Rogers, Carl Ransom (1902–87)

Howard Kirschenbaum, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA

Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Abstract

Carl R. Rogers (1902–87) was America’s most influential psychotherapist and one of its most prominent psychologists. He
developed an approach to psychotherapy, known successively as the ‘nondirective,’ ‘client-centered,’ and ‘person-centered’
approach. He pioneered in the recording and publishing of psychotherapy sessions and cases. He sponsored more scientific
research on counseling and psychotherapy than had ever been undertaken. He was largely responsible for extending
professional counseling and psychotherapy beyond psychiatry and psychoanalysis to many helping professions –
psychology, social work, education, pastoral counseling, and others. Rogers was a leader in the humanistic psychology
movement, encounter groups, and using effective interpersonal communication to resolve intergroup conflict.

Carl R. Rogers was America’s most influential psychotherapist and understanding were more important than his particular
and one of its most prominent psychologists. His therapeutic techniques. Still later he clarified that it was the relationship
approach, known most often as ‘client-centered therapy’ or in therapy, which the attitudes helped create, that was
‘person-centered therapy,’ was validated through voluminous growth-producing. Rogers called this therapeutic relationship
scientific research and taught widely, profoundly affecting the ‘client-centered’ and described three ‘core conditions’ in the
fields of counseling and psychotherapy throughout the world relationship which bring about positive change in clients.
and permeating many other helping professions. A leader in The first is to accept the client as he is, as a person of
the humanistic psychology movement of the later twentieth inherent worth possessing both positive and negative feeling
century, Rogers also extended his theory and practice to include and impulses. Adopting a term coined by his student Stanley
person-centered approaches to education, group leadership, Standal, Rogers called this acceptance and prizing of the person
intergroup conflict, cross-cultural communication, and peace- ‘unconditional positive regard.’ The second is “the therapist’s
keeping. His writings and personal example stimulated willingness and sensitive ability to understand the client’s
professional, social, and political change in many countries. thoughts, feelings and struggles form the client’s point of
view.to adopt his frame of reference” (1949: 84). Rogers used
the term ‘empathy’ to describe this condition, popularizing
Client-Centered Therapy a concept already in use in the field. The third is, be “genuine,
or whole, or congruent in the relationship.It is only as
Rogers’ approach to counseling and psychotherapy was based [the therapist] is, in that relationship, a unified person, with
on a core hypothesis about human growth and personality his experienced feeling, his awareness of his feelings, and his
change, which he summarized in 1950: expression of those feelings all congruent or similar, that he is
most able to facilitate therapy” (pp. 199–200). He most often
used ‘congruence’ to describe this third ingredient of the ther-
Client-centered therapy operates primarily upon one central and apeutic relationship.
basic hypothesis which has undergone relatively little change with When a counselor is in psychological contact with a client
the years. This hypothesis is that the client has within himself the and is able to communicate these attitudes so that the client can
capacity, latent if not evident, to understand those aspects of his life
and of himself which are causing him pain, and the capacity and the
perceive them, the ‘necessary and sufficient conditions for
tendency to reorganize himself and his relationship to life in the therapeutic personality change’ are present. Rogers argued and
direction of self-actualization and maturity in such a way as to bring demonstrated that the client has within himself the ability and
a greater degree of internal comfort. The function of the therapist is tendency to understand his needs and problems, to gain
to create such a psychological atmosphere as will permit this capacity
insight, to reorganize his personality, and to take constructive
and this strength to become effective rather than latent or potential
(p. 443). action. What clients need is not the judgment, interpretation,
advice, or direction of experts, but supportive counselors and
therapists to help them rediscover and trust their ‘inner expe-
While other therapies might profess similar beliefs, Rogers’ riencing’ (a concept borrowed from Gendlin), achieve their
method of creating the therapeutic psychological atmosphere own insights, and set their own direction.
was radically different from other approaches commonly Until Rogers, the fields of counseling and psychotherapy
employed. Avoiding questions, interpretation, or other direc- had been dominated by the guidance movement and psycho-
tive techniques, Rogers’ initial ‘nondirective’ method relied analysis, respectively. While Rogers was not the first to argue for
exclusively on careful listening and skillful ‘reflection of feel- a ‘newer approach’ to counseling and psychotherapy – an
ings,’ leading to client insight and positive action. Although he approach that relied less on the professional’s expertise and
always remained primarily nondirective in his practice, Rogers direction and more on the client’s direction and resources –
soon recognized that the counselor’s attitudes of acceptance Rogers’ system was arguably the most clearly described,

