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His Theory:
As mentioned before Carl Rogers is considered one of the most influential leaders in humanistic psychology and the founding father of client-centered therapy. To fully understand Rogers theory one must first understand certain concepts that he developed to explain human behavior and growth. For starters, Rogers saw people as basically good or healthy. He defined mental health as the normal progression of life, hence classifying mental illness, and other human behavior problems, as distortions. Being mental health the natural progression of life: he based his entire theory on the actualizing tendency, which can be defined as: “the built-in motivation present in every life-form to develop its potentials to the fullest extent possible” ²This, meaning that every life form has since birth, within itself, the “instinct” to know what it truly good for them and has the capacity to develop to its “fullest”. One very important aspect is that Rogers, in contrast with Maslow, not only applies this concept to human beings but also to all living creatures and their different environmental systems. He takes all the basics needs all psychologists talk about, water, safety, food, love… and wraps them around this one main “force” that
1- (Boeree, George. "Carl Rogers." Personality Theories.)
2- (Hall, Kathy Jo. "Carl Rogers." Psychology History.)


moves all living organisms: the actualizing tendency (we want and need all those because they help us achieve our “best”). For example: take weed, which has the capacity to grow even when conditions are life threatening and inhospitous: like on sidewalks, making the best of its existence. Also, weeds grow amongst other organisms, in ecosystems, like forests. These, Rogers explains, are the natural development of organisms: complex interactive systems allow organisms to fill gaps caused by unexpected disasters with other organisms. However, Rogers does explain that through human’s...