THE GOOD LIFE IS A

NOT A STATE OF

CARL ROGERS (1902-1987)

132 CARL ROGERS
uring the 19th and into mental health is not something
IN CONTEXT
APPROACH
Person-centered therapy
D the early 20th century,
much of the approach to
psychological treatment was based
on the idea that mental illness
that is suddenly achieved at the
end of a series of steps. Nor is it
attained because an individual’s
previously neurotic state of
BEFORE was a fixed pathological malady tension has been reduced by the
1920s Austrian psychoanalyst that needed to be cured. Popular satisfaction of biological drives and
Otto Rank proposes that psychoanalytic theory, for example, impulses, as the psychoanalysts
separation from outdated defined people struggling with their insisted. Neither is it cultivated
thoughts, emotions, and mental health as “neurotic." Mental by following a specific program
behaviors is essential for illness was seen in a negative light designed to develop and preserve
psychological growth and and most psychological practices a state of inner impermeable
and theories of the time offered homeostasis, or balance, reducing
development.
strict definitions with structured the effect of the world’s external
1950s A braham Maslow explanations of the underlying chaos on the self, as the
says that people must not causes of the mental illness, and behaviorists recommended.
be viewed as a collection fixed methods to cure it. Rogers does not believe that
of symptoms but first and American psychologist Carl anyone exists in a defective state
foremost as people. Rogers took a much more esoteric that needs to be fixed in order to
route to mental health, and in so provide them with a better state,
AFTER doing expanded the approach of preferring to view human
1960s Fritz Perls popularizes psychotherapy forever. He felt that experience, and our minds and
the concept of externalizing the philosophies of the time were environment, as alive and growing.
other people's expectations too structured and rigid to account He talks about the “ongoing process
to find one's truest self. for something as dynamic as the of organismic experience"— seeing
2004 Am erican humanistic human experience, and that life as instantaneous and ongoing;
psychologist Clark Moustakas humanity is much too diverse to be life exists in the experience of
fitted into delineated categories. every moment.
explores the uniquely human
For Rogers, a healthy self­
components of life: hope, love,
Achieving m ental health concept is not a fixed identity
self, creativity, individuality,
Rogers takes the view that it is but a fluid and changing entity,
and becoming.
absurd to view mental well-being open to possibilities. Rogers
as a specific fixed state; good embraces an authentic,

The good life is a process, not a state of being.

.t a k e . t r e a t ourselves
.. .live in the
. trust responsibility and others with
present for our unconditional
ourselves.
moment. choices. positive regard .
 PSYCHOTHERAPY 133
See also: Fritz Perls 112-17 ■ Erich Fromm 124-29 ■ Abraham Maslow 138-39 ■ Rollo May 141 ■ Dorothy Rowe 154 ■
Martin Seligman 200-01

U nlike a m a z e with only one route across, Rogers

asserts that life is full of possibilities and offers multiple
routes— but individuals are often unable or unwilling
to see them. To experience “the good life" we need
to stay flexible and open to what life brings, by
experiencing it fully moment by moment.

unprescribed, free-flowing definition essential ingredient is the ability to the limits of our world and reduce
of healthy human experience, with stay wholly present in the moment. our ability to stay present and open
limitless possibilities. Humans are Since self and personality emerge to experience. In living the good
not traveling a road where the out of experience, it is of the utmost life and remaining open to
destination is to become “adjusted" importance to stay fully open to experience, Rogers believes we
or “actualized," as fellow humanistic the possibilities offered by each adopt a way of being that prevents
psychologist Abraham Maslow moment, and to let experience us feeling trapped and stuck. The
had suggested. Indeed, the purpose shape the self. The individual aim, as Rogers sees it, is for »
of existence is not about reaching lives in an environment of constant
any kind of destination, Rogers change, yet frequently and all too
claims, because existence is less easily, people deny this fluidity
a journey toward an endpoint
and more an ongoing process of
growth and discovery that does
and instead create constructs of
how they think things should be.
They then try to mold themselves
**
not stop until we die. and their idea of reality to fit the What I will be in the next
constructs they have made. This moment, and what I will do,
Living “th e good life” way of being is the very opposite grows out of the moment,
Rogers uses the phrase living of the fluid, flowing, and changing and cannot be predicted.
“the good life," to refer to the range organization of self that Rogers Carl Rogers
of characteristics, attitudes, and believes the nature of our
behaviors displayed by people who
have embraced the foundations of
his approach— people who are
existence requires.
Our preconceptions about
how the world is, or should be,
99
“fully in the stream of life." One and our own role within it, define
134 CARL ROGERS
range of options as wrong or
inappropriate. The defensive

