Carl Rogers - His Life and Ideas

Carl Rogers - a biography

'I speak as a person, from a context of personal experience, and personal learnings.'

Carl Rogers, the originator of the person-centred approach to counselling, was born in Chicago in 1902. One of six children, his family had descended from pioneers who first came to America in the seventeenth century. The spirit and ethics of his forbears seem hardly to have diminished over the years for he later wrote 'I was brought up in a home marked by close family ties, a very strict and uncompromising religious and ethical atmosphere, and what amounted to a worship of the virtue of hard work.'

As a teenager on the family farm, he was encouraged to independently keep and rear livestock according to the latest scientific principles. He embraced these ventures with enthusiasm and later attributed to them his belief in and knowledge of the valid testing of hypotheses using 'the methods of science' .

At 18, intending to become a farmer, Rogers began study in Scientific Agriculture at the University of Wisconsin. Free from the constraints and intentionally isolating influences of home he commenced a period of intense personal change and development. Rejecting his parents' view of a judgmental and easily offended God , his exciting discovery of a personal, loving God led to a decision to enter the Christian Ministry. In preparation for this he switched courses to History and after graduating began training at Union Theological Seminary in New York.

During his time there, however, he continued to question his views and beliefs. A previous trip to China as a delegate of Christian Students had brought him into contact with people of widely different worldviews and faith, and this had greatly challenged him. He gradually came to believe that he could not ascribe to one particular set of doctrines. Christian Ministry was clearly no longer his calling; as he later wrote, 'I wanted to find a field in which I could be sure my freedom of thought would not be limited.' Ultimately he came to reject his Christian faith altogether.

Rogers had already attended a number of courses in psychology offered at the Teachers' College across the road from the Seminary. He transferred to the College full-time in order to train as a psychologist; then commenced a fellowship with a new Institute for Child Guidance. The emphasis in College had been on rigorous, objective and statistical scientific methods. In the move to the Institute he found himself among a staff committed to Freudian and psychoanalytic theory; and felt keenly the tension between these two approaches.

At the end of his internship, he took up a post in New York as a psychologist for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. His work there with underprivileged and 'delinquent' children was intensely busy and practical. Working at 'the sharp end' proved an immensely valuable testing ground for the theories and approaches he had learnt as a student; and it was during his twelve years here that the foundation for his later beliefs were laid. In his book 'On Becoming a Person' (1961), he outlines several incidents which seriously challenged the accepted theories and methods. As he writes there, 'There was only one criterion in regard to my method of dealing with these children and their parents, and that was, 'Does it work? Is it effective?' I found I began to formulate my own views out of my everyday working experience.' It was here that he found interpretative methods of working with troubled families to be largely ineffective, and that it was 'better to rely upon the client for the direction of movement in the process.'

Rogers began to give lectures on his findings at the University of Rochester, finally articulating them in the book 'The Clinical Treatment of the Problem Child' published in 1939. He subsequently accepted a professorship at Ohio State University where he was able to further refine and publicise his philosophy and ideas. A move to Chicago University four years later in order to establish a Counselling Centre, enabled him to continue research studies into the effectiveness of his methods - something he viewed as of immense importance; and saw the publication of two significant books outlining what he describes as his 'client-centred' approach and its theoretical basis. His work brought him recognition among his peers; but not always praise. His approach challenged the orthodox methods in which the therapist was seen as the expert whose direction and treatment could 'cure' a troubled individual.

Eager to extend the scope and reach of his ideas, in 1957 Rogers moved to work in both the psychology and psychiatry departments of Wisconsin University. In1961 he published his book 'On Becoming A Person' in which he not only articulates his philosophy of what 'being human' means, based on his own work and observations; but also argues for the application of his approach beyond therapeutic work into many other areas of life. The book was intended for a much wider audience than psychologists, and certainly reached it. Selling widely and in huge numbers, it brought Rogers and his ideas considerable attention and acclaim.

His standing and influence now established, the success of this book gave him the confidence to leave academia altogether, ultimately forming own organisation, The Center for Studies of the Person. He remained connected with this organisation for the remainder of his life, continuing his research, writing and speaking. Over the years his vision of the possibilities offered by a person-centred approach continued to enlarge. He became increasingly interested in the impact his views could have on society as a whole, considering arenas such as education, administration and politics; particularly hopeful that it would prove effective in promoting world peace. He died on 4 February 1987. He was unaware of it, but he had just been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Carl Rogers' Person-Centred Approach - the theoretical basis

'One cannot engage in psychotherapy without giving operational evidence of an

underlying value orientation and view of human nature.'

Foundational to all Rogers' thinking was his view of the essential nature of human beings. Claiming to base his beliefs on his experience of working closely with many different people,

this view is a fundamentally respectful and positive one. In 1957 he wrote, 'I do not discover man to be well characterized