Become Person

BECOME PERSON
CARL ROGERS

Index
Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 03
First Part - personal Notes ............................................................................................. 09
1. This I am .............................................................................................................. 09
Second Part - How can I help the outros? ................................................................. 22
2. Some hypotheses regarding the facilitation of personal forecast ..................... 22
3. The characteristics of a relationship to help ............................................................ 26
4. What we know of psychotherapy objective and subjectively .................................... 36
Part III - The process of becoming a person .................................................................. 42
5. Some directions of the therapeutic process ............................................................. 42

6. What it means to become -person .............................................................................
59
7. The psychotherapy considered as a process ........................................... 68
Part Four - a philosophy of person ................................................................................ 86
8. "Be what really is ": the personal goals seen by a therapist .......... 86
9. The vision of a therapist about the good life: the person in full operation ..... 97
Part Five - The observation of the facts: the role of research in psychotherapy ................ 104
10. Person or science? A philosophical problem ......................................................... 104
11. The modficação personality in psychotherapy ................................................ 118
12. The therapy focused on the customer in the context of research ...........................
126
Sixth Part - What are the implications for the life? ........................ 142
13. Personal reflections on teaching and learning .................................................... 142
14. The significant learning: in therapy and education ................................... 145
15. Teaching student centered as experienced by a participant ......... 154
16. The implications for the family life of therapy customer-centric ..................... 163
17. The treatment of disturbances in interpersonal communication and intergroups .....
170
18. A provisional formulation of a general law of interpersonal relations ........... 174
19. For a theory of creativity .......................................................................... 179
Part seven - The science of behavior and the person ................................................. 186
20. The growing power of behavioral sciences ............................................. 186
21. The place of the individual in the new world of behavioral sciences ..............
198 Introduction
The publication, in 1961, to become person brought the Electrophoretic karyotypes
Rogers an unexpected national recognition. Researcher and clinician, Rogers believed that was
driving the psychotherapists and only after this fact discovered that "was writing to people nurses, housewives, people in the business world, priests, ministers, teachers, youth". The
book sold millions of copies when millions were a number rare in publications. Rogers was, for
the decade that followed, The Psychologist of America, which can be consulted by the press on
any matter relating to the mind, from the creativity up to the self-knowledge, or national
character.
Certain ideas that Rogers defended have become so widely accepted that it is difficult
remember how new, same revolutionary they were in his time. The psicaflálise freudian, the
prevailing model of the mind in the middle of the century, stated that the human impulses sex
and aggression - were inherently selfish, costly and hard constrained by the forces of culture.
The cure, in Freudian model, was in a relationship that they might bear the patient, encouraging
the anguish that is necessary for the patient to accept the difficult truths of the analyst. Rogers,
in contrast, believed that the people need a relationship in which they are accepted. The skills
that the therapist rogeriano uses are the empathy - a word that in the time of Frcud was largely
restricted to feelings that an observer gave a work of art - and the "consideration unconditional
positive".

Rogers gave his central hypothesis in a sentence: "If I can provide a certain type of
relationship, the other will discover within himself the capacity dc use that relationship to grow
and change and personal development will occur." By growth, Rogers understood motion in the
direction of self-esteem, flexibility, respect themselves and others. For Rogers, the man is
"irredeemably socialized in their desires". Or, as Rogers puts the problem repeatedly, when the
man is more fully man, he is worthy of trust.
Rogers was,in the classification of Isaiah Berlin, a pig- thorn: He knew a thing, but knew
as well that could make it a world. Rogers comes our contemporary emphasis on self-esteem
and its power to mobilise other forces of a person. The concept of Rogers acceptance as the
force -luteinizing-latest implies that people who are not ill can benefit from therapy and eu nonprofessionals can act as therapists; the group of self-help modern comes almost directly from
movement of Rogers of human potential. The idea that the marriage, as the therapy, depends
on the authenticity and empathy is basically Carl Rogers. IT IS Rogers, much more than
Benjamin Spock, which advocates a relation not policy of parents and teachers with children.
It is ironic that, while the ideas of Rogers are on the rise - so much so that now are attacked as
powerful cultural assumptions that need to be reviewed - his writings are falling into oblivion.
This is a shame, because a culture should know where their beliefs come from and why the
writings of Rogers remain lucid, fascinating and accessible.
Certainly the ideas of Rogers prevail within the professions of mental health. The school
of psychoanalysis of tip is currently called "self psychology ", a name that Rogers could have
coined. As the therapy focused on the customer, that Rogers has developed in the 1940s,
psychology of selfentende the relationship, more than the insight, as being central to the
change; and as the psychotherapy focused on the customer, the psychology of the self sustains
that the optimum level of frustration should be "the lowest possible". The posture therapy in self
psychology could not be closer to account unconditional positive. However, the psychology of
the self - founded in Chicago, when Rogers was there a prominent figure - not gave him no
word of credit. The explanation for this has to do with the person of Rogers. More American than
European, education more rural than urban (he was born in Chicago but moved to the field at 12
years of age and has said that his respect by experimental method came from his reading, in
adolescence, a long text entitled Feeds and Feeding (Food and Nutrition), native of the midwest American more than the east, excited more than melancholic, accessible and open,
Rogers did not display anything of complexity obscure intellectuals of the post-war. The opening
of Rogers - in an important way become person does not need introduction, since Rogers is in a
test exactly entitled "It's me" - contrasts with the approach advocated by their colleagues, who
believed that the therapist must submit as a blackboard in white. The predominant opinion was
that Rogers could be rejected because it was not serious.
This view hides and reveals a narrow vision of what is serious or intellectual. Rogers was
a professor of the university and a scholarly widely published, having your credit sixteen books
and more than 200 articles. The very success of Make- that person may have hampered the
academic reputation of Rogers; he was known by direct argument and these tests, and not by
the complexity of theoretical articles more technical written during the same period. However,
even to become person, Rogers is their ideas in a historical and social context, referring to the
social psychology contemporary, the animal ethology and the theory of communications and
general systems. It locates its cultural heritage in existential philosophy, referring more
frequently the Soren Kierkegaard (which lends the phrase "be the i that really is", that is the
response of Rogers to the question "What is the goal of life? ") and Martin Buber. AND Rogers
experienced a busy career as a public intellectual, participating in debates and corresponding
openly with figures such as Buber, Paul Tillich. Michael Polanyi. Gregory Bateson. Hans
Hofman and Rollo May.
More than most of his colleagues, Rogers was a scientist committed that had an
empirical assessment of psychotherapy. Already in the 1940s, and prior to any one in the area,
Rogers recording sessions of psychotherapy for research purposes. IS the first inventor of a

psychotherapy to define its approach in terms operácionais, listing six conditions necessary and
sufficient (patient involved, therapist empath, etc) for the change coiistmtiva of personality.
Developed reliable measurements, promoting and publishing assessments of their hypotheses.
Rogers was committed to develop an assessment of the process: what helps people change?
His research, and that of their scientific collaborators, has led to results engagment for the
psychoanalytic community. For example, a study of excerpts from therapy sessions, it was
noted that in response to the clarification and interpretation - the tools of psychoanalysis customers typically abandon the self-exploration; only the reflection of feelings by the therapist
leads directly to greater exploitation and a new insight.
Rogers, in other words, addressed an intellectual effort to substantial service of a simple
belief: human beings need for acceptance, and when this is given them movemse toward "selfrealization". The corollary of this hypothesis were evident for Rogers and his contemporaries.
The complex construction of psychoanalysis is unnecessary - the transfer may well exist, but
exploit it is unproductive. A posture pedantic and distant, that assumed by many psychoanalysts
of half of the century, is certainly contraterapeutica. The self-consciousness, and the human
presence of the therapist is more important than the technical training of the same. AND the
boundary between the psychotherapy and the common life is necessarily tenuous. If the
acceptance, empathy and positive consideration constitute the conditions necessary and
sufficient for human growth, then they are the same way be present in relations of education,
friendship and family life. These ideas hurled verbal abuse at a number of communities psychoanalytic, educational and religious. However, they were well received by a broad
segment of the public. They were present in the dialog of popular 1960s - many of the demands
of the demonstrators university of years 60 if relied implicitly on beliefs of Rogers on human
nature - and have helped define our institutions for the rest of the century.
Before be rejected and forgotten, Rogers was attacked in a number of fields. Literature
Review of research showed that the need for, and the sufficiency of its six conditions were
difficult to prove, although the evidence favoring a posture present and empathetic therapist
remained strong. The concept of Rogers that therapist and client can put the same height was
challenged later by Martin Buber and more recently by a contentious critical of psychotherapy,
Jeffrey Masson. (In a small and lovely book entitled simply - CARI Rogers (London, Sage
Publications, 1992) , Brian Thorne reviews and, with some success, rebate these criticisms. ).
TO THE extent that we have distanced ourselves from Rogers, the criticisms seem to be
increasingly irrelevant. What Rogers provides - that all large therapists provide - is a single view.
It is clear that the psychoanalytic theory of man half of the century was incomplete. Freud and,
more fully, Melanie Klein, the founder of a school of psychoanalysis that has had an enormous
influence on the modern visions of human relations intense, has picked up the dark side of
humanity, the part of our animal heritage that includes violence and sexuality related competitive
with the struggle for dominance hierarchy. They ignored a reproductive strategy that coexists
with the dominance of the hierarchy and is also heavily encoded in genes and culture:
reciprocity and altruism. The theoreticians of animal ethology and evolutionary biology today
would agree with the thesis of Rogers that when a human being is properly accepted, that tends
to predominate are these last traces. Buber - not only a religious philosopher but a student of
Eugen Bleuler, the great psychiatrist descriptive German - had doubtless justifications for its
skepticism before the proposition of Rogers that the man, doehte or are, is worthy of trust. But
Freud, Klein and Buber were fully ensnared for prospects in the Old World. The relentless
optimism of Rogers is perhaps best considered as one of the many interesting attempts to bring
psychotherapy the taste of the New World. In its effort Rogers had many colleagues. Harry
Stack Sullivan added several facets to psychoanalysis: attention to the influence of a friend in
child development; the exploitation of the social environment of the particular patient, and the
active use of i the therapist to block projections characteristics of patients. Murray Bowen has
taken attention away from the patient's family in infancia (the constellation of Oedipus) returning
to the current family, and freed the therapist to act as a kind of monitor the patient effort to find

its place within the rigid structure of the family. Milton Erickson revived hypnotic techniques and
used so mischievous, making the therapist a manipuladormestre that launches the patient
toward the impasses of its development. Carl Whitaker emphasized the encumbrance of theory
in clinical practice, requiring the therapist both an existential presence as a conscience of the
customs of local family. To this list we could add the names of immigrants - Erich Fromm, Victor
Frankl, Hellmuth Kaiser, Erik Erikson, Heinz Kohut - whose work took shape a decidedly
American, free and experimental and socially aware.
Although I reject the premise of puritan original sin, Rogers - to worry about
understanding the other as an individual free to focus on their own authenticity and active
presence, to trust the positive potential of each customer - creates a therapeutic view of man
that conforms to important aspects of the spirit and beliefs Americans. The central premise of
Rogers is that people are inherently full of resources. For Rogers, the cardinal sin in therapy or
in education and family life , it is the imposition of authority. Radical egalitarian, Rogers sees
individuals as capable of waterline without consideration of wisdom received and outside
organizations such as the church or the academy. Despite its origins in the relationship of aid,
the philosophy of Rogers based on Thoreau and Emerson, the primacy of self-confidence. To
adopt Rogers, the Americans realized important parts of themselves - parties in respect of
which, however, the nation remains ambivalent. The individualism would entail an exploration of
new values for each person in each new generation, or the individualism must be connected to
fixed traditions and a vision of man as selfish and competitive? Return to the established
curricula and orthodox values, the conservatives today attack not only Rogers but also an
important tendency of American humanism. It is perhaps due to the essence of American
Rogers that this is much more respected - understood as a distinct voice, taught with
seriousness - in dozens of countries outside of the United States.
The voice of Rogers - affectionate, enthusiastic, confident, concerned - is that articulates
the disparate tests to Become person. We found a man trying to patiently, but with all the
resources at your command, to listen to others and himself. This attentive listening is at the
service of both individual question about the big question, which means take-person. To
describe customers, Rogers assumes the language and prosody of existentialism. The respect
of a man who fight, Rogers writes: "At the moment it is nothing more than his supplication, for all
the time ... Because at that moment he is its dependence, in a way that the haunts." Any idea
that Rogers is not serious, aware of human frailty, intellectual should dissolve in response to
transcripts of his meticulous clinical work. Rogers makes what was satirizado by generations of
students of psychology, namely, repeat the words of customers. But also summarizes the
sentiments of cfientcs with precision, beauty dc expression and caution generous. And also
shows a great ability to accept others. At its fifth session of psychotherapy with Rogers, Ms.
Oak, a housewife troubled, if lv singing a "type of song without any music". The synthesis that
Rogers makes its sequence of feelings leads to Ms. Oak to enlarge interior experience and
explore its metaphor. We have heard a person trying to grab hold of a authenticity
indecipherable, denigrating their own thoughts: "AND then there seems to be only this flow dc
words that somehow are not voluntary and then, occasionally, this doubt arises. Well, it is as if
she were to take the form of a, perhaps you're only doing music." Like all human beings, in the
scheme of Rogers, Ms. Oak begins as that furthest from the i; with the acceptance it removes
facades and reach completion. At its ninth session, Ms. Oak reveals in a way constrained, a
limited form of self-confidence: " ... I have had what I came to call myself, or to say to myself, as
being 'flashes of sanidade' ... It is only a feeling occasional dc I think a type of whole person in a
kind of world terribly chaotic." However she cannot reveal this i confident to others. Rogers
immediately recalls the previous session: "a feeling that might not be safe to talk about the
song that you ... Almost as if there was no place to which such person exist". This sensitivity
when compared to the other is a high art, although it is difficult whether Rogers is capturing the
melody inside the customer or providing one of your own composition. This ambiguity remains
regarding the clinical work of Rogers: It merely, as advocated, he accepted the other, or offered

