Human Nature, Actualisation And The Emerging Self

Carl Rogers (1902-1987) the Humanist is best known for his contribution to therapy. He created client centred therapy also known as Person Centred therapy or Rogerian therapy. The aim of counselling and working in a client centred way is to help clients find their real self beneath layers of a socialised self (affected by the environment). To do that the counsellor needs to provide an atmosphere of unconditional positive regard, empathy and congruence these are the three "core conditions" central to Rogers theory. According to Rogers in this environment the client will feel safe to express their true nature and realise that they are accepted by their therapist/counsellor. Actualisation Actualisation is a theory about the processes of growth and development that attempts to explain what we can observe about those processes. In other words, a plant or an animal will develop from relatively simple form (an egg or a seed, for example) into a much more complex form as it matures towards adulthood. This process will carry on unhindered provided the environment in which the organism lives is suitable for it. The extent to which the environment is unsuitable, or even hostile in some form, will determine the extent to which the organism is able to become all it is capable of becoming. This process does not depend on the organism being consciously aware of it, because it is a universal property of life itself. The term actualisation refers to the person as a whole the physical, psychological, cognitive and emotional interrelated parts that together make up the whole person. Whatever it is that makes up a human being, from our DNA to our cells and organs, from our brain and problems solving abilities to our capacity for deep feeling and creativity, is intricately organised and adapted to live in a complex environment. In an ideal environment there is no reason why any organism including a human being should not grow towards a state in which it actualises all of its creative potentials.

We are all self actualising simply because we all have a self to maintain, and this self is likely to be less than ideal because its development has taken place in an environment that is unlikely to have been ideal. In other words, the development of the self takes place through interaction with the environment which includes, perhaps most importantly of all, significant other people with whom we need to form relationships. However, the self should not be thought of as fixed. In Rogers' system the self is fluid, tentative, and open to change through experience.

Conditions of Worth As children we acquire conditions of worth. We learn from experience that we are only acceptable as long as we think, feel and behave in ways that are positively valued by others. As a result, we tend to seek certain kinds of experiences and avoid others according to how far they fit these conditions of worth. Experiences and feelings that match these conditions of worth imposed on us by our environment (we are only acceptable if we behave a certain way) are accepted but those feelings and experiences that are contrary to them are distorted or denied completely. This process can be thought of as the beginnings of psychological problems where there is a state of incongruence existing between self and experience.

The process of internalising these conditions of worth results in the emergence not of a true self but of a false or conditioned self. To understand the important concept of conditions of worth more completely it might help to spend some time thinking about and exploring your own conditions of worth. You may be able to identify some of the "messages" you have internalised from your childhood that still provide the basis for your beliefs and assumptions about yourself.