International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2nd edition, Volume 20 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.61113-3 737
738 Rogers, Carl Ransom (1902–87)

comprehensive, and extreme, and the newer direction in self become denied and distorted, causing personal distress and
mental health work became associated with him. psychological problems, and how the therapeutic relationship
can help the individual restructure the sense of self, allowing
previously denied and distorted experience into awareness,
Recording Therapy leading to reduction in stress and openness to new
experiencing.
One reason Rogers was able to demonstrate his propositions in
a cogent and convincing manner was that he was the first
person in history to record and publish complete cases of Initial Impact on the Professions
psychotherapy. Before the invention of tape recorders this was
a remarkable achievement, requiring a microphone in the More than any individual Rogers was responsible for the spread
counseling room connected to alternating phonograph of professional counseling and psychotherapy beyond psychi-
machines in an adjoining room, which cut grooves in blank atry and psychoanalysis to other helping professions. While he
record disks that had to be changed every 3 minutes. With his was not the first to use the term ‘client’ for the recipient of
student Bernard Covner, Rogers and his team recorded thou- therapy, he popularized it, emphasizing that a person seeking
sands of disks, involving scores of clients. These recordings help should not be treated as a dependent patient but as
were pivotal in the clinical training of psychotherapists which, a responsible client, and that those in psychological distress
in the 1940s, Rogers may have been the first to offer in an were not necessarily sick requiring treatment by medical
American university setting. specialists. Rather all people could be helped by the growth-
In addition to the audio recording of therapy sessions, producing conditions of empathic understanding, uncondi-
Rogers was among the first to make cinematic recordings of tional positive regard, and congruence, and professionals from
counseling and psychotherapy. The American Academy of many walks of life could be trained to provide these conditions.
Psychotherapists became a leading distributor of training tapes Thus counselors, psychologists, social workers, clergy, medical
and movies, with Rogers the most frequent therapist portrayed. workers, youth and family workers, and other helping profes-
A still widely distributed set of training films showed Rogers, sionals could employ counseling methods and client-centered
Gestalt therapist Frederick (Fritz) Perls, and rationale-emotive attitudes in their work. Rogers’ books Counseling and Psycho-
therapist Albert Ellis each demonstrating his method with the therapy (1942) and Client-Centered Therapy (1951) described
same client, ‘Gloria.’ the principles of effective therapy and presented ample case
studies from recorded sessions to illustrate his points.
Rogers also impacted the helping professions through
Scientific Research and Theory leadership in many professional associations. Earlier in his
career he served on the executive committee of American
The recording of actual therapy sessions also provided the data Association of Social Workers and was vice-president of
on which Rogers and his colleagues carried out more scientific American Association of Orthopsychiatry (social workers).
research on one therapeutic approach than had ever been As he became more prominent in the psychology profession,
undertaken before. Rogers and his students and colleagues he served as president of American Association of Applied
devised and used numerous instruments for measuring the Psychology, American Psychological Association, and
variables of client-centered therapy and its outcomes: therapist American Academy of Psychotherapists, among other
acceptance, empathic understanding, and congruence; client distinguished positions.
expression of feelings, insight, self-concept, self-acceptance,
self-ideal, and level of experiencing; and clients’ positive
actions, social adjustment, and numerous other variables. In Applications to Other Fields
1959 the American Psychological Association awarded Rogers
its first Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award for In his own counseling practice, teaching, administration, and
“developing an original method to objectify the description writing, Rogers continued to apply his theory and method to
and analysis of the psychotherapeutic process, for formulating other fields – education, parenting, group leadership, and the
a testable theory of psychotherapy and its effects on personality health professions, to name a few. In each instance he
and behavior, and for extensive systematic research to exhibit demonstrated how the facilitative conditions of empathy,
the value of the method and explore and test the implications positive regard, and congruence could unleash growth, crea-
of the theory” (p. 128). tivity, learning, and healing in children, students, group
As the scientific award citation suggests, Rogers was inter- members, patients, and others. Applied to education, his views
ested in psychological theory and in the effects of therapy on on ‘student-centered learning’ coincided with and contributed
personality as well as behavior. Building upon the Gestalt and to the ‘open education’ movement in the United States, Great
phenomenological movements in psychology, and the work of Britain, and elsewhere. His book Freedom to Learn (1969) went
his students Victor Raimy and Arthur Combs, he developed through two new editions over the next 25 years.
a ‘self-theory’ of personality which is still included in many He expanded his theory and practice into the areas of group
textbooks (Rogers, 1959). The theory describes how an indi- leadership and group facilitation over several decades. In the
vidual’s concept of self emerges, how the process of socializa- 1940s he, Thomas Gordon, and colleagues at the University of
tion causes individuals to distrust their feelings and sense of Chicago had experimented with ‘group-centered leadership,’
self, how experiences that are inconsistent with the concept of whereby the leader’s acceptance, understanding, genuineness,
 Rogers, Carl Ransom (1902–87) 739

