May, Gerald G(ordon) 1940–2005

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born June 12, 1940, in Hillsdale, MI; died April 8, 2005, in Baltimore, MD. Psychiatrist and author. A senior fellow at the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation, May promoted a unique blend of traditional psychotherapy and self-realization techniques in treating his patients. After completing a medical degree at Wayne State University in 1965, his first experiences as a psychiatrist came as an intern and resident at U.S. Air Force hospitals. The Vietnam War was in full swing at the time, and May served a tour of duty in Asia. Here he witnessed firsthand how young soldier's psyches were permanently damaged by the process that transformed them from human being to killing machines. When he returned home on leave, May therefore refused to return to Vietnam, claiming conscientious objector status. He was made chief of inpatient services at Andrews Air Force Base in Washington, DC, from 1969 to 1971. He left the Air Force to take a job as director of the addictive disorders program at Lancaster General Hospital in Pennsylvania, and joined the Pennsylvania State University faculty in 1972 as a clinical associate professor of psychiatry. At the same time, he taught family medicine at Temple University. May became part of the Shalem Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, in 1973. He worked there part-time initially, becoming a full-time staff member in 1983 and eventually being promoted to senior fellow in contemplative theology and psychology. Beginning in 1988, May also ran his own private practice. It was his philosophy that both the mind and the spirit of the patient needed to be treated in order to achieve wellbeing. He expressed this idea in his books, which include Simply Sane: Stop Fixing Yourself and Start Really Living (1977; revised in 1993 as Simply Sane: The Spirituality of Mental Health), Will and Spirit: A Contemplative Psychology (1982), and The Dark Night of the Soul: A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection between Darkness and Spiritual Growth (2004).

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PERIODICALS

Washington Post, April 13, 2005, p. B6.