Rogerian Psychotherapy
Relocating the “center”
Carl Rogers
 Born in suburb of Chicago (Oak Park) in 1902
 Strict, controlling, religious parents
 Childhood spent in solitary pursuits
 2 years at the Union Theological Seminary
 Ph.D clinical psychology from Columbia
University Teachers College in 1931
 Formulated essentials of person-centered
therapy in 1940
 Continued to write and lecture into his 80s
 Died in 1987
Natalie Rogers
Experience: Foundation of Rogerian theory
Carl Rogers, On
Becoming a Person
(pages 23-24).

Experience is, for me, the highest authority. The
touchstone of validity is my own experience. No
other person's ideas, and none of my own
ideas, are as authoritative as my experience. It
is to experience that I must return again and
again, to discover a closer approximation to
truth as it is in the process of becoming in me.

Neither the Bible nor the prophets ~ neither
Freud nor research - neither the revelations of
God nor man - can take precedence over my
own direct experience.

[....] My experience is not authoritative because
it is infallible. It is the basis of authority because
it can always be checked in new primary ways.
In this way its frequent error or fallibility is
always open to correction.
Assumptions about human nature
 Human beings are innately good
 Value of life is in present
 Human beings are purposive & goal-directed
 Basic human need: Deep human relationships, unconditional
positive regard from others
 Core of human life resides in self-experience
 Client’s behavior understood from a phenomenological approach
"It is the client who knows what hurts, what directions to go, what problems
are crucial, what experiences have been deeply buried." -- On Becoming a
Person
Personality theory: A few of the 19 propositions
 All persons are in the center of a continually changing world of experience
(phenomenal field). The person’s perception of this field is his/her "reality“
(1, 2)
 The organism has one basic striving: to actualize, maintain, and enhance
itself (4)
 As a result of interacting with the environment, the person develops a sense
of self or self concept, consisting of images and beliefs (9)

What I am (self-identity)

What I can do (self-efficacy)

How I think/feel about myself (self-esteem)
 Behavior is the organism’s goal-directed attempt to satisfy its needs as
experienced, in the field as perceived (5)
 Behavior is usually consistent with self-concept. When behavior is
inconsistent with self, it is usually not “owned” by the person (12, 13)
 Emotion accompanies and usually facilitates such goal directed behavior (6)
A few more propositions: (Psychological health)
 Psychological adjustment exists when the self concept allows the
person to assimilate all sensory and visceral experiences into a
consistent self. This is congruence. (15)
 Psychological maladjustment exists when the person denies to self
significant sensory and visceral experiences (because they are
inconsistent with the person’s ideal self, the type of person that
one believes one ought to be). This results in incongruence
between the real self and the ideal self. (14)
 Incongruence = Neurosis
 Increased and continued incongruence can lead to psychosis
Case Example: Mr. Smith
Self-Concept
“How I see me”
Ideal self
“How I should be”
Lonely
Angry
Fearful
Smart
Manipulative
Compulsive
Joyful
Insecure
Lonely
Honest
Distrusting
Smart
Incongruence
On Psychopathology
 No dividing line between normality and psychopathology.
 Rejection of diagnostic labels:
Rogers considered “...such categories as pseudoscientific efforts
to glorify the therapist’s expertise and depict the client as a
dependent object..” (Rogers, 1951)
 Defenses: Organism’s response to experiences that
threaten the self-concept (distortion, denial)
 Neurosis: Powerful conditions of worth in self-concept.
Incongruent with totality of experience.
 Psychosis: Person is badly hurt by life, needs corrective
influence of a deep interpersonal relationship.
Psychopathology
Therapeutic Process
 The therapeutic relationship is the primary intervention
"...In my early professional years I was asking the question: How
can I treat, or cure, or change this person? Now I would phrase the
question in this way: How can I provide a relationship which this
person may use for his own personal growth?" -- Carl Rogers, On
Becoming a Person.
 Most Freudian methods explicitly rejected

