On Becoming a Person: A Therapist's View of Psychotherapy
Also known as On Becoming a Person
Carl Rogers' essays on therapy, growth and the "fully functioning person"
At a glance
Key ideas
The good life is a process, Openness to experience, Living in the moment …
See all 5Examples from the book
Who knows what hurts, Experience as authority, Being oneself in therapy …
See all 4Read next
Client-Centered Therapy, A Way of Being
See all 2Connections
Carl Rogers, Person-centered therapy and Humanistic psychology
See all 3
Also on this page: Key facts · Links · Sources · Related pages
- A collection of Rogers' essays on psychotherapy and personal growth, published in 1961.
- It describes the "good life" as a process of becoming, not a fixed state.
- A fully functioning person is open to experience, lives in the moment and trusts their own judgment.
- Rogers treats the client, not the therapist, as the one who knows what hurts.
- He argues the therapist's own genuineness is enough of a basis for therapy.
Why it matters
- The most readable route into person-centered therapy, and into what Rogers thought therapy is for.
- Start here before his more technical books.
Key facts
- Author
- Carl R. Rogers1
- Published
- 1961 (Houghton Mifflin); Constable, London, 1967; new edition 19952
- Publisher
- Houghton Mifflin, Boston2
- Pages
- 4202
- ISBN
- 0-395-75531-X (1995 Houghton Mifflin edition)2
- Written at
- University of Wisconsin–Madison, where Rogers taught from 1957 to 19631
- Influence
- Became his most widely read book3
Key ideas
-
The good life is a process1
Optimal development is a process rather than a static state, in which a person keeps moving toward their potential.
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Openness to experience1
The fully functioning person moves away from defensiveness and lets in what they feel.
-
Living in the moment1
Letting personality emerge from experience instead of bending experience to fit the self-concept.
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Organismic trust1
Trusting one's own judgment about how to act, rather than relying only on codes and social norms.
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Freedom and creativity1
Without the constraints of incongruence, people make wider choices, adapt creatively and take responsibility for their behavior.
Examples from the book
-
Who knows what hurts4
"It is the client who knows what hurts, what directions to go, what problems are crucial, what experiences have been deeply buried." (p. 11)
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Experience as authority4
"Experience is, for me, the highest authority." (p. 23)
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Being oneself in therapy4
"What I am and what I feel are good enough to be a basis for therapy" (p. 66)
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Not for the faint-hearted1
"This process of the good life is not, I am convinced, a life for the faint-hearted."
Read next
-
The theory behind these essays, set out as 19 propositions.
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Rogers' later essays, taking the approach beyond therapy.
Connections
Links
Sources
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