jankp's Full Review: Rollo May - Power and Innocence: A Search for the ...
I have a confession to make. I wasn’t planning on reviewing this 1972 psychotherapeutic book by the late, great Rollo May, whom I have read and reviewed two of his other brilliant books, Love And Will and My Quest For Beauty. I skimmed through it first, realized that the book was inspired by “that disgusting war in Vietnam,” Kent State shootings and the ghetto restlessness and thought this wouldn’t be interesting and modern enough to review. Then I read the last section and found I was wrong.
Now I didn’t read every page, it is true. I felt there was a lot in the beginning I already understood, about how powerlessness corrupts and society breaks down from there and why this book Power And Innocence:A Search For The Sources of Violence was important. It started to get interesting with May’s explanation for the origin of violence in the United States and his statement that
“…the Garden of Eden myth, along with the open denial of (exploitative) power, has continuously coexisted with a great deal of violence.” Pp 52
There are, however, so many references to current names or events that had no meaning to me, such as the Berrigan and Soledad brothers, Altamont and nude therapy to name but a few, that I was constantly reminded of when it was written. Many references can be understood from the following discussion, such as on famous novels and writers, but not always.
May gets into the meaning of power, how Nietzsche saw it, how love and power are always seen as opposites, even to the extent that some Christians feel that God only leads with love and not power, and the five different kinds of power: exploitative, manipulative, competitive, nutrient (nourishing) and integrative. He says that our goal in life should be to learn how to use the right kind of power in each situation we’re in.
No psychotherapy book would be complete without actual cases the doctor has studied through their dreams, which demonstrate why personal power, or self-confidence, is needed. I basically skipped that part for the much more fascinating discussion of aggression. He contends that aggression can be positive as well as negative, which is what you and I would call assertiveness, but he doesn’t use that word. Making his point on page 151 that “in fighting (between lovers) there is a vivid intimacy…and it can blossom into affection or love,” he goes on in the rest of the book to reveal that fighting of all kinds is no different.
This is the part I found most compelling. I’ve never found violence alluring or felt the need to turn to violence, but many, many powerless or visionless people do and Dr. May explains why very thoroughly. He also feels that there is good and evil together within each of us, but I think I’d prefer to call it an absence of good or even ignorance.
He not only talks about power, of course, but what is innocence. He uses the Melville character, Billy Bud, to help us understand that there are two kinds. One is the childlike quality of the artist or poet; the other, which Billy had, was childishness that kept you in your own narrow world and does not lead to spirituality. I wish religions understood this distinction better.
The rebel, for example, is more innocent than the revolutionary. The rebel grows as a member of society with attempts to make it better; the revolutionary doesn’t want community or to grow as a person. The rebel has vision, but the revolutionary only reacts to what he “sees” through blinders. Obviously terrorists are revolutionaries and our government doesn’t seem to have much vision, either, do you think?
So how do we get rid of the roots of violence?
More specifically, how do we give integrative power to those who think that violence is their only solution? First of all May believes we must let people feel they matter and have a voice, so they can contribute their opinions or ideas for change. He gives examples of how doing so on campus will prevent riots. Secondly we need to appreciate our poets, for they can communicate across cultures or other differences to bring people together. (On that note, I feel I am contributing because of a spiritual play I'm in the midst of writing called Spirits In Limbo.)
What this suggests to me in regard to our current situation is that the terrorists need to be persuaded to become rebels instead of revolutionaries. A terrorist not only strikes fear in the hearts of many, but he has a heart filled with fear or “cowardliness” because he has no vision, and sees no possibility of one, for the future.
All the terrorist knows is violence, but we should not give that to him. If May were alive today, he would agree with me that the terrorists needs the possibility of a vision through giving him integrative power rather than demonstrating exploitative, manipulative or competitive power. He might say they’re too driven by the evil in them to listen, and perhaps, I would add that it’s only habitual ignorance and they need to be taught-through observing it in their enemies-to use a different kind of power in order to achieve their goals.
Power And Innocence is still a book we need to read thirty years after being published. Unfortunately May’s wish that we had learned our lesson from Vietnam has not come true and we keep relying on the negative kinds of power. I hope all of you will generously share the insights from these very important 260 pages, as well as live them, and maybe someday May’s wish-and this book-will not be in vain.
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