**
feelings and thoughts that rise
up in us when reality conflicts
with our preconceptions create
a limited, artificial interpretation
Self and personality
of experience. In order to really
emerge from experience,
participate in what Rogers calls
the “ongoing process of organismic
rather than experience
experience," we need to be fully
being translated... to fit
open to new experience, and be preconceived self-structure.
completely without defensiveness. Carl Rogers

A full range of em otions

By tuning in to our full range of
emotions, Rogers argues, we
ff
allow ourselves a deeper, richer
S pen d in g tim e w ork in g in a experience in every part of our
developing country can be a rewarding lives. We may think we can more comfortable with our
way to open up to new experiences, selectively block emotion, and emotions, including those we have
challenge fixed ideas about the world,
dampen down disturbing or deemed to be negative, the flow
and find out more about ourselves.
uncomfortable feelings, but when of positive feelings emerges more
we repress some of our emotions, strongly; it is as if by permitting
is for experience to be the starting we inevitably turn down the ourselves to feel pain, we allow for
point for the construction of our volume of all our emotions, a more intense experience of joy.
personalities, rather than trying denying ourselves access to the By always remaining open to
to fit our experiences into a whole of our nature. If on the other everything that occurs, Rogers
preconceived notion of our sense hand, we allow ourselves to be says that we allow our fullest
of self. If we hold on to our ideas of
how things should be, rather than
A fixed v ie w of the world
accepting how they really are, we often leads to unhappiness;
are likely to perceive our needs as we can feel like “a square peg
“incongruent" or mismatched to in a round hole," constantly
what is available. frustrated that our life is not
When the world does not “do how we expected it to be.
what we want," and we feel unable Rogers urges us to abandon
our preconceived ideas and
to change our ideas, conflict arises
see the world as it really is.
in the form of defensiveness.
Rogers explains defensiveness
as the tendency to unconsciously
apply strategies to prevent a
troubling stimulus from entering
consciousness. We either deny
(block out) or distort (reinterpret)
what is really happening,
essentially refusing to accept
reality in order to stick with our
preconceived ideas. In so doing,
I
*
we deny ourselves the full range
of potential reactions, feelings,
and ideas, and we dismiss a wide
 PSYCHOTHERAPY 135
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 individual, is famously termed L ove th a t is co n d itio n al on an action
experience. With true access to a "unconditional positive regard." or situation— for example, on achieving
fuller range of processing Rogers believed that all people, A grades at school or eating the right
foods— can leave children feeling
experience, each of us is more able not just his patients, needed to be
unworthy and unaccepted.
to find the path that truly suits our able to view themselves in this
authentic self— this is the fully way, as well as those around them
functioning individual that Rogers and their environment. self-worth and regard for others
urges us to become. We are always Unconditional self-acceptance on achievements or appearance,
growing, and Rogers emphasizes and unconditional acceptance of rather than accepting people
that the direction in which people others are vital, and when these as they are.
move— when there is freedom to are lacking, people fail to remain Parents may inadvertently
move in any direction— is generally open to experience. Rogers teach children that they are
the direction they are best suited maintained that many of worthy of affection only if certain
for, and that is best suited for them. us have very strong, strident, requirements are met, offering
specific conditions that must be them rewards and praise when
Unconditional accep tan ce met before we will grant approval they eat their vegetables or get
In contrast to the views of many or acceptance. We also base an A grade in physics, but fail
of his predecessors in the field of to love them openly just for
psychotherapy, Rogers believed themselves. Rogers calls these
that people are, in their essence, requirements "conditions of worth,"
healthy and good; and that mental
and emotional well-being is the
natural progression for human
t* believing that the tendency of
humankind to demand that
people and things match our
nature. These beliefs are the No other person's ideas, arbitrary expectations does
foundation of an approach that and none of my own ideas, all of us a great disservice.
regards patients in an entirely are as authoritative Achievements are to be
positive light, one of absolute, as my experience. respected, he says, but they are
unconditional acceptance. Rogers Carl Rogers both separate and secondary
asked that his patients learn to do to acceptance, which is a basic
the same for themselves and for
others. This perspective, grounded
in compassion and the recognition
ff human need, and does not have
to be "earned" through deeds
or action. Rogers says that the
of the potential of each and every value of an individual is »
136 CARL ROGERS
realize that each of us is a continual needs. No longer at the mercy of
work-in-progress; that we are in a what he thinks he should be doing,
process of change, as Rogers says nor of what society or parents may
in his seminal work, On Becoming have conditioned him to think he
A Person—we are all in a constant wants, he can much more easily
“state of becoming." The irony simply exist in the moment and
The subjective human
is that with greater self­ be truly aware of what he actually
being has an important
acceptance, and with less wants. And now he can trust
v a lu e . that no matter
unhealthy pressure and constant himself, “not because he is
how he may be labeled criticism, we can actually become infallible, but because he can be
and evaluated he is a much more productive. fully open to the consequences of
human person first of all. each of his actions and correct
Carl Rogers T rusting oneself them if they prove to be less than
To live “the good life," as Rogers satisfying," Rogers explains.

ff sees it, is to learn to trust ourselves.

