Freedom and DestinyThe popular psychoanalyst examines the continuing tension in our lives between the possibilities that freedom offers and the various limitations imposed upon us by our particular fate or destiny. "May is an existential analyst who deservedly enjoys a reputation among both general and critical readers as an accessible and insightful social and psychological theorist. . . . Freedom's characteristics, fruits, and problems; destiny's reality; death; and therapy's place in the confrontation between freedom and destiny are examined. . . . Poets, social critics, artists, and other thinkers are invoked appropriately to support May's theory of freedom and destiny's interdependence."—Library Journal "Especially instructive, even stunning, is Dr. May's willingness to respect mystery. . . .There is, too, at work throughout the book a disciplined yet relaxed clinical mind, inclined to celebrate . . . what Flannery O'Connor called 'mystery and manners,' and to do so in a tactful, meditative manner."—Robert Coles, America |
Contents
The Uniqueness of Freedom | 5 |
The Hypocrisies of Freedom | 11 |
To Set People Free | 18 |
II | 24 |
The Fear of Abandonment 30 | 30 |
The Confronting of Mother | 37 |
The GreenBlue Lad | 45 |
The Dynamics of Freedom | 52 |
The Threat of Loss of Self | 136 |
The Myth of Narcissus and Revenge | 144 |
Freedom from Barriers | 150 |
IX | 163 |
Creativity and the Symbol | 170 |
The Psyche and the Ego | 177 |
Anxiety and the Pause | 187 |
Dogmatism Is Fear of Freedom | 194 |
Growing in Freedom | 60 |
IV | 66 |
Freedom and Rebellion | 72 |
V | 83 |
Destiny and Responsibility | 96 |
VI | 102 |
Witchcraft and the Projection of Destiny | 109 |
Destiny and the Poets | 122 |
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Common terms and phrases
accept acupuncture Angelus Silesius anger anxiety asked aspect of destiny authentic aware B. F. Skinner become believe called capacity comes concept confront consciousness creative culture death Demeter despair devil dignity emotional essential freedom evil experience fact fate fear feel Freud gives Goethe Grand Inquisitor green-blue lad human Ibid inner J. W. N. Sullivan James Farmer Kierkegaard Lasch live loneliness Macbeth means ment mind mother mystics myth narcissism never Nicole Nikolai Berdyayev one's destiny one's freedom oneself ourselves pain paradox patient Paul Tillich pause personal freedom Philip poem poet possibilities present problems psyche-self psychology psychotherapy question rational rebellion relation repressed responsibility Richard Farson seems sense sex without intimacy sexual Skinner society speak spirit struggle talk therapist therapy things tion true values W. B. Yeats witchcraft witches women word writes York Zeus