carl Rogers (January 8, 1902, Oak Park, Illinois, United States – February 4, 1987, San Diego, California, United States) was a humanistic psychologist known for his method of client-centered psychotherapy.
According to a survey conducted by the American Psychological Association (APA) in 2002, Rogers is considered the sixth most eminent psychologist of the 20th century. Much of his merit lies in having developed a therapeutic current that made a positive contrast with the predominant theories of the time: behaviorism and psychoanalysis.
Today we delve into the life and work of Carl Rogers in the most personal way possible. Join us throughout this article, which highlights Rogers’ contributions to the evolution of psychology.
The life of Carl Rogers: early years
“I feel honored and flattered to know that a group wants to know who I am. I will try to answer an honest question with all the honesty of which I am capable” — Carl Rogers, Becoming a Person (1961), part one, Page 15
In his book Becoming a Person: My Therapeutic Technique (1961), Rogers dedicates an important space to sharing his personal experience and the process that led him to become a psychologist (or as he prefers to call himself: personal counselor).
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“I grew up in a home characterized by close family ties, in a very strict and uncompromising ethical and religious atmosphere,” writes Carl, the fourth of six children, who complements the most significant details of his childhood by referring to a lot of work and little social life. .
At age twelve, Rogers and his family moved to a farm, an event he describes as his parents’ attempt to “distance teenagers from the temptations of suburban life.” There he would spend the rest of his early years and develop two of the interests that may have guided the course of his life: butterflies and agriculture, curiosities that Rogers discovered, years later, had been his first approach to The science.
“I grew up in a home characterized by close family ties, in a very strict and uncompromising ethical and religious atmosphere.”
Through books like From Morrison, Rogers learned to plan experiments and analyze results while respecting the scientific method. Thus passed the following years of his childhood and his interest in agriculture continued until university, where he began in this field during the first two years of higher education.
In search of his authentic vocation, Rogers changed his professional objective and leaned toward priestly ministry; He began studying history and, in 1922, he was selected among a dozen students to participate in an international conference of the World Student Christian Federation in China. Rogers describes this as “a very important experience” where he was able to witness how, four years after the First World War, hatred between the French and Germans persisted.
“I was forced to broaden my thinking and admit that very sincere and honest people can believe in very different religious doctrines,” Rogers wrote. From that moment on, the separation between Rogers and his parents’ religious thinking was imminent, a fact that he defines as the beginning of becoming an independent person.
During the same period, Rogers married Helen Elliot, whom he had known since childhood. In his book Becoming a Person, Rogers describes his marriage as a “constant companionship (…) extremely important and enriching in my life.”
Later, he attended Union Theological Seminary (1924), the most liberal theological seminary in the country at that time. There he began to feel attracted to courses and conferences on psychology and psychiatry (which were just beginning to develop). Rogers especially remembers those who helped spark his interest: Goodwin Watson, Harrison Elliot, and Marian Kenworthy.
Later, he would take a course on the philosophy of education taught by William H. Kilpatrick, one of his great teachers. He began clinical placements with children under the supervision of Leta Hollingworth and soon began to identify himself as a clinical psychologist, a step “taken gently and with little awareness,” simply dedicating himself to the activities that interested him.
“How did I become a psychologist?”
Rogers applied for a scholarship at the Institute for Child Guidance. There he became familiar with dynamic Freudian approaches. Shortly afterward he began working as a psychologist in the Child Study Departmentt of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (Child Studies Department of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children). Rogers accepted this position even though his family was growing and the salary ($2,900 a year) was not good even at that time.
As described by Rogers in always believed that if he found an opportunity to do what interested him most, the rest would take care of itself.
Rogers worked there for twelve years, during which he closely studied child delinquency cases. It was then that he began to notice that something was not right with the methods and theories of the time, which summarized criminal behavior as repressed sexual behaviors.
