How many personal motives allocates to Rogers. I-concept K

We can find further development of ideas about intrapersonal conflict in humanistic psychology. One of the leaders in this direction is Carl Rogers (1902 - 1987). The main component of the personality structure, in his opinion, is the "I-concept" - a person's idea of himself, which is formed in the process of interaction of the person with the environment.

An important concept in the theoretical constructions of K. Rogers is congruence-defined as the degree of correspondence between what a person says and what he experiences. It characterizes the differences between experience and consciousness.

The formation of "I-concept" does not take place without conflict. A person faces a dilemma: to accept the assessment of others or to remain with his own. In other words, devalue either yourself or others. In the process of socialization, the child abandons the individual evaluation mechanism and subordinates his behavior to the system of evaluations of others, so as not to lose their love.

He learns to distrust his own feelings and desires, transferring the source of assessments to other people. Rogers believes that in this way many people receive value images, often extremely contradictory, since they are generated by a huge number of sources. Assigning these values, not delving into their inner feelings and reactions to these images, a person moves further and further away from true self-esteem.

It is this contradiction between conscious but false evaluations and the evaluation mechanism at an unconscious internal level that characterizes an immature personality suffering from the impossibility of self-actualization. With a rigid structure of the "I", experience that does not agree with it is perceived as a threat to the personality and, upon its realization, is either distorted or completely denied. Rogers' "client-centered" psychotherapy, which aims to restructure the structure of the self of the individual so that it becomes flexible, open to all experience, can help overcome this internal conflict.

Thus, and in Rogers, as in neo-Freudianism, personality development is determined by an innate tendency, the social environment plays only the role of an external pressure factor alien to human nature. Internal conflicts, according to his theory, do not in any way reflect the objective difficulties that a person faces when actually acting in his social environment.

28. Motivation theory and model of self-actualized personality A. Maslow is based on the study of mentally mature, progressive, creative people who form the so-called "growing top" of society.

The central place in the theory is occupied by motivation, which is regarded as the driving force behind the development of the personality ® a tendency that disturbs the mental balance of the individual. It is this violation of homeostasis that leads to the growth, development, self-actualization of the individual, i.e. to desire, which was defined by Maslow as the desire of a person to be what he can be. The concept of self-actualization occupies a leading place in his concept.

Pyramid of Needs:

1. physiological needs - food, water, sleep, etc.;

2. the need for security - stability, order;

3. the need for love and belonging - family, friendship;

4. need for respect - self-respect, recognition;

5. the need for self-actualization - the development of abilities.

"If all needs are unsatisfied and the body is dominated by physiological needs, then all others may simply become non-existent or be relegated to the background." Dissatisfaction of basal desires leads to neurosis and psychosis.

In later works, the position on the sequence of needs satisfaction was revised and supplemented with the following thesis: if in the past an individual's needs for security, love and respect were completely satisfied, he acquires the ability to endure hardships in this area and actualize himself despite adverse conditions. The main components of a person's mental health are: 1) striving to be all that a person can be, 2) striving for humanistic values.

The negative side of self-actualization: extreme individualism and autonomy.

Characteristics of a self-actualizing personality:

1. autonomous, prone to acceptance of others, spontaneous, sensitive to beauty, humor, prone to creativity.

2.cognitive and perceptual features: a clear and clear perception of the surrounding reality, its unconventional nature, the rare use of protective mechanisms, high predictive ability. Such people feel most comfortable in a new, unknown, unstructured situation, they are successful in scientific activities. They adequately evaluate themselves and their abilities.

3. socio-psychological and communicative characteristics: manifestation of positive emotions in communication with other people, democracy.

Creating his theory of personality, K. Rogers proceeded from the fact that every person has the desire and has the ability for personal self-improvement. Being a being endowed with consciousness, he determines for himself the meaning of life, its goals and values, is the highest expert and supreme judge. The central concept for Rogers's theory was the concept of "I", which includes representations, ideas, goals and values through which a person characterizes himself and outlines the prospects for his own development. The main questions that each person poses and must solve are the following: Who am I? What can I do to become who I want to be?

The image of the “I”, which is formed as a result of personal life experience, in turn affects the perception of the world by this person, other people, and the assessments that a person gives to his own behavior. Self-concept can be positive, ambivalent (contradictory), negative. An individual with a positive self-concept sees the world differently than a person with an ambivalent or negative one. The self-concept, in turn, can incorrectly reflect reality, be fictional and distorted. What is not consistent with the self-concept of a person can be forced out of his consciousness, rejected, although in fact it may turn out to be true. The degree of a person's satisfaction with life, the measure of the fullness of his happiness directly depends on the extent to which his experience, his "real self" and "ideal self" are consistent with each other.

The concept of self-actualization of personality a. Maslow

The basic human need, according to the theory, is self-actualization. Striving for self-improvement and self-expression. The psychological characteristics of a self-actualizing personality, according to A. Maslow, include:

active perception of reality and the ability to navigate well in it;

accepting yourself and other people as they are;

immediacy in actions and spontaneity in expressing one's thoughts and feelings;

concentration of attention on what is happening outside, as opposed to focusing only on the inner world, concentration of consciousness on one's own feelings and experiences;

having a sense of humor;

developed creative abilities;

rejection of conventions, but without ostentatious ignoring them;

preoccupation with the well-being of other people, and not with ensuring only one's own happiness;

the ability to deeply understand life;

establishment with people around, although not with all, quite benevolent personal relationships;

the ability to look at life with open eyes, evaluate it impartially, from an objective point of view;

direct involvement in life with complete immersion in it, as children usually do;

preference in life for new, unbeaten and unsafe paths;

the ability to rely on one's experience, reason and feelings, and not on the opinions of other people, traditions or conventions, positions of authorities;

open and honest behavior in all situations;

readiness to become unpopular, to be condemned by the majority of surrounding people for unconventional views;

the ability to take responsibility, rather than avoid it;

application of maximum efforts to achieve the set

the ability to notice and, if necessary, overcome the resistance of other people.

