Customer Reviews

On Becoming a Person

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was one of the first books I read when doing my course work in counselling skills training. It was easy to read, and understand what Carl Rogers was trying to get over about the need for the Core Conditions in the building of a therapeutic relationship. I felt it was more of an autobiography than a training manual, as reading it gave a small insight into how Roger's told of his own personal growth and how everyone can live life to their own maximum potential if they want to.

This book by Carl Rogers on client-centered therapy may lack the drama, the force or the cleverness associated with some books on other forms of psychotherapy. What it doesn't seem to lack is a quiet wisdom that flowed from Rogers' many years of experience and sensitivity to his patients.

Despite some redundancy, being a collection of papers and presentations from Rogers over many years, "On Becoming A Person":

1) presents a branch of psychotherapy distinct from psychoanalysis and learning theories as well as from behaviorism, focused more on basically well people growing than on helping disturbed people get better.

2) is rooted in Roger's positive view of human nature as basically good and constructive, as he discovered in encounters with his patients. Roger's emphasis on empathic understanding, on not imposing theoretical speculations about the clients state of mind and on avoiding forceful interference would seem to avoid some of the abuses associated with some other psychotherapies.

3) presents ideas about the helping relationship that Rogers extended from psychotherapy into other areas such as education. Rogers's nondirective approach suggested to him the possibility of a progressive education free of examinations, of grades, of conclusions, and even of teachers.

4) despite its "fuzziness", Rogers does present some experimental evidence in favor of client-centered therapy as compared to those based on learning theory and behaviorism.

5) Rogers' shows appreciation of the growing power of the behavioral sciences but expresses concern less this science, like other sciences, becomes manipulated by politicians to the detriment of people. He basically wonders, if a culture is to be designed, as Skinner had suggested, what safeguards there are on the designer.

Rogers may seem too rosy and to be cherry-picking his results. The kind of measurements he presents, such as a psychological test measuring "changes in the self" based on self reporting may seem too fuzzy. How long it takes, compared to other available approaches, to get effective change seems not to have been a primary consideration for Rogers and may explain the rise of more recent approaches like Cognitive Therapy and Constructive Living. As a lay person, I respect the humane treatment Rogers recommended toward those entering psychotherapy as clients.

A major contribution by Rogers seems to be his recognition that his clients were not objects to do things to but rather fellow people whose experience he could share in.

Carl Roger's is one of the few theorists who you feel you really get to know through his writing, this book is no exception and helped me so much when I was training to become a counsellor. Roger's writes with ease and this book is essential for those trying to understand the importance of the Core Conditions to the therapeutic relationship. My copy is tattered now, read often and borrowed by many!

I've been told that this book is a classic among books about psychotherapy and I've found that, indeed, it is an interesting read for anyone interested in the inner world of humans - not only for the experts.
One of the main points of the author is that, in any personal relations, be it with patients, pupils, colleagues, friends or partners, the route to personal growth (for all sides) requires empathy, acceptance and thruthfullness. Trying to force "mental" change in a patient or, say, ones maritial partner does not provide lasting improvement, but providing a solid relationship helps the other on his way to finding his self. In other words, by becoming a friend, the councelor can help the patient become the person he is.

I am currently trying to read this book in preparation for a counselling diploma beginning next month. Having already read Rogers's book, "A Way of Being", I thought I would enjoy "On Becoming a Person", however I am struggling to be engaged with it.

I think the problem is that I feel as though I am just covering ground that he has already discussed in A WAY OF BEING. While I agree that for a relationship to be helpful there has to be the core conditions of empathy, unconditional positive regard and congruence, I feel as though I need more than just this if I am to develop as a counsellor. I feel as though you need to have some knowledge of how your clients can help their situations - people come to counselling because they want to improve aspects of their life, and I am not sure that just the core conditions are enough.

