The subject is Carl Rogers, his life and the theory of personality that he developed. Rogers is one of the best known of the organismic theorists and has also achieved recognition as a therapist. In his work, he emphasizes the private world of the individual, the world of experience, and he calls this world the phenomenal field. The behavior of the individual is determined by his perceptions and interpretations. In order to understand the behavior of a person, therefore, it is essential to know how the matter looks subjectively to that person (Zimbardo & Ruch, 1977, p. 421).
Kirschenbaum (1979) points out that Carl Rogers, unlike the better known psychologists with whom his name is associated, such as Maslow, Perls, Buhler, and Fromm, is a product of midwestern America rather than an immigrant background, and he has roots that extend far back into American history (p. 1). Rogers began his work in the twenties as a practicing psychologist. He himself has noted the course his work has taken in the years since: "I have made diagnostic studies of children and have developed recommendations for treatment of their problems; in 1928 I developed an inventory of the inner world of childhood which--may heaven forgive me--is still being sold by the thousands. I have counseled with parents, students, and other adults; I have carried on intensive psychotherapy with troubled individuals--normal neurotic, and psychotic; I have engaged in and sponsored research in psychotherapy and personality change; I have formulated a rigorous theory of therapy . . . . I have had a continuous, varied, controversial, and richly rewarding professional life" (qtd. in Evans, 1975, pp. 121-2).
Rogers came after Freud and was influenced by him as were all other theorists in this area, even when they disagreed with Freud. There were numerous criticisms of Freudian theory at the time when Rogers started work. Most of the explanations made by Freudian theo...