On Rollo May’s Investigation Into Human’s Existence Plight

As one of the most famous existentialist psychologist，Rollo Maytook the existent state of people in the mid-20thcentury as his observingand studying object. From a critical perspective, Rollo May scanned themodern capitalist society and people’s living conditions. Rollo May hadacute insight into the breakdown of the value system of the westernsociety and the dissimilation of people in every aspect behind thesuperficial economic and material prosperity. Rollo May found thissociety sick and viewed the people living there morbid. Thus he pointed itout that the modern western society was moving backward and theirpeople was sinking into depression.Based on existentialism and phenomenological methodology,critically absorbed psycho-analysis, with the existence of people as thecore philosophy and keeping abreast with current conditions, Rollo Mayrevealed that modern people, in the rapid development of technology, aremoving further and further from their existence, which leads to theimpersonal existence. Starting critically from the European psychology,Rollo May proposed his unique theoretical viewpoints and formed theexistential-analytic psychology.This paper aims to give a specific illustration of Rollo May’s exploration of human’s existence dilemma and its practical significance.Firstly, it discussed the theoretical basis of the existence philosophynamely existential-analytic viewpoint, and presented Rollo May’sinterpretation of human’s existence and the three ways of existence.Secondly, it made a description of the modern man’s existence dilemma,gave an analysis of Rollo May’s interpretation from psychologicalrepresentation and social characterization point of view and listed RolloMay’s constructive solutions to these issues.Finally a comprehensiveevaluation of Rollo May’s idea was given so as to analyze its positive andinsufficient aspects and its contribution to the guidance for China’sdevelopment.