parts of your own i well differentiated? What is clear, as we read Rogers today, is its extensive
contribution to contemporary culture, our sense of who we are. It is a pleasure seeing you
again, and have access once more to their music. PeterD. Kramer M. D.
The reader
Although I am not exactly happy to say, I was psychotherapist (or "personal counselor ")
during more than thirty-three years. This means that, over a third of a century, I have tried to
help a broad sample of our population: children, adolescents and adults; people with problems
educational, vocational, personal and spouse; individuals "normal," "neurotic "and sicóticos" (the
quotation marks indicate that to me it is misleading labels); I tried help the people that I came to
ask for help and I were sent; those whose problems had not importance and those whose lives
had become completely hopeless and without a future. I think it is a great privilege to have had
the opportunity to get to know and ummah so personal and so intimate such quantity and
diversity of people.
In addition to the clinical experience and research carried out during these years, I wrote
several books and many articles. The articles contained in this volume/pray chosen from among
those that I wrote during the last ten years, from 1951 to 1961. I would like to explain the reason
for the meeting in a book. Firstly I believe that most of them have some relevance to the people
who live the perplexity cio modern world. This work is not intended to be in any way a book of
advice or a manual of the genus 'do-it-yourself", but it has come to my knowledge that the
readers of these articles the thought often stimulating and enriching- pain. In some small
measure they gave to the person more security to do and follow your personal options as part of
their commitment to be the type of person that I would like to be As well, for that reason, I hope
that these articles are available for any person who might be interested - as it says, to the
"intelligent layman ". That was my intention, both more than all my books previously published
intended to psychologists professional and never been accessible to those who were outside of
this group.
I honestly believe that many people without a particular interest in the field of counselling
or psychotherapy are, in fcitas discoveries in this field, elements that strengthen in his own life. I
hope also that many of the people who have never sought advice feel to read excerpts of
therapeutic interviews recorded with the various customers, who have become slightly more
qorajosas and confident in themselves, and that the understanding of their own difficulties will
be facilitated if crossing, in their imagination and in their thoughts, the struggles of other for the
maturation'. Another reason that spurred me to prepare this book was the increasing number
and the urgency of the requests on the part of those who already know my point of view on the
psychological counseling, psychotherapy and interpersonal relations. These people have
expressed the desire to be able dispot a volume more accessible, the result of my work and my
ideas more recent. They were frustrated to learn that there are articles not published that may
not acquire or find my articles in journals not available. Ask that this material should be brought
together in a single volume. This thing pride very a fail on autot ... but it is, also, an obligation
which I tried to match I hope that they are unhappy the selection that I have.
This volume was prepared in intention of psychologists, psychiatrists, teachers,
educators, school psychologists, religious, social workers, speech therapists, managers,
specialists in work organization, political scientists, in intention of all those who have found in
my work a direct relationship with their professional problems. It is to them that I dedicate, in a
true sense, my work. There is another reason, more complex and staff: the search for an
audience to hear what he had to say ten years ago that was looking for a solution to this
problem. I know that I speak only for a minority of psychologists. The greater part of them
whose interests may indicate by terms such as stimulus-response theory of learning, operant
conditioning - are so committed to see the individual only as an object, that what I have to say
the disorienting, if that is not the annoying. I also know that I speak only for a small number of

psychiatrists. For many of them, perhaps for the vast majority, the truth about apsicoterapia was
proclaimed long ago by Freud and are not interested in new opportunities, in addition to
uninterested or contrary to research in this field. I also know that I dirUo a part of divergent
group of self-styled themselves "therapists". Most of this group interested especially in tests
and measures of forecasting, efor methods of guidance.
For this reason, where it is raised the question to publish one of my articles, i felt
dissatisfied by presenting it in a specialized journal in any of these areas. I have published
articles in journals such dferentes fields, but the greater part of my written these last years pile
up in piles of manuscripts not-published that were distributed particularly in form mimeografada.
They symbolize my uncertainty about the way how to reach the public that I am driving.
During this period, the editors of magazines more or less specialized, having heard some
of these article, I was asked for permission to publish them. I acceded to this request, specifying
however that I reserved the right to publish them later in another place therefore, most of the
articles that I wrote during the last ten years, or are to publish or have seen the light of day in
magazines little disclosed, specialized or obscure.
However, I have now the decision to gather these reflections in a book, so that they reach
their own public. I am sure that the public will be formed between a wide variety of disciplines,
some quite distant from my specific area, such as the philosophy and political science. I believe,
however, that the public will have a certain unity. I think that these articles are in a trend that has
and is to have its impact on psychology, psychiatry, philosophy and in other fields. I hesitate to
label this tendency, but in my mind she is associated with adjectives such as phenomenological,
existential, centerd on the person; the concepts such as self-realization, come-to-be maturation;
the people, in this country, such as Gordon Allport, Abraham Maslo Rollo May. In this way, and
although the public paia which this book could have sign stayed comes from different
disciplines and have quite different interests, common ofio can be their concern about the
person and his becoming a modern world that seems to ignore it or decrease it.
There is one last reason to publish this book, a reason that has to me a great importance.
This is the great, the desperate need of our time to acquire the most basic knowledge and
competence as possible to study the tensions that occur in human relations. The admire vel
progress achieved by man, not only in the vastness of space as well as infinity of particles
subatómicas, seems to lead to the total destruction of our universe, the less make major
progress in the understanding and treatment of interpersonal tensions and intergroup relations. I
feel a great sense of humility when I think of the reduced Section 9-2 knowledge that we have in
this field. I hope the day in which we will invest the equivalent of the cost of one or two missiles
in the search for a better understanding of human relations. But I am sorry with bitterness that
the knowledge that we have already achieved are little recognized implement and not well used.
I trust that this book makes it clear that we already have knowledge that, once implemented,
would help to reduce the tensions arising in inter-racial relations, industrial and international,
that manifest themselves at the present time. I hope that it becomes evident that these
knowledge, applied preventively, may help in the development of mature persons, nondefensive and understandable that they will be able to address in a constructive way the
tensions that they encounter in the future. If I could make patents, for a significant number of
people, the resources by use of knowledge already available in the field of interpersonal
relations, I would consider myself amply rewarded.
These were my reasons for publishing this book. Let me conclude with a few comments
on its nature. The articles gathered here represent my main centers of interest during the
decade passada2. They were written with different objectives, usually for different audiences or
simply for my personal satisfaction. I wrote to each chapter an introductory note, which seeks to
present your content in a context understandable. The articles were sorted deforms the drawing
a unique theme that will be developed on the basis of problems more personal for the field of a
signflcado broader social. I have removed the repetition, but, when several articles dealing with
the same concept 213c4directly opposite, I have kept many times these "variations on a theme

", hoping that they play the same role in music, i.e. that enrich the sense of melody. Because
they have been worked as independent articles can be read in isolation from each other if the
player you prefer.
Simply put, the objective of this book is to share with you something of my experience something to me. Here is a little of what I experienced in the jungle of modern life, in territory
largely untapped personal relations. Here is what I saw. Here is what I have come to believe
was this way as I tried is occurring epôr proof what he believed in. Here are some of the
concerns, issues, concerns and uncertainties that I faced I hope that the reader can find in this
book dedicated to it, something that concerns him.
Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry University of Wisconsin.Abril 1961.

First Part
Personal Notes
I speak as a person, in the context of an experience and a personal learning
Chapter 1
"It's me"
The development of my thought and my philosophy staff This chapter summarises two
exposures too personal. Approximately five years ago I was invited to present to the class more
graduated from the University of Brandeis not my ideas about psychotherapy, but to myself.
How is it that I had come to that today I think? How I became the person I am? I found this
invitation extraordinarily stimulating and I tried to match it. Last year, the Student Union Forum
Committee of the University of Wisconsin has sent me a similar invitation. I have been asked to
make a personal exposure in the framework of its "Last Conferences" in which it is presumed,
for reasons not specified, that the teacher is giving his last conference, and, therefore, speaks
of himself (which espantQso commentary on our system of education in which a teacher is only
shows himself in a personal way in such harsh circumstances! ). At this conference, Wisconsin
I expressed in a way more profound than in first the personal experiences and philosophical
themes that became for me the most significant. In this chapter harmonizei the two exhibitions,
trying to keep the spontaneous character which clothed its original presentation.
The reaction to each of these exposures made me understand how people want to
eagerly to know something of the person who speaks to them or that the teaches. That was the
reason why I opened the book with this chapter, in the hope that it will communicate something
about me, thus, a framework and a greater meaning to the chapters that follow. I have been told
that they were waiting for me to speak to this group on the following matters: "It's me". I went
through different reactions to this invitation, but that I would like to mention here as the main
was I honored and flattered by a group wanting to know who I am, in a sense purely personal. I
can assure you that this is a single invitation and unprecedented and that I will try to give this
question honest answer as honestly as I can.
That said, who am I? A psychologist whose main interests were, for many years, those of
psychotherapy. What does this mean? I do not intend to impose a long chronicle of my work, but
I would like to remove some of the paragraphs in the preface of my book Client-Centered

Therapy', to indicate that, subjectively, that means to me. In this preface, I sought to clarify the
reader about the content of the work and wrote the following: "what is this book? Let me try to
give them an answer in some way connected to the experience that this book tried to be."
"This is a book about suffering and hope, the grief and the satisfaction in the room of all
therapists. It is about the unique nature of the relationship that the therapist establishes with
each customer, and, also, on the common elements that we find in all these relationships. This
book is about the experiences deeply personal to each one of us. AND on a client in my office,
sitting near the desk, struggling to be himself, however, with a mortal fear of himself be struggling to see their experience as it is, wanting to be this experience, and, however, full of
fear at the prospect. It is a book about me, seated in front of the customer, looking for him,
participating in the fight with all the depth and sensitivity of which I am capable. It is a book
about me, trying to understand their experience and the meaning, the feeling, the flavor of which
this has for him. It is about me, regretting my human fallibility to understand the customer and
the occasional failures to see life as it shows itself before him, failures that fall as heavy objects
on the intricate and delicate fabric of development that is occurring.
It is a book about me, happy with the privilege of being responsible for the delivery of a new
personality - awe before the emergence of a seljÇ a person, of a birth process in which I had an
important role and facilitator. It is about me and the customer, which we contemplate with
admiration the forces ordered and vigorous that are evidenced throughout the experience,
forces that are deeply rooted in the universe as a whole. It is a book, I believe, on the life, the
life that is revealed in the therapeutic process - with its blind force and its tremendous capacity
of destruction, but with a main thrust toward the development, if you are offered the possibility of
development." this may give them a picture of what I do and how I feel about what I do. I think
that will ask how it is that I came to this occupation and what decisions and choices that,
consciously or unconsciously, I led. I will try to present some of the most important aspects of
my autobiography psychological, especially those who have a special relationship with my
professional life.
My first years
I was brought up in a family very united where there existed a religious atmosphere and
moral very strict and uncompromising, and that had a true worship by virtue of hard work. I was
the fourth of six children. My parents had for us a great affection and our well-being was for
them a constant concern. Also Watched our behavior in a way at the same time subtle and
affectionate. They were - and I accepted this idea - that we were different from other people: no
alcohol, dancing, card games or concerts, a social life very reduced and much work . I had a
great difficulty in persuading my children that, for me, even the non-alcoholic drinks had a flavor
of sin and I remember my slight feeling of guilt when I drank my first refrigerant. We spent a nice
time together with the family, but not convivíamos. I am- I am a solitary child I read incessantly
and never had, over all my years of college, but two encounters with girls.
I was twelve years old when my father bought a farm where we live. The reasons for this
were two: first, my father, who had taken a prosperous merchant, was looking for
a hobby; second, and I believe that more important, was the fact that my parents want to move
their teens from "temptations" of city life. On the farm I was interested by two things that had
probably a influenci&real in my future work. I was fascinated by the great nocturnal butterflies
(were then in vogue books of Gene Stratton-Porter ) and I became an authority in the beautiful
Luna, the Polyphemus, in Cecropia and other lepidopterans that dwelt our woods. Captured with
a lot of hard work the flaps, took care of the larvae, kept the cocoons during the long winter
months, thus experiencing some of the joys and frustrations of the scientist when demand
observe nature. My father ... organize your new farm on a scientific basis and, for this, he had
acquired a large number of books on rational agriculture. Thrilled the children to gain
independence, encouraging them to embark on their own in non-profit ventures. For this reason,

both my brothers as I had many hens and, once in a while, very respectfully of sheep, pigs or
cows since they were born. I became a scholar of scientific agriculture and only recently
realized that this was the path that led me to a fundamental understanding of science. There
was no one to tell me that the work of Morison, Feeds and Feeding, it was not a book for a
teenager of 14 years and, therefore, I dove in its hundreds of pages, learning how to lead the
experiences, how does it compare control groups with experimental groups, as if they contained
in the conditions, ranging from the processes, to establish the influence of a given power in the
production of meat or milk production. I learned how difficult check a hypothesis. Acquire the
knowledge and respect for scientific methods through practical work.
The graduation and post-graduation
I started college in Wisconsin studying agriculture. One of the things that I remember best
was the vehemence of a professor of agronomy when referring to the study and application of
the facts. He insisted that the futility of an encyclopaedic knowledge in himself and concluded:
"are not a wagon of ammunition; be a shotgun!" During my first two years of school, changed
my professional goal as a consequence of some student meetings on religion very passionate: I
have abandoned the scientific agriculture in favor of the priesthood - a small change! Transfer
me then of agriculture for history, believing that this would be the best preparation.
In my first year I was one of those chosen from a group of 12 American students for a trip
to China, in order to participate in an International Congress of the World Federation of Christian
Students. This was for me an experience of extraordinary importance. We were in 1922, four
years after the end of the First World War. I have seen the bitterness with which the French and
the Germans continued to hate, although individually look friendly. I was forced to admit and
understand how it is that people of sincere and honest could believe in religious doctrines very
divergent. Emancipei me for the first time the religious attitude of my parents and I saw that it
could not follow. This independence of thought caused a great deal of sorrow and great tensions
in our relations, but seen from a distance, I realized that it was at this time, more than any other,
that I have taken an independent person. And, of course, there was a great revolt and rebellion
in my attitude throughout this period, but the essential rupture occurred during the six months of
my trip in the East, and from then on, was drawn up outside the family influence. Although this is
a report of elements that have influenced my professional development more than my personal
maturation, I would like to mention here, in a very brief, an important fact of my private life. It
was at the time of my trip to China that I fell in love with a lovely lady, who I already knew there
was many years ago, since childhood, and with whom I was married, with the reluctant consent
of our parents, as soon as I've finished school, so that we could pursue together the postgraduate studies. I may not be very objective in this matter, but I am convinced that the support
of your love and affection of their company over all these years were an enrichment factor
extremely important in my life.
I decided to enter the Union Theological Seminary, at that time the seminar more liberal
country (1924), with the objective to prepare me for a religious mission. I Never repented of the
two years that I spent there. I have been in contact with some great masters and teachers,
especially Dr. A. C. McGiffert, who had a deep belief in the freedom of research and the search
for the truth, would it where would take. Knowing as I do now universities and colleges knowing the rigidity of its regulations -, I am truly impressed by important experience that I had
in the Union. Our group felt that in fomeciam ideas already ready, when what we wanted mainly
was to explore our own issues and our own questions and find out where that took us. We call
on the administration that would leave us organise a seminar journal, without coach, whose
program was composed by our own issues. The administration was understandably perplexed
with this proposal, but deferiram our request! The only restriction placed to protect the interests
of the institution was the presence of a young tutor seminar, but this not participating in the
work, unless the invite. I suppose I do not need to add that this seminar was incredibly satisfying

