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On Becoming a Person: A Therapist's View of Psychotherapy

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I was given this book in 1973 when I was a senior in college and wished to attend graduate school in clinical psychology. The book transformed me. I went from page to page recognizing that Roger's spoke directly to me and the way I experienced my relationship with my inner self and soul. This book review is written with the purpose of encouraging others to read this masterpiece of psychological theory. ALL psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, and social workers should be intimately familiar with Rogers and his concepts.

Of all the personality theorists and practitioners of psychotherapy such as Jung, Freud, Fritz Perls, Albert Ellis, Karen Horney, Harry Stack Sullivan, Eric Fromme, and Rollo May; Carl Rogers is the one infused with optimism and a belief in the goodness of mankind. He sees human beings as capable of vast growth and creativity; able to achieve ethical and loving relationships and encounters; and achieving a healed and healthy soul that directs us toward others and the world.

Do not confuse his discription of the state of psychological health with that of William James, Clark Hull, or James B Watson. These theorists see man's natural state as homeostatic, neither alert nor asleep, neither happy nor sad. Rogers on the other hand would assert that the Buddha-like state of homeostasis is not full psychological health. Full psychological health is involvment, attachement, love, relationship, creativity, fulfillment, achievement, and goodness.

Once the reader buys into Roger's Self Theory, which posits that we are self healing, self directed, and instinctively know psychological health from psychological disease; then he posits his therapeutic model by which the therapist facilitates the process whereby a client moves toward this wholeness. This method, client-centered psychotherapy, transformed the world of psychotherapy, education, medicine, and social services.

The book gives a very thorough and insightful look at how Roger's developed his theory. There are connections between his self theory and Christianity, but these are implicit rather than explicit. Then, further into the book, Roger's explains the method he developed that seeks to facilitate personal growth. The method is not intrusive but faciliates the natural growth process of the client rather than takes on the world-view or paradigm of the therapist. The method is ethical and has minimal opportunity for destructive practices by the therapist,if practiced as Rogers describes.

When you read this book you will understand why Carl Rogers is the most beloved of all the personality theorists. The phenomenologists who have examined Rogers believe that Rogers creates reality by facilitating the loving, healthy self in the soul of his clients. Well, if Rogers has created such a loving and affirming conception of mankind, then my hat is off to him for creating such a profound reality. I believe the existential-phenomenological concept that reality is a social construct but I must honor that Roger's has in fact created a beautiful, internally consistent reality with his theory of the self.

You will not be disappointed by this life changing book.

Welcome to the world of humanistic/existential psychology. This is the book I buy as gifts for close friends, as it has forever changed me. I too am amazed that as a clincal psychology doctoral student, this book is not a Required read in our program. If you've been considering reading about humanistic psychology or Carl Rogers, this is the book to start with! Easy read, beautifully written, and incredibly insightful. Once you read his work, you'll be hooked.

This book does an excellent job of teaching a person how to behave in a relationship, so that each of the parties in the relationship can flourish. Recently, a friend of mine was feeling suicidal and the knowledge that I gained from reading this book, helped me to help them find an alternative solution to the problems they were having. On Becoming A Person is an owners manual for living.

Carl Rogers was one of the first Psychologist's that challenged conventional interview psychotherapy. He makes you question many of the assumptions about what is to be human and disturbs conventional Psychologists who hold ideological positions about how to help people. He taught people how to listen to eachother by example. The book covers the preconditions necessary for individuals to take a look at themselves without becoming defensive in the process. He was the first psychologist who taped his interview sessions and suggested ways to improve one's skills helping others. Do not overlook this gem

This is Carl Rogers' classic and a must-read for everyone interested in getting real with themselves. The critic who edited this version indicates very successfully that there are important parallels between Carl Rogers and Ralph Waldo Emerson. This makes Rogers' philosophy and psychotherapeutic approach a truly American one, one that places the individual in the supreme seat of ultimate authority over his/her own experience and existence. The main message that Rogers develops from many different angles is this one: there is no beast in man, and therefore there is also no need to fear one's innermost thoughts, feelings, longings and desires. "There is only man in man." This was surely a revolutionary message at the time, and remains to be revolutionary to this day, as so many modern-day religionists cling to the idea of man's "innate badness." Rogers most certainly debunks that destructive religious heritage in his work. This book is a pleasure to read. It is written in very simple, yet precise language and goes down "like honey."

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.

As a student, the writings of Carl Rogers changed my life and view of therapy. I stopped worrying about techniques and other psychological constructs such the Id and Ego. After reading Carl Roger's writings, I started to focus on the person, client, and therapeutic relationship. Every person who is considering entering the counseling or therapy profession must read Carl Rogers. I have had the honor of hearing and seeing Carl lecture and demonstrate what he believed in vivo. Carl Rogers will go down in history one person who truly changed counseling and therapy.

I first read this book as an undergraduate in 1988. I occasionally read it today, as I sometimes see myself within it. As I think of the changes I have gone through and look at the person that I have become (and becoming) I can't help but think that everyone who reads it will gain enormous insight into themselves.

It's a must read for every body.

What is a person? When we think of ourselves, what is the self that we are thinking of? How do we define who we are? Aren't these some of the deepest questions humanity has been facing throughout history? These are the very questions Carl Rogers deals with in On Being a Person. In his essay "What it Means to Become a Person" he describes openness to experience, trust in ones organism, an internal locus of evaluation and willingness to be "a process," as the person who emerges in the healthy process of becoming a person.

Every step of the way Carl Rogers is refreshing, honest, open, even humble about his sweeping conclusions about humanity and personhood. I especially like Chapter 1 "This is Me," originally a talk retrospective of his own career that Rogers delivered at the Memorial Union at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. In this wonderful talk, Rogers describes the "learnings" acquired throughout his life and career. Just the very idea of a learning is in itself interesting. Others might describe the acquired wisdom as a teaching. Not Rogers, to him it is a learning, and theat concept implies receptivity, sensitivity and openness.


An example of a learning is this: "In my relationships with persons I have found that it does not help, in the long run to act as though I were something that I am not." He goes on to set forth fourteen total learnings, the last of which is: "Life at its best is a flowing, changing process in which nothing is fixed."

Here is an open, honest discussion of selfhood and personhood, the selves we strive to become. These are ideas we must return to again and again throughout our lives. Wow.

Carl Rogers teaches that listening is an art and a practice that is not always easy. He has had a tremendous impact on how therapists work in the 20th century. If you are interested in other great therapists' views on the listening process, try a book called "Inside Therapy".