Thesis Statement
The era of psychotherapy began with Sigmund Freud
and as the evolutionary trend in psychology continued,
new directions and approaches were explored and
each new theory proclaimed superiority and uniqueness
over previous theories. This dichotomy in the
field of psychology resulted in the formation
of distinct and separate schools of thoughts.
On the one hand there was Sigmund Freud and Carl
Jung with their wonderful analysis of the unconscious
and dreams, and then on the other hand there was
John Watson declaring that behavior governs the
psychology of man and the unconscious has no part
in it. With such warring contrasts pitted against
each other, the saga of the psychological odyssey
of discovery continued and even more approaches
were developed. For the first time the world became
witness to the inner workings of a child’s
mind and this profound vision was created by Jean
Piaget who laid the foundations of the developmental
approach to psychology. Thus the trend in scientific
study continued but not for long. Abraham Maslow
and Carl Rogers explored the humanistic side of
psychology and completely discarded the behavioral
approach and scientific approach of measurement.
This paper will discuss the theories, models and
treatment methodologies of some of the great psychologists
of the 20th Century.
John Watson (1878 – 1958)
John Watson did not have a joyous childhood. His
mother was very religious while his father was
an alcoholic who had extra marital affairs. Despite
his turbulent childhood, John Watson was a very
ambitious person. At age 16 he enrolled in Furman
University and after receiving his masters he
enrolled in the University of Chicago and in 1903
the University awarded him a PhD in Psychology.
A few years John Watson became an associate professor
of Psychology at Johns Hopkins University.
In 1913, John Watson delivered a historic lecture
at Columbia University which forever changed the
shape of psychology in the years to come. This
lecture was titled ‘Psychology as a Behaviorist
Views it’. Despite the criticisms to his
theories Watson pressed on and after World War
I he conducted the famous Little Albert experiment.
After leaving Johns Hopkins University, Watson
focused his intellectual talents on the advertisement
industry. Although he wrote a few books on his
theories in psychology, by 1930 it seemed that
his interest in scholarly pursuits had waned and
the advertisement industry became his main focus.
(1. John B Watson)
Theories and Models
"Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed,
and my own specified world to bring them up and
I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train
him to become any type of specialist I might select--doctor,
lawyer, merchant-chief, and yes, even beggarman
and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants,
tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of
his ancestors." (John B. Watson, 1930)
John Watson believed that psychology should only
be the study of behavior since behavior was observable
and objective. John Watson established the two
tenets of behaviorism. One, presumptions regarding
consciousness should not be given importance;
rather scientific psychology (as he named it)
should be a study of the relationship between
environmental contingencies and behavior. The
second tenet declared that animal behavior was
very much like human behavior in that the principals
governing them were identical. John Watson expressed
these viewpoints in his lecture ‘Psychology
as a Behaviorist Views it’. This paper attacked
traditional psychology and blamed it for being
esoteric and introspective in its interpretation
of the conscious. Watson defined the goals of
psychology which in his view was "a purely
objective experimental branch of natural science",
and the pursuit of this natural science was the
prediction and control of behavior. In Watson’s
psychology the understanding of mind was a sin.
(2. Classics in the History of Psychology)
Watson was very influenced by the Nobel Prize
winning work of Ivan Pavlov who conducted a series
of experiments on dogs. Watson adopted Pavlovs
theory on conditioned reflex and implemented it
in his study on human behavior. In1920 Watson
published his Little Albert experiment in which
he demonstrated the conditioned reflex theory
in Humans. Watson used a little boy named Albert
who had a pet rat. The boy was made fearful of
the white rat by making a loud noise with steel
bars when ever the boy proceeded to pick the rat.