and willingness to let the group set its own directions stimu- same growth-promoting conditions useful in all helping rela-
lated great energy, creativity, and productivity among group tionships can lead to improved communication and greater
members. In the late 1950s and 1960s, Gordon, Richard Far- understanding among previously antagonistic parties. He and
son, Rogers, and associates extended this approach to what his colleagues led person-centered workshops for groups from
Rogers called the ‘basic encounter group’ – an unstructured 100 to 800 participants in Brazil, Mexico, Spain, Hungary,
group experience in which ‘normal’ group members came to Soviet Union, and many other countries. In South Africa, for
greater self-understanding, spontaneity, improved communi- example, Rogers facilitated demonstration encounter groups
cation, and genuineness in relationships. Rogers led scores of before large audiences in which, for the first time in their lives,
encounter groups in professional, business, religious, medical, white and black South Africans could actually communicate
academic, personal growth, and other settings. Look magazine with one another in an atmosphere of equality and respect.
called Rogers an ‘elder statesmen of encounter groups.’ Carl A 4-day gathering of international leaders in Austria on
Rogers on Encounter Groups (1970) was a major seller, and his resolving tensions in Central America was a laboratory
and Farson’s film of an encounter group they facilitated, demonstration of the potential of the person-centered
‘Journey Into Self,’ won an Academy Award (an ‘Oscar’) for the approach for resolving real international conflict. At the invi-
best feature-length documentary in 1968. tation of the Carl Rogers Peace Project, over 40 participants –
He applied his approach to couples’ relationships in including three former presidents of Central American
Becoming Partners: Marriage and Its Alternatives (1972). Through countries, a current vice-president, seven ambassadors, current
case studies of couples in varying types of relationships – from and former US senators and representatives, representatives of
traditional to openly experimental – he demonstrated how the Contra and Sandanista warring factions, and others – sat
open communication, genuineness, mutual support for the together as 83-year-old Rogers and his colleagues facilitated an
partner’s growth, and acceptance of change were ingredients unprecedented level of open communication among the
for healthy relationships. Similarly, in earlier articles on ‘The participants. Former Costa Rican President Rodrigo Carazo
Nature of Man’ and ‘A Therapist’s View of the Good Life: The later credited Rogers and his group for breaking the stalemate
Fully Functioning Person,’ and later essays like those collected and allowing the peace process in Central America to move
in A Way of Being (1980), he posited a philosophical– forward and eventually succeed. Other testimonials suggested
psychological model of the ‘person of tomorrow’ or ‘the that Rogers’ efforts in professional development and citizen
emerging person’ – an individual who is open to the outer diplomacy helped influence future developments in several
world but also deeply connected to one’s own inner experi- countries. In acknowledgment of his work, Rogers was nomi-
ence, who trusts one’s own organismic valuing process, who is nated posthumously for the Nobel Prize for Peace. At Rogers’
authentic, who is skeptical of authority, science, and tech- memorial service, Richard Farson eulogized him as ‘a quiet
nology, who values wholeness, and who understands that life revolutionary.’
is an ongoing process of change, among other qualities.