To the main question of his theory - what is self-actualization? - A. Maslow answers as follows: “Self-actualizing people, without exception, are all involved in some kind of business ... They are devoted to this business, it is something very valuable to them - this is a kind of vocation.” All people of this type strive for the realization of higher given values, which, as a rule, cannot be reduced to something even higher. These values (among them - goodness, truth, decency, beauty, justice, perfection, etc.) act for them as vital needs. .Existence for a self-actualizing personality appears as a process of constant choice, as an incessant solution to the Hamletian problem of being or not to be. At every moment of life, a person has a choice: moving forward, overcoming obstacles that inevitably arise on the way to a lofty goal, or retreat, refusal to fight and surrender of positions. A self-actualizing personality always chooses to move forward, to overcome obstacles.

Self-actualization, at the same time, implies self-reliance, a person having an independent, independent opinion on the main life issues. This is a process of constant development and practical realization of its capabilities. It is "work in order to do well what a person wants to do." This is "the rejection of illusions, getting rid of false ideas about oneself."

Introduction

The fundamental premise of Rogers' theories is that people use their experiences to define themselves, to define themselves. In his main theoretical work, Rogers defines a number of concepts from which he develops a theory of personality and models of therapy, personality change and interpersonal relationships.

Field of experience

The field of experience is unique to each individual; this field of experience or "phenomenal field" contains "everything that is happening within the shell of the organism at any given moment that is potentially available to consciousness." It includes events, perceptions, sensations, influences that a person may not be aware of, but could be aware of if he focused on them. It is a private, personal world that may or may not correspond to observable, objective reality.

"Words and symbols are as much related to the world of reality as a map is to the territory it represents... we live on a perceived 'map' that is never reality itself." K. Rogers.

Primarily, attention is directed to what a person perceives as his world, and not to the general reality. The field of experience is limited psychologically and biologically. We tend to direct our attention to the immediate danger, or to the safe and pleasant experience, instead of taking in all the stimuli around us.

Self

The field of experience is the self. It is not a stable, unchanging entity. At the same time, if one considers the self at any given moment, it seems to be stable. This is because we kind of "freeze" a piece of experience in order to consider it. Rogers says that "we are not dealing with a slowly growing entity, or a gradual, step by step learning...the result is obviously a gestalt, a configuration in which a change in a minor aspect can completely change the whole figure." The self is an organized, coherent gestalt that is constantly in the process of being formed as the situation changes.

Just as a photographer "stops" something that is changing, so the self is not one of the "freeze frames" we shoot, but the fluid process behind them. Other theorists use the term "self" to refer to that aspect of a person's identity that is unchanging, stable, even eternal. Rogers uses the term to refer to the ongoing process of awareness. This distinction, this emphasis on change and fluidity, underlies his theory and his belief that man has the capacity to grow, to change, to develop personally. Self or self-image is a person's view of himself, based on past experience, present data and future expectations.

Ideal Self

The ideal self is "the self-image that the individual would most like to have, to which he attaches the greatest value to himself." As a self, it is a shifting, changing structure, constantly being redefined. The degree to which the self differs from the ideal self is one indicator of discomfort, dissatisfaction, and neurotic difficulties. Accepting oneself as one really is, and not as one would like to be, is a sign of mental health. Such acceptance is not humility, surrender of positions, it is a way to be closer to reality, to your current state. The image of the ideal self, insofar as it differs greatly from the actual behavior and values of a person, is one of the obstacles to personal growth. This may be clarified by the following example. The student is about to leave college. He was a top student in elementary and high school, and did very well in college. He leaves, he explains, because he got a bad grade in a certain course. His image of himself as "always the best" was under threat. The only way he can imagine acting is to withdraw from the academic world, to deny the difference between his current state and his ideal self-image. He says he will work to be "the best" somewhere else.

In order to protect his ideal image of himself, he wanted to close his academic career. He left college, traveled the world, tried a lot of different, often eccentric, activities over the course of several years. When he returned again, he could already discuss the possibility that it may not be so necessary to be the best from the very beginning, but it is still difficult for him to take up any activity in which he can assume failure.

Congruence and incongruence

Congruence is defined as the degree of congruence between what is reported, what is experienced, and what is available for experience. It describes the differences between experience and consciousness. A high degree of congruence means that the message (what you express), experience (what happens in your field), and awareness (what you notice) are more or less the same. Your observations and those of an external observer will match.

Young children show high congruence. They express their feelings immediately, and with their whole being. When a child is hungry, he is all hungry, right now! When a child loves, or when he is angry, he fully expresses his emotion. This may explain why children move so quickly from one emotional state to another. Full expression of feelings allows them to quickly complete the situation, instead of carrying the unexpressed emotional baggage of previous experiences into each new meeting.

Congruence fits well with the Zen formula: "When I'm hungry, I eat; when I'm tired, I sit; when I want to sleep, I sleep."

Incongruence occurs when there are differences between awareness, experience, and reporting of experience. A person who appears to be angry (clenched fists, raised voice, aggressive style) says when asked that he is not at all angry; people say they are having a great time, meanwhile they are bored, feel lonely, or are unwell are examples of incongruity. It is defined as the inability not only to accurately perceive but also to accurately express one's experience.

The incongruity between awareness and experience is called repression. The man is simply unaware of what he is doing. Psychotherapy deals mostly with this symptom of incongruity by helping people become more aware of their actions, thoughts, and feelings, and how they affect themselves and others.