“The most fruitful periods of my work are those in which I was able to completely distance myself from what others think (…)
He stopped sharing the position of doctors like William Healy, whom he had previously followed, and began to discover a different path away from “any coercive or aggressive approach” to bringing hidden truths to the surface. Rogers discarded the use of interrogation as “superficially effective” and learned to be more subtle, delicate and understanding when interpreting people’s behavior. “I began to think that I was not really a psychologist,” he writes, and that “no one was interested in my teachings.”
Rogers began attending sessions of the (American Psychological Association) and was able to verify that there was research on rat learning and laboratory experiments that had nothing to do with what he was discovering. However, there was an understanding with psychiatric social workers, so he decided to undertake activities in that field and began to interact with local and national organizations.
With the creation of the American Association for Applied Psychology (American Association of Applied Psychology, which existed between 1937 and 1945), Rogers began working actively as a psychologist teaching courses on understanding and treating troubled children in the Department of Sociology at the University of Rochester. Little by little, the Department of Education wanted to include Rogers’ courses in the category of courses on education and, later, the Department of Psychology requested his permission to incorporate the courses, accepting him as a psychologist.
It provided a more intimate and caring view of the psychologist’s job.
Rogers then understood that he had managed to establish “his own lines of work” and that it was time to move forward with them without worrying about whether or not to follow the herd.
“The most fruitful periods of my work are those in which I was able to completely distance myself from what others think. For all this, I appreciate the privilege of being alone” — Carl Rogers, becoming a person (1961), part one, Pages 25-26.
In 1940, Rogers was appointed professor at Ohio State University. During the process of teaching his students, Rogers began to realize that he had developed a very personal point of view that differed from established positions. He recapitulated his ideas and presented a manuscript to the University of Minnesota in December of the same year. “For the first time I understood the fact that an idea of mine, which may seem brilliant and full of potential, can represent a serious threat to other people,” wrote Rogers, which then became the center of criticism and, but also of opinions in favor.
Despite the setbacks, Rogers was convinced that he had very important things to contribute to psychology, so he wrote Counseling and Psychotherapy (1942), where he describes what he considers a more effective orientation of therapy. The book was on the verge of not being published, since Rogers only knew of two courses (one under his supervision and another at a different university) where it was valid to adopt the text, an unpromising outlook for the sale of the 2,000 copies required to cover the bills.
The editor finally decided to publish the work when Rogers told him that he would submit it to another publisher. Neither of them ever expected the results: 70,000 copies sold until 1961.
Years later, Rogers would publish (1951) and (1954), where he would delve into the foundations of his client-centered therapy.
Carl Rogers’ contributions to psychology
Client-Centered Therapy, also called Person-Centered Therapy
The concept may be redundant to the superficial, after all, psychology is always supposed to be “centered on its clients.” But the truth is that Rogerian philosophy has had a lot to do with the progressive awakening of a psychological praxis closer to the true needs of the individual and less attached to the check list routine, to the clinical eye, psychometric tests and the office inventory.
Therapy had to be an encounter between two human beings on equal terms, where the psychologist did not represent an authority figure but rather an agent of mediation.
Unlike behavioral therapy, Rogers did not focus strictly on the analysis of behavior, nor did it focus on unconscious desires and impulses, like psychoanalysis, but rather provided a more intimate and caring view of the psychologist’s profession.
For Rogers, therapy should be an encounter between two human beings on equal terms, where the psychologist did not represent an authority figure but rather an agent of mediation and the “patient” was treated as a “client” who requested to be heard, helped. in his search to reconnect with who he really is.
Rogers’ therapy is based on the premise that it is the client who really knows the problems that afflict him, where they come from and how to remedy them. The psychologist fulfills the function of accompanying him in the process of reconnecting with himself, for which he does not use police interrogations or adopt authoritarian positions, but rather does everything humanly possible to understand the other without judging him, understand what his statement means to him and make this a doubly enriching process.
Unconditional positive regard
Rogers believed that psychologists should view clients positively…