This fear was observed whenever the rat appeared
which suggested that a process of classical conditioning
had occurred. This fear was also produced by the
appearance of white furry objects such as a Santa’s
hood and Watson’s white hair. In the same
experiment Watson also demonstrated the process
of extinction. Whenever the white rat appeared
the boy was given sweets and the loud noise was
no longer presented. Gradually the boy’s
fears dissipated. Technically, Watson had fused
the unconditioned stimulus ‘loud noise’
which produced an unconditioned reaction of fear,
with the conditioned stimuli ‘the sight
of the rat’. Hence, the sight of the rat
produced a conditioned response of fear. Objects
similar to the
rat also produced the conditioned response of
fear. (2. Classics in the History of Psychology)
Watson applied his behaviorist theories to the
cognitive processes as well. In his paper ‘Is
Thinking Merely the Action of Language Mechanisms?’
(1920) John Watson wrote ‘if we are ever
to learn scientifically any more about the intimate
nature of thought other than that which can be
obtained by observing the end results -- that
is, by observing the overt verbally expressed
behaviour or the overt ensuing bodily actions
-- we shall have to resort to instrumentation.’
John Watson believed that learning (a think process)
was actually a trial and error process very similar
to manual trial and error. He also believed that
language commanded the process of thing and the
initial stimuli which was consequently expressed
in words or bodily reaction became inert when
the reaction was completed. ‘Words are thus
the conditioned (C) S substitutes for our world
of objects and acts. Thinking is a device for
manipulating the world of objects when those objects
are not present to the senses.’ (2. Classics
in the History of Psychology)
Watson adequately summed up his behavioral theory
with these words, ‘We have known for a long
time that we cannot get our animal to introspect
and tell us about its consciousness, but we can
keep it without food, we can put it in a place
where the temperature is low, or the temperature
is high, where food is scarce, where sex stimulation
is absent, and the like, and we can observe its
behavior in those situations. We find that without
asking it anything, we can, with this systematic,
controlled observation, tell volumes about what
each animal does, both by reason of its unlearned
activities and through activities which it has
to learn. We soon get to the point where we can
say it is doing so and so because of so and so.’
(2. Classics in the History of Psychology)
Treatment Methodology
In 1915 Watson became the President of the American
Psychological Association and in 1916 Watson began
his study on mental illnesses. Watson believed
that psychopathology was ill equipped to deal
with mental illnesses due to the lack scientific
and behavioral approach in the interpretation
of diseases. Watson’s treatment plan was
to look for habit disturbances and maladjustments
and then attempt to describe these discrepancies
in terms abnormal responses of the patient regarding
objects and situations in daily life. After the
identification process, Watson would proceed to
fish out the cause of such maladjustment and the
reason for their continuance. What really differentiated
Watson from other psychotherapist was that Watson
looked for habit formations, language habits and
then linked them to the observable bodily habits.
Watson believed that ‘the patient can not
phrase in terms of words the habit twists which
have become a part of his biological equipment’,
however, the patients language expressed his system
of motor habits in a very economical way very
much like a short hand speech. Therefore, in Watson’s
view speech disturbances and habit disturbances
were conditioned reflexes which could be dated
back to some primary stimuli. (2. Classics in
the History of Psychology)
The hallmark of Watson’s treatment methodology
was that he gave importance substantial communication
between doctor and patient and he believed that
during such communication the patient was being
cured. Speech in Watson’s opinion should
be looked at in an objective way, which ultimately
point towards disturbed bodily reactions. Watson’s
treatment methodology incorporated the elements
of retraining so that the patient is better fitted
to cope with his environment. Retraining also
involved the breaking up of undesirable habit
by successful identification of the cause and
then undoing the disturbing conditioned reflex.
(2. Classics in the History of Psychology)
Carl Gustav Jung (1875 – 1961)
Carl Jung was born on July 26, 1875 in a small
Swiss village. He grew up in a very intellectually
charged environment. As a child Jung learned several
languages and became interested in language and
literature. He was an introverted and solitary
person who spent most of his time lost in his
imagination. Jung went to the University of Basel
to study medicine and eventually settled on psychiatry
as a career choice. After graduating he worked
as an apprentice for Eugene Blueler (an expert
in schizophrenia) at Burghoeltzli Mental Hospital.
