The Psychology Book

by DK

  By always remaining open to everything that occurs, Rogers says that we allow our fullest abilities to function, and in turn we can get the greatest satisfaction from our experiences. We have not raised our defenses to shut off any part of the self, so we are able to experience everything fully. Once we escape from the rut of the preconceptions of the mind, we can allow ourselves to soar. Rather than organizing our experience to suit our idea of the world, we “discover structure in experience.”

  This openness is not for the faint-hearted, Rogers states; it requires a level of bravery on the part of the individual. We don’t need to fear any type of feeling, he says—we need only to allow the full flow of cognition and experience. With true access to a fuller range of processing experience, each of us is more able to find the path that truly suits our authentic self—this is the fully functioning individual that Rogers urges us to become. We are always growing, and Rogers emphasizes that the direction in which people move—when there is freedom to move in any direction—is generally the direction they are best suited for, and that is best suited for them.

  A fixed view of the world often leads to unhappiness; we can feel like “a square peg in a round hole”, constantly frustrated that our life is not how we expected it to be. Rogers urges us to abandon our preconceived ideas and see the world as it really is.

  Unconditional acceptance

  In contrast to the views of many of his predecessors in the field of psychotherapy, Rogers believed that people are, in their essence, healthy and good; and that mental and emotional well-being is the natural progression for human nature. These beliefs are the foundation of an approach that regards patients in an entirely positive light, one of absolute, unconditional acceptance. Rogers asked that his patients learn to do the same for themselves and for others. This perspective, grounded in compassion and the recognition of the potential of each and every individual, is famously termed “unconditional positive regard.” Rogers believed that all people, not just his patients, needed to be able to view themselves in this way, as well as those around them and their environment.

  Unconditional self-acceptance and unconditional acceptance of others are vital, and when these are lacking, people fail to remain open to experience. Rogers maintained that many of us have very strong, strident, specific conditions that must be met before we will grant approval or acceptance. We also base self-worth and regard for others on achievements or appearance, rather than accepting people as they are.

  Parents may inadvertently teach children that they are worthy of affection only if certain requirements are met, offering them rewards and praise when they eat their vegetables or get an A grade in physics, but fail to love them openly just for themselves. Rogers calls these requirements “conditions of worth”, believing that the tendency of humankind to demand that people and things match our arbitrary expectations does all of us a great disservice.

  Achievements are to be respected, he says, but they are both separate and secondary to acceptance, which is a basic human need, and does not have to be “earned” through deeds or action. Rogers says that the value of an individual is inherently granted merely by the miracle of existence. Acceptance must never be thought of as conditional; unconditional positive regard is key to how we might all live “the good life.”

  As people become more accepting of themselves, they also become more patient with themselves. Acceptance alleviates the pressure to do, see, and acquire, which builds when we live with the mistaken idea that these activities define our worth. We can begin to realize that each of us is a continual work-in-progress; that we are in a process of change, as Rogers says in his seminal work, On Becoming A Person—we are all in a constant “state of becoming.” The irony is that with greater self-acceptance, and with less unhealthy pressure and constant criticism, we can actually become much more productive.

  "No other person’s ideas, and none of my own ideas, are as authoritative as my experience."

  Carl Rogers

  Love that is conditional on an action or situation—for example, on achieving A grades at school or eating the right foods—can leave children feeling unworthy and unaccepted.

  Trusting oneself

  To live “the good life,” as Rogers sees it, is to learn to trust ourselves. As an individual moves toward openness, he finds that he simultaneously makes progress in his ability to trust himself and his instincts, and begins to rely more comfortably on his decision-making capabilities. With no need to repress any part of himself, he has a greater ability to tune in to all the parts of himself. This gives him access to a variety of perspectives and feelings, and in turn he is better able to evaluate choices that will truly realize his potential. He is able to see more clearly what direction his authentic self wishes to take, and can make choices that are truly in congruence with his needs. No longer at the mercy of what he thinks he should be doing, nor of what society or parents may have conditioned him to think he wants, he can much more easily simply exist in the moment and be truly aware of what he actually wants. And now he can trust himself, “not because he is infallible, but because he can be fully open to the consequences of each of his actions and correct them if they prove to be less than satisfying,” Rogers explains.

