Carl Rogers Essay

446 Words2 Pages
Carl Rogers was born on January 8, 1902, in Oak Park, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. His father was a civil engineer and his mother was a Christian woman and a housewife. Carl was four of six children. Following an education in a religious and moral environment, he became somewhat isolated, disciplined and self-sufficient person. He gained knowledge and an appreciation for the scientific method in a no nonsense world. His work has had a major impact on counseling psychology and education in the past 5 decades, and to a lesser extent he has altered the course of academic psychology and social work. Professionals in diverse fields are likely to associate his name with widely-acclaimed innovations in counseling technique, personality theory, philosophy of science, psychotherapy research, encounter groups, student-centered teaching, his thoughts on human nature, his descriptions of the person of the future, and is views on marriage and coupling. (Farson, 1974, p. 197) He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in January 1997. Organismic experiencing is one of the most important and fundamental construct in Carl Rogers’ person-centered approach. His primary intention as a counselor was to facilitate the client’s being more in touch with his or her body. Rogers postulated two structures or processes: organismic experiencing and self. Experience refers to everything potentially available to awareness occurring within the organism at any given moment. Such experience includes both conscious or symbolized and unconscious or unsymbolized processes. Organismic experiencing therefore includes all sensory experiences, conscious and unconscious. (Rogers, 1959) Fernald, P. S. (2000). Through his eyes, Carl Rogers' theory saw people in a basic form, which was relatively simple. They were either healthy or good, or at the very least, they were not bad or ill.
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