Jung and Freud met in Vienna in 1907, Jung was
an admirer of Freud and Freud believed that Jung
was the person who would support and carry on
the psychoanalytical movement started by him.
Jung had opinions which differed from Freud’s
ideas and their relationship came to an end in
1909. After the traumatic World War I ended Jung
postulated the most interesting personality theory
in the history of psychology. (4. Carl Jung, Dr
C. George Boeree)
Theories and Models
The realm of human thought and the unconscious
fascinated Jung. He believed in its mysteries
and was never afraid to say that he did not understand.
Psychology for Jung was a spiritual experience.
Jung’s theory can be divided into three
parts, the ego or the conscious world, the unconscious
world (hidden memories and memories that can easily
be brought to mind. The unconscious does not conform
to Freudian instincts) and finally the collective
unconscious or psychic inheritance. (3. Notes
on Carl Gustav Jung)
Perhaps the most integrating philosophy of Jung
is his theory of individuation. This philosophy
is more religious than psychological, Jung believed
that humans are inwardly whole but they have forgotten
the various part of their self that make them
whole. Contact with rest of the parts of their
self can be made by listening to their dreams
and their imagination. Jung believed that sickness
in the mind is created when a person’s conscious
and the unconscious mind have not unified. To
Jung, the separateness of the unconscious and
conscious was responsible for all the problems
that bedeviled humankind. (3. Notes on Carl Gustav
Jung)
Jung believed that the unconscious was a very
powerful thing, it will live and move us in certain
directions weather we like it or not. The unconscious
propagates itself through dreams and fantasies.
Jung defined two types of unconscious. One, Personal
Unconscious which is everything we are not aware
of, in Jung’s words ‘all more or less
intention repression of painful thoughts and feelings.
These contents are part of the individual personality.’
The collective conscious on the other hand was
the inherited psyche, which was essentially the
history of the human race which lived in us and
this collective unconscious represented itself
in all universal themes and ideas. Jung found
that people around the world had very similar
dreams and the way music made sense to everyone.
In Jung’s words the collective unconscious
‘constitutes a common psychic substrate
of a suprapersonal nature which is present in
every one of us.’ (3. Notes on Carl Gustav
Jung)
Jung spent much of his time interpreting dreams,
he believed that dreams had purpose, intention,
were specific and were manifestations of the unconscious.
Dreams maintained a person’s psychic equilibrium.
Central to Jung’s theory of dreams was the
role played by symbols which had other connotations
besides the original meaning. Moreover, symbols
served as messengers from the unconscious to the
rational mind. On dreams Jung writes, ‘The
dream is a little hidden door in the innermost
and most secret recesses of the psyche, opening
into-that cosmic night which was psyche long before
there was any ego-consciousness, and which will
remain psyche no matter how far our ego-consciousness
may extend... in dreams we put on the likeness
of that more universal truer, more eternal man
dwelling in the darkness of primordial night..
. .There he is still the whole, and the whole
is in him, indistinguishable from nature and bare
of all ego-hood. Out of these all-uniting depths
arises the dream, be it never so immoral.’
(3. Notes on Carl Gustav Jung)
Carl Jung is also known for his theory on archetypes.
Archetypes are primordial images of universal
themes common to all of us and stored in the unconscious.
An archetypes form may be universal but its specific
content is individualistic depending on a person’s
life experiences. Jung gave a few examples of
archetypes and explained them. The Shadow was
the side of our personality we consciously hide
from the world. The shadow incorporates all the
things we do not allow ourselves to do. To Jung
the shadow is unavoidable and can appear in our
dreams as an unknown figure of the same sex. The
Persona is mask or the image we choose to present
to the world. The persona’s sole purpose
is to conceal the true nature of self and make
an impression on others. Anima and Animus are
archetypes which are personified as feminine qualities
in males (Anima) and masculine qualities in females
(Animus). Jung said, ‘Every man carries
within him the eternal image of woman, not the
image of this or that particular woman, but a
definitive feminine image. This image is fundamentally
unconscious.’ For women the animus represented
itself as qualities such as assertiveness and
powers of capability usually attributed to men.
