Looking Backward, Moving Forward

Abstract

May turns to writing a fond and interpretively acute short book on his relationship to Paul Tillich-Paulus—and runs into difficulties with Hannah Arendt’s own memoir of her marriage. He then publishes The Courage to Create. May becomes more and more alienated in New York, feeling drawn to California and its more open and psychologically progressive atmosphere. He accepts a Regents Professorship at the University of California Santa Cruz, but has a mixed time because of health problems and marital strife with Ingrid. At the same time, May becomes more critical of the more narcissistic and quick-fix nature of some of the humanistic psychology movement, and he along with others convene as theory conference to establish a more serious and scientifically sound basis for the movement,also one that focused on social issues in addition to personal well-being. By fall 1975, he moves to Tiburon, California, and separates from Ingrid.