Smith, D. (1982). "Trends in counseling and psychotherapy". American Psychologist. 37 (7): 802–809. doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.37.7.802. PMID 7137698. The organism has one basic tendency and striving – to actualize, maintain, and enhance the experiencing organism. Human beings have a basic tendency to fulfil their potential, to be positive, forward looking, to grow, improve, and protect their existence. In other words, if you can be whatever you want to be, what you are at the moment is exactly what you are not (statistically, let’s say that’s only about 1% of your potential realized and you still have 99% to go).

On Becoming a Person by Carl Rogers, Frances Fuchs - Waterstones

There’s another quote from this book we thought we shouldn’t omit, especially having in mind the fact that one of the most influential Western intellectuals at the moment is Jordan Peterson. The best vantage point from which to understand behaviour is from the internal frame of reference of the individual himself. To understand the behaviour of a person, we must look at the world from their point of view. I get defeated sometimes, I get hurt sometimes, but I’m learning that these experiences are not fatal.”Carl Rogers is widely credited as one of the founders of the humanist (client-centered approach) to psychology. My copy of Carl R. Rogers’ On Becoming a Person has taken a good battering over several years of training to become a qualified counsellor. Rogers was intelligent and could read well before kindergarten. Following an education in a strict religious and ethical environment as an altar boy at the vicarage of Jimpley, he became rather isolated, independent and disciplined, and acquired knowledge and an appreciation for the scientific method in a practical world. At the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he was a member of the fraternity Alpha Kappa Lambda, his first career choice was agriculture, followed by history and then religion.

Carl Rogers: The Flow of Becoming a Person • Storied Mind Carl Rogers: The Flow of Becoming a Person • Storied Mind

Curiously enough, a positive evaluation is as threatening in the long run as a negative one, since to inform someone that he is good implies that you also have the right to tell him he is bad.”

Stage 7

We’ve already told you a thing or two about existentialism’s fundamental tenets while summarizing Being and Nothingness , the central work by, arguably, the greatest existentialist philosopher of the 20 th century, Jean-Paul Sartre. Now, if men are essentially good, then it’s not your job as a psychotherapist to fix them but to understand them.

On becoming a person. - APA PsycNet

Psychological research has shown that if the evidence of our senses runs contrary to our picture of self, then that evidence is distorted. In other words, we cannot see all that our senses report, but only the things which fit the picture we have.” Now, Sartre’s ideas were themselves inspired by the work of a great 19 th-century Danish philosopher with a complicated name, Søren Kierkegaard. If you remember well, Sartre’s main idea was rather simply formulated: in humans, “existence precedes essence,” i.e., there is no blueprint on how a human should look like (essence), so we are in charge of the meaning of our own lives (existence).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. Once again – unnecessarily complicated; let us rephrase it in Rogers’ words: “If I accept the other person as something fixed, already diagnosed and classified, already shaped by his past, then I am doing my part to confirm this limited hypothesis. If I accept him as a process of becoming, then I am doing what I can to confirm or make real his potentialities.” In the development of the self-concept, he saw conditional and unconditional positive regard as key. Those raised in an environment of unconditional positive regard have the opportunity to fully actualize themselves. Those raised in an environment of conditional positive regard feel worthy only if they match conditions (what Rogers describes as conditions of worth) that others have laid down for them. Though revolutionary in his time, many of his ideas are nowadays widely accepted by psychologists worldwide.

On Becoming a Person - Carl Rogers - Google Books

I believe,” concludes Rogers, “that this statement holds whether I am speaking of my relationship with a client, with a group of students or staff members, with my family or children. It seems to me that we have here a general hypothesis which offers exciting possibilities for the development of creative, adaptive, autonomous persons.” Becoming a Person Rogers, Carl. (1961). On Becoming a Person: A Therapist's View of Psychotherapy. London: Constable. ISBN 1-84529-057-7. Excerpts Rogers, Carl. and Stevens, B. (1967). Person to Person: The Problem of Being Human. Lafayette, CA: Real People Press. On Becoming a Person – Kramer goes on – “sold millions of copies when million was a rare number in publishing. Rogers was, for the decade that followed, the Psychologist of America, likely to be consulted by the press on any issue that concerned the mind, from creativity to self-knowledge to the national character.”Under certain conditions, involving primarily complete absence of threat to the self structure, experiences inconsistent with it may be perceived and examined, and the structure of self revised to assimilate and include such experiences.