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A search for the word Rogers on this site returns four articles out of a total of 33 written in about ten months. The numbers also show my admiration for Carl Rogers, born in 1902 and died in 1987, one of the fathers of humanistic psychology. I first heard about him during a meeting on counseling in Rapallo, about ten years ago, and I was fascinated. Through the concept of “person-centered therapy,” he introduced a new way of conceiving helping relationships. At the heart of this approach is trust in human potential and the capacity for self-actualization when one is welcomed into a context of respect and understanding, characterized by empathy, authenticity, and unconditional acceptance.

I love reading Rogers’ writings because he manages to tackle the complicated subject of human relationships and personality development effectively, using clear language, while providing the methodological and scientific context underlying his experience. Another very engaging aspect is his sincere sharing of his own life journey, with its strengths and weaknesses, making the reader perceive the universality of certain aspects of our lives. In summary, after reading one of his books, you get the feeling that the topics of psychology and human relationships are much less distant and obscure than we think.

So far, I have read two of his books. I have already dedicated an article to the first one, The book “A way of being” by Carl Rogers. Today, I will talk about the second one, available only in English, entitled “On Becoming a Person.” The first chapters are dedicated to the process by which we become a person and the role of the counselor in supporting this journey, before moving on to analyze the study of human relations and behavioral sciences in the last chapter. The title summarizes one of the most important principles of Rogers’ vision: life is not a state, it is a process in constant flux.

In the introduction, Rogers presents the reader with the reasons that led him to write the book. In this article, I will focus on two of them. The first is the “hope and belief” that sharing his experience as a therapist could be useful to the reader in their own process of “becoming a person.” This desire reveals his natural inclination to make his experience available to others for their growth, with a spirit free from the presumption of playing the role of the all-knowing teacher. Chapter “What it means to become a person” is the heart of the book, and in the first pages of this chapter, Rogers reveals the common denominator of his professional experiences. I quote an excerpt from my copy¹, which admirably summarizes this concept.

As I follow the experience of many clients in therapeutic relationship which we endeavot to create with them, it seems to me that each one is raising the same question.Below the level of the problem situation about which the individual is complaining … , it seems to me that at bottom each person ias asking: “Who am I, really? How can I get in touch with this real-self, underlying all my surface behavior? How can I become myself?”

In sharing with the reader his vision of the conditions that best promote personal growth, the author follows a logical path that is linked to his own particular evolutionary experience. Rogers, the therapist focused on helping individuals, gradually transformed himself into a wise peacemaker and facilitator of dialogue between groups in conflict. Rogers hoped for a significant increase in the influence of social and behavioral sciences in the field of conflict resolution between groups and nations. This is the “final reason” that prompted him to write the book. I quote directly from the introduction , which clearly highlights the author’s desire.

Man’s awesome scientific advances into he infinitude of space as well as the infinitude of sub-atomic particles seems most likely to lead to the total destruction of our world unless we can make great adavances in understanding  and dealing with interpersonal and inter-group tensions. … . I hope for the day when we will invest at least the price of one or two large rockets in the search for more adequate understanding of human relationships.

They were written in 1961, but they sound dramatically relevant today. There is no doubt that his hope now seems much more utopian than it did then. An evolutionary leap is needed in our approach to conflict resolution, otherwise we will continue to think that the only possible solution is to build ever more powerful weapons, with a combined destructive potential that threatens the very existence of humanity.

You can send your comment to info@esperienzedivalore.it, I will be happy to respond.

1. “On Becoming a Person” Carl. R. Rogers, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1995 ↩︎