and enlightening. I'm sure that led me to a philosophy of life that I was very personal. The
greater part of the members of the group, pursuing the path traced by the questions that have
been raised, they put aside the idea dc a religious vocation. I was one of them. I felt that
probably always interest me by issues such as the meaning of life and the possibility of a
constructive improvement of an individual's life, but could not work in the field given by a
religious doctrine specific to that should believe. My crençasjá had suffered tremendous
changes and, possibly, would continue to change. Took to me terrible have to profess a certain
number of beliefs in order to keep me in the profession. I wanted to find a field in which I could
be sure that my freedom of thought would not restrictions.
Making me psychologist
But that field? The Union had me interested the courses and conferences on psychology
and psychiatry that then began to develop. Teachers as Goodwin Watson, Harrison Elliott,
Marian Kenworthy contributed to this interest. I started to follow a greater number of courses in
Teacher's Coliege of Columbia University, located just in front of Union Seminary. I started
working in philosophy of education with William H. Kilpatrick. which I thought was a great
teacher. I started my work clinical practice with children, under the direction of Leta
Hollingworth, a sensitive person and practice. I am feeling drawn to this work of child guidance
and, little by little, without almost no effort of adaptation, I went to the labor camp psycho and I
began to think of taking me clinical psychologist. It was an easy step to take, with relatively little
awareness of being an option, handing me only those activities that interested me. When I was
in Teacher's College I asked and got a bag or a place as internal in the new Institute for
Guidance of Children sponsored by Commonwealth Fund. I felt often grateful for there have
been during the first year of its foundation. The organization, in the beginning, was in a state of
chaos, but this meant that each one could do what he wanted. The conviviality with David Levy
and Lawson Lowrey me cower in dynamic perspectives of Freud, which seem to me in deep
conflict with the prospects statistics, rigorous, scientific and coldly objective that prevailed in
Teacher's College. Looking back to the past, I believe that the need to resolve this conflict in
myself was an experience very valuable. At the time, I had the impression of living in two worlds
completely different "and never the twain would meet".
Near the end of my internship, it became very important to find a well-paid work to sustain
my doctorate. The jobs were cm scarce number and sympathise the relief and joy I experienced
when I met a: I was hired as a psychologist in Child Study Department" of the Association for
the Protection of Inffincia in Rochester, New York. There were three psychologists at the center
of studies and my salary was 2,900 dollars per year. I remember today that accepted this post
with joy and astonishment. The reason why I was happy to have found a job that I would like to
do. Second any criterion of good sense was a profession without output, I subjacent to all
professional contact, the salary was inadequate, even for that time, but all this, if I remember
correctly, not impacted me greatly. I always have thought that, if I was given an opportunity to do
something that was very interested, everything else would solve by himself. The years in
Rochester The twelve years that I spent in Rochester were highly valuable. During the first eight
years, at least, likely to be easily absorbed me completely in my psychology department
practice, a diagnostic work and planning of cases of children criminals and without resources,
children that were sent by the courts and by social services, and I frequently "interviews of
treatment". It was a period of relative isolation professional, along which my only concern was
trying to be as effective as possible in relation to our customers. We had to accept both our
failures as our successes and thus we were forced to learn. The only criterion that we used as a
method of treatment for these children and their parents was: "Does it work? Will be effective?"
Principiava then gradually forming my own views from the experience of my daily work.
Occur to me three significant examples and important to me, as well as trivial. I note that
they are, all three, moments of disappointment, disappointment in relation to the authority, in

relation to the material and in relation to myself. During my years of training, had been attracted
by the works of Dr. William Healy, according to which the crime was often a sexual conflict and
that, once discovered this conflict, delinquency he bitted. In the first or second year spent in
Rochester, I worked with a young piromaníaco expressing an irresistible propensity to cause
fires. The entrevistálo day after day in the prison, I was relating, gradually, their trend with a
sexual impulse connected to masturbation. Eureka! The case was resolved. However, when
placed on probation, the young man fell on the same difficulty. I remember the shock that I felt.
Perhaps Healy if wrong. Perhaps I would have noticed something that Healy did not know. Be
that as it may the case made me see clearly the possibility of error on the part of the authority of
teachers and that there were new knowledge to acquire.
The second discovery naive that I was very different. Shortly after I arrived in Rochester I
addressed a group of discussion on the methods of psychological interview. I had found a report
published in an interview, almost word for word, with a mother and in that the professional was
shrewd. penetrating and clever, capable of quickly lead to interview for the center of difficulty. I
felt happy to be able to use it as an example of a good interview technique.
Some years later I found myself in a similar situation and reminded me of this excellent
material going to seek him in order to relay it. I was dismayed. What seemed to me a clear type
of judicial interrogation in which the interviewer could convince the mother of their unconscious
motivations and take it to admit their guilt. I already knew from my own experience that this kind
of interview could not help neither the mother nor the child in a lasting way. This has led me to
understand that I was moving away from any method or coercive pressure in clinical
relationships, not for philosophical reasons, but because these approximation methods were
only superficially effective.
The third incident occurred several years later. He learned to be more subtle and patient
in the interpretation given to a customer of his behavior, waiting for an opportunity to be able to
accept without disturbance. I spoke with a mother extremely intelligent, whose son was a real
devil. The problem was of course its rejection of the child from an early age, but, in spite of
many interviews, I couldn't get it see it. I have done with that she speak , tried gently emphasize
the data evident that I had supplied, trying to help her to see the situation. The result was zero. I
have given up trying. Disselhe that we had done the best we could, but we had failed and that
our contacts should be stopped. She agreed. Just as well the interview, hit the hands and she
drove to the door of my doctor's office when he turned to me and said, "also makes advice of
adults here?" Having you answered yes, he said to me: "well, I would like to help me". He
returned to the chair where she had raised and began the "shed" their despair on your marriage,
on your relations undisturbed with the husband, his sense of failure and confusion, all so much
different from sterile "case history" that I had provided. It started then a real treatment that
turned out to be successful. This incident was one of those that made me feel the fact - that only
later I realized completely - that is the client's own who knows what that suffers, which direction
to take, what issues are crucial, that experiences fomm deeply repressed or unclear. I started to
understand that, to do something more than demonstrate my own foresight and wisdom, the
best thing was to leave the customer with the direction of movement in the therapeutic process.
Psychologist or?
Throughout this period, I began to doubt if sena a psychologist. The University of
Rochester has made me see that the work that I performed was not psychology and that I
wasn't interested in my teaching in dc Department Psychology. I attended the meetings of the
American Psychological Association (AAP) filled with conferences on the learning process of
rats and on experiments which do not seem to me have to do with what I was doing. The social
workers psychiatric, however, seemed to speak my language and that is why I advised my
activities for the social assistance, both in local organizations such as at the national level. It

was only when it was created the American Association for Applied Psychology that I really my
activities as a psychologist.
I started to take courses at the University, at the Institute of Sociology, on how to
understand and treat the children difficult. Shortly after, the Institute of Pedagogy I wanted to
include my classes in their curriculum (finally, before my departure of Rochester, the Institi4to of
Psychology of the University has asked permission to do the same, and eventually accept me
as a psychologist). The simple description of these experiences makes me see how I
stubbornly followed my own path, relatively independent from the fact that we are or are not
doing the same as the group of my colleagues.
Time will not permit me to talk about the work of be in Rochester a center independent of
psychopedagogy, nor the conflict that this meant with some psychiatrists. It was, in most cases,
administrative struggles that had little to do with the development of my ideas.
My children
It was during these years cm Rochester that my son and my daughter crossed the
childhood, teaching me much more about the individual, their evolution and their relations than
what could have learned professionally. Not sure that I have been very good father during their
early years, but, fortunately, my wife was very good mother, and, with the passing of time, I am
taking a father better and more comprehensive. The privilege, during these years, and later, to
be in constant contact with these two young people sensitive along the joys and pains of
infancia, of affirmation and the difficulties of their adolescence, their arrival to adulthood and the
constitution of their own homes, was certainly something unpayable. My wife and I believe one
of our achievements more satisfatónas the fact that we can communicate with our adult children
and their spouses at a profound level, and that they can do the same for us.
The years in Ohio
In 1940, I accepted a place in the Ohio State University. I'm sure that the only reason for
my admission was published my work Clinical Treatment ofthe Problem Child3 that draws up
the cost during holiday periods or in short holidays. To my surprise, and contrary to my
expectation, offered me a place of tenured professor. I urge this point of departure for the
academic world. I felt many times grateful for not having suffered the competitive process, often
humiliating, to promote degree a degree in universities, where people often confined to learn a
single lesson - to not show too much what they are.
When trying to teach what he had learned about treatment and advice to the students of
the University of Ohio, I started to realize for the first time that it had perhaps made a very
personal from my own experience. When I tried to make some of these ideas and I presented at
a conference at the University of Minnesota, in December 1940, encountered reactions
extremely strong. It was my first experience of the fact that one of my ideas, which to me
seemed brilliant and extremely fruitful, could represent for others a great threat. AND the
situation to find myself in the center of the criticism of the arguments in favor and against,
desorientoume and made me doubt and questioning myself. However, I thought I had
something to say and I drafted the manuscript of Counseling and Redefinida, describing the
that, in some way, I seemed to be a more effective therapy. Here, once again, I think a little fun
my carefree little "realistic". When I suggested to the editor the manuscript, this was considered
interesting and original but wanted to know for what courses could serve. I told him that I was
only two: what I gave and one in another university, The editor thought that I erred in a serious
error by not having written a text that could be used by cwsos already in operation. He had
many questions to be able to sell 2,000 copies, number needed to cover the costs. Only when I
said that it would seek another editor is that if decided to risk it. I Don't know which of us was
more surprised with the iúmero sales: seventy thousand copies until today, and the thing still.

The recent years
I believe that from this point, and until now, my professional life - five years in Ohio, 12
years at the University of Chicago and four at the University of Wisconsin - is sufficiently well
documented in what I wrote. I will limit myself to pointing out two or three things that I feel are
more significant.
I have learned to live in a therapeutic relationship increasingly deep with an ever-growing
number of customers. This can be and has been extremely encouraging. It can also be
extremely alarming and, sometimes, was, when someone very upset seems to require of me
more than I am to be able to respond to their needs. It is true that the practice of therapy is
something that requires a development permanent staff on the part of the therapist , which
sometimes is painful, even if, in the long term, causes a great satisfaction. I want to emphasize
the growing importance that the research began to have for me * . The research is the
experience in which I can distance myself and try to see this rich subjective experience with
objectivity, applying all elegant scientific methods to determine if I am not deluding myself. I am
increasingly convinced that we will discover laws of personality and behavior that will be as
important for human progress or to the understanding of man as the law of gravity or
thermodynamics.
In the course of the last two decades, I got used to a certain extent to be attacked, but the
reactions to my ideas continue to amaze me. From my point of view, I believe that when I
proposed my ideas as working hypotheses, to be accepted or rejected by the player or by a
scholar. However, several times and in different places, psychologists, therapists and teachers
attacked my views with criticism full of violence and contempt. His wrath has softened a little
during the last few years, but renovouse between psychiatrists, because some of them had
seen on my way to work a great threat to their principles more dear and more unquestionable.
AND perhaps the criticisms stormy find a parallel in the damage caused by some "disciples",
without critical sense and without inquisitive spirit, people who have acquired for themselves
something dc a new point of view and that they went to war against everyone, using as a
weapon, correct or incorrect, my work and certain theories my. I had always difficulties in
knowing whom I had done a greater evil, if my "friends", if my opponents.
* The therapy is the experience in which I can deliver subjectively. It was perhaps in part
due to this unpleasant situation to see people compete for my sake that I spent to appreciate
the extraordinary privilege that is disappearing and being able to be alone. I think that
my periods of work more fruitful were the moments in which I could move me completely than
the other thought, professional obligations and the requirements of day-to-day, when I was
earning a perspective on what I was doing. My wife and I find places of refuge isolates in
Mexico and in the Caribbean islands, where no one knows that I am a psychologist; there, my
main activities are paint, swim, do underwater fishing and photo in color. It was however in
these places, where there were more than two to four hours of professional work, that more
advance confidently during the last years. I value the privilege of being alone.
Some key things that I learned
There are briefly outlined, some dashes outside of my professional life. I would like,
however, to make you penetrate a little more, to tell you a few things that I learned during the
thousands of hours I spent working closely with individuals who had personal disorders. I would
like to clarify that it is teaching that has meaning for me. I do not know if the find valid. I do not
present them as a recipe for anyone. However, whenever someone wanted to talk to me of their
personal choices, won something with this, even if it were found that mine are different. It is in
this spirit that I offer the lessons that follow. I believe that, in each case, they manifested
themselves in my activities and my personal convictions much before have become aware of
them. It is without doubt a learning scattered and incomplete. I can only say that it was very

