It takes courage today to write a book about love and will. Ever since Freud expounded his deterministic psychology and, perhaps inconsistently, pointed out the danger of repression by willpower, to speak of will has appeared not quite intellectually respectable. As for love, so many authors have discussed the subject that one might assume there was little more to say. But Rollo May rehabilitates the concept of will, makes new interpretations of love, and shows their necessary relationship to each other.
May asserts that we are living in a schizoid age. Apathy has increased as a defense against anxiety and overstimulation. Although this schizoid lack of feeling may be protective and may even be used constructively, as by the artist Cezanne, the feeling of emptiness which it engenders may lead to violence and destruction. The author describes apathy as withdrawal of love and will, and in this book tries to