Humanistic Psychology
Political Implications
Rogers was a leader in what Abraham Maslow described as
Beyond the psychological and philosophical realms, Rogers a ‘third force’ in psychology, which emerged as a visible and
eventually recognized the political implications of his theories influential movement in the latter half of the twentieth century.
and methods – not in the sense of partisan politics, but in how ‘Humanistic psychology,’ as it came to be known, differed from
power and influence are distributed in all human relationships. psychoanalysis and behaviorism in at least three ways. First,
He explored these in Carl Rogers on Personal Power (1977). He this psychology gave much more emphasis and credence to the
and others had always recognized that, in the counseling or individual’s ‘phenomenal field’ – e.g., the client-centered ther-
therapy relationships, the client-centered approach reversed the apists trying to understand the client’s frame of reference rather
power relationship implicit in the traditional medical model. than evaluating or diagnosing from the outside, or the exis-
The expert who prescribed treatment was now the facilitator of tential psychotherapists helping the patient find meaning in his
growth who followed the client’s lead. Gradually it became life. Second, this psychology focused not just on the remedia-
apparent that Rogers was arguing for a similar shift in power tion of psychological problems, but on psychological health,
relations in other professional and human relationships. creativity, self-actualization, or what Rogers described as ‘the
Recognizing the ever-widening applicability of the client- fully functioning person.’ It was concerned not only with
centered, student-centered, and group-centered approach, helping people adjust, but helping them experience their
Rogers increasingly used a broader term, ‘person-centered,’ to positive human potential to the fullest. Third, it was
describe his work. a psychology interested in those factors that distinguish human
The shift was not just semantic; it took the work in new beings from other species. Choice, will, freedom, values, feel-
directions. In the 1970s and 1980s he experimented with ings, goals, and other humanistic concerns were all central
applications of the person-centered approach to enhancing subjects of study.
cross-cultural communication and resolving intergroup and As Rogers’ career and that of leading behavioral psycholo-
international conflict. Through workshops and filmed gist B.F. Skinner paralleled one another in their timing,
encounter groups involving different races, generations, and productivity, and influence, their views inevitably were con-
political persuasions – including Catholic and Irish protago- trasted. Meeting on several occasions, including a 6-hour
nists from Northern Ireland – Rogers demonstrated how the debate-dialogue in 1962, one of their exchanges on ‘Some
740 Rogers, Carl Ransom (1902–87)

