May, rollo freedom and destiny (norton, 1981)

FREEDOM AND DESTINY FREEDOM AND DESTINY Rollo May Contents Foreword One: The Crisis of Freedom I The Present Crisis of Freedom The Uniqueness of Freedom The Hypocrisies of Freedom Therapy: To Set People Free II One Man’s Passage The Fear of Abandonment The Acknowledging of Destiny The Confronting of Mother Little Philip Anger as a Path to Freedom The Green-Blue Lad Loneliness and Rebirth III The Dynamics of Freedom Freedom of Doing, or Existential Freedom Freedom of Being, or Essential Freedom Is There a Conflict between Freedom of Doing and Freedom of Being? Growing in Freedom IV The Paradoxes of Freedom The Grand Inquisitor Freedom and Rebellion Freedom as Participation V On Human Destiny From Determinism to Destiny What Is Destiny? Destiny and Responsibility VI Destiny and Death The Poignance of the Transient Witchcraft and the Projection of Destiny Destiny and the Poets The Uses of Destiny Two: Mistaken Paths to Freedom VII The New Narcissism The Threat of Loss of Self “If I Am Me, Will I Be Free?” The Myth of Narcissus and Revenge VIII Is Sex without Intimacy Freedom? Freedom from Barriers Sensation without Emotion The Lost Power of Eros Three: Characteristics of Freedom IX The Significance of the Pause The Language of Silence Time and the Pause Creativity and the Symbol Leisure and the Pause The Psyche and the Ego Meditation and the Holy Void X The Dizziness of Freedom Anxiety and the Pause Anxiety and Discovery The Anxious Prophet Dogmatism Is Fear of Freedom XI Freedom and Destiny in Illness and Health Western Medicine and the Great Revolution Acupuncture and the Oriental Influence in Western Medicine The Balance between Illness and Health Four: The Fruits of Freedom XII The Renewal of Life Freedom and the Human Spirit The Authentic Mystics Compassion and the Meaning of Evil Forgiveness and Mercy XIII Despair and Joy The Values of Despair Despair in Therapy The Link between Despair and Joy The Nature of Joy Notes Index Foreword This morning a friend and I canoed out on a perfectly still and silent New Hampshire lake The only ripple on the water’s surface came from a great blue heron as it languidly took off from a patch of water lilies and headed for some secret spot farther into the swamp, undisturbed even by canoes Amid this serenity, which seemed to cloak the lake and forests and mountains with a preternatural harmony and peace, my friend surprised me with the remark that today was Independence Day Whatever noisy celebrations were going on seemed far, far away from this quiet world But being in New England, one could not keep from one’s mind the images of lanterns being in the belfry of Old North Church, Bunker Hill, and the shots, fired by New England farmers, destined to be heard round the world Political freedom is to be cherished indeed But there is no political freedom that is not indissolubly bound to the inner personal freedom of the individuals who make up that nation, no liberty of a nation of conformists, no free nation made up of robots This book seeks to illuminate this inner personal freedom underlying political liberty When I mention political liberty in the following pages, it will be generally as illustration This personal freedom to think and feel and speak authentically and to be conscious of so doing is the quality that distinguishes us as human Always in paradox with one’s destiny, this freedom is the foundation of human values such as love, courage, honesty Freedom is how we relate to our destiny, and destiny is significant only because we have freedom In the struggle of our freedom against and with destiny, our creativity and our civilizations themselves are born Rollo May July 1981 Holderness, New Hampshire One The Crisis of Freedom I The Present Crisis of Freedom The true end of Man … is the highest and most harmonious development of his powers to a complete and consistent whole Freedom is the first and indispensable condition which the possibility of such a development presupposes —KARL WILHELM VON HUMBOLDT “Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose.” —K KRISTOFFERSON AND F FOSTER, “Me & Bobby McGee” It is a startling fact that freedom has been considered, throughout human history, so precious that hundreds of thousands of human beings have willingly died for it This love of freedom is seen not only in venerated persons like Giordano Bruno, who died at the stake for his freedom of belief, and Galileo, who whispered to himself in the face of the Inquisition that the earth does move around the sun, but it is also true for hosts of people whose names are forever unsung and unknown Freedom must have some profound meaning, some basic relation to the “core” of being human, to be the object of such devotion Many people still assume that they and their countrymen should be ready to die for freedom This feeling typically takes the form of patriotism Other persons who would not agree that political freedom is worth dying for would nevertheless state the same thing about psychological and spiritual freedom—the right to think and to command one’s own attitude free from the 1984 type of spiritual surveillance For reasons that are endless in their variety and that are demonstrated from the beginning of history down to the freedom marches and freedom rides of this century, the principle of freedom is considered more precious than life itself We have only to glance at the long line of illustrious persons to see that, in the past at least, freedom, in the words of Henrik Ibsen, was “our finest treasure.” Jean Jacques Rousseau was profoundly impressed by the fact that people will “endure hunger, fire, the sword and death to preserve only their independence.” About freedom he continues: Human beings “sacrifice pleasures, repose, wealth, power and life itself for the preservation of this sole good.”* Kant joined in the defense of freedom against those who argued that the terror of the French Revolution showed that the masses of people were unfit for freedom “To accept the principle,” wrote Kant, “that freedom is worthless for those under one’s control and that one has the right to refuse it to them forever, is an infringement of the rights of God himself, who has created man to be free.” Similarly Schelling made a passionate defense of freedom: “The whole of knowledge has no status if it is not supported by something which maintains itself by its own power,” and “this is nothing but … freedom.” Again, he writes, “Philosophy … [is] a pure product of a free human being, and itself an act of freedom… The first postulate of all philosophy, to act freely in its own terms, seems as necessary … as the first postulate of geometry, to draw a straight line Just as little as the .. .FREEDOM AND DESTINY FREEDOM AND DESTINY Rollo May Contents Foreword One: The Crisis of Freedom I The Present Crisis of Freedom The Uniqueness of Freedom The Hypocrisies of Freedom Therapy:... Freedom Freedom of Being, or Essential Freedom Is There a Conflict between Freedom of Doing and Freedom of Being? Growing in Freedom IV The Paradoxes of Freedom The Grand Inquisitor Freedom and. .. Rebellion Freedom as Participation V On Human Destiny From Determinism to Destiny What Is Destiny? Destiny and Responsibility VI Destiny and Death The Poignance of the Transient Witchcraft and the