FREEDOM AND DESTINY By the Same Author LOVE AND WILL MAN'S SEARCH FOR HIMSELF POWER AND INNOCENCE THE MEANING OF ANXIETY THE COURAGE TO CREATE PSYCHOLOGY AND THE HUMAN DILEMMA FREEDOM AND DESTINY by Rollo May A A DELTA BOOK A DELTA BOOK Published by . Dell Publishing Co., Inc. 1 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza . New York, New York 10017 Copyright 1981by Rollo May ' All rights reserved. For information address . W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, New York. Delta @ TM 755118,Dell Publishing Co., Inc. ' ISBN: 0-440-53012-1 ' ' Reprinted by arrangement with W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. Printed in the United States of America First Delta printing Contents s Foreword xi ?Ile : The Crisis of Freedom 1 The Present Crisis of Freedom 3 1. The Uniquenessof Freedom 5 2. TheHypocrisies of Freedom 111 3. Tberapy:To Set PeopleFree I 8S II1 One Man's Passage 24 1. TheFear of Abandonment 30 2. TheAcknowledging of Destiny 32 3. The Mother 37 Confrontingof . 4. Little Philip 39 5. Angeras a Path to Freedom 41 6. TheGreen-Blue Lad 4S 7. Lonelinessand Rebirth 48 vi Contents III The Dynamics of Freedom 522 l. Freedom or Existential Freedom 533 of Doing, ' 2. Freedomof Being, or Essential Freedom 55 3. Is There a Conflict betweenFreedom of Doingand Freedomof Being? 60 4. Growing in Freedom 62 IV I V . The Paradoxes of Freedom 66 1. The Grand Inquisitor 68 2. Freedomand Rebellion 72 3. Freedomas Participation 777 ' ° ' ' v On Human Destiny 8J 1. From Determinismto Destiny %6 2. What Is Destiny? 88 3. Destiny and Responsibility 96 ' . VI Î . Destiny and Death , 102 1. The Poignanceof the Transient 104 2. Witchcraft and the Projection of Destiny 1(W 3. Destiny and the Ports 4. The Usesof Destins Contents vii TWO: Mistaken Paths to Freedom VII 1 The New Narcissism 135 1. The Threat Loss 136 of of Self " 2. "If 1 Am Me, Will 1 Be Free?" 140 3. The Myth of Narcissusand Revenge 144 VIII 1 Is Sex without Intimacy Freedom? 148 1: Freedom fromBarriers I SO 2. Sensation without Emotion 1 S2 3. Tbe Lost Power of Eros 1 S4 Three: Characteristics of Freedom _ IX The Significance of the Pause 163 1.The Language of Silence 165 2. Time and the Pause 167 3. Creativity and the Symbol 1 ?0 4. Leisureand the Pause 175 5. The Psycheand the Ego 1777 6. Meditation and the Holy Void 180 vüi Contents X The Dizziness of Freedom 185 1. Anxiety and the Pause 187 2. Anxiety and Discovery 189 3. The Anxious Prophet 192 4. DogmatismIs Fear of Freedom 194 XI 1 Freedom and Destiny in Illness and Health 204 1. WesternMedicine and the Great Revolution 205 2. Acupuncture and the Orientai Influencein WesternMedicine 208 3. The Balance betweenIllness and Health 212 Four: The Fruits of Freedom . XII Î _ f= The Renewal of Life 219 1. Freedomand the Human Spirit 220 2. The Authentic Mystics 222 3. Compassionand the Meaning of Evil 224 4. Forgivenessand Mercy 229 Contents ix XIII Î Despair and Joy 234 1. The Values of Despair 2355 2. Despair in Therapy 236 3. The Link between Despair and Joy 238 4. The Nature of Joy 241 Notes 245 Index 263 Foreword This morning a friend and 1 canoed out on a perfectly still and silent New Hampshire lake. The only ripple on the water's sur- face 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 hung 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 per- sonal 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 authenti- cally and to be conscious of so doing is the quality that distin- guishes 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 civiliza- tions themselves are born. Rollo May July 1981 Holderness, New Hampshire One The Crisis of Freedom 1 The Present Crisis of Freedom Tbetrue endof Man... is the highestand mostbarmonious develop- mentof hispowers to a completeand consistentwhole. Freedom is thp fzrstand indispensablecondition which the possibility of sucha devel- opmentpresupposes. ' - KARL WILHELM VON HUMBOLDT " ' ' ' "Freedom's justanother word fornothin' left to lose. - K. KRISTOFFERSONANDF. FOSTER,"Me dT' BOl)by McGee" It is a startling fact that freedom has been considered, throughout human history, so precious that hundreds of thou- sands 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 Gali- leo, 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 3 4 Freedomand Destiny 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 pro- foundly 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 prin- ciple," wrote Kant, "that freedom is worthless for those under one's control and that one has the right to refuse it to them for- ever, is an of the of God himself, who has infringement" rights 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 *A longline of peopleof wisdomhave held that the capacityfor and degreeof freedomare the distinguishingqualities of the humanbeing in contrastto other animals.Rousseau, 1 believe,oversimplified the problemof freedomin his crea- tionof the "noblesavage" and whenhe stated"man is bornfree, and everywhere he is in chains."Nevertheless, he had someprofound insights. He scornedthe presumptionof those who attempt to explainhuman nature with the same mechanicsthey use for animalnature. The latter "cannotaccount for man's freedomand consciousnessof his freedom." The difference,Rousseau continues, is "that naturealone does everything in the operationsof thebeast, whereas man contributes to hisoperations by being a freeagent. The formerchooses or tejectsby instinctand the latterby an act of freedom... it is not so muchunderstanding which constitutes the distinctionof man amongthe animaisas it is his beinga free agent.Nature commands every animal,and the beastobeys. Man feels the sameimpetus, but he realizesthat he is freeto acquiesceor resist;and it is aboveall in the consciousnessof thisfreedom that the spiritualityof hissoul is shown."This is cited by NoamChomsky, For Reasons of State(New York: Vintage, 1973), p. 392. The Present Crisis of Freedom 5 in its own terms, seems as necessary ... as the first postulate of geometry, to draw a straight line. Just as little as the geometrician proves the line, should the philosopher prove freedom." In other words, the truth of freedom is seif-evident; that is an inalienable right. Though we shall later consider the empirical definitions of freedom, it is noteworthy that Schelling believed that freedom was axiomatic, that even to think and talk presupposed freedom, and hence no proof was necessary.