important to me and that it continues to be. There constantly encounter new teachings. Often I
leave to apply them, but I always regret it. Happens to me too often, faced with a new situation,
not knowing how to apply what I have learned. These experiences are not crystallized. Change
permanently. Some seem to win a larger range, others are perhaps less important than they
were in another time, but they all have significant for me. I will introduce each of these teachings
of my experience with a sentence or proposition that indicates in part your personal meaning.
Then, develops him a little, THE below is not very well structured, except in the first aspects that
relate to relations with the other. Here are some things that fall under the categories of personal
my values and my beliefs.
I should preface these various propositions of teachings significant with a negative item.
In my relations with people I discovered that does not help, in the long term, act as if I
were something that I am not. There is no act calmly and with delicacy at a time when I am
angry and willing to criticize. There is no act as if he knew the answers of problems when I do
not know. There is no act as if feel affection for a person when in this given moment I feel
hostility toward it. There is no act as if they were full of security when I am anxious and hesitant.
Even a primary level, these observations remain valid. I do not simply act as if it were as well
when I feel sick.
What I am saying, in other words, is that I never felt that it would be useful or effective in
my relations with other people trying to maintain an attitude of facade, acting in a certain way at
the surface when I am passing through the experience of something completely different. I
believe that this attitude is not helpful in my efforts to establish constructive relations with other
people. I must, however, clarify that, although I know that this is true, not always properly
enjoyed this lesson. In fact, it seems to me that most of the errors that I have committed in
personal relationships, many of the moments in which failure in my efforts to be useful to others,
be explained by the fact that, by a reaction of defense, I behaved myself, in a way, on a
superficial level, while in reality the my feelings followed in a reverse direction.
A second learning can be formulated as follows: I have discovered that I am more
effective when I can hear myself accepting me, and I can be myself: I have the impression that,
with the years, I have learned to make me more able to listen to myself, so that I know better
than they have been in the past what I am feeling at a given moment that I am able to
understand that I am angry, or that, in fact, I feel rejection in relation to an individual, or, on the
contrary, love and affection, or, even, that I am bored and without interest in what is going on; or
that I am eager to understand an individual or that I am A feeling of anxiety or fear in my
relations with him. All these different attitudes are feelings that I think I can hear myself. It could
be said, in other words, I get the impression I have become more able to let me be what I am. It
has become easier for me to accept myself as an individual hopelessly flawed and that, with all
certainty, nor always acts as I would like to act.
All this may seem a very strange to follow. I think it is valid by curious paradox that
closes, because, when I accepted as I am, I'm modifying. I think that I learned this with my
clients, as well as through my personal experience - we cannot change, we cannot get away
from that we are not to accept what we are. Then the change seems to be almost unnoticed.
Another consequence of this acceptance of myself is that the relations that take real. The
elations real has the passionate character of being vital and significant. If I can accept the fact
that you are angry or upset with a client or with a student, then I am much more able to
accept the reactions that my attitude causes. I thus able to accept the amendment of the
experience and the feelings that can then occur both in him as in me. The actual relations tend
more to change than to remain static.
This is why I think it is effective allow me to be who I am in my attitudes; know when I
approach the limits of resistance or tolerance and accept this as a fact; know when desire shape
or manipulate people and recognize this as a fact in me. I would like to be able to accept these
feelings as I accept the feelings of enthusiasm, of interest, of tolerance, of goodness, dc
understanding, which are also a very real to me. It is only when accepted all these attitudes as a

fact, as a part of me, that my relations with other people if they take what they are and can grow
and become more easily.
I will now address a central aspect of what I have learned and that it was very important
to me. Can be expressed thus: I attach a great value to the fact of being able allow me
understand another person. The way I explained this statement can parecerlhes strange. You
must allow yourself understand another person? I think that yes. Our first reaction to most of the
statements that we have heard of other people is an immediate assessment, is more a
judgment than an attempt to understand. When someone expresses a feeling, an attitude or a
view, our tendency is almost immediately felt: "It is true", "rubbish", "it is not normal", "it does not
make sense", "it is not true", "is not well". Rarely allow ourselves understand exactly what it
means to that person what it is saying. I think that this situation is caused by the fact that the
understanding involves a risk. If I really understand another person, it is possible that this
understanding entails a change in me. AND we all have fear of change. For this reason, as I
said, it is not easy to provide himself understand another person, penetrate completely,
complete and empaticamente in your frame of reference. It is a very rare.
Understand is doubly rewarding. When working with customers disturbed, I understand
the strange world of a psychotic person, or understand and feel the attitudes of an individual
who has the impression that your life is too tragic to be supported, or understand a man who
feels unworthy and inferior - each of these insights enriches me in any way. These experiences I
modify, make me different and, I believe, more sensitive. But perhaps the most important thing
is that my understanding of these people allows them to change. It allows them to take their own
fears, the suspicions, the feelings tragic and disillusionment, as well as its moments of courage,
love and sensitivity. AND both their experience as mine is that, when someone fully understands
these feelings, it becomes possible to accept them in himself. Find out what it is, from that
moment, that changes occur both in feelings as in his own person. Whether it is a matter of
understanding a woman who literally believes that it has on the head with a grappling hook
which the other to drag, or of a man who believes that no one is so only as separate from
everyone as he, this understanding has value to me. However, what is particularly important is
that the fact to be understood takes a very positive value for these individuals.
Another learning has been to me extremely important: verflquei be enriching open
channels through which the other can I communicate their feelings, their worlds perceptive
individuals. Aware that the understanding compensates for, try to reduce the barriers between
the other and myself, so that they can, if they so wish, be more deeply.
There is the therapeutic relationship a number of processes to make it easier for the
customer to communicate. I can, with my own attitude, create a safety in the relationship, which
makes it possible to communicate. A sensitivity in understanding that sees him as he is for
himself, and that the accepted as having such perceptions and feelings also helps.
Also as a teacher i found the same enrichment where open channels through which the
other could reveal. It is for that reason that I try to, often in vain, to create in a classroom climate
in which they can express their feelings, where each one can have different views of the teacher
or of colleagues. I have asked many times to students "sheets of reaction", in which they can
express themselves individually and personally about the course. Can indicate if the classes will
or does not meet your needs, can say what they feel in relation to teacher or pointing the
personal difficulties they have with respect to the course. These sheets of reaction does not
have any effect for evaluation. Sometimes, the same lessons of a course raise experiences
diametrically opposite each other. A student says: "I feel a revulsion indefinable by the
classroom environment." another, stranger, speaking on the same week of the same course,
says: "The method employed in the classroom seems to me the best, the most fruitful and
scientific. But, for people like us that support for a long, long time, the masterly style, the
authoritarian method, this new process is incomprehensible.
People like us are conditioned to listen to the teacher and take notes passively and decorate the
bibliography indicated for the examination. It is not necessary to say that it takes so long for

getting rid of our habits, even if they are infertile and sterile." Open me the reactions so
diametrically opposed was for me an experience extremely enriching.
I have noticed that the same happened in groups where I was the coordinator or where I
stared as leader. Sought to reduce the reasons of fear or defense so that people could
communicate freely what they felt. It was a fascinating experience and that allowed me
completely revise my views about what could be the orientation of group. I cannot, however,
dwell here on this matter. I had yet another learning very important during my work in
counseling. I can mention it in a very, very brief: it is always highly enriching to accept another
person. I have noticed that accept truly a person and their feelings is not easy, not more than
understand it. I can really let another person feel hostility toward me? I can accept your anger
as a part real and legitimate itself? I can accept it when she sees the life and its problems in a
way that is completely different than mine? I can accept it when it is for me a positive attitude,
when I wonder and I take as a model? All of this is encompassed in the acceptance and does
not come easily. It seems to me that is a atifude increasingly frequent of all of us in our culture
believe that: "all other people should feel, think and believe the same things that I am." All of us
feel very difficult to allow our children, to our parents or families have a different attitude in
relation to certain issues and problems. We do not allow our customers or our students have a
different view of our or use their experience of personal way that them is specific. On a national
scale, we do not want to allow another nation think or react in a way different from ours. I have,
however, to recognize that these differences between individuals, the right that every person
has to use its experience in her own way and to discover their own meaning in it, all of this
represents the largest potential of precious life. Every person is an island, the precise meaning
of the term; the person can only build a bridge to communicate with the other islands in the first
place is willing to be herself and if it is allowed to be herself. I have discovered that it is when I
can accept another person, which means specifically accept the feelings, attitudes and beliefs
that it has as actual elements and vital that the are, that I can help it to become person: and I
think that this is a great value.
It may be difficult to communicate next discovery that I made. Consists of this: the more
open I am to the realities in me and in the other, less I am looking for, at all costs, to remedy
things. The more I try to listen to me and be attentive to that experiment in my heart, the more I
am trying to extend this same attitude of listening to the other, greater respect I feel by complex
processes of life. This is the reason why I am increasingly less inclined to remedy things at all
costs, to establish goals, shape people, manipulate them and impel them on the path that I
would like to follow. I am much more happy simply by being myself and let others be
themselves. I have the distinct feeling that this point of view must seem very strange, almost
oriental. What is life if not to seek act on the other? What is life if not trying to shape the other to
our goals? What is life if we do not teach those things that we think that the other should know?
What is life if we do not take them to act and feel as we act and feel? How can you develop a
point of view as well as inactive as what I'm proposing? I'm sure that attitudes such as these will
be, in part, the reaction of many of you. However, the paradoxical aspect of my experience is
that, the more I have to simply be myself in all the complexity of life and the more I understand
and accept the reality in myself and in others, the more befall the transformations. It is indeed
paradoxical that, in so far as each of us accept be he same, discovers not only that changes,
but that the people with whom he has relations change also. It was at least the most intensely
lived in my experience, and one of the conclusions more profound that I learned so much in my
personal life as well as professional.
Allow me now to expose other learning that relate less to relations, and more to my own
actions and values. The first is expressed in a very brief: can I rely on my experience.
One of the fundamental principles that took a long time to recognize that I am still to
deepen is the discovery that, when I feel that an activity is good and that it is worth pursue it, I
must pursue it. In other words, I learned that my appreciation "organísmica"4 total of a situation
is more worthy of trust than my intellect. Throughout my professional life I have been called to

follow directions that seemed ridiculous to others and about which I had many doubts. But never
regretted following the directions that i "felt good", even if often try out for some time a feeling of
isolation or ridiculous.
I discovered that whenever a trusted internal feeling and not just intellectual to find the
correctness of my action. But, even more, I discovered that when follow one of these paths notconventional because the felt good or true, then after five or ten years, many of my colleagues
gathered me, so that disappeared the sense of isolation.
I was as well, little by little, trusting ever more deeply in my total reactions and have
discovered that I can use to guide my thoughts. I began to have a greater respect for these
vague thought that I occur from time to time and I feel as important. I am inclined to think that
these ideas a little obscured or these intuitions lead me to penetrate in important fields. I trust
that in all of my experience, which I assign more wisdom than my intellect. It will certainly
fallible, but I believe that is less than my conscious mind alone. My attitude is very well
expressed by Max Weber, the artist, when he says: "to continue my humble efforts of creation,
depending on a large measure of what I still do not know and what they have not done."
Closely connected to this learning is the corollary: the evaluation of the other I am not
serving as a guide. The judgments of others, although they must be heard and taken into
account by that are, I never could guide. It was a thing that I had difficulty in learning. I
remember the shock that I have suffered, when young, to hear a man very thoughtful and
erudite, I seemed to be a psychologist very competent and knowledgeable than I, tell me that I
was committing an error to interest me by psychotherapy. So I never could lead nowhere and,
as a psychologist, nor would have opportunity to exercela. Some years later I was disturbed to
realize that in the eyes of some i was an impostor, a bit like someone who practiced medicine
without this being qualified, the author of a kind of therapy very superficial and dangerous,
motivated by a desire for power, a mystic, etc. I felt equally concerned with the compliments that
were also exaggerated. However, I did not feel too affected with this because I think that only
one person (at least while I am alive and maybe always) may know that I do with honesty, with
application, with honesty and with rigor, or if what I do is false, defensive and futile. AND this
person myself. I am pleased to welcome all kinds of testimony about what I do, are critical
(friendly or hostile) or praise ( sincere or with the intention to flatter). However, I cannot
delegate to anyone care to assess these witnesses or determine its meaning or its usefulness.
After what I have just said, do not be surprised with another discovery my that I write:
the experience is, for me, the supreme authority. My own experience is the cornerstone of the
whole validity. Any idea of any other person, nor any of my own ideas, have the authority of my
experience. It is always the experience that I return, for I am bringing more and more of the
truth, in the process of discovering it in me. Neither the Bible, nor the prophets - neither Freud
nor the research, not the revelations of God or of men - may take precedence in relation to my
own direct experience. My experience is of greater authority to the extent that it takes more
"primary", to use a term of semantics, because it is at its lowest level that the hierarchy of
experience presents the greatest character of the authority. If I read a theoretical study of
psychotherapy, if I offer a theory of psychotherapy based on my work with clients, I have direct
experience of psychotherapy with a customer, then the degree of authority grows mesixia in
order in which they were related to the aforementioned experiences. Let's look at another
personal learning: taste to discover order in experience.
It seems to me inevitable search for a meaning, an order and a law in all accumulation of
experience. It was this kind of curiosity, that I entrust with great satisfaction, that led me to each
one of the statements that I have tabled. It was this curiosity that led me to search for a specific
order from a huge pile of clinical data on the child, encouraging me to publish my book
The Clinical Treatment of the Problem C'hild. Led me to formulate general principles which I
think are operating in psychotherapy, thing that bear witness numerous books and articles. Led
me to research to test the different types of laws that I have found throughout my experience.
He took me to the elaboration of theories to meet the order of what had already been lived and