The incongruity between awareness and communication means that the person is not expressing what they really feel, think or experience. This kind of incongruence is often perceived as deceit, insincerity, dishonesty. This behavior is often discussed in group therapy or encounter groups. When such behavior appears to be intentional, the therapist or leader points out that the lack of social congruence - a seeming unwillingness to communicate - is usually a lack of self-control and lack of personal awareness. The person is unable to express their real emotions and perceptions, either out of fear or because of old habits of secrecy that are difficult to overcome. Another possibility is that the person has difficulty understanding what is being asked.

Incongruity can be felt as tension, anxiety, in a more serious case, as internal confusion. A mental hospital patient who claims to not know where he is, what the hospital is, what time of day it is, or even who he is, is showing a high degree of incongruity. The discrepancy between external reality and what is experienced subjectively has become so great that the person can no longer function.

Most of the symptoms described in the psychiatric literature can be seen as forms of incongruity. For Rogers, a particular form of disorder is less important than recognizing that incongruence exists and needs to be corrected.

Incongruence manifests itself in statements such as "I can't decide", "I don't know what I want", "I can never settle on anything definite". Confusion occurs when a person cannot make sense of the various stimuli that come to him. Consider this case: “Mother tells me that I should take care of her, but the last thing I can do is. My girlfriend tells me to keep my own, not to let myself be fooled. she deserves it. Sometimes I hate her, sometimes I love her. Sometimes she's good to be with, sometimes she humiliates me."

The client is besieged by various motives. Each of them makes sense and leads to meaningful actions at some time. It is difficult for the client to separate those motives that are his own from those imposed. Distinguishing them and being able to draw on different feelings at different times can be difficult. Ambivalence is neither unusual nor unhealthy; but the inability to see it and deal with it can lead to anxiety.

A TREND TO SELF-ACTUALIZATION

There is a fundamental aspect of human nature that drives man to move towards greater congruence and more realistic functioning. Moreover, this desire is not unique to humans; it is an integral part of the process in all living things. "It is the drive which is seen in all organic and human life - the drive to expand, to expand, to become autonomous, to develop, to become mature - the drive to express and use all the faculties of the organism, to the extent that this action strengthens the organism or the self." Rogers believes that in each of us there is a desire to become as competent and capable as it is biologically possible for us. Just as a plant strives to be a healthy plant, just as a grain contains the desire to become a tree, so a person is encouraged to become a whole, complete, self-actualizing person.

The desire for health is not such an all-powerful force as to sweep aside all obstacles. It is easily dulled, distorted and suppressed. Rogers argues that this is the dominant motive in a person who "functions freely, not crippled by past events or current beliefs that maintain incongruity. Maslow comes to similar conclusions: he calls this tendency a weak inner voice that is not difficult to drown out. The premise that growth is possible and is central to the structure of the organism, is fundamental to Rogers' thinking.

According to Rogers, the tendency to self-actualization is not just one of the motives along with others. "It should be noted that the tendency towards self-actualization is the only motive postulated in this theoretical system... The self, for example, is an important concept in our theory, but the self does not 'do' anything, it is merely an expression of the organism's general tendency to behave in this way. to support and strengthen yourself."

Barriers to Growth

Rogers believes that obstacles arise in childhood and are a normal aspect of development. What a child learns at one stage should be re-evaluated at the next. Motives that prevail in early childhood may hinder development later.

As soon as the child becomes aware of himself, he develops a need for love and positive attention. "This need is universal for people, it is all-pervading and constant in a person. Whether it is innate or acquired is not essential for the theory." Since children do not distinguish their actions from themselves as a whole, they perceive the approval of an action as an approval of themselves. In the same way, they perceive punishment for an action as disapproval in general.

Love is so important for a child that "he begins to be guided in his behavior not so much by how much experience supports and strengthens the body, but by the likelihood of receiving mother's love." The child begins to act in such a way as to receive love or approval, regardless of whether it is healthy for him or her. Children may act against their own interests, come to imagine themselves as created in order to satisfy or appease others. Theoretically, this situation may not develop if the child always feels accepted, if feelings are accepted, even if some fragments of behavior are prohibited. In such an ideal environment, the child is not urged to reject the unattractive but genuine parts of his personality.

Behavior or attitude that denies some aspect of the self is called the "condition of value": "When the experience of the self is avoided (or, on the contrary, deliberately sought) only because it is less (or more) worthy of self-rewarding, the individual finds himself in a condition of value ". The condition or state of value is the main obstacle to accurate perception and realistic awareness. They are selective blends and filters designed to ensure an ongoing supply of love from parents and others. We recruit certain states, attitudes, and actions that we believe should make us valuable. To the extent that these relationships and actions are invented, they are an area of personal incongruity. At its extreme, the value condition is characterized by the premise that "I must be loved or respected by everyone with whom I come into contact." The condition of value creates a gap between the self and the idea of the self. In order to maintain the condition of value, a person must deny some side of himself.

"This is, as we imagine, a fundamental alienation in a person. He is not true in relation to himself, to his natural organic assessments and needs; in order to maintain a positive attitude of others, he falsifies a number of his assessments, perceives experience only from the point of view of value for others This, however, is not a conscious choice, but a natural - and tragic - development in childhood." K. Rogers.

For example, if a child is told that he must love a newborn baby, otherwise the mother will not love him, then this means that he must suppress genuine negative feelings towards the newborn. If the child manages to hide his "evil will", his desire to harm him and normal jealousy, his mother will continue to love him. If he accepts his feelings, he risks losing that love. The solution that creates the "condition of value" is to deny these feelings when they arise, to block them from awareness. Now you can safely say "I really love little brother, although at times I hug him tightly, so that he starts screaming", or "My foot just slipped under his leg, so he fell."