  In living “the good life” we also have a sense of owning our lives and taking responsibility for ourselves—this is another tenet of Rogers’ philosophy and comes from an existential viewpoint. What we choose to think or do is down to us; there can be no residual resentments when we have truly identified for ourselves what we want and need, and taken the steps to create it. At the same time, there is greater accountability and an increased tendency to truly invest in our lives. It is not uncommon to hear about a doctor who hates medicine but practices because his parents said that being a doctor was the way to earn respect and approval—both from them and from society. In direct contrast, the rates of students who drop out or fail university courses are strikingly low among those who have have received little support but worked to pay for their own tuition.

  The ways in which people can influence our desires and how we define ourselves can be intensely complex. Resentment can be buried deep within us when we act in accordance with someone else’s wishes rather than our own. If our actions are free of external influences, we feel more authentic, more solidly in control of creating our own destiny, and more satisfied with the results.

  Teaching a child to ride a bicycle requires encouragement and support but ultimately the child must be brave and trust himself. Rogers likened his person-centerd therapy to this process.

  Person-centered approach

  Rogers’ philosophy became the cornerstone of a new approach called humanistic psychology, which he founded in the 1950s with Abraham Maslow and Rollo May. It was based on a positive view of humanity as basically healthy and capable of growing and realizing its potential. This approach was in contrast to the other main psychological therapies of the time—psychoanalysis and behaviorism—both of which focus on the pathology of the individual and how to fix it.

  Rogers initially called his approach “client-centered,” and then changed it to “person-centered,” and it has since been hugely influential in education, parenting, business, and other areas as well as in clinical work. In person-centerd therapy, which Rogers described as “non-directive therapy,” the therapist takes the role of a facilitator who helps the client find his or her own answers, based on the belief that the client knows himself best. In person-centerd therapy, the client identifies his problems and what direction the therapy
should take. For example, the client may not wish to focus on his childhood but rather deal with issues he is facing at work and the therapist may help him find what sort of role he would really like to take. Rogers describes the process as “supportive, not reconstructive;” the client must not come to rely on the therapist for support, but instead needs to learn how to become sufficiently self-aware and self-trusting to be independent and able to live “the good life.”

  "The process of the good life… means launching oneself fully into the stream of life."

  Carl Rogers

  Rogers’ legacy

  Rogers was one of the most influential psychotherapists of the 20th century, and his new client-centerd, non-directive therapy marked a turning point in the development of psychotherapy. He was instrumental in the encounter-group philosophy of the 1960s, which encouraged open communication between individuals. He was responsible for the spread of professional counseling into areas such as education and social work, and was a pioneer in attempting to resolve international conflict through more effective communication.

  CARL ROGERS

  Carl Rogers was born in Oak Park, Illinois, to a strictly Protestant family, and apparently had few friends outside the family before going to college. Initially, Rogers majored in agriculture, but after marrying his childhood sweetheart, Helen Elliott, in 1924, he enrolled at a theological seminary, before withdrawing to pursue a course in psychology. Rogers worked at the universities of Ohio, Chicago, and Wisconsin, developing his client-centerd therapy based on humanistic psychology. He also spent time with the United Service Organizations (USO), offering therapy to returning army personnel during World War II. In 1964, he was awarded “Humanist of the Year” by the American Humanist Association, and devoted the last ten years of his life to working for world peace. He was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1987.

  Key works

  1942 Counseling and Psychotherapy

  1951 Client-centered Therapy

  1961 On Becoming a Person

  See also: Fritz Perls • Erich Fromm • Abraham Maslow • Rollo May • Dorothy Rowe • Martin Seligman

  IN CONTEXT

  APPROACH

  Humanistic psychology

  BEFORE

  1920s Alfred Adler claims there is only one motivating force behind all our behavior and experience: the striving for perfection.

  1935 Henry Murray develops the Thematic Apperception Test, which measures personality and motivation.

  AFTER

  1950s Kurt Goldstein defines self-actualization as the tendency to actualize, as much as possible, the organism’s individual capacities, and proclaims that the drive to self-actualize is the only drive that determines the life of an individual.

  1974 Fritz Perls says that every living thing “has only one inborn goal—to actualize itself as it is.”

  Throughout recorded history, questions have been posed about why we are here, and what the purpose is of our lives. Underlying these questions is a need to identify what will make us truly satisfied, and a confusion about how to find it. Psychoanalysts would claim that the fulfilment of innate biological drives leads toward satisfaction, and behaviorists would describe the importance of meeting physiological needs with food, sleep, and sex, but the new wave of psychotherapeutic thought in the early to mid-20th century believed that the path to inner fulfillment was much more complex.