While I shall try and continue with ON BECOMING A PERSON for my course, I have already started looking for alternative books whcih may offer more. One that has caught my eye is Egan's SKILLED HELPER - a book which suposedly takes Rogers's core conditions as a starting point, but then develops ways of actually helping clients meet goals which would be helpful to them.

An interesting read, especially when the flavour of the private man seeps through, as it often does. Rogers guru-like status has been bolstered by this book but it left me wondering 'wheres the beef?'.

Being 'nice' has it's place but is also a good way of dancing round the heart of the matter without ever engaging with it.

That said, I would recommend it to people who favour an uncovering approach as it conveys much of the value of attending to the lived moment-by-moment relationship - never a bad thing to be reminded of but not sufficient on it's own, whatever the assertions.

A must read for anyone who is studying to be a counsellor or psychotherapist or for anyone who is concerned with personal development and growth. Carl Rogers in my opinion is the master of human centred counselling and this book does not disappoint.

I received this book very promptly. Its a classic I have had in the past which keeps being loaned out and never returned - Thank You

A book that outlines the processes of achieving personal efficacy and interpersonal skills as a state of receiving others, in order to truly become the Self that is (to use Rogers jargonesque) the ideas for which were formatively laid down before the 1960s and are presented here as a collection of seminar papers given to higher education audiences. With 50 years of hindsight it is hard not to consider 'On Becoming A Person' as having had an influence on the human potential movement.

Decidedly academic and philosophical, especially Part V onwards, Rogers's key subtle phenomenological perceptions are turned into objective and manipulable data. For example, experiments are described that aim to test for maturity, changes in Self concept and ideal concept, as well as the quality of the therapeutic relationship before, during and after counselling. A client centred therapeutic approach is applied to education, family life, interpersonal relations and creativity with empathy, positive regard, unconditionality, genuineness and congruency being measured scientifically and turning up as the good guys where there is a dysfunctional situation - even as a reverse process for brain-washing. Maybe we could all do with some of this!

In an age of positivism where observer bias and structural limitations in the scientific method might not have been so rigorously questioned it is remarkable to think how much Rogers's extraordinary introspective sensitivity was keenly honed for the inter-subjectivity of human relationships (borne it seems out of a deep appreciation for Kierkegaard). He questioned the prevailing philosophy of science in its claims of clarity, reliability, replicability and validity, and did so successfully in an important debate with Skinner about freedom of choice in the behavioural sciences. For Rogers value judgements always exist prior to any scientific endeavour and it is this debate between phenomenology and positivism which prove key to unlocking the man and his intellectual journey. This is evidenced by a somewhat overambitious prediction of the demise of all schools of psychotherapy through the establishment of an objectively verifiable knowledge.

The notion of existential living as a matter of "process" is how many come to understand Rogers's main work. He describes this process as being a 'maximum of adaptability, a discovery of structure in experience, and a flowing, changing organisation of self and personality when encountering stress and frustration'. Much has been discussed about Rogers as a major contributor to humanistic psychology, however what permeates these pages isn't so much humanism, but a quasi-mystical union without a method!! In a chapter entitled ' A Therapist's View Of the Good Life' Rogers admits to being frightened by the fluid, relativistic, individualistic person who seems to be the logical outcome of the processes of therapy. But at the same time the 'Openess-factor' is emphasised as a polar opposite of defensiveness where the ego temporarily renders threatening experiences harmless by distorting or denying them to awareness.

Here is the sense of a man who had managed to find his own personal wholeness - 'on his becoming a person' - of the professional scientist and the extraordinary introspectionist. If ever you would like to see an example of Rogers's multi-layered approach then the 'Gloria Films' are definitely worth a look. They were a series of tapes between three strikingly different and influential 1960s figures in the world of psychology and a woman named Gloria. The footage gives an insight into Rogers's disarming humility and subtle reasoning objectivity, and to my mind is a master class in the art of ethical counselling in comparison with the Mystery School method of Fritz Perls.

Excellent book, highly relevant for anyone interested in person centred counselling. Easy to read and understand.