In 1961, Carl Rogers published what would become one of his most famous books and significant contributions to the study of psychology. The work is comprised of pieces he wrote between 1951 and 1961.
At the time, he had been a psychotherapist (or personal counselor) for over 33 years. He had hoped On Becoming a Person, A Therapist’s View of Psychotherapy would provide readers with “more security in making and following his personal choices as he endeavors to move toward being the person he would like to be.” The work was a bit of a departure from the typical theoretical, professional psychological tomes. He wanted to make the material available to “the intelligent layman.” He mentions that it wasn’t designed as a “self-help” type of book but does express the hope that those who are not in academia or in the profession will find help.
That said, Carl Rogers, in the foreward, mentions his desire to make his more recent writings available in one convenient place for psychologists, psychiatrists, teachers, educators, school counselors, religious workers, social workers, speech therapists, industrial leaders, labor-management specialists, political scientist and others who have read his work with interest.
Often unaccepted by the more practitioners, Roger’s writings were often distributed privately, rather than published in professional and academic journals. He describes his person-centered approach and concepts such as self-actualization, becoming and growth.
He also refers to the “modern era” and references the “infinitude of space as well as the infinitude of sub-atomic particles.” His concern is that we all need to create a better understanding of interpersonal and inter-group tensions while we race ahead technologically.
A complete version of this text is available for free online. However, On Becoming a Person and other Carl Rogers books can be found on Amazon in print, ebook and audio versions.
Table of Contents for On Becoming a Person
Part I – Speaking Personally
Chapter 1 – “This is Me”
Part II – How Can I Be of Help?
Chapter 2 – Some Hypotheses Regarding the Facilitation of Personal Growth
Chapter 3 – The Characteristics of a Helping Relationship
Chapter 4 – What We Know About Psychotherapy – Objectively and Subjectively
Part III – The Process of Becoming a Person
Chapter 5 – Some of the Directions Evident in Therapy
Chapter 6 – What It Means to Become a Person
Chapter 7 – A Process Conception of Psychology
Part IV – A Philosophy of Persons
Chapter 8 – “To Be That Self Which One Truly Is”: A Therapist’s View of Personal Goals
Chapter 9 – A Therapist’s View of the Good Life: The Fully Functioning Person
Part V – Getting At the Facts: The Place of Research in Psychotherapy
Chapter 10 – Persons on Science? A Philosophical Question
Chapter 11 – Personality Change in Psychotherapy
Chapter 12 – Client-Centered Therapy in its Context of Research
Part VI – What are the Implications for Living?
Chapter 13 – Personal Thoughts on Teaching and Learning
Chapter 14 – Significant Learning: In Therapy and in Education
Chapter 15 – Student-Centered Teaching as Experienced by a Participant
Chapter 16 – The Implications of Client-centered Therapy for Family Life
Chapter 17 – Dealing with Breakdowns in Communication – Interpersonal and Intergroup
Chapter 18 – A Tentative Formulation of a General Law of Interpersonal Relationships
Chapter 19 – Toward a Theory of Creativity
Part VII – The Behavioral Sciences and the Person
Chapter 20 – The Growing Power of the Behavioral Sciences
Chapter 21 – The Place of the Individual in the New World of the Behavioral Sciences
Appendix – A Chronological Bibliography of the publications of Carl R. Rogers. 1930-1960.
The link provided to On Becoming a Person goes directly to a PDF scan of the text.
View this Free Online Material at the source:
On Becoming a Person
