Man’s Search for Himself

– Rollo May

If you dare to look where everyone tells you not to look, confront the dragon of all chaos, and voluntary explore unknown territory with the purpose of knowing yourself better, this is a book you should read. Rollo May explores the struggle to be, the roots of our malady, loneliness and anxiety, freedom and inner strength, creative conscience, courage and the virtue of maturity. First written in 1953, but still immensely precise to our time.

An excerpt from the book:

“The greater a person’s awareness of himself, the more he can acquire the wisdom of his fathers to make it his. It is the persons who are weak in the sense of their own personal identity who are overcome by the power of tradition, who cannot stand in its presence, and who therefore either capitulate to it, cut themselves off from it, or rebel against it. One of the distinguishing marks of strength as a self is the capacity to immerse one’s self in tradition and at the same time be one’s own unique self.” 

Rollo May (1909-1994) was an influential existential psychologist and author of several books. In Man’s Search for Himself he explores loneliness, boredom and emptiness; many of the complaints he encountered over and over again from his patients. In the book he probes the hidden layers of personality to reveal the core of man’s integration – a basic and inborn sense of value. Man’s Search for Himself is an illuminating view of our predicament in an age of overwhelming anxieties, and gives guidance on how to choose, judge and act during such times.

Read. Reflect. Repeat.

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