting according to given (from outside) algorithms, “hollow people”, in the words of the poet Thomas Eliot, do not understand well what they really want. Their passivity and apathy inevitably accompanies the fear of loneliness, and in addition, the anxiety associated with a sense of threat to something significant increases. Many feel that “playing by the rules” brings them suffering, that they have given up on things without which they can hardly breathe, without which they cannot live. Mei shows the ways in which you can return to yourself and maintain individuality even in an alienated and unfriendly world.
Rollo May (1909-1994)
An outstanding American psychologist, one of the founders and leaders of humanistic psychology, the author of many books, including the best guide for professionals, The Art of Psychological Counseling (IOI, 2012).
“Man’s Search for Himself” Rollo MayInstitute for Humanitarian Research, 224 p.
In order to become oneself, the psychologist claims, it is important to break the psychological umbilical cord that connects a person with parents and the social environment – to overcome one’s dependence on their goals, values, tastes, worldview … This requires intense inner work, even courage: a person generally does not like to spend oneself, and this applies even more to mental and spiritual efforts than to physical ones. But only by getting rid of all sorts of unconscious addictions, we gain true freedom. May defines her as the ability to influence one’s own development – to set personal goals and objectives, to find one’s own perspective. May later devoted an entire book to the psychology of freedom, Freedom and Destiny (Norton & Co, 1981), but his reflections on this are already here. In particular, the idea of creativity and religion as the most important resources that each of us can rely on along the way.
Despite the absence in the Russian edition of the last, most interesting chapter of the original book, devoted to the relationship of man with time, despite some annoying inaccuracies in translation and editing, on the whole the book is read with pleasure. And those who are ready to fight for themselves in the world of “hollow people” will find a valuable ally in the person of Rollo May.