On Becoming By Carl Rogers Summary
On Becoming a Person’ is a compilation of lectures and manuscripts drafted by Carl Rogers between 1951 and 1961. The book is deeply insightful and almost meditative in its explanation of how Rogers arrived at his person-centred approach to psychotherapy.
Candid personal revelations of Roger’s experience and insights on human relationships are provided, as is an exploration of psychotherapy as a helping ‘relationship’ between the therapist and client in modern terms.
The gut felling the message will stays with you after reading the book. Rogers’s idea that ‘becoming a person’ means being a work in progress. The author argues there is a link personality as defined by specific traits, characteristics, and behaviours in modern terms.
In a modern world Rogers posits that we are the sum total of our experiences, which flow in time; therefore, our personality is not rigid but flowing as well – we are continually and progressively becoming the person if desire to be.
It is when we cannot become our ideal self that mental distress is experienced.
It could be argued in modern terms Rogers explanation that people wear a ‘mask’ before others as they fear others might see the real person under the mask and reject them.
Therefore, people can find themselves wearing an externally-imposed mask in order to prevent friction with significant. By experience, when wears the mask, significant others respect, love, accept and even admire the mask, which supports their belief that the real them would not be accepted. Living this way, a person builds an impenetrable wall that hides who they truly are – even from themselves. The need to go as far as hiding the ‘self’ from themselves comes from the fear of discovering the depths of their emotions and losing control of them.
Rogers believes that in a genuine, acceptant and empathic therapeutic relationship the client will feel safe enough to slowly remove the mask and dismantle the wall until they are comfortable with and ‘acceptant’ of themselves. This is Rogers’s definition of ‘successful’ therapy.
Candid personal revelations of Roger’s experience and insights on human relationships are provided, as is an exploration of psychotherapy as a helping ‘relationship’ between the therapist and client in modern terms.
The gut felling the message will stays with you after reading the book. Rogers’s idea that ‘becoming a person’ means being a work in progress. The author argues there is a link personality as defined by specific traits, characteristics, and behaviours in modern terms.
In a modern world Rogers posits that we are the sum total of our experiences, which flow in time; therefore, our personality is not rigid but flowing as well – we are continually and progressively becoming the person if desire to be.
It is when we cannot become our ideal self that mental distress is experienced.
It could be argued in modern terms Rogers explanation that people wear a ‘mask’ before others as they fear others might see the real person under the mask and reject them.
Therefore, people can find themselves wearing an externally-imposed mask in order to prevent friction with significant. By experience, when wears the mask, significant others respect, love, accept and even admire the mask, which supports their belief that the real them would not be accepted. Living this way, a person builds an impenetrable wall that hides who they truly are – even from themselves. The need to go as far as hiding the ‘self’ from themselves comes from the fear of discovering the depths of their emotions and losing control of them.
Rogers believes that in a genuine, acceptant and empathic therapeutic relationship the client will feel safe enough to slowly remove the mask and dismantle the wall until they are comfortable with and ‘acceptant’ of themselves. This is Rogers’s definition of ‘successful’ therapy.