Carl Rogers and Humanism
Humanistic psychology is an approach that studies the whole person, and the uniqueness of each individual. The humanistic approach in psychology developed as an uprising against what some psychologists of the time saw as the limitations of behaviorist and psychodynamic psychology. Dr. Carl Rogers, founder of humanistic psychology, led the charge towards this new way of thinking and therapeutic approach.
Brief History
Carl Rogers was born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1902. Before the age of five, Rogers was already able to read allowing him to skip both kindergarten and first grade. In 1919, he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin where he changed majors several times before graduating in 1924 with a Bachelor’s Degree in History. Inspired by a psychology class he took which Leta Stetter Hollingworth taught at Columbia University, Rogers decided to pursue a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, which he completed in 1931.
While still pursuing his doctorate, Rogers became a child psychologist at the Rochester Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (RSPCC). It was during his time in the Child Study Department at RSPCC that his theories about personality and approach to psychotherapy began to develop. Rogers suggested that a self-concept is developed during childhood and is influenced by parenting. For example, “If a child has parents who unconditionally love them and support positive acts done without the need of the child to earn ones love the child will have a healthier self-concept. But children that feel the need to “earn” their parents love will most likely end up with a lower self-esteem and an unhealthy self-concept” (Cherry, 2018). With this in mind, Rogers began developing his theory and therapeutic approach utilizing “nondirective” therapy.
Research
After receiving his Ph.D., Rogers spent multiple years working in academics at University of Chicago, Wisconsin, and Ohio State University, which enabled him to clinically research his new ‘nondirective approach’ and, in 1942, he released his book Counseling and Psychotherapy where he described his “nondirective” approach, also known as “person-centered” approach. This important work contained the first fully transcribed psychotherapy case ever published, “The Case of Herbert Bryan” and was “among the first major psychotherapeutic figures who insisted on testing the validity of his clinical ideas” (Elliott & Farber, 2010). Rogers was keen to examine the therapeutic process with a research lens and scrutinized the words and actions of himself, the therapist, as well as whether the patient contributed substantially to the effectiveness of the therapy.
Major Contributions
Person-centered therapy is a “non-authoritative approach that allows clients to take more of a lead in discussions so that, in the process, they will discover their own solutions. The therapist acts as a compassionate facilitator, listening without judgment and acknowledging the client’s experience without moving the conversation in another direction. The therapist is there to encourage and support the client and to guide the therapeutic process without interrupting or interfering with the client’s process of self-discovery” (Person-Centered Therapy, 2018). This way of thinking and approach to psychotherapy also led to the use of the term “client” rather than “patient.” The term “patient” implies that the therapist in a position in which they have expertise on what is best for the patient, however, the word “client” signifies a rejection of this way of thinking and replaces it with the humanistic language of growth and change in which the client is the expert (Joseph, 2013). The rationale for this change in terminology is at the very foundation of Carl Rogers’s philosophy.
Carl Rogers’s career focused on promoting and practicing humanism while opposing, or at least questioning, both the behaviorist and psychodynamic perspectives due to their deterministic nature. Humanistic psychologists, like Rogers, view these forms of psychology as dehumanizing to the individual. Humanistic psychology is based on the premise that each individual is unique, has free will and have an innate need to make themselves and the world around them better, and emphasizes the personal worth of each and every individual (McLeod, 2015). This approach to psychology focuses on the future and the personal growth of an individual in order for them to achieve self-actualization, a crucial component of humanistic therapy.
Rogers believed that change and growth could occur through the therapeutic relationship as long as the therapist conveyed unconditional positive regard toward the client. Unconditional positive regard is demonstrated through accepting the client as they are and allowing the client to express all feelings, both positive and negative, without judgment by the therapist. Rogers proposed that an individual will naturally strive to fulfill their vision of their “best self” if provided with an environment of genuineness, empathy and non-judgment and that the individual has a higher chance of becoming what Rogers calls, fully-functioning. A fully-functioning person is defined as a person who is in harmony and living their life in the moment and commonly have characteristics of openness to new experiences and a flexible self-self concept (Cherry, 2018). While Rogers originally developed client-centered therapy in a children’s clinic, he worked with a broad range of ages not a specific age group and worked with people with schizophrenia, depression, cognitive disorders, personality disorders, and cognitive dysfunction. Rogers was eager to share his theories with the psychology community and the general public.
Rogers received many achievements in his lifetime of work, of which were his best-known publications: On Becoming a Person published in 1961, Client-Centered Therapy published in 1951, and A Way of Being published in 1980. In his books, Rogers spoke about the latest theories and applications of nondirective counseling and the importance of the client taking an active role in their treatment with the therapist being supportive and nondirective. On Becoming a Person is a collection of writings written over a decade that compiled 30 years of his theories on the importance of the therapeutic relationship. A Way of Being is a collection of essays written by Rogers and served as a conclusion to his previous writing, On Becoming a Person and is a more philosophical writing than his previous book and traces his professional and personal development and finished with a calling for a more humane future (Butler-Bowdon, 2017). In 1987 he was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
With his founding of humanistic psychology leading to client-centered therapy, Rogers promoted a more equal relationship between therapist and client rather than the then widely accepted egalitarian counseling relationships. Most current forms of therapy are based on the idea that the client is a partner in the therapeutic relationship rather than a helpless patient, and their experiences hold the key to personal growth and development as a unique individual. Carl Rogers contributed major efforts to the the fields of education, psychology, psychotherapy and, on a larger scale, to the promotion of human rights. He is considered one of the most significant influences on psychology in the twentieth century.