for designing this order in new fields to explore where could once again be put to the test. It was
thus that I consider both scientific research and the process of theoretical construction as
directed to the internal order of significant experiences. The investigição is the persistent effort
and disciplined to understand and sort the phenomena of subjective experience. His
background is in fact to be satisfactory perceiving the world as something orderly and that the
understanding of relations ordered that manifest themselves in nature leads to results very
enriching.
I have, therefore, to recognize that the reason why I dedicate to research and
development of theories is the satisfaction of a need to capture order and meaning, need
subjective that there is in me. At certain moments, I devoted- me to research for other reasons:
to meet the other, to convince opponents and people skeptical, to move forward in my
profession, to gain prestige, and for other reasons less noble. These errors in my ability to judge
and in my activity only served me to be convinced that there is only one reason to continue the
scientific activity: the satisfaction of need that in me there is to find a meaning.
Another learning that I was difficult recognize can be summarised in four words: the facts
are friends. I have always aroused interest that the majority of psychotherapists, especially
psychoanalysts, refuse to make a scientific study of their therapy or to allow others to do so. I
can understand this reaction because I myself have experienced. Especially in our first
investigations, I remember the anxiety i felt while waiting for that arose the first results. Suppose
that our chances were refuted! Suppose that we were mistaken in our points of view! Suppose
that our opinions do not justify! In those moments, looking back, it was as if I consider the facts
enemies potential, possible messengers of doom. It took me much time to convince me that the
facts are always friends. The smallest piece of information that we get, is in that area, it brings
us much more than it is the truth. Now, approach the truth is never harmful, or dangerous, or
discomfort. This is the reason why, although still detest having to revise my opinions, abandon
my way to understand or to conceptualize, just however by recognize, to a large extent and at a
deeper level, that this painful reorganization is what is called learn and that, by most unpleasant
that is, always leads to a seizure more satisfactory, because much better life. Thus, currently,
one of the objects of reflection and speculation that is me trying to increasingly is a field in which
my favorite ideas do not seem to me proven by facts. I feel that, if you are able to open a way
through the problem, me aproximarei much more fully the truth. I am sure that the facts will be
neus friends.
We now quote from one of my discoveries more enriching, and this because it makes me
feel closer to the other. It could be expressed thus: what is most personal is the most general. It
happened to me several times that, when talking with colleagues or students, or to write, I
expressed so staff that had the impression of being expressing an attitude that, probably,
nobody can understand, because it was only my. Two written my may serve as an example of
this fact: the preface of ClientCentered Therapy ( considered inconvenient by publishers) and an
article entitled "Persons or Science". In similar cases, i discovered almost always that the
feeling that I seemed to be the more intimate, more personal and, therefore, the less
understandable to the other, just for show be an expression that was echoed by many other
people. I have come to the conclusion that what is unique and more staff in each one of us is
the same feeling that, if it were shared or expressed, talk more deeply to the other. This has
enabled me to understand the artists and poets as people who dare express what is unique in
them.
I can only indicate a lesson that I learned and that is, perhaps, on the basis of everything
that I am saying. She set herself to me over these twenty-five years in which I have tried to be of
some usefulness for individuals with personal disturbances. The lesson is simply this:
the experience has shown me that people basically have a positive orientation. In my contacts
deeper with individuals in psychotherapy, even with those whose disturbances were more
disruptive, whose feelings seemed too abnormal, the statement remains true. When you
affectively understand the feelings that express, when I am able to accept them as people

separated throughout their right, then I see that tend to focus on certain directions. AND what
are these directions that their movements imply? The words that I think describe with greater
truthfulness this direction are: positive, constructive self-realization, progressing to the maturity
and socialization. I finally convince me that the more an individual is understood and accepted,
the greater its tendency to abandon the false defenses that employed to cope with life, the
greater its tendency to move forward.
I would not be misunderstood. I am not a vision naively optimistic of human nature. I am
well aware of the fact that, by the need to defend itself against its terrors intimate, the individual
may behave and behaves in a way incredibly fierce, hideously destructive, immature,
regressive, anti-social, harmful!
But one of the most encouraging and invigorating my experience is the work that I have
been out with individuals of this kind, and the discovery of trends oriented very positively
existing in them all, and in all of us, at deeper levels. Let me conclude this long list with a last
discovery, which can be expressed briefly as follows: the life, in which there is melhoi is a
process that flows, which changes and where nothing is fixed. It is in my customers and myself I
discover that life is richer and more fruitful when it appears as flow and as a process. This
discovery leads to a fascination and, at the same time, a certain fear. When I take the flow of my
experience that I am going to the front, for a purpose that I am vaguely aware, it is then that I
feel better. In this float to the flavor of the current complex of my experiences, trying to
understand its complexity in permanent change, it is clear that there are no fixed points. When
you leave me completely to this process, it is clear that there can be no for me no closed system
of beliefs, no field of immutable principles that I grab. Life is guided by an understanding and
interpretation variables of my experience. Life is always a process of becoming.
I think it is possible now clearly see why there is no philosophy, belief or principles that I
can encourage or persuade others to have or achieve. I can do no more than try to live
according to my own interpretation of the meaning of my experience, and try to give others the
permission and the freedom to develop their own inner freedom to reach a significant
interpretation of their own experience.
If there is a truth, this free individual process should, I believe, converge to it. AND, within
certain limits, it seems to me that what I experienced.

Second Part
How can I help others?
I discovered a way of working with people who seem fruitful in potential constitutive.
Chapter 2
Some hypotheses regarding the facilitation of personal growth
The three chapters that constitute the Second Part covering a period of six years, from
1954 to 1960. Curiously, they transpose a large segment of the country given the location where
they were presented - Oberlin, Ohio; St. Louis, Missouri; and Pasadena, Cali/árnia. Also covers
a period in which a lot of research had been accumulating, so that the statements of Emitted
experimental rma in the first work are firmnemente confirmed the time of the third job. In the
following lecture presented at Oberlin C'ollege H ires'/ aka in 1954, tried to condense at earliest
possible time essential principles of psychotherapy that have been exposed to more delayedâetn my books Counseling and Psycotherapy (1942) and Client Centered Therapy (1951) . I am
presenting the relationship of facilitation, and the results, without rejerir me the description of the
process by means of quQi change occurs, or tnesmno the comments on the same.

Come face to face with a person troubled and in conflict, that is looking for and waiting for
help, has always been for me a great challenge. Do I have the knowledge, the resources, the
psychological strength, the ability - or whatever it may be necessary to help this individual? For
more than twenty-five years I have been trying to respond to this type of challenge. This meant
that appealed to all the elements of my professional training: the rigorous methods of
measurement of personality that I learned for the first time in Teacher's Coliege, Columbia;
the insights and methods psicanalíticos freudian of Institute for Guidance of the Child, where I
worked as internal; the continuous developments in the area of clinical psychology, with which I
am closely associated; the exposure as soon the work of Otto Rank, methods of social work
psychiatric and other resources too numerous to be mentioned. But, more than anything, this
meant a continuous learning from my own experiences and that of my colleagues in the Center
for Counseling, to the extent that we try to discover for ourselves effective means of working
with people who are disturbed. Gradualmerrte, I developed a way of working that originates
from this experience, and that can be tested, refined and reshaped by experiences and
additional research.
A general hypothesis
A briefly describe the changes you made in me would say that in the first years of my
career I was the question: How can I treat or cure, or change this person? Now I also outline the
question this way: How can I provide a relationship that this person can use for your own
personal growth? was when I got to the question of the second way that I realized that what you
have learned is applicable to all my human relations, not only to work with customers with
problems. It is for this reason that I feel that the learnings that had meaning for me in my
experience may have some meaning for you in your experience, since we are all involved in
human relations.
Perhaps I should start with a negative learning. I was giving me account so gradual that I
cannot offer to help this person disturbed by any procedure or intellectual training. Any approach
that is based on knowledge, training, acceptance of something that is taught, if shows useful.
These approaches seem so tempting and direct that, in the past, I have made use of many of
them. It is possible to explain a person itself, prescribe steps that should bring it forward, train
them in knowledge about a way of life more satisfactory. But such methods are, in my
experience, futile and inconclusive. The maximum that can be achieved is some temporary
change, which soon disappears, leaving the individual more than ever convinced of their
inadequacy. The failure of any of these approaches through the intellect forced me to recognize
that change seems to emerge through experience in a relationship. In this way, I am trying to
say in a very brief and informal, some of the hypotheses concerning essential to a relationship
to help that seemed to raise growing confirmation from both experience and research. I can
outline the general hypothesis in a sentence, as follows. If I can provide a certain type of
relationship, the other person will discover within himself the ability to use this relationship to
grow and change and personal development will occur.
The relationship
But what these terms mean? Let me take separately the three key phrases in this
sentence and indicate something of significance that they embody for me. What is this kind of
relationship that I would like to provide? I found that the more able to be genuine in the
relationship, the more useful it will be. This means that I need to be aware of my own feelings,
the more you can, instead of presenting an external facade of an attitude, while at the same
time that I have a different attitude on a deeper level or unconscious. Be genuine also involves
the provision to be and express, in my words and in my behavior, the various feelings and
attitudes that exist in me. It is only in this way that the relationship can be reality, and reality
seems to be very important as a first condition. It is only by presenting a genuine reality that is in

me, that the other person can browse by reality itself successfully. I discovered that this is true
even when the attitudes that I feel are not attitudes with which I am satisfied, or attitudes that
seem conducive to a good relationship. It seems extremely important to be real. As a second
condition, I think that the more acceptance and appreciation I feel with respect to this individual,
I will be creating a relationship that he can use. By acceptance, I would say an affectionate
consideration by him as a person of autovalia unconditional - of value, regardless of their
condition, their behavior or their feelings. Means a respect and appreciation for him as a
separate person, a desire that he has his own feelings in their own way. Means an acceptance
of their attitudes on time or consideration by the same, regardless of how positive or negative
they are, or how much they may contradict other attitudes that he grasped in the past. This
acceptance of each floating point this other person is for it a relationship of affection and
security, and the safety of being loved and valued as a person seems to be an element is
extremely important in a relationship to help.
Also I think that the relationship is significant in so far as I am a continuing desire to
understand - a sensitive empathy with each one of the sentiments and client communications as
they seem at the time. Acceptance does not mean much until this involves the understanding. It
is only to the extent that I understand the feelings and thoughts that seem so terrible for you, or
so weak or so sentimental, or so bizarre - it is only when I see them as you see them, and
accepted as the you, that you feel really free to explore all the hidden corners and
cracks frightening of his inner experience and often buried. This freedom is an important
precondition for the relationship. Here is implicated a freedom to explore itself both cm levels
aware unconscious, the faster you can embark on this dangerous quest. There is also a
complete freedom from any kind of moral evaluation or diagnostic, since all these assessments
are, in my view, always threatening. In this way, the relationship that I thought was useful is
characterized by a kind of transparency on my part, where my real feelings are evident; an
acceptance of another person as a separate person with value by its own merit; and by an
empathetic understanding deep that I provides the ability to see your world through your eyes.
When these conditions are met, around me a company for my client, accompanying him in this
search frightening to himself, where he now feels free to join. Not always I am able to achieve
this type of relationship with the other, and sometimes, even when I am telo reached in myself,
the other person may be too scared to realize what it is that is being offered. But I would say
that when taints in me the kind of attitude that I have described, and when the other person may
to some degree experience these attitudes, then I believe that the change and the personal
development constructive invariably occur and I count myself among the word "invariably" only
after long and careful consideration.
The motivation to change
Thechi concludes the part regarding the relationship. The second sentence in my general
hypothesis was that the individual will discover within himself the ability to use this relationship
to grow. I will try to point out something of significance that this sentence ends for me.
Gradually, my experience has made me conclude that the individual bears within himself the
capacity and tendency, latent if not evident, toward maturity. In a climate appropriate
psychological, this trend is released, making it real rather than potential. This is evident in the
individual's capacity to understand those aspects of life and of yourself that you are causing
pain and dissatisfaction, an understanding that investigates, behind the conscious knowledge of
himself, those experiences that hid themselves due to their nature threatening. This can be
seen in the tendency to rearrange their personality and their relationship with life in ways that
are taken as more mature. Is calling this a tendency to growth, a propensity toward selfrealization or a tendency toward front, this is the main spring of life, and, in the last analysis, is a
trend that takings psychotherapy depends on. AND the need is evident throughout the organic
life and human - to expand, extend, become autonomous, develop, mature - the tendency to

express and activate all of the capabilities of organisno, to the point where such activation
enhance the body or person. This trend may become deeply hidden under layers of
psychological defenses incrusted that overlap; may be hidden behind facades elaborated that
deny its existence; but taints that she exists in each individual, and awaits only by appropriate
conditions to be released and expressed.
The results
I have tried to describe the relationship that is basic to the constructive change of
personality. Have endeavored to translate into words the kind of capability that the individual
brings to this relationship. The third sentence of my statement was that the change and
the personal development would occur. My hypothesis is that in this respect the individual
develops both in conscious level as well as in those deepest of their personality to face his life
of a more constructive way, more intelligent, as well as more socialized and satisfactory. Here I
leave the speculation and include the growing body of consistent data of research that has been
accumulating. We now know that the individuals who experienced this relationship even by a
relatively limited number of hours have profound and significant changes in personality, attitudes
and behavior, changes that did not occur in control groups combined. In this relationship, the
individual becomes more integrated, more effective. Displays less of those characteristics that
are normally labeled neurotic or psychotic disorders, and most of those characteristics of
healthy and in good working order. It changes the perception he has of himself, becoming more
realistic in their visions of i. It is more similar to the person you want to be. He values more. It is
more self-reliant and self-directed. Presents a better understanding of himself, making it more
open to their experience, denying or suppressing less the same. Becomes more electron
transfer in their attitudes toward others, seeing them as more like himself. In their behavior
displays similar changes. Shows less frustrated by stress, recovering from even more quickly. It
becomes more mature in their daily behavior, this being observed by friends. IS less defensive,
more adaptive, more able to deal with situations in a creative way.
These are some of the changes which, as we know now, emerge in individuals who
completed a series of interviews of counseling in which the psychological atmosphere
approximates the relationship that I have described. Each one of the statements made is based
on objective evidence. It takes a lot more research, but there is no longer any doubt as to the
effectiveness of this relationship in the production of the personality changes.
A chance wide of human relations
For me, the interesting thing about these research findings is not simply the fact that give
evidence as to the effectiveness of a form of psychotherapy, although this does not leave dc any
way to be relevant. The interest comes from the fact that these findings justify a hypothesis until
more comprehensive with respect to all human relations. There is every reason to suppose that
the therapeutic relationship is just one example of human relations, and that the same
legitimacy governs all these relations. Thus, it seems reasonable raise the hypothesis that if
parents create with your son a psychological climate of the type we have described, then the
child will become more autodirigida, socialized and mature. TO THE extent that the teacher
create this duration with the class, the student will become a student with more self-initiative,
more original, more self-disciplined, less anxious and directed by others. If the administrator, or
military leader or industrial, create this climate within your organization, then your team will
become more self-responsible, more creative, more able to adapt to new problems, and
basically more collaborator. It seems possible that we are witnessing the emergence of a new
area of human relations, in which we can specify that given the existence of certain conditions
of attitude, then the occurrence of certain changes definable if will.
Conclusion