I still remember the great joy my older brother showed when he was given the opportunity to punish me for something I did. Mother, another brother, and myself were stunned by his cruelty. Recalling this incident, the brother said that he was not particularly angry with me, but understood that this was a rare opportunity, and wanted to express, since it was allowed, as much of his "evil will" as possible. Rogers argues that accepting such feelings and finding some expression for them when they occur is more conducive to health than denying or alienating them.

The child grows up, but the problems remain. Growth is retarded to the extent that a person denies impulses other than the artificially created self-image. To maintain a false self-image, a person continues to distort experience, and the greater the distortion, the greater the possibility of errors and creating additional problems. The resulting error behavior and confusion is a manifestation of a more fundamental initial distortion.

The situation turns out to be a vicious circle. Each experience of incongruence between the self and reality leads to increased vulnerability, which in turn leads to increased internal defenses that cut off the experience and create new grounds for incongruity.

Sometimes the defenses do not work, and the person becomes aware of an obvious gap between his behavior and his ideas. The result can be panic, chronic anxiety, flight, or even psychosis. As Rogers observed, such psychotic behavior often appears to be enacting a previously denied aspect of the experience. Perry confirms this by viewing the psychotic case as a desperate attempt by the individual to rebalance and realize frustrated inner needs and experiences. Client-centered therapy seeks to establish an atmosphere in which the destructive conditions of value can be set aside, allowing the healthy forces in the individual to regain their original dominance. A person returns to health, regaining the repressed or denied parts of himself.

SOCIAL RELATIONS

The value of relationships is a central theme in Rogers' work. Early relationships may be congruent or may serve as a focus for value conditions. Late relationships can restore congruence or delay it.

Rogers believes that interaction with the other gives the individual the opportunity to directly discover, discover, experience or meet his true self. Our personality becomes visible to us through relationships with others. In therapy, in the situation of encounter groups, through feedback from others, a person gets the opportunity to gain experience of himself.

"I believe ... that the main barrier to communication between people is our natural tendency to judge, evaluate, approve or disapprove of the statements of another person or other group." K. Rogers.

If we try to imagine people who are out of relationship with others, we see two contrasting stereotypes. The first is a reluctant hermit who does not know how to deal with others. The second is a contemplative who has departed from the world in order to pursue other goals.

None of these types satisfies Rogers. He believes that relationships create the best opportunity for "fully functioning" to be in harmony with oneself, others and the environment. In relationships, the fundamental organismic needs of the individual can be satisfied. The hope of such fulfillment drives people to put an incredible amount of energy into relationships, even those that don't seem happy or satisfying.

“All our worries, says someone wise, stem from the fact that we cannot be alone. And this is very good. We must be able to be alone, otherwise we turn into victims. But when we become capable of loneliness, we understand that the only thing to do is to start a relationship with another - or even the same person, that all people should be kept apart, like the poles of a telegraph device - this is nonsense." K. Rogers.

Marriage

Marriage is an unusual relationship. It is potentially long-term, it is intense and carries the possibility of long-term growth and development. Rogers believes that marriage is subject to the same basic laws that apply to encounter groups, therapy, and other relationships. The best marriages are between people who are themselves congruent, least burdened by "conditions of value," and capable of genuine acceptance of others. When marriage is used to maintain incongruity or reinforce existing defensive tendencies, it is less satisfying and less stable.

Rogers' ideas about any long-term intimate relationship, such as marriage, focus on four main elements: sustained commitment, expression of feelings, non-assertion of specific roles, and the ability to share a partner's inner life. Each of these elements he describes as a commitment, an agreement on an ideal for an ongoing wholesome and meaningful relationship.

1. Dedication of the agreement. Each of the marriage partners should view "the partnership as an ongoing process, not as a contract. The work done is done for one's own satisfaction as well as for the satisfaction of the other." Relationships are work; it is work for individual as well as for common goals. Rogers suggests expressing this dedication as follows: "Each of us dedicates this to working together on the changing process of our relationships, because these relationships constantly enrich our love, our lives, and we want them to grow."

2. Communication - the expression of feelings. Rogers insists on full open communication. "I will take the risk of trying to convey any lasting feeling, positive or negative, to my partner - to the fullness and depth to which I myself understand it - as a living part of me. Then I will venture further to try to understand, with all the empathy that I can , her or his reaction, whether it be accusing and critical or divisive and self-revealing." Communication contains two equally important phases: the expression of emotion and the openness to experiencing the response of the partner's reaction.

Rogers is not just promoting the expression of feelings. He argues that you should also be exposed to the impact that your feelings have on a partner, as well as the initial expression of the feelings themselves. It's much more difficult than just "letting off steam" or being "open and honest". It is a willingness to accept the real risk contained in the expression: rejection, misunderstanding, hostile feelings, retribution. Rogers insists on the need to establish and maintain this level of interaction, which is contrary to the position that one should be polite, tactful, avoid sharp corners and not touch current emotional problems.

3. Non-acceptance of roles. Many problems develop from trying to meet the expectations of others instead of defining our own. "We will live according to our own choice with the greatest organismic feeling that we are capable of, and we will not be shaped by desires, rules, roles that others so badly want to hang on us." Rogers points out that many dads experience tremendous stress in trying to live up to the partial and ambivalent acceptance of the images that their parents and society at large impose on them. A marriage burdened with too many unrealistic expectations and images is internally unstable and potentially unfulfilling.