  One of the main proponents of this new approach to the problem was Abraham Maslow, a psychotherapist who is considered one of the founders of the humanist movement in psychology. He examined human experience by looking at the things that are most important to us: love, hope, faith, spirituality, individuality, and existence. One of the most crucial aspects of his theories was that in order to reach the most highly developed state of consciousness and realize the greatest potential, an individual must discover his true purpose in life and pursue it. Maslow refers to this ultimate state of being as self-actualization.

  Toward self-actualization

  Maslow created a highly structured plan to explain the path of human motivation, defining the steps that humans need to follow as they move toward self-actualization. His famous Hierarchy of Needs, which is often drawn as a pyramid, positions the most basic needs at the base and each of the other essential requirements for a fulfilled life in groups on top.

  Maslow’s hierarchy is split into two distinct sections: at the beginning are the four stages that make up the “deficiency needs” and all of these must be met before a person is able to reach for greater intellectual satisfaction through the “growth needs.” The deficiency needs are simple and basic; they include physiological necessities (such as food, water, and sleep), the need for safety (to be safe and out of danger), love and belongingness needs (our need to be close to and accepted by others), and self-esteem requirements (our need to achieve in our lives and be recognized).

  At the higher level, the growth needs are cognitive (a need to know and understand), aesthetic (a desire for order and beauty), and lastly, two requirements that define the purpose of life, and lead to intense spiritual and psychological fulfillment: self-actualization and self-transcendence. Self-actualization is the desire for self-fulfillment, and self-transcendence is the need to move beyond the self, and connect to something higher than ourselves—such as God—or to help others realize their potential.

  Maslow also proposes that each one of us has an individual purpose to which we are uniquely suited, and part of the path to fulfillment is to identify and pursue that purpose. If someone is not doing what they are best suited to do in life, it will not matter if all their other needs are fulfilled, he or she will be perpetually restless and unsatisfied. Each of us must discover our potential, and seek out experiences that will allow us to fulfil it—“What a man can be, he must be,” proclaims Maslow.

  Maslow’s hierarchy of needs lists the qualities he observed in successful individuals who aimed high but kept their feet on the ground.

  ABRAHAM MASLOW

  Abraham Maslow was born the eldest of seven children in Brooklyn, New York. His parents were Jewish immigrants who had left Russia for the US to escape the tumultuous political situation there. They had high expectations of Maslow, and forced him to study law—a parental dominance that continued until 1928 when Maslow decided to take control of his life and pursue psychology instead. In the same year he disobeyed his parents by marrying his cousin, Bertha Goodman, with whom he had two children.

  Maslow moved to the University of Wisconsin and worked under Harry Harlow, the behavioral psychologist famous for his work with primates. Later, at Columbia University, Maslow found a mentor in psychoanalyst and former colleague of Freud’s, Alfred Adler.

  Key works

  1943 A Theory of Human Motivation

  1954 Motivation and Personality

  1962 Toward a Psychology of Being

  See also: Alfred Adler • Erich Fromm • Carl Rogers • Rollo May • Martin Seligman

  IN CONTEXT

  APPROACH

  Logotherapy

  BEFORE

  600–500 BCE In India, Gautama Buddha teaches that suffering is caused by desire, and can be alleviated by releasing desire.

  458 BCE Ancient Greek dramatist Aeschylus explores the idea that “wisdom comes alone through suffering.”

  AFTER

  1950s French existentialist philosophers, such as Jean-Paul Sartre, say our lives do not have a God-given purpose; we must find it for ourselves.

  2003 Martin Seligman says a “full life” encompasses pleasure, engagement (flow), and meaning.

  2007 US psychologist Dan Gilbert e
xplains that people are unhappy because of the way they think about happiness.

  Viennese psychiatrist Viktor Frankl had already begun to specialize in suicide prevention and the treatment of depression when, in 1942, he and his wife, brother, and parents were taken to a concentration camp. He spent three years there and endured many horrors and losses before emerging as the only survivor of the group. In his book Man’s Search for Meaning (1946), written after these experiences, Frankl explains that humans have two psychological strengths that allow us to bear painful and possibly devastating situations and to move forward; these are the capacity for decision, and freedom of attitude. Frankl stresses that we are not at the mercy of our environment or events, because we dictate how we allow them to shape us. Even suffering can be seen differently, depending on our interpretation of events.

  Frankl cites the case of one of his patients who suffered because he missed his dead wife. Frankl asked how it would have been if the patient had died first, and he replied that his wife would have found it very difficult. Frankl pointed out that the patient has spared her this grief, but must now suffer the grief himself. In giving meaning to the suffering it becomes endurable; “suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning.”