“Human freedom involves our capacity to pause between the stimulus and response and, in that pause, to choose the one response toward which we wish to throw our weight. The capacity to create ourselves, based upon this freedom, is inseparable from consciousness or self-awareness. (p. 100)”

American existential psychologist and author

Rollo Reece May was an American existential psychologist and author. He lived from 1909 to 1994 and is best known for Love and Will, published in 1969. He is closely associated with humanistic psychology and existentialist thought, and he was a major advocate of existential psychotherapy alongside Viktor Frankl. His work was shaped in part by his friendship with the philosopher and theologian Paul Tillich, whose influence he acknowledged in his writing.