The Self represents the struggle for unity and
wholeness, much like the concept of individuation.
(3. Notes on Carl Gustav Jung)
Jung noticed that people differed in different
ways although our instincts are the same. Therefore,
Jung devised his theory of psychological types.
He pointed out two types of general attitude,
introversion and extroversion. An extrovert is
a person who derives greater satisfaction from
social relationships and is action oriented. Whereas,
an introvert is a person who wants privacy and
solitude and such a person is reflective. Jung
then proceeded to define the thinking, feeling,
sensing and intuitive functions in introverts
and extroverts. Many psychologists still apply
Jung’s personality categorization. (3. Notes
on Carl Gustav Jung)
Treatment Methodology
Jung’s understanding of mental illnesses
was based on the theory of ‘complex psychology’.
Jung believed that complexes formed because of
repressed memories, emotions and traumatic events.
A complex represents itself in the form of disturbances
in performance and memories, blockages of flow
of associations, hallucinations, delusions, multiple
personalities. Jung also devised a word association
test which indicated complexes and their specific
nature. Jung applied the complex theory in the
study of neurosis which to him was the conflict
between consciously expressed tendencies and those
affected by complexes. (3. Notes on Carl Gustav
Jung)
At mental hospitals Jung listened closely to the
patients comments and tried to discover what he
called the ‘story’. Jung believed
that derangement weather major or minor was caused
by the denial of the story and any cure would
involve the patient rediscovering his or her personal
story and integrating it in his or her ‘self’.
Jung’s treatment for neurosis was enabling
the patient to achieve individuation. Jung identified
the fulfillment of this goal when symptoms have
disappeared and a person no longer feels the lack
of meaning in his life. (3. Notes on Carl Gustav
Jung)
Abraham Moslow (1908 - 1970)
Abraham Maslow was born on April 1, 1908 in Broklynn
New York. His parents were immigrants and were
uneducated; they pushed Maslow towards academics
as they believed that it was the only route to
success. Maslow studied law in City College of
New York but was un-interested in the field of
Law. After getting married Maslow went to the
University of Wisconsin where he received his
bachelors, masters and PhD in psychology. Later
he taught full time in Brooklyn College and came
across influential individuals such as Adler and
Horney. While serving as chairman of the psychology
department at Brandeis, Maslow was introduced
to the idea of self actualization by Kurt Goldstein.
Soon after Maslow began theoretical work and championed
the humanistic movement in psychology. (5. Abraham
Maslow, Dr C. George Boeree)
Theories and Models
During his early studies with monkeys Maslow noticed
that certain needs were more important than others.
For example, thirst was more important than food
and breathing was more important than thirst.
Based on this almost instinctual prioritizing
effort Maslow created his famous theory of hierarchy
of needs. However, before Maslow all motivational
theories had focused on the basic psychological
needs, or put simply the basic need to avoid and
reduce pain. Maslow realized that motivation was
in reality a much broader concept then previously
thought.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (5. Abraham
Maslow, Dr C. George Boeree)
1. Physiological Needs: These are the basic needs
for human existence such as water, oxygen, all
the necessary nutritional elements in food, temperature
suitable to humans, the need to sleep, get rid
of bodily wastes and the need to have sex. Lack
of any of the above mentioned needs would drive
the individuals to action which would fulfill
his needs.
2. Safety and Security Needs: When the physiological
needs are satisfied, an individual will develop
a new set of needs such as the need for a stable,
predictable environment which is free from physical,
economic or psychosocial anxiety.
3. Need for Love and Belonging: When physiological
and safety needs are met, a new need develops
which craves for affection and intimacy from partners,
family and friends. The individual feels the need
to belong to some organization such as a community,
club, fraternity or a social group.
4. Need for Esteem: Maslow distinguished two versions
of esteem needs, the lower level and the higher
level. The lower level included appreciation and
respect of others, dignity, fame, reputation and
dominance. The higher esteem needs were the need
for individual freedom, self confidence and self
respect and the sense of achievement.
