Rollo May (1909 - 1994)
Rollo May was born April 21, 1909, in Ada, Ohio.
After a brief stint at Michigan State (he was asked to leave because
of his involvement with a radical student magazine), he attended Oberlin
College in Ohio, where he received his bachelors degree.
After graduation, he went to Greece, where he taught English at Anatolia
College for three years. During this period, he also spent time as
an itinerant artist and even studied briefly with Alfred Adler.
When he returned to the US, he entered Union Theological Seminary and
became friends with one of 
his
teachers, Paul Tillich, the existentialist theologian, who would have a
profound effect on his thinking. May received his BD in 1938.
He went to Columbia University in New York, where in 1949 he received the
first PhD in clinical psychology that institution ever awarded.
After receiving his PhD, he went on to teach.
Theory
Rollo May is perhaps the best known American existential psychologist.
The overlap between his ideas and the ideas of Ludwig Binswanger
is great.
His basic motivational
construct is the daimonic. The daimonic is the entire system
of motives, different for each individual. It is composed of a collection
of specific motives and needs called daimons. Daimons could take over an individual, thereby resulting in neurosis. May believed Eros (love, not sexual) was the most important of daimons.
Like Nietzsche before him, May emphasizes the importance of each individual creating their own values, instead of blindly latching onto value systems generated by society.
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