Developing person-centred theory Carl Rogers and personality theory Fluent I would love to live Like a river flows, Carried by the surprise Of its own unfolding. (O’Donohue 2001,41) Rogers describes his understanding of the development of personality (1951) Nineteen Propositions “Taken as whole, the series of propositions presents a theory of behaviours which attempts to account for the phenomena previously known, and also for the facts regarding personality and behaviour which have more recently been observed in therapy.” (Rogers 1951,482) A Therapist’s Observation in the Counselling Room Propositions and hypotheses Not Dogmas and Doctrines Based on clinical experience And clinically oriented research Attempting to account for observed phenomena Phenomenological Understanding of ‘reality’ comes from subjective experience Perceptual Reality as experienced is different for everyone Humanistic Human relationships are the active factor in promoting growth and change Holistic You cannot understand a human organism by breaking it up into its constituent parts Actualisation of potential, growth-oriented The person-centred metaphor for recovery is one of growth or development to a new way of being Process theory Life is governed by processes of change and development An Organismic Philosophy At the heart of the person-centred approach and the theory and practice of person-centred therapy lies the organism, a pulsing biological entity and a significant and enduring image. (Tudor and Worrall 2006, 46) The organism and the environment Rogers is influenced by Cybernetics of the day (Bateson) and the feedback loop whereby the organism receives feedback from the environment in order to actualise, maintain and enhance the experiencing organism. Roger’s organism is not compelled by Freudian drives but is in constant and indissoluble relationship with its environment listening to feed back in order to optimise itself. Roger's unified concept of motivation, the human species 'has one basic tendency and striving - to actualize, maintain and enhance the experiencing organism.' (Rogers 1951, 487) Tendencies The actualising tendency Self-actualisation The formative tendency Propositions 1. Every individual exists in a continually changing world of experience of which they are the centre. 2. The organism reacts to the field as it is experienced and perceived. This perceptual field is, for the individual, ‘reality’. 3. The organism reacts as an organised whole to this phenomenal field. (Rogers 1951) Propositions 4. The organism has one basic tendency and striving - to actualise, maintain, and enhance the experiencing organism. 5. Behaviour is basically the goal-directed attempt of the organism to satisfy its needs as experienced, in the field as perceived. 6. Emotion accompanies and in general facilitates such goal directed behaviour, the kind of emotion being related to the seeking versus consummatory aspects of the behaviour, and the intensity of the emotion being related to the perceived significance of the behaviour for the maintenance and enhancement of the organism. (Ibid) Propositions 7. The best vantage point for understanding behaviour is from the internal frame of reference of the individual themselves. 8. A portion of the total perceptual field gradually becomes differentiated as the self. 9. As a result of interaction with the environment, and particularly as a result of evaluational interaction with others, the structure of the self is formed – an organized, fluid but consistent conceptual pattern of perceptions of characteristics and relationships of the “I” or the “me”, together with values attached to these concepts. (Ibid) Propositions • 10. The values attached to experiences, and the values that are a part of the self-structure, in some instances, are values experienced directly by the organism, and in some instances are values introjected or taken over from others, but perceived in distorted fashion, as if they had been experienced directly. (Ibid) Therefore, the person-centred approach is: Holistic and relational, Organismic, and therefore non-dualistic, Experiential and phenomenological, not analytical Existential, Actualising, growthful, Process based, not static. Heraclitus No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man. (Please see Graham 2021) So, we change to remain the same! References • Barrett-Lennard, Godfrey T. 1998. “Human nature, personality and change: Theoretical foundation of the client –centred system.” in Carl Rogers' helping system: journey and substance. 71 - 87 London: SAGE • Brown, Christine. 2015 “Rogers’ Original Theory of Personality and Be haviour: The Nineteen Propositions.” In Understanding person-centre d counselling : a personal journey. 17 - 43, London: Sage • Graham, Daniel W., "Heraclitus", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2021 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2021/entries/heraclitus/>. Last accessed 31/01/2022 • O'Donohue, John. 2001. Conamara Blues, London: Bantam Books. References • Rogers, Carl. 1951. Client-Centred Therapy, London: Ross-on-Wye, Constable. • Sanders, Pete. 2006. The Person-Centred Counselling Primer. PCCS Books, • Spielhofer, Hermann. 2003 "Organism and Subjectivity—1: The concept of ‘organism’ and ‘actualizing tendency." Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapies 2, no. 2. 75-88. • Tudor, Keith and Mike Worrall, 2006. “Tendencies.” in Person-centred therapy : a clinical philosophy, 86-100. New York: Routledge.