4. Become yourself. It is a deep attempt to discover and accept one's own full nature. This is the most provocative of enterprises, the decision to remove the masks as soon and as often as they appear. "Maybe I can discover and come closer to what I really am deep inside - sometimes anger, sometimes fear, sometimes love and care, sometimes beauty, sometimes strength, sometimes rage - without hiding these feelings from myself. Maybe I can come to appreciate myself as the richly varied person that I am Maybe I can openly be that person If so I can live by my own lived values even though I know all the social codes and I can allow myself to be all this complexity of feelings, meanings and values with my partner - to be free enough to give in to love, anger, tenderness as they exist in me. Then maybe I can be a real partner, because I on the path to becoming a real person. And I hope I can help my partner follow their own path to their own personal uniqueness, which I am ready to share with love. "

SELF

Authors of psychological textbooks who give space to Rogers usually qualify him as a "self" theorist. The self is a really important concept in Rogers' thinking. In reality, however, he viewed the self as the focus of experience, and was more concerned with perception, awareness, and experience than with "the self" itself as a hypothetical construct. Since we have already given Rogers' definition of the self, we can now turn to the description of the "fully functioning self": the person who is most fully aware of his current self.

"A fully functioning person is synonymous with optimal psychological adjustment, psychological maturity, full congruence, full openness to experience. ... Some of these terms sound somewhat static, so it must be emphasized that all the characteristics of such a person are processual. A fully functioning person is a person in process, the ever-changing man."

A fully functioning personality is characterized by a number of characteristics, the first of which is openness to experience. "Subperceptions", those early warning signs of limited awareness, are of little or no use to such a person as he constantly moves from defenses to direct Experience. "He is more open to his feelings of fear, discouragement or pain. He is also more open to feelings of courage, inspiration, tenderness, awe. ... He is more able to fully live the experience of the organism, and not to switch off fragments of it from awareness."

The second characteristic is living in the present, the full realization of every moment. This ongoing direct engagement with reality "allows the self and personality to emerge from experience, rather than forging experience into a committed structure of the self." A person is able to restructure his reactions in accordance with experience when he provides new opportunities.

"The good life is a process, not a state of being. It's a direction, not a destination." K. Rogers.

The last characteristic is trust in one's own inner impulses and intuitive judgments, an ever-increasing trust in one's own ability to make decisions. A person is increasingly able to collect and use data, more and more appreciates the ability to generalize them and respond. This is not only an intellectual activity, but a function of the personality as a whole. Rogers believes that in a fully functioning personality, mistakes, if they are made, are based on incorrect information rather than incorrect processing of it. This is similar to the behavior of a cat falling from a height to the ground. The cat does not calculate wind speed, angular momentum, and fall speed; but all this is taken into account in her total reaction. The cat does not think about who pushed it, what were the motives for this and whether this will happen again in the future; she is preoccupied with the immediate situation, all the while adjusting her posture, ready to deal with the next event.

A fully functioning person is free to react and have a way to experience his reaction to situations. This is the essence of what Rogers called "living the good life." Such a person "is constantly in the process of further self-actualization."

WHAT IT MEANS TO BECOME HUMAN

For example, a student concerned about failing college exams; a housewife disillusioned with her marriage; a person who feels that he is on the verge of a complete nervous breakdown and psychosis; a responsible worker who spends most of his time in sexual fantasies and fails to do his job; a bright student, paralyzed by the conviction that he is hopelessly bankrupt; a parent dejected by their child's behavior; a charming girl who, for no reason, is overcome by bouts of deep depression; a woman who fears that life and love are passing by, and her diploma with good grades is too little compensation for this; a person who has become convinced that powerful or sinister forces are conspiring against him. I could keep multiplying these many and unique problems that people come to us with. They represent the fullness of life experience. However, I am not satisfied with giving this list because, as a consultant, I know that the problem that is expressed in the first conversation will not be the same problem in the second and third conversations, and by the tenth conversation it will turn into a completely different problem or a whole range of problems.

I've come to believe that despite this bewildering horizontal diversity and layered vertical complexity, perhaps there's only one problem. In delving into the experiences of many clients during the psychotherapeutic relationships we are trying to create for them, I come to the conclusion that every client asks the same question. Behind the problematic situation that the individual complains about, behind the problems with school, the wife, the boss, behind the problem of his own uncontrollable or strange behavior, frightening feelings, lies what constitutes the main search for the client. It seems to me that deep down every person asks: "Who am I really? How can I get in touch with my real Self, which is the basis of my surface behavior? How can I become myself?"

THE PROCESS OF BECOMING

Let me try to explain what I mean when I say what it seems to me - the goal that man most wants to achieve, the goal that he consciously or unconsciously pursues, is to become himself.

When a person comes to me, concerned about his own unique difficulties, I am sure that the best thing is to try to create a relationship with him in which he feels free and safe. My goal is to understand how he feels in his inner world, to accept him as he is; create an atmosphere of freedom in which he can move wherever he wants, along the waves of his thoughts and states. How does he use this freedom?

My experience is that he uses his freedom to become more and more himself. He begins to break the false facade, throw off the masks and roles in which he met life. It is revealed that he is trying to find something more important; something that more truly represents himself. First he throws off the masks of which he was to some extent aware. For example, a young student describes in a conversation with a consultant one of the masks she uses. She is very unsure if there is any real "I" with her beliefs behind this pacifying all, ingratiating facade.

"I've been thinking about this duty of conformity. I've somehow developed a kind of knack, I guess... well... a habit... of trying to make people around me feel at ease, or act in a way that everything went smoothly. There should always be someone who pleases everyone. At a meeting, or at a small party, or whatever ... I could make everything go well, and at the same time it still seemed like I was having a good time too. And sometimes I myself was surprised that I defended a point of view opposite to my own, for fear of offending the person who expressed it.In other words, I never had a firm and definite attitude to things.And now about the reason why I did it: probably because that I was like this at home too often.I just didn't defend my beliefs until I didn't know if I even had any beliefs to defend.I wasn't myself, to be really honest, and on didn't really know what I was; I just and played a sort of false role."