5. Need for Self Actualization: Maslow called
this the ‘growth motivation’. Because
at this final stage any satisfaction derived from
the fulfillment of ones own potential produces
more self actualization needs and the individual
wants to succeed even more.
Maslow categorized the first four needs as the
deficit needs, which means that the lack of esteem,
love, safety and physiological needs would drive
the individual towards satisfying the deficit.
However, growth needs such as the need for self
actualization does not arise from a deficit but
are fueled by each successive fulfillment. (5.
Abraham Maslow, Dr C. George Boeree)
Maslow used the term homeostasis and instictoid
needs for the first for needs because they are
instinct like and are regulated just like a thermostat.
Human development also happens along the lines
of this hierarchy of needs. And, when survival
is threatened humans regress to a lower level
of needs. When the deficit needs are not met a
deficiency is created and that deficiency appears
to have a negative impact on human psychology.
(5. Abraham Maslow, Dr C. George Boeree)
Quite apparently self actualization needs can
only be met when the lower needs are mostly satisfied.
Maslow did a biographical analysis to study the
self actualization needs. Maslow found that people
who have met the last need in the hierarchy had
good sense of reality, did not surrender to problems,
preferred solitude but had deep relationships
with a few people, were independent, had an un-hostile
sense of humor, were simple not artificial, had
the quality of accepting people as they are, had
strong ethics, could appreciate the ordinary things
in life, and they experienced peak experiences
which were moments of extreme happiness and satisfaction.
However, self actualized people did have imperfections,
but they had a good sense of their short comings
as opposed to the confused state of mind in neurosis.
(5. Abraham Maslow, Dr C. George Boeree)
Treatment Methodology
Self Actualized people may seem perfect but Maslow
indicated that when a self actualized person does
not get his needs fulfilled then he develops meta-pathologies
which are all the problems that make up a self
actualized persons needs. This person would develop
depression, despair, disgust, alienation and cynicism.
Maslow believed that after his categorization
of human needs a table of problems and their respective
solutions would be devised. (5. Abraham Maslow,
Dr C. George Boeree)
Maslow viewed problems as they appeared in neurosis
as the result of one of the four deficit needs
left unsatisfied. For example if the need for
security is not met then the individual would
become fearful and anxious. If the need for love
and belonging is not met then the individual would
become lonely and depressed, if esteem needs are
not satisfied then the individual would develop
inferiority complexes. Therefore Maslow said that
people should be asked for their ‘philosophy
of the future’, which means how they want
their ideal life to be. The patient’s response
would tell volumes about his deficiencies. (5.
Abraham Maslow, Dr C. George Boeree)
Often after a traumatic event such as the death
of a loved one, a very permanent deficit of needs
sets in and this deficit is what Maslow believes
to be the cause of neurosis. (5. Abraham Maslow,
Dr C. George Boeree)
Jean Piaget (1896 – 1980)
Jean Piaget was born in Switzerland on August
9, 1896. Jean thought his mother was somewhat
neurotic and it was the interest in her condition
that eventually lead Jean towards the field of
psychology. During his teen ages, Jean’s
mother insisted that he attend religious classes,
but Jean found religious arguments frivolous and
unsubstantiated. Jean turned to philosophy for
answer but when that failed him he turned towards
psychology. Jean obtained his PhD in psychology
from the University of Neuchâtel in 1918.In
1919 Jean began his research in intelligence testing
and in 1921 Jean’s research on the reasoning
of elementary school children became very popular.
Jean continued his research while he served various
organizations. When he died, Jean had written
60 books and hundreds of articles. (6. Jean Piaget,
Dr C. George Boeree)
Theories and Models
While many psychologists were busy explaining
‘the unconscious mind’, conditioned
and unconditioned behavior and the` pursuit of
happiness and motivation; Jean Piaget was more
interested in how children learn and adapt to
their surroundings. In 1920 Jean Piaget founded
the developmental approach in psychology with
his theory in child development. (6. Jean Piaget,
Dr C. George Boeree)
Early in his career Jean became interested in
the development of thinking and the nature of
thought and he called the study of the development
of knowledge ‘genetic epistemology’.
