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Love and Will

May, Rollo
35 USD
Date
1969
Category
Psychology
Description
Love and Will (1969) is a book by American existential psychologist Rollo May, in which he articulates the principle that an awareness of death is essential to life, rather than being opposed to life.[1] The book explores how the modern loss of older values, whose structures and stories provided society with explanations of the mysteries of life, forces contemporary humanity to choose between finding meaning within themselves or deciding that neither oneself, nor life, has meaning.[1] May argues that the core issue informing modern Western man's struggles is the failure to understand the significance, origin, and dynamic interrelationship between love and will.
Excerpt
The striking thing about love and will in our day is that, whereas In the past they we’re always held up to us as he answer to life’s Predicaments, they have now themselves become the problem. It Is always 5rue that and will become more difficult in a transitional age; and ours is an era of radical transition. The old myths and symbols by which reoriented ourselves are gone, anxiety is ram- pant; we cling to each other and try to persuade ourselves that What we feel is love; we do not will because we are afraid that if We choose one thing or one person we’ll lose the other, and we Are too insecure to take that chance. The bottom then drops out of the conjunctive emotions and process—of which love and will are the two foremost examples. The individual is forced to turn in- ward; he becomes obsessed with the new form of the problem of Identity, namely, Even-if-I-know-who-I-am, I-have-no-significance. I am unable to influence others. The next step is apathy. And the step following that is violence. For no human being can stand the Perpetually numbing experience of his own powerlessness
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