Issues Concerning the Control of Human Behavior’ (1956) not authoritative.” The totality of his life’s work was devoted to
became one of the most frequently reprinted articles in the demonstrating how supportive, growth-producing conditions
behavioral sciences. Rogers became a leading spokesperson for can unleash healing, responsible self-direction, and creativity in
the humanistic psychology movement. In that unofficial individuals and groups in all walks of life. As many countries
capacity, he was often asked to engage in dialogues with some strive to resolve old, intergroup tensions and put self-
of the leading theologians, philosophers, and intellectuals government and self-determination into practice, they have
of the later twentieth century, including Martin Buber, Paul recognized in Rogers’ work not only particular methods of use
Tillich, Reinhold Niebuhr, Michael Polanyi, Gregory Bateson, to counselors, teachers, helping professionals, and group
Rollo May, Skinner, R.D. Laing, and others (Kirschenbaum and leaders, but a positive, person-centered, democratic philosophy
Henderson, 1989a). Humanistic psychology continues to exert consistent with their national aspirations.
a significant influence on society and the helping professions, Meanwhile, in North America and elsewhere, Rogers’
including serving as precursor and foundation of the contem- influence endures not only in the traditional client-centered
porary positive psychology movement. approach to counseling and psychotherapy that Rogers
promulgated and practiced, but in a number of new paradigms.
For many practitioners and scholars around the world, the
Enduring Influence person-centered approach as described by Carl Rogers remains
the only person-centered approach. In counseling and
While Rogers was still alive, he presented a vivid role model of psychotherapy, this approach may be characterized by:
the person-centered approach for almost six decades, demon-
l A belief in the client’s ‘self-actualizing tendency’; that is, an
strating his theories through teaching, lecturing, live demon-
innate motivation to grow and mature and realize his or her
strations and workshops, and audio–visual recordings. By
self-interest, especially when provided with a supportive
virtually all accounts, he embodied his theories by being an
environment.
exceptional listener and communicator and a decent, honor-
l A reliance on the therapeutic relationship, characterized by
able person. Near the end of his career, 1982 surveys in the
the core conditions of congruence, empathy, and uncon-
Journal of Counseling Psychology and American Psychologist still
ditional positive regard, for therapeutic progress.
ranked Carl Rogers as the most influential author and coun-
l A continuing focus on the client’s inner experience,
selor/psychotherapist.
hence ..
Since his death in 1987, Rogers’ influence has remained
l An absence of directive techniques or perspectives intro-
strong. In the United States, although cognitive–behavioral
duced by the therapist, such as questions, interpretation,
therapy has supplanted the person-centered approach as the
advice, coaching, and the like (except for relatively rare
leading therapeutic approach, Rogers still remains an influen-
expressions of counselor congruence).
tial figure. A survey of 2600 therapists in the Psychotherapy
l An avoidance of diagnosis, treatment plans, and other
Networker in 2006 easily ranked Rogers as the respondents’
therapist-centered methods that reflect the medical model
most often cited influence.
of mental illness.
Part of this is due to the continuing impact of his writings.
l A view of the client as a whole person in the process of
Rogers was one of the helping professions’ most prolific writers,
‘becoming’; that is, becoming a more fully functioning
authoring 17 books and more than 200 professional articles
person; therefore, counseling focuses not simply on a pre-
and research studies. Millions of copies of his books have been
senting problem but on more holistic change, so the client
printed, including over 80 foreign language editions of his
can continue to grow and exercise self-direction beyond the
works. His most popular book On Becoming a Person (1961),
therapeutic relationship.
written for both a professional and general audience, The Carl
Rogers Reader (Kirschenbaum and Henderson, 1989b), and One might say these characteristics describe what has been
other works still in print continue to spread his ideas. called ‘traditional,’ ‘classic,’ or ‘orthodox’ client-centered/
Around the world, person-centered psychotherapy person-centered counseling and psychotherapy. Some simply
continues to be a leading approach in many countries. One prefer the term ‘client-centered.’ However, for many other
explanation may be that, of all the major counseling theories, practitioners and scholars, there is more than a single person-
the person-centered approach arguably is unique in having centered approach. They believe it is possible to introduce
clear political implications – reversing traditional, hierarchal certain techniques to further a client’s self-exploration while
professional roles with more egalitarian relationships between still remaining essentially person centered. Thus, Natalie
helpers and clients, teachers and students, leaders and group Rogers, Carl Rogers’ daughter, developed ‘person-centered
members, and empowering counselors and therapists to work expressive therapy’ which engages clients and group members
for conflict resolution and social change in their own in the creative arts and employs empathic listening to help
communities and wider world. This has appealed to the them explore the meaning of their creative expression and its
segment of the helping professions, particularly in Europe, that implication for their lives. Eugene Gendlin developed
is concerned about the wider social context in which coun- ‘focusing’ and ‘focusing-oriented, experiential psychotherapy’
seling and therapy are practiced. as a method for helping clients tune into their ‘inner experi-
After Rogers’ death some of the greatest new interest in his encing’ in greater depth, while continuing to use empathic
work has been in Eastern Europe, Russia, Latin America, and listening as a primary method for furthering that exploration.
other emerging democracies. As a Japanese counselor explained Leslie Greenberg, Robert Elliott, and others developed ‘process-
in the 1960s, Rogers helped “teach me . to be democratic and experiential,’ then ‘emotion-focused therapy’ which combined
 Rogers, Carl Ransom (1902–87) 741

