Review of Psyche and Soul in America: The Spiritual Odyssey of Rollo May

Reading this meticulously researched and thoroughly enjoyable biography of the eminent Rollo May was an astonishing journey. On the way I met myself, as a graduate student, analytic candidate, clinician, and author. I grew more appreciative of May’s enormous (but often unrecognized) influence. I found that many of “my” thoughts probably had their origin when I first read his work. I discovered some of the roots of the Interpersonal school of psychoanalysis. I better understood the legacy inherited by my training analyst, supervisors, and teachers at the William Alanson White Institute (WAWI). The points of view articulated by Erich Fromm and H.S. Sullivan took on different colorings with May’s in the foreground. In this essay I highlight the commonalities and differences among these three foundational Interpersonalists. Abzug filled in many gaps in my knowledge of WAWI’s history. As is often true, understanding its past sheds light on issues still current. The past is prologue. Like a candid family album, this book gave me an enlightening vision of my psychoanalytic heritage. I am grateful for its invitation to see my analytic ancestors as full human beings, with their strengths, limitations, and evolving theoretical positions. A scholarly page turner is an unusual feat, but Abzug carries this off in style. In Rollo May he has an apt subject. Abzug had remarkable access to his subject’s private diaries, letters, and, in numerous visits over the years, his incredibly fertile mind. But May’s passage from minister to psychoanalyst and public intellectual was hardly without