• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• v.130
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• pp.135-159
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• 2014

This article has the purpose of clarifying that Rollo May's existential psychotherapy is based on Kierkegaard's concept of anxiety in philosophical aspects. May makes use of Kierkegaard's concept of anxiety to establish his own existential psychotherapy. May points out that Freud's concept of anxiety is too technical in comparison with Kierkegaard's concept of anxiety. Freudian theory accepting anxiety as the cause of repression overlooks the importance of human relationship which brings about repression. May mentions the presence or absence of object to distinguish fear and anxiety. Kierkegaard and Freud also mention that the presence of object is called fear and the absence of object is anxiety. May interprets anxiety ontologically. Succeeding Kierkegaard's comment on nothing/non-being, May insists that anxiety is the experience of Being affirming itself against Nonbeing. May interprets Kierkegaard's concept of freedom as the possibility or potentiality in terms of similar meaning. May argues that Anxiety is the situation when faced with the problem which human being will achieve his potentiality. Kierkegaard's concept of freedom is also associated with sin at the same time as the freedom associated with anxiety. Succeeding this, May discusses the relation of guilt feeling and anxiety is the flipside of the coin. He understands that guilt feeling is not a pathological symptom but an evidence of the human being's possibility. Kierkegaard's The Concept of Anxiety has a sub-title which is 'a simple psychologically orienting deliberation on the dogmatic issue of hereditary sin'. This shows that he understood the relationship between anxiety and guilt as dilemma that can not be separated. Through this study, I want to clarify that May's concept of anxiety which is the most important concept in his existential psychotherapy, is derived from Kierkegaard's concept of anxiety.