Gestalt and other techniques to guide the therapeutic process. organizational change were naive and counterproductive. Such
All three of these approaches – and others – have identified criticisms have sometimes been fair; for Rogers, like any indi-
themselves as person centered and have significant followings vidual, was a product of his times, with personal and historical
around the world. Their proponents would argue that they limitations. Just as often, criticisms of Rogers and his work have
remain essentially person centered, with a major emphasis on been wanting, because the critic was unfamiliar with the full
the core conditions, including a predominant use of empathic scope of Rogers’ theories, research, and ever-widening practice,
listening. or biased, because the critic’s own politics were antagonistic to
Thus, there is some controversy in the person-centered that of the explicitly egalitarian, progressive politics of the
world today as to whether ‘person centered’ should be used person-centered approach.
exclusively to describe Rogers’ traditional or classic approach to Critics notwithstanding, Rogers more than anyone helped
counseling and psychotherapy, or whether there is room for spread professional counseling and psychotherapy beyond
‘many tribes’ in the person-centered nation. In some countries, psychiatry and psychoanalysis to psychology and other helping
such as the United Kingdom, classic client-centered counseling professions. Interestingly, as meta-analyses of psychotherapy
has been the predominant mode; in others, like Germany, research continue to emerge, the data increasingly suggest that
other suborientations of the person-centered movement have the success of counseling and therapy is not due to any
commanded greater allegiance. Whatever the orientation, the particular method, whether cognitive behavioral, psychody-
person-centered approach is institutionalized in a number of namic, client-centered, or other. Rather the research demon-
European countries, with universities and training institutes strates that there are a number of ‘common factors’ in the
turning out person-centered practitioners, robust research context of the therapy relationship which account for successful
programs, government recognition for licensure, and reim- outcomes. Many of these common factors point back to the
bursement by insurance companies, although political turf therapist’s support, empathic understanding, and ability to
battles around recognition and reimbursement are ongoing. form a therapeutic alliance with the client. Ironically, Rogers’
There are scores of person-centered, professional organizations core conditions for therapeutic change, decades later, are being
around the world, numbering in the hundreds to the thou- validated by the latest generation of scientific research. While
sands. One 2005 study showed that in the 15 years after Rogers’ this research suggests that positive regard, empathy, and
death, there were more publications on Rogers and the person- congruence may not be absolutely necessary in every case nor
centered approach than in the 40 years before. This trend has sufficient for all counseling relationships, what the research
continued. does affirm are: first, Rogers’ initial insights about the impor-
tance of the therapeutic relationship; second, the usefulness
and practicality of the core conditions for forming the essential
Criticism therapeutic alliance; and third, the efficacy of empathy and
positive regard/acceptance, and, possibly, congruence for
In 1972, Rogers was awarded the American Psychological achieving positive counseling outcomes. Consequently, in
Association’s Distinguished Professional Contribution Award, recent years virtually all therapeutic approaches have come to
becoming the first psychologist to receive both the organiza- acknowledge the importance of the therapeutic relationship
tion’s highest scientific and highest professional honor. He was and more intentionally incorporate it into their practice.
recognized for “devising, practicing, evaluating and teaching
a method of psychotherapy and counseling which reaches to
the very roots of human potentiality and individuality . [H]e Education and Influences
has caused all psychotherapists to reexamine their procedures
in a new light.” The committee also noted how Rogers’ Rogers attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison, first
“commitment to the whole person has been an example which majoring in agriculture and then switching to history after
has guided the practice of psychology in schools, industry, and experiencing the call to religious work. As one of 10 U.S.
throughout the community. Innovator in personality research, delegates to the 1922 World Student Christian Federation
pioneer in the encounter movement, and respected gadfly of Conference in Peking (Beijing), he subsequently participated
organized psychology, he has made a lasting impression on the in a 3-month lecture tour to youth groups around China and
profession of psychology” (1973: 71). Japan, all of which helped to liberalize his religious and social
Not everyone agrees that Rogers’ lasting impression is views. Back home, motivated by the ‘social gospel’ as much as
a positive one. As critic Christopher Lasch once wrote, “As religious conviction, he eschewed his parents’ dogmatism
a founding father of humanistic psychology, the human and attended liberal Union Theological Seminary in New
potential movement and the encounter group, Carl Rogers has York City, which allowed him to take courses at adjoining
a lot to answer for.” Critics of Rogers’ work have argued Teachers College, Columbia University. There religious doubt
that client-centered therapy is superficial, unworkable with combined with fascination with psychology. Influenced
some populations, and unmindful of multicultural and femi- by instructors Leta Hollingworth, Goodwin Watson, William
nist issues, the social context, and recent advances in behav- Heard Kilpatrick, the leading proponent of John Dewey’s
ioral, drug, and alternative therapies; that Rogers’ views progressive education philosophy, and others, Rogers trans-
on human nature are unrealistically optimistic and underesti- ferred to Teachers College to pursue a doctorate in clinical
mate human evil; that encounter groups and humanistic psychology. His exposure there to the testing and measure-
psychology have fostered widespread selfishness, narcissism, ment movement of E.L. Thorndike was balanced by his expe-
and moral permissiveness; and that Rogers’ experiments with riences in clinical work and a fellowship at the Institute for
742 Rogers, Carl Ransom (1902–87)