Let me finish returning to a personal affirmation. I have been sharing with the reader
something of what I learned while trying to help individuals troubled, unhappy and ill-adjusted. I
have a hypothesis that gradually began to gain direction for me - not only in my relations with
customers disturbed, but in all my relationships. I have pointed to the fact that the survey data
that we have support my hypothesis, but still a lot of research is needed. I would now like to
condense in a statement the conditions of this general hypothesis, and the purposes specified.
If I can create a relationship characterized on my part: by a authenticity and transparency, in
that I am my real feeling; a loving acceptance and appreciation of the other person as a
separate individual; by a capacity sensitive to see their world and to him as he sees them; then
the other person in the relationship: experienciará and understand aspects of himself that had
previously repressed; he shall give account that is taking more integrated, more able to operate
effectively; it will be taken more similar to the person that you would like to be; will be more
autodiretivo and self-confident; there will be more as a person, being more single and selfexpressive; will be more comprehensive, more electron transfer with respect to the other; it will
be more able to cope with The problems of life properly and more quiet. I believe that this
statement is valid, either when it comes to my relationship with a client, with a group of students
or businessmen, with my family or children. It seems to me that we have here a general
hypothesis that offers exciting possibilities for the development of creative people, adaptive and
autonomous.
Chapter 3
The characteristics of a relationship to help
I have for a long time the deep conviction - that some would be obsession to me - that the
therapeutic relationship is only a form of interpersonal relationship in general, and that the same
laws govern all relations of this type. This was the theme I have chosen deal when invited me
did not access a communication at the congress of the American Personnel and Guidance
Association, St. Louis, in 1958. This article makes it clear that there was a dichotomy between
the objective and the subjective, concept that had an extremely important role in the course of
my recent years of experience. I met many dflculdades to prepare an explanatory completely
objective or completely subjective. I am juxtaposing these two universes, even if it is not able to
fully reconciliálos.
My interest in psychotherapy generated my interest in every kind of relationship to help. I
think by this expression a relationship in which at least one of the parties seeks to promote in
other growth, development, maturity, a better functioning and a greater ability to cope with life,
The other, in this sense, it can be either an individual or a group. In other words, the ratio of aid
can be defined as a situation in which a participant seeks to promote one or another party, or
both, a greater appreciation, greater expression and a use more functional internal resources of
latent individual. It is, however, clear that a definition of this kind covers a wide range of relations
whose overall objective is to facilitate the growth. It includes, without a shadow of doubt, the
relationship of the mother or the father with his son, or the relationship of the physician with the
patient. The relationship between the teacher and the students falls many times in the context of
this definition, although some teachers have not aimed to facilitate the growth. The definition
applies to almost all relations therapist-client, whether the educational orientation, vocational
guidance or personal counseling. This latest extension of the term, a relationship to help
compreendena throughout the range of relations between the psychotherapist and psychotic
patients hospitalized, the therapist and the individual disturbed or neurotic, and the ?elations
between the therapist and the growing number of individuals called "normal" who submit to
therapeutic treatment with the objective of improving their own operation or to accelerate their
personal development.

All of these are especially relations between two people. We must not, however,
and'squecer the high number of interactions individual-group who try to be help relationships.
There are administrators who are looking to establish with your personal relations that promote
growth, while others are not interested in this goal. AND here is the interaction between the
coordinator of group therapy and your group. The same happens in relationship between the
one who advises a community and that community. The interaction between the industrial
consultant and a group of directors assumes progressively form of relationship to help. Perhaps
this list will serve to prove that a large part of the relations in which we and the other we are
involved entering that category of interactions in which there is the intention to promote the
development and a more mature and more appropriate.
The question
But what are the characteristics of these relations which in fact help, which in fact
facilitate growth? At the other end of the scale, it will be possible to define the characteristics
that make certain links do not help, even if it is a sincere desire to promote the growth and
development? It is to answer these questions, especially the first, which I would like to follow up
in ways that I explored and show them the point that I am in my reflections on these issues.
The answers given by research
It is natural to start by asking if there is a experimental research that can offer us an
objective response to these issues. Few studies have been conducted in this area, up to the
present, but those who did are encouraging and suggestive. I cannot deal with all, but I would
like to enumerate a sample large enough for work performed and explain, in a way very soon,
some of the results obtained. In doing so, there is a need to simplify, and I am perfectly aware of
not doing the due justice to investigations which I will mention, but perhaps this is enough for
you to understand the real progress and to excite their curiosity enough to induce them to
examine these same studies, if by chance they have not already done so.
Studies of attitudes
The majority of studies are revealing the attitudes of the person that helps, attitudes that
this ratio favoring or, on the contrary, they inhibit the growth. Let's look at some of them.
A careful study of relations parents children was a few years ago held in Fels Institute by
Baldwin and others (1), study that contains interesting information. Between the different
groupings of attitudes of parents toward their children, are the attitudes of acceptance
"democratic" the ones that seem to best promote the growth. The children, when they are
treated by their parents with affection and of equal to equal, reveal a development accelerated
intellectual (IQ higher), greater originality, greater security and emotional control, excitability, the
children who come from other types of family. Although its social development was slower
onset, became frequently when they reached school age, leaders popular, friendly and nonaggressive.
When the attitudes of the parents are classified as being of "rejection active", the children
manifest a slight delay in their intellectual development, relatively poor dss their capacities and
lack of originality. These children are ernocionalmente unstable, rebels, aggressive and
agitated. The children of parents who have other syndromes of attitude tend to lie between
these two extremes. I am sure that these findings do not surprise in relation to child
development. However, I would like to suggest to them that they probably also apply to other
relations, and that the psychotherapist, the doctor or the administrator who is warm and
expressive, respectful of their own individuality and the other, who is interested without being

possessive, probably facilitates the self-realization through these attitudes, as parents. Now we
turn our attention to another profound study carried out in a field very different.
Whitehom and Betz (2, 1t) studied the success achieved by young junior doctors in their
work with patients with schizophrenia in a psychiatric ward. They have chosen for this research
the seven internal that had been clearly of greater aid and the seven whose patients had less
progress. Each of the two groups had been treated about 50 patients. The researchers
examined all the causes susceptible to explain why it is that the group (the group successful)
was different from group B. AND found many significant differences. The doctors in the group
tended to see the schizophrenic in terms of personal meaning that certain behavior had to the
patient, preferably the sees it as a clinical case or a descriptive diagnosis. In addition, his work
was directed to the personality of the patient, more than for the attenuation of symptoms or to
cure the disease. It was thus established that, in their everyday interaction, the doctors in group
A had used mainly to a personal participation active - a relation of person to person. They had
made less use of processes that could be classified as "liabilities and permissive". They have
even less use of processes such as the interpretation, the instruction or advice or even other,
oriented to the material care to the sick. Finally, they would have shown much more suitable
than the doctors in the group B in able to establish with the patient a relationship that would
allow this trust in your doctor.
The authors, however, underline prudently that these conclusions apply only to the
treatment of individuals with schizophrenia, statement of which I am inclined to disagree. I
suspect that similar observations can be made in a research study on the majority of the types
of help relationships.
Another interesting study focuses on the way the person who receives the aid learns the
relationship. Heine (11) studied individuals who had received aid psychotherapeutic treatment of
psychoanalysts, therapists customer-focused and adlerianos. Whatever the form of therapy,
these customers were in themselves similar transformations. But here we are interested in a
particular way is the abstraction of the relationship with the therapist. When I asked them that
were due these transformations, gave different explanations that depended on the orientation of
the therapist, but the most significant was that everyone was in agreement on the main factors
that had found beneficial. Indicated that the following attitudinal in relation with the therapist
were responsible for changes in them verified: the confidence that they had felt in your therapist;
the fact that they have been understood by it; the feeling of independence that had to make
choices and take decisions. The procedure of the therapist who felt most help was this clarify
and express openly what the patient inhand vaguely and with hesitation.
On the other hand, these patients were broadly in agreement, whatever the orientation of
your therapist, on the unfavourable aspects in the relationship. The lack of interest, a distant
attitude and that depart from, or even a sympathy excessive, were factors .tidZcomo
unfavourable. As regards the procedures, considered unfavourable those in which the therapist
gave direct advice and precise or in granting a great importance to the past instead of dealing
with the current problems. The advice given as simple suggestions were captured as belonging
to a zone inteimediária: were neither completely help, nor were all useless.
Fiedler, a study frequently cited (7), notes that the therapists experienced in different
orientations, alleged similar relations with their customers. Are less well known factors
that characterize these relationships and that distinguish them from establishing therapists less
experienced. These factors are: the ability to understand what the customer wants to mean and
their feelings; a sensitive receptiveness of the customer; a warm interest, without an excessive
emotional involvement.
A study of Quinn (14) focuses on clearly what is meant by understanding the meanings
and feelings of the patient. What is surprising in his work is that it shows us that
the "understanding" of intentions significantly va the customer is essentially an attitude
of willingness to understand . Quinn offered its experts only recordings of phrases spoken by
therapists during interviews. The evaluators did not have any knowledge of what the therapist

responded, nor the customer's reaction to your answers. Even so, he saw that it was possible to
try the degree of understanding through these recordings with as much security as if they were
listening to the response in its context. This fact shows conclusively that it is the attitude of
wanting to understand what is communicated.
Regarding the affective quality of the relationship, Seeman told Fides about (16)
concludes that the good result in psychotherapy is closely connected with the sympathy and the
growing respect between client and therapist.
An interesting study of Dittes (4) indicates how delicate this relationship. Using a
physiological method, the reflection psicogalvânico, to measure the reactions of anxiety, fear or
alert on your client, Dittes established correlations between deviations according to these
measures and the assessments of the evaluators on the degree of acceptance warm and
permissiveness on the part of the therapist. It was found that where the attitude of the therapist
tends, even slightly, to a lesser degree acceptance, the number of deviations abrupt response
psicogalvânica suffers a significant increase. And that, of course, when the acceptance is
perceived as weak, the body organizes its defense against the threat, even at physiological
level. Without wishing to fully integrate the findings of these various studies, at least it is
possible to notice that some points stand out. One of them is the fact that the attitudes and
feelings of the therapist are more important than their theoretical orientation. Their procedures
and their techniques are less important than their attitudes. It should also be noted that it is the
way in which their attitudes and their procedure are perceived that it is important for the
customer, and that the key to this is the perception.
Relations 'manufactured'
Now Let's look at some investigations of a very different kind, some of which may seem
to them detestable, but which nevertheless have some involvement in the nature of a facilitator.
These studies relate to what we might call relations "manufactured".
Verplanck (17), Greenspoon (8) and others have shown that it is possible for the operant
conditioning of verbal behavior in a relationship. Very briefly, if the experimenter says "Hmmm"
or "Good", or even if it is a signal approver with his head to hear words or phrases, they tend to
be employed with greater frequency because they were reinforced. It has been demonstrated
that, through this process, it was possible to cause an increase of certain categories verbal,
such as plural, hostile words, expressions of views. The person does not have the slightest
awareness of estai: endo influenced in some way by this reinforcement. This implies that, by
means of selective reinforcements, if could lead any person in relation to employ all kinds of
words and do all kinds of declaration that we had decided to step up. Lindsley (12), taking
further the principles of operant conditioning developed by Skinner and his group, demonstrated
that a chronic schizophrenic can be placed in a "help" with a machine. This machine, a little like
the machine to sell certain objects, can adjust to reward different types of behavior. In principle,
it simply reward with a chocolate, a cigarette or the presentation of a picture the behavior of
pushing a button. But it was possible ajustála in such a way that pressing the button several
times gave to a kitten starving - visible in a separate compartment - a little bit of milk. In the
latter case, the satisfaction felt by the patient is selfless nature. Studying plans to reward a
social behavior or similar altruistic directed to another patient, placed in a room nearby. The only
limit to the types of behavior that could be rewarded lies in the degree of mechanical ingenuity
of the experimenter.
Lindsley tells us that some patients had a clinical progress important. Personally, I could
not help but feel impressed by the description of a patient that was sufficiently healed from a
state of chronic deterioration to the point of getting the privilege to move freely in the gardens of
the hospital and whose progress is clearly tied to their interaction with the machine in question.
At this moment, the expenmentador decided to study the experimental extinction, which, in
accordance with more personal, meant that the patient could press the button thousands of

times without any reward. The patient declined gradually, passed the neglect of hygiene, it was
non-communicative, and the freedom of movement that he had granted had to be repealed.
This incident, which seems to me to be particularly dramatic, seems to indicate that, even when
it comes to a relationship with a machine, can only help a relationship in which the trust has an
important place.
Another interesting research about the relationship manufactured was performed by
Harlow and his collaborators (10), this time with monkeys. At one stage in the experience, were
presented the monkeys new, separated from the mother immediately after birth, two objects.
The first could be classified as the "mother lasts": it was kind of a cylinder of wire, fitted with a
theta where the baby jack could feed. The second is a "mother mole", a cylinder similar, but
made of rubber and a spongy tissue. Even in the case in which the jack gets all its nourishment
from "mother lasts", shows a growing preference for "mother mole". The camera shows clearly
that establishes a "relationship" with this last object, the little monkey jokes with him, like
him, feeling safe when he is clinging on to approaching foreign objects and finding this security
a point of support where from to face a world full of dangers. Among the most interesting and
varied implications of this research, there is one that seems to impose itself with evidence: there
is no substitute for any reward in the form of food certain perceptual qualities that jack seems to
need and want.
Two recent studies
To complete this comprehensive presentation of investigations, which might cause some
confusion, let us mention two studies very recent. The first is an experience directed by Ends
and by Page (5). Working with cases of chronic alcoholics hospitalized, sent by a court for the
hospital for 60 days, tried three different methods of group psychotherapy. The method that they
considered more effective therapy based on a theory of learning with two factors; the therapy
focused on the customer would then; and the psychoanalytic orientation seemed to them that
should be the least effective. The results showed that the therapy based on the theory of
learning not only helped as it was even harmful. The consequences were worse than if they
were in the control group that was not subjected to any treatment. The therapy psychoanalytic
orientation has had some positive results, but it was the therapy focused on the customer that
caused a significant positive change. Complementary tests performed over a year and a half
have confirmed the results obtained during hospitalization: a customer-centric approach has
produced the most stable, followed by psychoanalytic therapy and the control group, while the
status of patients treated by the method based on the theory of learning was the accusing less
progress.
To reflect on this unusual study, since the treatment recommended by their authors was
that proved to be less effective , I discovered the key to the mystery, I believe, in the description
of therapy based on the theory of learning (13). This therapy consists essentially: (a) to record
and classify the behaviors that show as not satisfactory, (b) to explore objectively with the client
the reasons for these behaviors, and (c) to establish, through the reeducation, habits more
appropriate to resolve the problems. But, throughout this interaction, the goal of the therapist as
the formulated the authors cited should be to remain impersonal. The therapist "seeks to make
his personality is manifested the least that is humanly possible". The therapist "in its activities,
accentuates the anonymity of his personality; i.e. should carefully avoid influencing the patient
with the individual qualities of its own personality". In my opinion, this is the most likely
explanation for the failure of this method, when I try to interpret the facts in the light of other
investigations. The attitudes that consist of refuse as a person and to treat the other as an
object does not have great chances to serve for something.
The last study that I would like to mention is the one that has just publish Halkides (9) . It
is part of my theoretical formulation of the conditions necessary and sufficient for a change
therapy (15). Formulates the hypothesis that there should be a significant relationship between