No couch

No use of interpretation

No investigation of client’s past

No dream analysis
Therapeutic Procedures (continued)
 Client must perceive three characteristics in the therapist:
1.
Genuineness: in touch with (and shares) own personal experience
2.
Unconditional positive regard: Non-judgmental, non-possessive
respect and caring for client’s self-concept and feelings
3.
Empathy: attuned to the client’s feelings and beliefs
“To perceive the internal frame of reference
of another with accuracy and with the
emotional components and meanings which
pertain thereto as if one were the person,
but without ever losing the "as if" condition.
Thus, it means to sense the hurt or the
pleasure of another as he senses it and to
perceive the causes thereof as he perceives
them, but without ever losing the recognition
that it is “as if” I were hurt or pleased and so
forth.” (Rogers)
More therapist variables that matter
(empathy continued)

Similar across different treatment
modalities

Modest support for Rogers’s contention
that they are necessary and sufficient
for therapeutic change

Good support for the idea that it is
necessary but NOT sufficient (less
successful therapists tend to score
lower)

Recently became regarded as
teachable learnable “skills”

Evidence for an empathic civilization
Therapeutic goals
 Specific goals determined by therapist and client based on
client’s specific circumstances
 General (meta) goals include helping clients…



abandon the defensive facades that protect incongruent
self-concept
accept anxiety-provoking aspects of self-experience
move from incongruence to congruence
video demonstration with Gloria
Demo starts at 9:30
Case Example: Mr. Smith begins therapy
Self-Concept
Ideal Self
“How I see me”
“How I should be”
Lonely
Joyful
Authentic
Angry
Authentic
Insecure
Cautious
Fearful
Cautious
Lonely
Smart
Honest
Authentic
Compulsive
Distrusting
Cautious
Manipulative Assertive
Smart
Moving toward Congruency
Criticisms
 Overly optimistic and simplistic view of human nature
 Three therapeutic conditions are necessary but insufficient
 Implies therapist must be congruent
 Diagnosis has benefits
 Therapeutic confrontation can be beneficial
Research
 Some studies of genuineness, empathy, and unconditional
positive regard found that these three characteristics were
related to constructive change in therapy. Other studies
have found no relationship (Epstein, 1980)
 Self-concept has also been studied. Research supports
notion that therapy is usually related to increased selfacceptance (Wylie, 1984)
Dibs In Search of Self
 What is Dibs like when he first meets Miss A?



Was he mentally retarded?
Was he autistic?
Would he meet DSM criteria for some other disorder?
 How did he develop the behaviors above



From an Adlerian perspective?
From a Rogerian perspective?
Bruno Bettelheim: “The Empty Fortress”
 What did Axline think Dibs needed in order to improve?
 How did she try to treat Dibs?


Why did she insist on her clinic (rather than his home)?
What kind of limits did she set? What was their purpose?
 How might a different type of therapist work with Dibs?
Diagnostic criteria (Autism)
 A total of six (or more) items from (1), (2), and (3), with at least two from (1),
and one each from (2) and (3):

qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least 2 of the following:





qualitative impairments in communication as manifested by at least 1 of the following:





marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and
gestures to regulate social interaction
failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people (e.g., by a lack of showing,
bringing, or pointing out objects of interest)
a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people (e.g., by a lack of showing,
bringing, or pointing out objects of interest)
delay in, or total lack of, the development of spoken language (not accompanied by an attempt to compensate through alternative
modes of communication such as gesture or mime)
in individuals with adequate speech, marked impairment in the ability to initiate or sustain a conversation with others
stereotyped and repetitive use of language or idiosyncratic language
lack of varied, spontaneous make-believe play or social imitative play appropriate to developmental level
restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities, as
manifested by at least 1 of the following:




encompassing preoccupation with 1or more stereotyped & restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal in intensity or focus
apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals
stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g., hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements)
persistent preoccupation with parts of objects
 Delays or abnormal functioning in at least one of the following areas, with onset
prior to age 3 years: (1) social interaction, (2) language as used in social
communication, or (3) symbolic or imaginative play.