Jean studied knowledge development in children
and noted how simple their sensory motor skills
were, but it was those skills which eventually
developed into complex ones as the child grew
and cognitive development took place.
Jean named the simple motor sensory responses
as schemas, such as the response ‘grab and
thrust into mouth’. These simple schemas
when applied to different objects, the infant
learned assimilation which is the assimilation
of a new object into an old schema. However, when
an object which cannot be manipulated with an
old schema is presented to the infant, the infant
(through a process of trial and error) learns
a new way to handle the object. This last process
was named accommodation by Jean. (6. Jean Piaget,
Dr C. George Boeree)
For much of the infantile period, Jean observed
that the process of assimilation and accommodation
continued. Jean reasoned that when an understanding
of the world is developed, equilibrium is reached.
Jean also noticed that during the child’s
development period there were times when assimilation
dominated and times when accommodation dominated.
Jean distinguished four developmental stages of
children. (6. Jean Piaget, Dr C. George Boeree)
The sensory motor stage
The period of this stage lasts from birth to two
years. During the first few months an infant indulges
itself in primary circular reactions which are
basically reactions which the infant finds interesting
such as sucking the thumb. After a year the child
develops secondary circular reaction in which
it explores its surroundings and finds that some
actions when repeated makes interesting things
last. However the most distinguishing feature
of this stage is that while the infant was less
then a year old its cognitive ability was limited
to ‘out of sight, out of mind’, but
now the infant starts developing the concept of
object permanence. (Older infants can find things
they cannot see). After this the child develops
tertiary circular reactions which emphasizes on
repetitive actions only. (6. Jean Piaget, Dr C.
George Boeree)
When the child is a year and a half old, it develops
mental representation which is the ability to
memorize events and experiences beyond the time
for which the experience lasts. Children get good
at pretending and they start using mental combinations
to solve simple problems. (6. Jean Piaget, Dr
C. George Boeree)
Preoperational Stage
The period of this stage is two to seven years.
In this period the child learns symbolic representations,
language and the drawing of symbolic shapes are
examples. The child also begins to have a sense
of the past and future. (6. Jean Piaget, Dr C.
George Boeree)
The main characteristic of this stage is that
the child is egocentric, which means that its
opinion is the only opinion that it believes in.
Jean conducted an experiment in which he provided
a 3-D image of a mountain to children and then
put a doll at one fixed position. Next he asked
the child to point to the picture of the mountain
in the dimension in which the doll sees it. Children
pointed to that dimension of the mountain which
they saw rather than what the doll would see.
Further children can only concentrate on one aspect
of a problem and cannot evaluate the different
possibilities. (6. Jean Piaget, Dr C. George Boeree)
Concrete Operations Stage
Children enter this stage at age 7 and it lasts
to age 11. The main development and advancement
achieved in this stage is that children become
less dependent on perception. Children develop
the ability to add, subtract, multiply and divide.
They also learn A can be greater than B, therefore
B is smaller than A. the children develop the
ability to conserve, which means that they can
recognize that when water is poured into an empty
glass from another glass then the volume of water
has not changed. However, children at this stage
can only concentrate on concrete situations. (6.
Jean Piaget, Dr C. George Boeree)
Formal Operations Stage
Children of age 11 or 12 enter this stage of development.
The key development in this stage is that children
can now think in terms of possible rather than
the apparent or actual state of the world. Children
in this stage can manipulate ideas more flexibly
than children of lesser age. It is in this stage
that the child develops abstract reasoning. (6.
Jean Piaget, Dr C. George Boeree)
Treatment Methodology
Jean never involved himself in psychotherapy but
his studies suggest that he was of the opinion
not to punish but to explain things to the child.
After all the greatest therapy for non development
in children, is to educate them. Jean’s
theories lead to a whole new concept of education.
Carl Rogers
Born in Illinois in 1902, Carl Rogers is believed
to be the father of client centered psychology.