the amount of constructive change of personality in client and four vanáveis in therapist: (a) the
degree of empathic understanding of the client expressed by the therapist; (b) the degree of
affectivity positive attitude (positive consideration unconditional) expressed by the therapist in
relation to your customer; e) the degree of authenticity of the therapist, the agreement between
their words and their internal feelings; (d) the extent to which the response of the therapist
agrees with the words of the customer in the intensity of affective expression.
To search for these hypotheses, Halkides selected in the first place, by means of multiple
objective criteria, a group of ten cases that could be classified as "the more bemsucedidos" and
a group of ten "that least resulted". After that, chose the recordings of interviews performed in
each of these cases, at the beginning and at the end of treatment. Took the chance nine units of
interaction between the client and the therapist an affirmation of that and a response that in
each one of these interviews. Obtained in this way nine interactions of beginning and nine from
the end of the treatment for each case. This provided him with several hundred units, which
distributed at random. The examples chosen for an interview with the beginning of the treatment
of an unsuccessful case could be followed by examples of an interview between the end of the
treatment of a case of successful, etc. He asked if after the three experts, who did not know nor
the cases, nor the degree of success of the treatment, nor the origin of each of the extracts
quoted, that hear the recording four times. Recordings were chronicled each interaction on a
scale of 7 points: 1 ?) as for the graqde empathy; 2 ?) as to the positive attitude of the therapist
to your customer; 3 ?) regarding the congruence or authenticity of the therapist; 4 ?) as to the
degree of conformity between the reaction of the therapist and the emotional intensity of the
expression of the customer.
I believe that all those who among us knew this research considered it a great adventure.
Perguntávamo us if the experts could, by the fact that they hear only isolated units of
interaction, make a valid judgment on aspects as delicate as those I mentioned. On the other
hand, even if it was obtained a satisfactory reliability, it could be expected that eighteen
exchanges therapist-client extracted from different cases - a minimum sampling compared to
the thousands of exchanges that occurred in each of the cases had any relation with its
therapeutic outcome? It was very unlikely. The results were amazing. It was noted that it would
be possible to achieve a high degree of trust among the experts, and the largest part of the
correlations between the assessments of 0.80 to 0.90, except as regards the last variable.
These results proved that a high degree of understanding empathetic was significantly
associated with the level of 0,001 cases more successful. A high degree of consideration
unconditional positive was Similarly associated with cases successful, at the level of 0.001.
Even the note of authenticity or of the congruence of the therapist - how much his words
reflected their feelings - was associated with the good result of the case and, once again, at a
significance level of 0.001. The only misunderstanding results in research related to the degree
of agreement in the intensity of affective expression.
It is also interesting to note that the high scores assigned to these variables were not a
correlation more significant in extracts of interviews from the end of treatment than in initial
interviews. This fact means that the attitudes of the therapist remained virtually constant
throughout the treatment. If he was capable of a high degree of empathy, maintained until the
end. If it lacked authenticity, this lack was manifested both in the first and last interviews. Like all
research, this study has its limitations. Refers to a particular type of relationship to help,
psychotherapy. Surveyed only four variables that could be considered significant. Perhaps there
are many others.
However, represents at least an important step forward in the study of the relations of aid. Let
me draw the conclusions as yes- pies as possible. They seem to indicate that the quality of the
interaction between the therapist with your customer can be adequately evaluated on the basis
of a small sample of his behavior. Also means that, if the therapist is congruent or transparent,
so that their words are in agreement with their feelings, rather than diverging; if you have a
sympathy unconditional by the customer, to understand the feelings of essential client as they

appear to the customer - then there is a strong likelihood that this relationship of aid is to be
effective.
Some reviews
These are some of the studies that shed at least a little light on the nature of the
relationship of aid. Have investigated different aspects of the problem and addressed it in
theoretical contexts very different. Used different methods. Cannot be compared directly. Even
so, they seem to stand out some conclusions that can be accepted with some security. It seems
clear that the relationship of effective aid has characteristics different from those that are not.
These characteristics relate essentially to the attitudes of the person that helps, on the one
hand, and the perception of the relationship with the one who is helped by another. It seems
equally clear that the studies conducted so far does not give us the final answers on what is a
relationship to help, nor on how teach it.
How can I create uha relationship help?
I think that those of us who work in the field of human relations face a similar problem
when it comes to knowing how to apply the knowledge that research has brought us. We cannot
follow blindly and mechanical these conclusions or then destroy the personal qualities that these
studies put precisely in relief. I think that we must serve these studies, submetendoos to
evidence of our own experience to form new personal assumptions that, in turn, we will use in
our own personal relationships future.
For this reason, more than trying to tell you how to use the results we have presented, I
would rather give them the type of issue that I raise these studies and my own clinical
experience. I will try to give them some hypotheses variables that guide my behavior when
diving in a relationship that I would like to see aid, whether students, colleagues, family or
customers. I am going to list some of these questions or reflections.
1. I can be in a way that can be perceived by the other person as worthy of trust, as secure or
consistent in the deepest sense of the word? Both research and experience show us that this is
very important, and with the passage of time, i found answers that I think are better and more
profound for this issue. It seemed to me that if I fulfilled all the external conditions that its
inspiration from trust - the punctuality in interviews, to respect the confidential nature of the
interviews, etc. - and if I act the same way during the interviews, these conditions would be met.
However, experience has taught me that, for example, the fact that I behave with a permanent
attitude of acceptance, if in reality I feel angry, skeptical or with any other feeling of nonacceptance, would do with that would be considered inconsistent or not worthy of trust. I started
to recognize that be worthy of trust does not imply be consistent in a rigid manner, but you can
trust me as really I am. I used the word "congruent" to describe how I would like to be. To this
end I want to say that any attitude or feeling that you're experiencing' would be accompanied by
the conscience2 this attitude. When this is true, I am, at that moment, a person unified and
possession and it is then that I can be what I am in the depths of myself. This is a reality that, by
experience, provides other confidence.
2. The second issue relates very closely to the first: I can be sufficiently expressive as a person
that I am can be communicated without ambiguity? I think that the majority of my failures to
achieve a ratio of aid was due to a response that is not satisfactory to both of these questions.
When I am experiencing a attitude of irritation with another person and I am not aware of it, my
communication becomes close contradictory messages. My words shall communicate a specific
message, but I am also communicating in a subtle way the anger that I feel and this confuses
the other and takes you to the trust, although he may not be aware of what is causing the
difficulty between us. When in the role of father, therapist, teacher or administrator that I listen to
what is happening in me, due to my own attitude of defense that prevents me to discern my own

feelings, it is then that seems to make these type of failure. Therefore, I believe that the lesson
more important for those who want to establish a relation of help of any kind is to always show
as is, transparent. If in a given relation I am sufficiently congruent, if no feeling for this
relationship is hidden both of myself and the other, I can then be almost sure that it will be a
relationship to help. A way of expressing that which may seem strange is that if I can establish a
relationship to help me even - if it can be more or less aware of my own feelings and accept
them -, there is a great probability of being able to establish a relationship to help with the other
person. Now, accept that I am, in this sense, and make it possible for someone to see, is the
task muis difficult that I know and that is never completely finished. But the simple fact to
understand that this is my job is extremely rewarding, because it helps me to recognize what
was wrong in interpersonal relations that are obstructed and once again give them a
constructive direction. This means that, if I facilitate the personal development of the other in
relationship with me, then I must develop me also and, although this is often painful, is also
fruitful.
3. The third question is: will I be able to experience positive attitudes toward the other - attitudes of
heat, of attention, of affection, of interest, of respect? This is not easy. I recognize in myself and
discovering in others many times a certain fear in relation to these feelings. We fear that, if we
stay open to the experience of such positive feelings for each other, we can be overwhelmed by
them. The other can become demanding or we may disappoint in our confidence, and we fear
these consequences.
Thus, by reaction, we tend to establish a distance between us and the other - a booking, an
attitude "professional", an impersonal relationship.
I am firmly convinced that one of the main reasons of professionalism in all fields is that it
helps to keep that distance. The clinical domain, develop complex formulations of diagnosis in
which the person is treated as an object. In teaching and administration, we build all kinds of
methods of assessment and that is why, once again, the person is seen as an object. In this
way, I have the impression that we avoid experiencing the interest would agree that it is a
relationship between two people. It is a true goal is reached when we understand that in certain
relations, or at certain times of these relations, we can allow, with security, show interest in the
other and accept to be connected to him as a person for whom we have positive feelings.
4. There is another issue whose importance I realize in my long experience :
I can be strong enough as a person to be independent of each other? I will be able to observe
courageously my own feelings, my own needs, as well as those of another person? I have and,
if necessary, to express my own feelings as something that itself is mine and that is independent
of the feelings of another? I am very strong in my independence to not be depressed with their
depression, scared with your fear or involved in their addiction? My inner self will be strong
enough to feel that I'm not nor destroyed by his anger, nor absorbed by their need for
dependence, nor enslaved by his love, but that exist independently of it with feelings and rights
that I own? When you can feel freely this force to be an independent person, then I will discover
that I can dedicate myself completely to the understanding and acceptance of the other because
I do not have the fear of losing myself.
5. The next question is closely linked to the previous one. I am secure enough within myself to
allow the other be independent? Will I be able to afford to be what it is - sincere or hypocritical,
child or adult, desperate or presumptuous? I can give you the freedom to be? Or feel he should
follow my advice, or stay a little dependent on me, or even take me as your model? Related to
this point, I'm thinking about the short but interesting study of Farson (6), who found that the
therapists less well-suited and least competent tend to induce conformity to themselves, i.e. ,to
have patients who take as a model. By outrd side, the therapist better adapted and more
responsible may be in interaction with the customer through numerous interviews , without
interfering with their freedom to develop a personality completely different from that of the
therapist. I would much rather be in this last category, either as a parent, as supervísor or as
therapist.

6. There is yet another question that I ask myself: can I allow me to enter fully into the world of the
feelings of the other and of their personal views and sees them as he sees them? I can go into
your inner world so fully that loses all desire to evaluate it or judge it? I can enter with sufficient
delicacy for me move freely, without crushing meanings that you are precious? I can understand
this universe so precisely that arrests, not only the meanings of your experience that are
obvious to him, but also those that are only implicit and that he no longer sees only obscurely
and confusingly? I can enlarge boundlessly this understanding? I am thinking about a customer
who said to me, "When I meet someone who, at a given point in time, we can understand a part
of myself, Which brings me to a point where I know that it is no longer I understand ... What I am
trying so desperately is someone who will understand me." As far as I am concerned, it is easier
for me to be this type of understanding and communicate it to a customer individually than the
students in a classroom or the members in a group in which it participates. I feel a strong
temptation to correct the reasoning of students or tell a colleague the errors of their way of
thinking. However, when I open myself to the understanding of these situations, enriquecemo us
each other. AND with customers in therapy, sometimes struck me many times with the fact that
even a minimum of understanding empathetic, an attempt hesitant and clumsy to capture what
the patient meant in its complexity confusing, it is a help, although this aid is undoubtedly much
higher when I am able to capture and to clearly formulate the meaning of what he had
experienced and that he would continue to be vague and diffuse.
7. Another question is whether I can accept all the facets that the other person present to me. I
can accept it as it is? I can tell you this attitude? Or I can just get it conditionally. accepting some
aspects of their way of feeling and condemning others, silent or openly? In my experience,
when my attitude is conditional, the customer cannot change nor develop these aspects that I
am not able to accept completely. AND when - later and, sometimes, too late - I am trying to find
out why I was unable to accept it in all aspects, I normally that was because I was afraid or
because I felt threatened by any aspect of their feelings. To be able to provide more help is
needed that I develop and accept these feelings in myself.
8. A quite practical arises from previous question: will I be able to act with sufficient sensitivity in
relation to that my behavior is not perceived as a threat'? The work that we began to carry out
the study the physiological aspects that accompany the psychotherapy confirms the
investigations of Dittes, showing how easy it is the individuals feel threatened in a physiological
level. The reflection psicogalvânico - the measurement of the conductivity of the skin jumps
abruptly when the therapist reacts with a word that is a little stronger than the feelings of the
client. AND a phrase such as "My God, how is disturbed!" the needle almost leaps off the paper.
My desire to avoid even threats so tiny is not due to a hypersensitivity in relation to my client, is
simply due to the conviction based on experience, that, if I can release it as completely as
possible from outside threats, then he can begin to experience and deal with the feelings and
the internal conflicts that seem to him threatening.
9. There is a specific aspeeto the previous question that also has importance: I can liberate you
from the fear of being judged by others? In most of the phases of our lives - at home, at school,
at work .56 we dependent on the rewards and punishments which are the judgments of others.
"It is well", "this is bad", "this is worth ten", "this is zero", "this is a good psychotherapy". "It is
bad psychotherapy". Such judgments are part of our lives, from childhood to old age. I think
that has some usefulness in social institutions and organizations such as schools and the
professions. As all over the world, many times I understand making such assessments. But, in
my experience, does not favor the development of the personality and, therefore, I do not
believe that they are part of a relationship to help. It is curious, but a positive assessment is, in
essence, as threatening as a negative judgment, a time to say to someone who has done well
implies that also has the right to tell him that it was wrong. In this way, I came to the conclusion
that the more able to maintain a relationship free of any judgment of value, the more this will
allow the other person reaches a point in which it will recognize that the place of the trial, the
center of responsibility resides within itself. The meaning and the value of your experience is