As an individual moves toward
openness, he finds that he
In living “the good life" we also
have a sense of owning our lives
and taking responsibility for
simultaneously makes progress in ourselves— this is another tenet of
his ability to trust himself and his Rogers’ philosophy and comes from
inherently granted merely by the instincts, and begins to rely more an existential viewpoint. What we
miracle of existence. Acceptance comfortably on his decision-making choose to think or do is down to
must never be thought of as capabilities. With no need to us; there can be no residual
conditional; unconditional positive repress any part of himself, he has resentments when we have truly
regard is key to how we might all a greater ability to tune in to all the identified for ourselves what we
live “the good life." parts of himself. This gives him want and need, and taken the steps
As people become more access to a variety of perspectives to create it. At the same time, there
accepting of themselves, they and feelings, and in turn he is is greater accountability and an
also become more patient with better able to evaluate choices that increased tendency to truly invest
themselves. A cceptance alleviates will truly realize his potential. He in our lives. It is not uncommon to
the pressure to do, see, and acquire, is able to see more clearly what hear about a doctor who hates
which builds when we live with the direction his authentic self wishes medicine but practices because his
mistaken idea that these activities to take, and can make choices that parents said that being a doctor
define our worth. We can begin to are truly in congruence with his was the way to earn respect and

Carl Rogers Carl Rogers w as born in Oak Organizations (USO), offering

Park, Illinois, to a strictly therapy to returning army
P ro testan t family, and apparently personnel during World W ar II.
had few friends outside the family In 1964, he w as aw arded
before going to college. Initially, “H um anist of the Y ear” by the
Rogers majored in agriculture, A m erican H um anist Association,
but after m arrying his childhood and devoted the last ten years
sw eeth eart, Helen Elliott, in of his life to working for world
1924, he enrolled at a theological p eace. He w as nom inated for
sem inary, before w ithdraw ing a Nobel P eace Prize in 1987.
to pursue a course in psychology.
Rogers worked at the universities K ey w o rk s
of Ohio, Chicago, and W isconsin,
developing his client-centered 1942 Counseling and
therapy b ased on hum anistic Psychotherapy
psychology. He also spent 1951 Client-centered Therapy
tim e w ith the United Service 1961 On Becoming a Person
 PSYCHOTHERAPY 137
T each in g a child to ride a bicycle
requires encouragement and support
but ultimately the child must be brave
and trust himself. Rogers likened his
person-centered therapy to this process.

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."

Rogers' legacy
Rogers was one of the most
influential psychotherapists of the
20th century, and his new client-
centered, non-directive therapy
marked a turning point in the
approval— both from them and from healthy and capable of growing development of psychotherapy.
society. In direct contrast, the rates and realizing its potential. This He was instrumental in the
of students who drop out or fail approach was in contrast to the encounter-group philosophy of
university courses are strikingly other main psychological therapies the 1960s, which encouraged
low among those who have have of the time— psychoanalysis and open communication between
received little support but worked behaviorism— both of which individuals. He was responsible
to pay for their own tuition. focus on the pathology of the for the spread of professional
The ways in which people can individual and how to fix it. counseling into areas such as
influence our desires and how we Rogers initially called his education and social work, and was
define ourselves can be intensely approach "client-centered," and then a pioneer in attempting to resolve
complex. Resentment can be changed it to "person-centered," and international conflict through more
buried deep within us when we it has since been hugely influential effective communication. ■
act in accordance with someone in education, parenting, business,
else's wishes rather than our own. and other areas as well as in clinical
If our actions are free of external work. In person-centered therapy,
influences, we feel more authentic,
more solidly in control of creating
our own destiny, and more satisfied
which Rogers described as "non­
directive therapy," the therapist
takes the role of a facilitator who
**
with the results. helps the client find his or her own The process of the
answers, based on the belief that good life... means
Person-centered approach the client knows himself best. In launching oneself fully
Rogers' philosophy becam e the person-centered therapy, the client into the stream of life.
cornerstone of a new approach identifies his problems and what Carl Rogers
called humanistic psychology, direction the therapy should take.
which he founded in the 1950s
with Abraham Maslow and Rollo
May. It was based on a positive
For example, the client may not
wish to focus on his childhood but
rather deal with issues he is facing
ff
view of humanity as basically at work and the therapist may help