Name: Psyche and Soul in America By Robert H. Abzug (Audre and Bernard Rapoport Regents Chair of Jewish Studies and Professor of History and American Studies Emeritus, Audre and Bernard Rapoport Regents Chair of Jewish Studies and Professor of History and American Studies Emeritus, University of Texas at Austin)
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Psyche and Soul in America Summary

Psyche and Soul in America: The Spiritual Odyssey of Rollo May by Robert H. Abzug (Audre and Bernard Rapoport Regents Chair of Jewish Studies and Professor of History and American Studies Emeritus, Audre and Bernard Rapoport Regents Chair of Jewish Studies and Professor of History and American Studies Emeritus, University of Texas at Austin)

In post-World War II America and especially during the turbulent 1960s and 1970s, the psychologist Rollo May contributed profoundly to the popular and professional response to a widely felt sense of personal emptiness amid a culture in crisis. May addressed the sources of depression, powerlessness, and conformity but also mapped a path to restore authentic individuality, intimacy, creativity, and community. A psychotherapist by trade, he employed theology, philosophy, literature, and the arts to answer a central enduring question: How, then, shall we live? Robert Abzug's definitive biography traces May's epic life from humble origins in the Protestant heartland of the Midwest to his longtime practice in New York City and his participation in the therapeutic culture of California. May's books-Love and Will, Man's Search for Himself, The Courage to Create, and others-as well as his championing of non-medical therapeutic practice and introduction of Existential psychotherapy to America marked important contributions to the profession. Most of all, May's compelling prose reached millions of readers from all walks of life, finding their place, as Noah Adams noted in his NPR eulogy, on a hippy's bookshelf. And May was one of the founders of the humanistic psychology movement that has shaped the very vocabulary with which many Americans describe their emotional and spiritual lives. Based on full and uncensored access to May's papers and original oral interviews, Psyche and Soul in America reveals his turbulent inner life, his religious crises, and their influence on his contribution to the world of psychotherapy and the culture beyond. It adds new and intimate dimensions to an important aspect of America's romance with therapy, as the site for the exploration of spiritual strivings and moral dilemmas unmet for many by traditional religion.

Psyche and Soul in America Reviews

Abzug illuminates psychology's role in relation to religion in an American cultural context through an insightful and contextualized retelling of one of the major figures of religion and psychology in the twentieth century. This book will interes pastors, pastoral counselors, and historians alike. * Aaron Klink, Religious Studies Review *
Abzug offers a scholarly account of the life and career of Rollo May (1909-94), one of the 20th century's most influential psychologists and psychotherapists. Abzug makes liberal use of May's personal diaries and testimonies from interviews with his associates. The text describes May's ministerial and psychoanalytic training and his emergence as a co-founder of humanistic psychology and the practitioner most responsible for the 'Americanization' of existential psychotherapy. Abzug also traces May's career as a best-selling author (e.g., Love and Will, published in 1969), political activist, and public intellectual. He follows May personally through an early bout with tuberculosis, three marriages, his execution of several splendid paintings, and his delving into the tragic aspects of the human condition.... Recommended. All readers. * Choice *
As a mid-century public intellectual, Rollo May became the foremost American exponent of existentialism in religion and psychology. Now, in what will surely be a defining assessment, Robert Abzug melds social history, intimate biography, and a masterly explication of the work to introduce or reintroduce readers to Rollo May. * Peter D. Kramer, Brown University *
Robert Abzug expertly weaves together Rollo May's tumultuous personal life and pathbreaking work in this comprehensive, thoroughly absorbing, and remarkably intimate biography. An intrepid explorer of anxiety, emptiness, and boredom, as well as of LSD, sex, and the counterculture, May brought European existentialism to American readers in a comprehensible and appealing form. A celebrity psychologist in his day, May and his writings on the contours of a meaningful life are all the more pertinent in our own anxious, turbulent times. * Elizabeth Lunbeck, author of The Americanization of Narcissism *
Making his way from small-town Michigan Christianity to Manhattan psychoanalysis and San Francisco Bay Area spirituality, May's talents - 'working with people' and helping them 'by means of ideas' - produced a deeply American contribution to the perennial problem of living soulfully with human contradiction. In Robert H. Abzug, Rollo May, who described himself as a 'wounded healer,' has found a biographer who does justice to his lifelong quest for thoughtful soulcraft and the higher reaches of self-help. * Todd Gitlin, author of The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage *
Abzug reminds us of Rollo May's continuing relevance to our personal lives and the life of our country. May's insights into the union of outer and inner life speaks to us in good times and bad, connects us with our past, and gives us hope. You will be glad you've read this book. * Senator Bill Bradley *

About Robert H. Abzug (Audre and Bernard Rapoport Regents Chair of Jewish Studies and Professor of History and American Studies Emeritus, Audre and Bernard Rapoport Regents Chair of Jewish Studies and Professor of History and American Studies Emeritus, University of Texas at Austin)

Robert H. Abzug is Audre and Bernard Rapoport Regents Chair of Jewish Studies and Professor of History and American Studies at the University of Texas. He is the author of Cosmos Crumbling: American Reform and the Religious Imagination (OUP, 1994), Passionate Liberator: Theodore Dwight Weld and the Dilemma of Reform (OUP, 1980),and an abridged edition of William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience.

Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1 Epitome of America Chapter 2 A Deep Craving, A Keen Urge Chapter 3 I Must Change My Life Chapter 4 Art and Adler Chapter 5 Courageous Evolution chapter 6 Toward the Unconditional Realm Chapter 7 I will not become a professional Christian Chapter 8 Rasputin, Shelley, Van Gogh and Fosdick in One Chapter 9 The Choice of a Mate Chapter 10 Paul Tillich Chapter 11 Life Affirming Religion Chapter 12 Therapist for Humanity Chapter 13 The More Difficult War Within Chapter 14 Such a Blow Just Now Chapter 15 Saranac Chapter 16 The Most Important Thing Chapter 17 Embracing a New Profession Chapter 18 Existential Calling Chapter 19 Freedom in the Face of Fate Chapter 20 Kairos and Void Chapter 21 The Dizziness of Freedom Chapter 22 Love and Will Chapter 23 Power and Innocence Chapter 24 I Don't Have Time to Die Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index

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Sku

GOR013471602

ISBN 13

9780199754373

ISBN 10

0199754373

Title

Psyche and Soul in America: The Spiritual Odyssey of Rollo May by Robert H. Abzug (Audre and Bernard Rapoport Regents Chair of Jewish Studies and Professor of History and American Studies Emeritus, Audre and Bernard Rapoport Regents Chair of Jewish Studies and Professor of History and American Studies Emeritus, University of Texas at Austin)

Author

Robert H. Abzug (Audre and Bernard Rapoport Regents Chair of Jewish Studies and Professor of History and American Studies Emeritus, Audre and Bernard Rapoport Regents Chair of Jewish Studies and Professor of History and American Studies Emeritus, University of Texas at Austin)

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Used - Very Good

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Hardback

Publisher

Oxford University Press Inc

Year published

20210401

Number of pages

544

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N/A

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This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

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Psyche and Soul in America Summary

Psyche and Soul in America Reviews

About Robert H. Abzug (Audre and Bernard Rapoport Regents Chair of Jewish Studies and Professor of History and American Studies Emeritus, Audre and Bernard Rapoport Regents Chair of Jewish Studies and Professor of History and American Studies Emeritus, University of Texas at Austin)

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