The writings of Rollo May are considered as a primary source. Authenticity involves accepting this painful state of affairs and finding the courage or hardiness to persist in the face of ontological anxiety and choose the future, thereby minimizing ontological guilt. Every person is centered in self and lives life through the meaning he or she places on that center. Every person is responsible for mobilizing the courage to protect the self, to affirm it, and to enhance its continued existence. People need other people with whom they can empathize and from whom they can learn.
People are vigilant about potential dangers to their identities.
People can be aware of themselves thinking and feeling at one moment and may be aware of themselves as the person who thinks and feels in the next moment. Anxiety originates, in part, out of a person's awareness that one's being can end. To do this we must recognize and confront the paradoxes of our lives. A paradox is too opposing things posited against each other all the while the fact is that they cannot exist without each other. The goals of integration include confronting one's potentialities for the daimonic, power, love, intentionality, freedom and destiny, and courage and creativity.