Now, Sartre’s ideas were themselves inspired by the work of a great 19 th-century Danish philosopher with a complicated name, Søren Kierkegaard. a b c Rogers, Carl (1961). On becoming a person: A therapist's view of psychotherapy. London: Constable. ISBN 978-1-84529-057-3. It does not help to act calm and pleasant when actually I am angry and critical. … It does not help to act as though I were a loving person if actually, at the moment, I am hostile. It does not help for me to act as though I were full of assurance, if actually I am frightened and unsure. Psychological maladjustment exists when the organism denies awareness of significant sensory and visceral experiences, which consequently are not symbolized and organized into the gestalt of the self structure. When this situation exists, there is a basic or potential psychological tension. To experience this is both fascinating and a little frightening. I find I am at my best when I can let the flow of my experience carry me in a direction which appears to be forward, toward goals of which I am but dimly aware.

On becoming a person by Rogers, Carl R. | Open Library

Rogers was born on January 8, 1902, in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. His father, Walter A. Rogers, was a civil engineer, a Congregationalist by denomination. His mother, Julia M. Cushing, [5] [6] was a homemaker and devout Baptist. Carl was the fourth of their six children. [7] Carl R. Rogers was an American psychologist, one of the founders of the client-centered approach to psychology and one of the most influential psychologists in American history. Rogers, Carl. (nd, @1978). A personal message from Carl Rogers. In: N. J. Raskin. (2004). Contributions to Client-Centered Therapy and the Person-Centered Approach. (pp. v-vi). Herefordshire, United Kingdom: PCCS Books, Ross-on-the-Wye. ISBN 1-898059-57-8 Rogers, Carl (1951). Client-centered therapy: Its current practice, implications and theory. London: Constable. ISBN 978-1-84119-840-8. In other words (because Kierkegaard’s and Rogers’ are somewhat unnecessarily complicated), you can be whatever you want to be, but only if you choose to be yourself, you will not feel despair at your choice. Martin BuberRogers, Carl. (1959). A Theory of Therapy, Personality and Interpersonal Relationships as Developed in the Client-centered Framework. In (ed.) S. Koch, Psychology: A Study of a Science. Vol. 3: Formulations of the Person and the Social Context. New York: McGraw Hill. The Good Life Is About Becoming, and Becoming Is About Fulfilling Your Potential Humanist Psychology Is Existentialist Psychology Find sources: "Carl Rogers"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( October 2017) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) And then Rogers realized something else: whenever he had come across a problem in his life, what helped and healed him wasn’t a talk with someone acting from an above-position, but a conversation with one who is a peer in every sense of the word. Our first reaction to most of the statements which we hear from other people is an immediate evaluation, or judgment, rather than an understanding of it. … Very rarely do we permit ourselves to understand precisely what the meaning of the statement is to him. I believe this is because understanding is risky.

On Becoming a Person Quotes by Carl R. Rogers - Goodreads

The idea behind it is deeply rooted within the philosophy of existentialism (Kierkegaard, Buber, Sartre): namely, that we are free to choose to become whoever we want to, but are frustrated because we are trapped in an existence which doesn’t express us.

Stage 5

Reliability and constructiveness: they can be trusted to act constructively. An individual who is open to all their needs will be able to maintain a balance between them. Even aggressive needs will be matched and balanced by intrinsic goodness in congruent individuals. Increasing organismic trust – they trust their own judgment and their ability to choose behavior that is appropriate for each moment. They do not rely on existing codes and social norms but trust that as they are open to experiences they will be able to trust their own sense of right and wrong. Optimal development, referred to below in proposition 14, results in a certain process rather than static state. Rogers describes this as the good life, where the organism continually aims to fulfill its full potential. He listed the characteristics of a fully functioning person (Rogers 1961):

On Becoming a Person: A Therapist’s View of (PDF) On Becoming a Person: A Therapist’s View of (PDF)

Psychological adjustment exists when the concept of the self is such that all the sensory and visceral experiences of the organism are, or may be, assimilated on a symbolic level into a consistent relationship with the concept of the self. We feel relaxed and in control when the things we do and the experiences we have all fit in with the picture we have of ourselves. This doesn’t mean that he didn’t consider psychotherapists to be people; on the contrary, in fact. And that is one of the main ideas of this book. Some scholars believe there is a politics implicit in Rogers's approach to psychotherapy. [37] [38] Toward the end of his life, Rogers came to that view himself. [39] The central tenet of Rogerian, person-centered politics is that public life need not consist of an endless series of winner-take-all battles among sworn opponents; rather, it can and should consist of an ongoing dialogue among all parties. Such dialogue is characterized by respect among the parties, authentic speaking by each, and—ultimately—empathic understanding among all parties. Out of such understanding, mutually acceptable solutions will (or at least can) flow. [37] [40] As experiences occur in the life of an individual, they are either a) symbolized, perceived and organized into some relationship to the self, b) ignored because there is no relationship to the self-structure, c) denied symbolization or given a distorted symbolization because the experience is inconsistent with the structure of the self. There are several things we can do with our everyday experience: we can see that it is relevant to ourselves or we can ignore it because it is irrelevant; or if we experience something that doesn’t fit with our picture of ourselves we can either pretend it didn’t happen or change our picture of it, so that it does fit. Didn’t I tell you Rogers had the capability to be beautiful? I love that this “birthing process” is such a wonderful way of describing what happens when a person starts to change as a result of the therapeutic process. I also find it sweet that Rogers still remains in ‘awe’ of this.Rogers, Carl. (1959). "A theory of therapy, personality relationships as developed in the client-centered framework.". In S. Koch (ed.). Psychology: A study of a science. Vol. 3: Formulations of the person and the social context. New York: McGraw Hill. Despite most of his work being very challenging, Rogers will occasionally treat the reader to beautifully-written insights into the human condition, words of profound wisdom, or paragraphs that perfectly sum up the how and why of what we’re trying to achieve as therapists. Rogers offered a group of nineteen hypothetical statements which, together constitute his person-centred theory of personality dynamics and behaviour . ‘A theory of personality and Behaviour’ can be found in Rogers (1951, pp. 481-533). Rogers makes the following statement: “Thistheory is basically phenomenological in character, and relies heavily on the concept of the self as an explanatoryconstruct. It pictures the end-point of personality development as being a basic congruence between the phenomenal field of experience and the conceptual structure of the self - a situation which, if achieved, would represent freedom from internal strain and anxiety, and freedom from potential strain; which would represent the maximum in realistically oriented adaptation; which would mean the establishment of an individualised valuesystem having considerable identity with the value system of any other equally well-adapted member of the human race.”(p. 532)