In this passage, you see the client examining his mask, realizing his dissatisfaction with it, and wanting to know how to get to the real "I" behind the mask, if there is one.

In this attempt to discover one's own "I", the psychotherapeutic relationship is usually used by the client to explore, to explore the various aspects of his own experience, to recognize and be ready to face the deep contradictions that he often discovers. He learns how unreal his behavior and the feelings he experiences are, not what comes from the true reactions of his body, but represent a facade, a wall behind which he was hiding. He discovers how much in life he follows what he needs to be, and not what he really is. He often finds that he exists only as a response to the demands of other people, it seems to him that he does not have his own "I" and that he only tries to think, feel and behave in the way that others think he should think, feel and behave.

In this connection, I was surprised to discover how accurately, with deep psychological understanding, the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard described the problem of the individual more than a century ago. He pointed out that we often meet with despair that comes from the impossibility of choosing or unwillingness to be oneself, but the deepest despair comes when a person chooses "to be not himself, to be different." On the other hand, the desire to "be the "I" that you really are" is, of course, something opposite to despair, and for this choice a person bears the greatest responsibility. When I read some of his writings, I almost feel that he must have heard everything our clients said as they worried, frustrated, and tormented as they searched and explored the reality of their Self.

This search becomes even more exciting when they discover that they are hiding those false masks, which they did not suspect were false. With fear, they begin to explore the whirlwinds and even storms of feelings within themselves. Throwing off the mask that has long been an integral part of you is deeply exciting, but the individual is moving towards a goal that includes freedom of feelings and thoughts. This is illustrated by several statements by a woman who participated in a number of psychotherapeutic conversations. She uses many metaphors to describe her struggle to get to the core of her personality. "As I see it now, layer by layer, I got rid of defensive reactions. I will build them, test them, and then reset them when I see that you remained the same. I did not know what was at the bottom, and I was very afraid to reach the bottom but I had to keep trying.At first I felt that there was nothing inside me - only a huge emptiness was felt where I wanted to have a solid core.

Then I felt that I was standing in front of a massive stone wall, too high to climb over and too thick to walk through. The day came when the wall became more transparent than impenetrable. After that, the wall seemed to disappear, but behind it I found a dam holding back furiously churning waters. I felt that I, as it were, were holding back the pressure of this water, and if I made even a tiny gap, I and everything around me would be destroyed by the subsequent flow of feelings, which were presented in the form of water. In the end, I could no longer withstand this tension and started the flow. In fact, all my actions were reduced to the fact that I succumbed to a feeling of acute self-pity that seized me, then to a feeling of hatred, then to love. After this experience, I felt as if I had jumped over the edge of the abyss to the other side and, staggering a little and standing on the very edge, I finally felt that I was safe. I don’t know what I was looking for and where I was going, but then I felt, as I always felt when I really lived, that I was moving forward.

It seems to me that this passage conveys the feelings of many individuals quite well: if the false facade, the wall, the dam do not hold, everything will be carried away in the fury of the feelings locked in their inner world. However, this passage also shows the irresistible desire to seek oneself and become oneself experienced by the individual. It also outlines the way in which the individual determines the reality of his inner world - when he fully experiences his feelings, which at the organic level are himself, as this client experiences self-pity, hatred and love - then he feels confident that is part of his real "I".

I would like to say something else about the experience of feelings. In reality, this is the discovery of unknown components of one's "I". The phenomenon that I am about to describe is very difficult to fully comprehend. There are a thousand reasons in our everyday life for not allowing ourselves to experience our relationships to the fullest. These are reasons stemming from our past.

THE MAN WHO APPEARS

I imagine some of you will ask, "But what kind of person is he becoming? It is not enough to say that he is shedding facades. What kind of person is behind them?" The answer to this question is not easy. Since one of the most obvious facts is that each individual tends to become an independent, different, unique person, I would like to highlight a few, in my opinion, characteristic directions. No person will fully embody these characteristics, no one will fully fit the description that I will offer, but I see that it is possible to draw some generalizations that are based on my experience in psychotherapeutic relationships with so many clients.

OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE

First of all, I would like to say that the individual becomes more open to his experience. This statement is of great importance to me. This is the opposite of protection. Psychological research has shown that if the data of our sense organs contradict our idea of ourselves, these data are distorted. In other words, we cannot see everything that our senses convey to us, but only what corresponds to our idea of ourselves.

And now, in the safe atmosphere of the relationship I spoke of, these defensive reactions or rigidity2 are gradually being replaced by an ever-increasing openness to experience. The individual becomes more and more open to the awareness of his own feelings and attitudes, such as they exist in him at the organic level, as I have tried to describe it. He also begins to more adequately, impartially realize reality as it exists outside of him, without squeezing it into pre-accepted schemes. He begins to see that not all trees are green, not all men are harsh fathers, not all women reject him, not all failures of his experience indicate that he is bad, and so on.

FAITH IN YOUR BODY

Of particular difficulty is the description of the second quality that appears in a person after the process of psychotherapy. This person seems to be increasingly discovering that his own body can be trusted; that the organism is the appropriate instrument for choosing the behavior most appropriate for the given situation.

I will try to convey this to you in a more intelligible form. Perhaps you can understand my description by imagining an individual who always faces such a real choice: "Will I spend my vacation with my family or alone?", "Should I drink the third cocktail that you offer me?", "Whether is this a person who can be my partner in love and in life?". How will a person behave in such situations after psychotherapy? To the extent that this person is open to all his experience, he has access to all the data he has on which to build his behavior in a particular situation. He has knowledge of his feelings and urges, which are often complex and conflicting. He can easily feel the whole set of social requirements: from relatively rigid social "laws" to the desires of children and families. He has access to memories of similar situations and the consequences of various behaviors. He has a relatively correct perception of the situation in all its complexity. He can allow his whole organism, with the participation of conscious thought, to consider, weigh and balance every stimulus, need and demand, their relative importance and strength. Having made this complex weighing and balancing, he is able to find a course of action that seems to best satisfy all his distant and immediate needs in the situation.