Child Guidance, where he encountered Freudian thought, graduation he married childhood friend Helen Elliott
a lecture by Alfred Adler, Rorschach testing, and other (1901–79), an aspiring commercial artist, commencing a
psychoanalytic and psychiatric approaches. 55-year union. Their two children, David (1926–94) and
Seeking to integrate these influences, Rogers came to appre- Natalie (b. 1928) distinguished themselves professionally,
ciate the importance of attending to and honoring clients’ inner David in medicine (e.g., Dean of Medicine at Johns Hopkins
experience while also striving to objectively assess any changes and president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) and
that might result from treatment. His doctoral dissertation, Natalie as an author and pioneer of ‘client-centered expressive
Measuring Personality Adjustment in Children Nine to Thirteen Years therapy’ in the field of art therapy. For many years Rogers spent
of Age (1931), combined both subjective and objective the academic winter quarter in the Caribbean and Mexico,
measures. Rogers’ ‘Personality Adjustment Inventory’ subse- where he read widely and developed a number of his theories,
quently was published by YMCA Press and used for over Helen painted, and both snorkeled. They regularly traveled to
50 years. His next major learning experience was the 12 years of Rogers’ professional engagements around the world and to be
working with thousands of troubled children and adults in with their children and six grandchildren. Carl pursued lifelong
Rochester, New York, where he gradually developed his hobbies of photography, making mobiles, and gardening.
nondirective approach to counseling and psychotherapy. When Helen became ill in her seventies, Carl cared for her for
During this period, he was influenced by students of Otto Rank, several years until her death in 1979. Thereafter he remained
especially Jessie Taft whose ‘relationship therapy’ shifted involved in work, cultivated old and new friendships with both
emphasis from past content to a focus on the patient’s self- men and women, and traveled widely. He was active until his
insight and self-acceptance within the therapeutic relationship. death at age 85 from a heart attack stemming from hip surgery
Throughout his life, Rogers frequently cited his students and following a fall.
younger colleagues as being significant influences on his work – While Rogers was by and large an excellent exemplar of his
challenging his assumptions, introducing him to new thinking own theories about growth, change, and the fully functioning
and practice, and helping him remain on the cutting edge. person, and while he led a rich and rewarding life in many
respects, he was not without personal problems. He and Helen
struggled with relationship issues in their later years, periodi-
Positions Held cally causing unhappiness for both. Privately he suffered from
alcohol dependency for several decades, although remarkably it
After leaving Columbia, Rogers’ first position was at Rochester appeared to have little or no effect on his work or relationships.
(NY) Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (1928– After Rogers left the church in his early twenties, he showed
38) where he was director of the Child Study Department, then little or no interest in religion for most of his life. Yet in his
director of the Rochester Guidance Center (1939–40). Based on seventies and eighties, surrounded by younger colleagues and
his practical experience and first book, Clinical Treatment of the family involved in various spiritual movements and practices
Problem Child (1939), he was offered a full-professorship at in California, Rogers and Helen experimented with spiritualism
Ohio State University, where he taught from 1940 to 1944. and the paranormal, and he thought and wrote seriously on the
After an interim year of training United Service Organization nature of reality. Although he never had a significant religious
workers in counseling techniques with returned servicemen, he or mystical experience himself in his later years, his spiritual
moved to University of Chicago, where he developed and ran journey did lead him to extend his concept of an actualizing
the internationally renowned Counseling Center and taught in tendency in individuals to a ‘formative tendency in the
the Psychology Department from 1945 to 1957. He served universe,’ his last theoretical formulation.
a joint appointment in the Departments of Psychology and
Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin from 1957 to 1963.
Somewhat burned out with academia and attracted by the
See also: Allport, Gordon W (1897–1967); Counseling
warm weather and freedom of the 1960s human potential
Psychology; Dewey, John (1859–1952); Diagnostic Processes
movement in California, he moved to the Western Behavioral
in Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy; Freud, Sigmund
Sciences Institute (WBSI) in La Jolla, California in 1963, where
(1856–1939); Group Psychotherapy, Clinical Psychology of;
he was able to pursue his own interests and spend more time
Learning Theories and Educational Paradigms; Lewin, Kurt
traveling for professional engagements around the world. In
(1890–1947); Motivation, Learning, and Instruction; Skinner,
1972, after a painful schism at WBSI he and other colleagues
Burrhus Frederick (1904–90); Therapist–Patient Relationship.
split off to form their own organization, Center for Studies of
the Person, where Rogers remained until his death in 1987.
Bibliography

American Psychological Association, March 1957. Distinguished scientific contribution

Personal Life
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