Rollo May
Anxiety is the price of freedom
The American psychologist who brought European existential thought into the heart of humanistic psychology.
techniques
Courage is not the absence of despair; it is the capacity to move ahead in spite of it.
Who they were
Rollo May spent a long convalescence from tuberculosis reading Kierkegaard, and emerged convinced that anxiety was not merely a symptom to be cured but a signal of the freedom and responsibility that come with being human. He argued that confronting our limits — even death — is what allows courage, will, and creativity to take root. His writing gave American readers a vocabulary for living meaningfully in an age of doubt. He remains a central voice in existential and humanistic psychology.
Famous books
What they left on the shelf
Terms they cared about
Ideas worth knowing
Their big idea
Existential Psychology
Rollo May placed anxiety and freedom at the center of the human condition, seeing dread not only as a symptom but as the price of being able to choose. To live fully, he wrote, asks for courage, the quiet nerve to create our lives and own our choices.
The approach they founded
Logotherapy
Built on the search for meaning. Even in suffering, we can choose our stance and find a reason to go on.
Questions in their spirit
What they’d ask you
Sit with one. Answer online, or in the app.
Carry the idea forward
May — What they’d ask you
Psipas asks you one small, honest question at a time — and builds the picture from your answers.