Psychologists

Rollo May

Citation Formats

General Reference

Psychology Atlas. "Rollo May." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-psychology.interactiveatlas.org/psychologists/rollo-may.

APA Style

Psychology Atlas. (n.d.). Rollo May. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-psychology.interactiveatlas.org/psychologists/rollo-may

BibTeX

@misc{psychologyatlas-rollo-may,
  author = {Psychology Atlas},
  title = {Rollo May},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-psychology.interactiveatlas.org/psychologists/rollo-may},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Rollo May (1909 to 1994) was an American existential psychologist and psychotherapist, trained at Union Theological Seminary and Teachers College, Columbia University. He became a major proponent of existential psychotherapy in the United States and was a founder and faculty member of the Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center in San Francisco. The philosopher and theologian Paul Tillich was a close friend who influenced his work.

Facts

Birth Date

1909-04-21 1

Birth Year

1909 1

Death Date

1994-10-22 1

Death Year

1994 1

Birthplace

Ada, Ohio 1

Death Place

Tiburon, California 1

Nationality / Culture

American 1

Defining Contribution

Introduced existentialism to American psychologists and remained its best known proponent in the United States, drawing on Kierkegaard, Freud and the theologian Paul Tillich to build an existential account of anxiety and human freedom. 2

Notable Work

Love and Will (1969) 1

Notable Work

The Courage to Create (1975) 1

Notable Work

The Meaning of Anxiety (1950, revised 1977) 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

Schools Founded

Existential Psychology

The Meaning of Anxiety (1950) is the work credited with introducing existential thought to American psychology; the wider existential movement drew on earlier European work by Ludwig Binswanger and Medard Boss.

Source LibreTexts: Rollo May and Existential Psychology

Sources

1. Wikipedia: Rollo May

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