Rollo May challenges the idea that "mental health is living without
anxiety," believing it is essential to being human. He explores how it
can relieve boredom, sharpen sensibilities, and produce the tension
necessary to preserve human existence. May sees a link extending from
anxiety to intelligence, creativity, and originality, and guides the
reader away from destructive ways to positive ways of dealing with
anxiety. He convincingly proposes that anxiety can impel personal
change, as it is only by confronting and coping with it that
self-realization can occur.