It may be helpful to understand that for most of us, the shortcomings that hinder this weighing and finding balance are that we include in our experience what does not belong to it and exclude what does belong to it. Thus, an individual may insist on such a self-image as "I know when to drink" when openness to his past experience shows that this is hardly true. Or a young woman is able to see only the good qualities of her future husband, while being open to experience would show that he also has flaws.

As a rule, when a client is open to his experience, he begins to find his body more trustworthy. He feels less fear of his emotional reactions. There is a constant growth of faith and even disposition to a complex, rich, diverse set of feelings and inclinations that exist in a person at the organismic level. Consciousness, instead of being the guardian of numerous and dangerous unpredictable impulses, of which only a few can be allowed to come into being, becomes a contented inhabitant of a society of impulses, feelings and thoughts, which are found to govern themselves very well when not watched over. fear.

Internal locus

Another direction evident in the process of becoming a person relates to the source, or locus, of his choices of decisions or value judgments. The individual increasingly begins to feel that the locus of evaluation lies within him. Less and less he seeks from others the approval or disapproval of decisions, choices and standards by which to live. He realizes that the choice is his own business; that the only question that makes sense is "Does my lifestyle fully satisfy and truly express me?". I think this is perhaps the most important question for a creative individual.

THE WILL TO EXIST AS A PROCESS

I would like to highlight one last characteristic of these individuals when they make an effort to open themselves and become themselves. The fact is that they are probably more satisfied with the existence in the form of a process than as a frozen entity. When one of them is just entering a psychotherapeutic relationship, he probably wants to come to a more stable state: he seeks to approach the boundary beyond which the solutions to his problems are hidden or where the key to family well-being is hidden. In the freedom of the psychotherapeutic relationship, such an individual usually gets rid of these fixed goals and comes to a more correct understanding that he is not a fixed entity, but a process of becoming.

One client at the end of psychotherapy says in confusion: "I have not yet completed the work of integrating and reorganizing my personality; this only makes me think, but does not discourage, especially now that I understand that this is a long process ... When you feel in action, knowing where you are going, although not always realizing it - all this excites, sometimes upsets, but always uplifts the spirit.

In this statement, you can see both faith in your body, which I spoke about, and also awareness of yourself as a process. This is a personal description of the state when you accept that you are a stream of becoming, and not a finished product. This means that a person is a current process, and not a frozen, static entity; it is a flowing river of change, not a piece of solid material; it is an ever-changing inflorescence of possibilities, not a frozen sum of characteristics.

Here is another expression of the same fluidity, or, in other words, current existence at a given moment: “All this purpose of sensations and the meanings that I have found in them so far seem to have led me to a process that at the same time both delightful and frightening. It seems to be to enable my experience to carry me, it seems to me, forward towards goals that I can only vaguely define when I try to understand at least the current meaning of this experience. that you are sailing along with the complex stream of experience, having a delightful opportunity to understand its ever-changing complexity.

Rogers K. A look at psychotherapy. The formation of man. M.1994. Digest.

Rogers K. Empathy / Psychology of emotions. Texts. M. 1984.

Rogers K. Questions that I would ask myself if I were a teacher / Family and School, 1987, No. 10.

Rogers, K. Personal Reflections on Teaching and Learning, 1993, nos. 5-6.

Rogers K. To the science of personality / In the book. History of foreign psychology. Texts. M. 1986.

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The main provisions of Rogers' theory of personalitya

Introduction

1. The main provisions of Rogers' theory of personality

1.1. Self

1.2. Congruence and incongruence

1.3. The tendency towards self-actualization

2. The theory of personality in national reality

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

The fundamental premise of Rogers' theories is that people use their experiences to define themselves, to define themselves.

In his main theoretical work, Rogers defines a number of concepts from which he develops a theory of personality and models of therapy, personality change and interpersonal relationships. The field of experience is unique to each individual; this field of experience or "phenomenal field" contains "everything that is happening within the shell of the organism at any given moment that is potentially available to consciousness." It includes events, perceptions, sensations, influences that a person may not be aware of, but could be aware of if he focused on them. It is a private, personal world that may or may not correspond to observable, objective reality.

Primarily, attention is directed to what a person perceives as his world, and not to the general reality. The field of experience is limited psychologically and biologically. We tend to direct our attention to the immediate danger, or to the safe and pleasant experience, instead of taking in all the stimuli around us.

1. The main provisions of Rogers' theory of personality

1.1 Self

The field of experience is the self. It is not a stable, unchanging entity. At the same time, if one considers the self at any given moment, it seems to be stable. This is because we kind of "freeze" a piece of experience in order to consider it. Rogers says that "we are not dealing with a slowly growing entity, or a gradual, step by step learning... the result is obviously a gestalt, a configuration in which a change in a minor aspect can completely change the whole figure." The self is an organized, coherent gestalt that is constantly in the process of being formed as the situation changes.

1.2 Congruence and incongruence

Congruence fits well with the Zen formula: "When I'm hungry, I eat; when I'm tired, I sit; when I want to sleep, I sleep."

Incongruence occurs when there are differences between awareness, experience, and reporting of experience. A person who appears to be angry (clenched fists, raised voice, aggressive style) says when asked that he is not at all angry; people say they're having a great time, meanwhile they're bored, lonely, or unwell are examples of incongruity. It is defined as the inability not only to accurately perceive but also to accurately express one's experience.