Rogers obtained his PhD in psychotherapy from
Columbia University in 1931. Throughout his career
Carl Rogers believed in the humanistic side of
psychology and thought that the behavioral and
psychoanalytical approaches were not very helpful
because the impeded the cognitive development
of patients primarily because of the authoritative
approach to analysis. Rogers believed that patients
should discover the solution to their problems
themselves rather than the psychiatrist telling
them what to do. As a reaction to the authoritative
style of psychotherapy prevalent in that era,
Rogers proposed a ground breaking theory of personality
development. Rogers received numerous awards for
his personality theory and analytical methods.
(7. Carl Rogers, Hall, Kathy Jo.)
Theories, Models and Treatment Methodology
Rogers wrote in his book On Becoming a Person,
‘Unless I had a need to demonstrate my own
cleverness and learning, I would do better to
rely upon the client for the direction of movement.’
Rogers believed that by allowing patients more
flexibility in their treatment and creating self
awareness in patients yielded more dividends than
the contemporary psychoanalytical and behavioral
methodologies. Rogers wrote the extension of his
personality development theory in the Theory of
Personality Development, Rogers’ Therapy.
In this fundamental theory of therapeutic methods
Rogers expressed that in every individual there
is an inherent tendency to grow and develop which
results in the struggle to achieve self respect
and self actualization. All the therapist has
to do is apply what Rogers calls ‘unconditional
positive regard’. (7. Carl Rogers, Hall,
Kathy Jo.)
In unconditional positive regard, the therapist
acts only as a catalyst for the patient to divulge
his thoughts and emotions, for the most part the
patient is the one who leads the therapy session
with his conversation. The unconditional positive
regard can be practiced by the therapist if he
only listens to the patient and accepts what he
says by repeating the patient’s statements.
This process encourages the patient to reveal
more and hence express more of his negative feelings.
(7. Carl Rogers, Hall, Kathy Jo.)
Rogers abandoned the term patient and started
referring his patients as clients, now all psychologists
do the same. Rogers theory was also known as people
centered and certain basic aspects of his therapeutic
methods made sense as it was really the individual
who is the center of the therapy session. Some
basic aspects were that it was the client who
has come to seek help which means that the client
wants to improve himself or remove certain negative
aspects in his psyche. (7. Carl Rogers, Hall,
Kathy Jo.)
Rogers believed that the client should be told
that the therapist does not have all the answers
and that he can only help the client realize the
solution to his problems. Secondly, the therapist
provides a friendly and uninhibited atmosphere
in which the client is made aware that he can
discuss his problems openly without fear of prejudice.
The therapist then recognizes negative feelings,
sorts them and accepts them; it should be the
goal of the therapist to help the client recognize
negative feelings. After the recognition phase
is over, the client will express his positive
impulses as well and these should be accepted
by the therapist. Once the positive as well as
the negative has been identified the therapist
will lead the patient towards realizing and accepting
self and hence approach possible courses of actions
to rectify the problem. The therapist only needs
to direct a little bit, but it is the client who
arrives at a greater understanding of self. The
client will not need much help when he starts
acting positively. (7. Carl Rogers, Hall, Kathy
Jo.)
In a specific case involving a mother and her
ten year old son, Rogers demonstrates how successful
client centered therapy can be. The mother was
having trouble with her son and she was asked
by the therapist to discuss the problems with
her son. The mother was not told that she has
to provide satisfactory answers but rather she
was asked to address the problem in any way she
wants. The mother expresses her deepest feelings
for the boy’s bad behavior and the therapist
does not interrupt. The boy when engaged in a
play therapy makes a clay doll representing his
father and enacts the violent struggle that occurs
each day; again the counselor does not interrupt.
Eventually the mother gains insight and realizes
that she should give some special attention to
her son. Since that idea was inspired by the mother
herself, therefore, it is more certain that she
will act in more certain positive ways than she
would have if she was just informed of the problem.
(7. Carl Rogers, Hall, Kathy Jo.)
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