May

Question 1

Existentialism

Answer 1

A field of psychology that combines existentialist philosophy and psychoanalytic concepts.

Question 2

Who were the two main philosophers in which existential analysis was derived.

Answer 2

René Pascal and Soren Kierkegaard

Question 3

Kierkegaard’s three books

Answer 3

Sickness Unto Death: What happens when we look to our past
Fear and Trembling: What happens when we look to our future
Ether/or: Why it is better to look to our future over our past

Question 4

How did May define being?

Answer 4

as our struggle through the use of conscious, decision-making to realize our potentials.

Question 5

What are the three modes of being in the world?

Answer 5

Umwelt

Mitwelt

Eingenwelt

Question 6

Umwelt

Answer 6

the biological or natural environment in which human beings exist.

Question 7

Mitwelt

Answer 7

world of our interrelationships

Question 8

Eigenwelt

Answer 8

the unique presence in human beings of self-awareness and self relatedness.

Question 9

What are the five reasons why May argued that it is difficult for Human beings to hang on to values as it becomes more technological?

Answer 9

1. A change from healthy competitive attitudes to a hyper-competitive attitude
2. Loss of our belief in the efficacy of reason.
3. Loss of our sense of dignity and self-worth.
4. Loss of our sense of relatedness to nature.
5. Loss of our ability to relate to each other in a mature, loving way.

Question 10

What are May’s consequences of disintegration of moral values?

Answer 10

1. Feelings of emptiness in isolation from one another.
2. Feelings of powerlessness.
3. Feelings of loneliness.
4. Feelings of anxiety and avoidance of taking responsibility for our actions; normal anxiety is a painful feeling that emanates from a realistic threat to our established values.
5. Neurotic anxiety is a very painful feeling produced by an excessive reaction to a threat to our values

Question 11

How do we break our physical and psychological dependence on our parents? In order to expand our consciousness?

Answer 11

1. Innocence – before self-consciousness.
2. Rebellion – establishing an inner strength through defiance.
3. Ordinary consciousness – learning from our past experiences, and with some awareness of prejudices and limitations.
4. Creative consciousness – discerning truth; rising above subjectivity