The incongruity between awareness and experience is called repression. The man is simply unaware of what he is doing. Psychotherapy deals mostly with this symptom of incongruity by helping people become more aware of their actions, thoughts, and feelings, and how they affect themselves and others.

The incongruity between awareness and communication means that the person is not expressing what they really feel, think or experience. This kind of incongruence is often perceived as deceit, insincerity, dishonesty. This behavior is often discussed in group therapy or encounter groups. When such behavior appears to be intentional, the therapist or leader points out that the lack of social congruence—a seeming unwillingness to communicate—is usually a lack of self-control and lack of personal awareness. The person is unable to express their real emotions and perceptions, either out of fear or because of old habits of secrecy that are difficult to overcome. Another possibility is that the person has difficulty understanding what is being asked.

Most of the symptoms described in the psychiatric literature can be seen as forms of incongruity. For Rogers, a particular form of disorder is less important than recognizing that incongruence exists and needs to be corrected.

1.3 The tendency towards self-actualization

There is a fundamental aspect of human nature that drives man to move towards greater congruence and more realistic functioning. Moreover, this desire is not unique to humans; it is an integral part of the process in all living things. "It is a drive that is seen in all organic and human life - the drive to expand, to expand, to become autonomous, to develop, to mature, the drive to express and use all the faculties of the organism, to the extent that this action strengthens the organism or the self" . Rogers believes that in each of us there is a desire to become as competent and capable as it is biologically possible for us. Just as a plant strives to be a healthy plant, just as a grain contains the desire to become a tree, so a person is encouraged to become a whole, complete, self-actualizing person.

2. The theory of personality in national reality

The value of relationships is a central theme of Rogers' work. Early relationships may be congruent or may serve as a focus for value conditions. Late relationships can restore congruence or delay it.

"I believe ... that the main barrier to communication between people is our natural tendency to judge, evaluate, approve or disapprove of the statements of another person or other group." K. Rogers.

If we try to imagine people who are out of relationship with others, we see two contrasting stereotypes. The first is a reluctant hermit who does not know how to deal with others. The second is a contemplative who has withdrawn from the world in order to pursue other goals.

Conclusion

This paper has attempted to present a theory of personality and behavior based on our experience and research in client-centered therapy. This theory is fundamentally phenomenological and relies mainly on the explanatory construct of the "concept of the self". According to this theory, the essence of personal development is to achieve a fundamental correspondence between the phenomenal field of experience and the conceptual structure of ideas about oneself, which provides liberation from feelings of anxiety, from real and potential internal tension. As a result, an individualized system of values is formed, which in many respects coincides with the value system of each representative of the human race, who has the proper psychological regulation.

According to Rogers, the tendency to self-actualization is not just one of the motives along with others. "It should be noted that the tendency towards self-actualization is the only motive postulated in this theoretical system... The self, for example, is an important concept in our theory, but the self does not 'do' anything, it is only an expression of the general tendency of the organism to behave in such a way. in a way to support and strengthen oneself."

It would be unreasonable to hope that all the hypotheses of this theory will turn out to be true. However, if they serve as a stimulus for further in-depth research into the dynamics of human behavior, they will serve their purpose well.

Bibliography

1. Rogers K. A look at psychotherapy. The formation of man. M.1994. Digest.

2. Rogers K. Empathy / Psychology of emotions. Texts. M. 1984.

3. Rogers K. Questions that I would ask myself if I were a teacher / Family and School, 1987, No. 10.

4. Rogers K. Personal reflections on teaching and learning, 1993, no. 5-6.

5. Rogers K. To the science of personality / In the book. History of foreign psychology. Texts. M. 1986.

How many personal motives allocates to Rogers. I-concept K

The concept of self-actualization of personality a. Maslow

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Introduction

The fundamental premise of Rogers' theories is that people use their experiences to define themselves, to define themselves.

1. The main provisions of Rogers' theory of personality

1.1 Self

1.2 Congruence and incongruence

Congruence fits well with the Zen formula: "When I'm hungry, I eat; when I'm tired, I sit; when I want to sleep, I sleep."

The incongruity between awareness and experience is called repression. The man is simply unaware of what he is doing. Psychotherapy deals mostly with this symptom of incongruity by helping people become more aware of their actions, thoughts, and feelings, and how they affect themselves and others.

Most of the symptoms described in the psychiatric literature can be seen as forms of incongruity. For Rogers, a particular form of disorder is less important than recognizing that incongruence exists and needs to be corrected.

1.3 The tendency towards self-actualization

2. The theory of personality in national reality

The value of relationships is a central theme of Rogers' work. Early relationships may be congruent or may serve as a focus for value conditions. Late relationships can restore congruence or delay it.

"I believe ... that the main barrier to communication between people is our natural tendency to judge, evaluate, approve or disapprove of the statements of another person or other group." K. Rogers.

If we try to imagine people who are out of relationship with others, we see two contrasting stereotypes. The first is a reluctant hermit who does not know how to deal with others. The second is a contemplative who has withdrawn from the world in order to pursue other goals.

Conclusion

It would be unreasonable to hope that all the hypotheses of this theory will turn out to be true. However, if they serve as a stimulus for further in-depth research into the dynamics of human behavior, they will serve their purpose well.

Bibliography

1. Rogers K. A look at psychotherapy. The formation of man. M.1994. Digest.

2. Rogers K. Empathy / Psychology of emotions. Texts. M. 1984.

3. Rogers K. Questions that I would ask myself if I were a teacher / Family and School, 1987, No. 10.

4. Rogers K. Personal reflections on teaching and learning, 1993, no. 5-6.

5. Rogers K. To the science of personality / In the book. History of foreign psychology. Texts. M. 1986.

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