something that ultimately depends on it and no judgment outside the can change. For that
reason I would like to strive for a relationship that does not judge the other, it inwardly. I believe
that this can liberate and make him a person responsible for each other.
10 .One last question: will I be able to see the other person as a person in the
process make it , or I am prisoner of my past and of its past? If, in my meeting with him, the tract
as an immature child, as a student ignorant, as a neurotic personality or a psychopath, each
one of these concepts is limited what he could be in our relationship. Martin Buber,
the existentialist philosopher University of
Jerusalem, employs the term "confirm", an expression that was of great significance to me. He
said: "Confirm means ( ... ) accept all potential of another ( ... ) I can recognize in him, to know
him as a person he was ( ... ) created to become ( ... ) I can confirm it in myself and then, in
relation to these potential ( ... ) that now can develop and evolve" (3). If I accept the other
person as something defined, already diagnosed and classified, already crystallized by your
past, I am also contributing to confirm this hypothesis limited. If I accept a process of taking who
is, in this case I am doing what I can to confirm or make real their potential.
It is at this point that Verplanck, Lindsley and Skinner, when working in operant conditioning, are
with Buber, the philosopher or the mystical. At least converge in principle, in a rather curious. If I
consider a relationship only as an opportunity to strengthen certain types of words or opinions in
another, having the confirmálo as an object - an object essentially mechanical and
manipulatable. AND if I see that as its potentiality, he tends to act in order to confirm this
hypothesis. But if, on the contrary, I think it is a personal relationship as an opportunity to
"strengthen" everything that he is, the person he is with all its possibilities, it tends then to act in
such a way as to confirm this second hypothesis. In this case I confirmed - to use the
expression of Buber - as a living person, capable of development inside and creator. Personally,
I prefer this second type of hypothesis.
Conclusion
In the first part of this chapter, I reviewed some of the contributions given by research to
our knowledge about the personal relationships. Trying to keep in mind these new skills, I
began to examine the various issues that are urn.ponto view interior and subjective when I go
into a relationship as a person. If I could answer yes to all of the issues that I have raised, I think
that, in this case, any situation in which to be involved would be a relation of help and would
imply a maturation. But I cannot give a positive response to most of these questions. I can only
work toward a respàsta positive.
This leads me to suspect strongly that the relationship to help great is that created by a
person psychologically mature. In other words, my ability to create relationships that facilitate
the growth of the other as an independent person is a measure of development that I myself
achieve. In some respects, is a disturbing development, but it is also fruitful and inspiring. This
shows that, if I am interested in creating help relationships, I have before me, for the whole of
my life, an exciting task that will expand and develop my potential toward full maturity.
I am a little embarrassed to think that what I was producing for myself in this article might
have little relationship with the interests and the work you do. If so, I am sorry. But I am partially
derided by the fact that all those who work in the field of personal relationships and trying to
understand the fundamental order in this area are involved in more crucial venture of our
present world. If we are trying to reflect to understand our work as administrators, teachers,
educational and professional guiding, psychotherapists, then we will be working on the problem
that will be decisive for the future of this planet. Because it is not the physical sciences that the
future depends on. IS dc nodes that it depends on us that we try to understand and deal with
the interactions between men - that we seek to create personal relationships help. For this

reason, I hope that the issues that I have raised myself they are of any use to understand and to
reach some perspectives on what they will do to facilitate the growth in their relations.
Chapter 4
What we know about psychotherapy - objectively and subjectively
In the spring of 1960 I was invited by the Institute of Technology of California for its
program "Leaders ofAmerica', sponsored by Cal Tech YMCA, which promotes the most cultural
programs for the Institute. I have been asked to speak, during one of the four days of my visit, a
meeting of the faculty. It was dificilfalar of psychotherapy in a way that would have meaning for
scientists physicist and it seemed to me that a summary of the results of research on
psychotherapy would fulfill this function. On the other hand, wanted to make clear that the
subjective relationship staff is also a fundamental part of therapeutic change. For this reason, I
tried focusing on these two aspects. I have introduced some changes to the article, but the
essential remains as presented in conferenciadoCalTech.
I was very pleased by the fact that the er presentation was well received, but I was very
pleased that, later on, some people who had past experience of therapy and who have read the
manuscript would be highly enthusiastic with the description (in the second part of the article)
the inner experience of the therapeutic process on the part of the customer. This was gratifying
because I have a particular concern in capturing how the customer feels and sees the
treatment.
In the field of psychotherapy, there has been considerable progress in the last decade in
the measurement of the results of therapy in relation to personality and the customer's behavior.
In the last two or three years, there has been further progress in the identification of conditions
that are the basis of therapeutic relationships that create the therapy and facilitate the
development of a person in the sense of a psychological maturity. In other words, we have
made progress in the determination of the ingredients of a relationship that promotes personal
growth.
The psychotherapy does not replace the motivation for this development or personal
growth. This seems to be inherent in the body, as we found a similar trend in human animal to
develop and mature physically, given certain minimum conditions favorable. The therapy,
however, plays an extremely important role in the release and in the process of facilitation of the
tendency of the body to a psychological development or for its maturity, when this trend was
blocked.
Objective Knowledge
I will try to summarize, in the first part of this chapter, what we know of the conditions that
facilitate the growth psychological, define what we know about the process and the
characteristics of psychological growth. I will try to explain what I mean when I speak to
summarize what we "know". I want to say that I shall confine myself to statements supported by
experimental evidence objective. I, for example, the conditions of psychological growth. For
each statement, I could cite one or several studies showing that there were no changes in the
individual in the presence of such conditions, changes that are not produced when these
conditions were absent, or present to a lesser degree. In the words of one researcher, we have
made progress in identifying the primary agents that cause a change that facilitates the
development of personality and behavior in the direction of a person's development. Of course,
it is necessary to add that this knowledge, as all scientific knowledge, cannot fail to be hesitant
and certainly incomplete and that, without doubt, will have to be modified, in part contradicted
and supplemented by a laborious job future. However, there is no reason to lament this limited
knowledge, but very hard won and that we now have.
I would like to present this knowledge in a very concise and in everyday language.

It has been found that the personal transformation is facilitated when the psychotherapist
is what it is, when its relations with the customer are authentic and without mask or facade,
openly expressing the feelings and attitudes that flows in it. We use the term "congruence" to try
to describe this condition. To this end, it seeks to mean that the feelings that the therapist
is experiencing are available for it, available for your conscience and he can live by these
sentiments, I took them and can communicate them, if it is the case. Nobody fully realizes this
condition and, therefore, the more the therapist know hear and accept what is happening in
himself, the more he is able to take the complexity of their feelings, without fear, greater will be
the degree of congruence.
To take a common example, each one of us is able to capture this quality in other ways
very different. One of the things that shocked us in advertisements on radio and television is
that often becomes quite clear, by tone of voice, that the speaker "fakes", recites a role, says
something that doesn't feel. It is an example of inconsistency. On the other hand, we all know
people who we trust because we feel that they are really what they are, that is the person that
we have in front of us and not a mask or polished professional. It was this quality of congruence,
that we know capture, that the searches were being associated with good therapeutic outcome.
The more authentic and congruent the therapist is in the relationship, the more possibilities
there will be that occur changes in the personality of the client.
Now let's look at the second condition. When the therapist is experiencing a warm
attitude, positive and acceptance to what is in your customer, this makes it easy to change. This
implies that the therapist is really ready to accept the client, whatever it is that you are feeling at
the moment - fear, confusion, sadness, pride, anger, hatred, love, courage, admiration. This
means that the therapist is concerned with your customer in a non-possessive, that appreciates
more in its totality than a conditional form, who is not satisfied with simply accepting your
customer when this follows certain paths and unapprove when following others. It is u.rn
positive feeling that protrudes without reservations and without evaluations. The term used to
designate the situation was "account unconditional positive". Once again research shows that,
The more the therapist experience this attitude, more therapy is likely to be bemsucedida.
We can designate the third cbndição as the empathic understanding. When the therapist is
sensitive to the feelings and personal meanings that the customer experience every time, when
you can seize them "inside" as the patient sees them, and when he is able to communicate with
success something that understanding to the patient, then is fulfilled this third condition.
I think that each of us has found that this type of understanding is extremely rare. We are
not to offer nor are we object that understanding with much for slight fluctuations.'S. We use a
different type of understanding which is very different. "I can understand your problem." "I
understand what led him to act this way"; or then: "I also spent for this problem and I reacted
very differently"; these are the kinds of understanding that we are accustomed to give and to
receive, an understanding that judges from the outside. But when someone understands how I
feel and how I am, without wanting to me analyze or judge, then, in this climate, I can flourish
and grow. AND the research confirms this common remark. When the therapist is able to grasp
the experience, moment to moment, that occurs in the world inside the customer as this to sit
back and watch, without its own identity fades in this process of empathy, then change can
occur.
Studies with various customers showed that when these three conditions are present in
therapist and the customer perceives at least partially, the therapeutic movement continues, the
client note that learns and develops, painful and definitely, and both believe that the result is
positive. We can conclude from our studies that are attitudes such as those described, more
than the knowledge and the technical capacity of the therapist, the main responsible for
treatment modification.
The dynamic of change

You may now ask: "why is it that someone who seeks help changes to better when laying
down during some time relations with a therapist that meets these three conditions? How is it
that this happens?" I will try to respond in a very brief this issue.
Customer reactions that makes for some time the experience of a therapeutic relationship
as I have described are a reciprocal attitudes of therapist. In the first place, how do you find
someone who listens and accepts his/her feelings, he begins, little by little, to be taken to be
able to listen to yourself. Begins to receive messages that comes from their own pool - to realize
that is with anger, to recognize when they are afraid, and even to be aware of when you feel
with courage. TO THE extent that begins to open to what is happening in it, it becomes able to
understand feelings that always denied and repressed. You can listen to feelings that seemed to
him so terrible, so desorganizadores, as abnormal or such shameful, that would never be able
to recognize that exist therein.
While you're learning to listen to himself, also beginning to accept more. As expresses a
growing number of aspects hidden and terrible to himself, realizes that the therapist has with
him, and with their feelings an attitude consistent and positive consideration unconditional. Will
slowly taking the same approach in relation to himself, accepting it as it is, and it is therefore
walking in the process of taking what it is.
Finally, to listen with full attention to the inner feelings, with less spirit of evaluation and
more acceptance of themselves, forwards to greater congruence. Find out who is
posívbandonar the facade behind which is hidden, that is possívelpôr aside the defensive
behavior and be more open, which really is. TO THE extent that these changes will be
operating, becomes more aware of itself, it is accepted best, adopts an attitude less
defensive and more open, discovers that after all it is free to modify and to grow in directions of
natural human organism.
The process
I turn now to a small exhibition of this process based on specific statements, each one of
them from experimental research. We know that the customer is in motion in each of a number
of continuous series. In each one of the series that I will mention, and whatever your starting
point, go to the end higher.
With respect to the feelings and personal meanings, moves away from a state in which
neither feelings nor the meanings are recognized, owned or expressed. Moves to a flow in
which the sentiments in constant change are experienced at the time, with knowledge and with
acceptance, and that can be expressed with rigor.
The process involves a change in their way of living. At the beginning, the customer is
away from your experience. You can be an example, a person with a tendency to
intelectualização who always speaks in terms abstract of themselves and their feelings,
deixandonos curious about what is really happening in their hearts. Starting from this distance
is directed toward an immediacy of experience, where lives openly in her experience and know
that you can get back to this in order to discover the meanings chains.
This process implies a certain flexibility in the ability to seize the cognitive maps of
experience. Starting from a point in which the experience is built on rigid frames, captured as
facts exterior, the customer walks for a change in development in which the meanings of
experience are constructed soft constructions these modifiable each new experience.
In general, it appears that the process moves away from the fixedness of remote nature
of feelings and experience, a rigid conception of itself, a departure from people and the
impersonality of operation. He evolves to the fluidity, the possibility of changes to the immediacy
of feelings and experience, for the acceptance of these feelings and this experience, to attempts
to build, to the discovery of a i that turns into a changing experience, for the reality and
closeness of relationships, for a unit and integration of the operation. We are constantly learning

new things about this process of transformation and I am not sure that this brief summary
represents fully the richness of our discoveries.
The results of therapy
But let us look at the results of the therapy on the modifications for lasting that occur. As
for the other things that I have said, I shall confine myself to statements supported by research.
The customer changes and rearranges the conception of himself. It deviates from an idea that
makes it unacceptable to their own eyes, unworthy of consideration, forced to live according to
the standards of others. Gradually Achieved a conception of himself as a person of value,
autonomous, able to justify their own values and standards in their own experience. Develops a
much more positive approach in relation to himself. There is a study that shows that at the
beginning of therapy the usual attitudes to himself are negative in a ratio of four to one, but that,
in the course of the fifth phase of treatment, these same attitudes are positive many times in the
proportion of two to one. The customer becomes less defensive, and, therefore, more open to
their own experience and that of others. Their perceptions become more realistic and more
differentiated. Its adaptation, psychological improvement, as you can see by the application of
the Rorschach test, the Test of Aercepção Theme (ATT), by the therapist or by any other index.
Their goals and ideals change in order to become more accessible. The initial distance between
the i that he is and that he would be significantly reduced. It is a reduction in the tension in all its
forms - physiological tension, psychological unease, anxiety. Notice the other individuals in a
more realistic way and accept more. Describes his own behavior as more mature and, what is
important, is seen by those who know him well, acting more mature.
Not only are several studies that show the onset of these changes during the treatment
period, but thorough work of monitoring carried out during a period of six to eighteen months,
after completion of the treatment, which also indicate a persistence of these changes.
The facts which I have stated will clarify perhaps why I am led to believe that we are
approaching the time when we will be able to establish an equation in the delicate area of
interpersonal relationships. Using all the elements that the research provided, let us conclude
with the attempt of a formulation of this equation, that I think match the facts: - The more the
customer perceives the therapist as a person true or authentic, capable of empathy, taking with
him a consideration unconditional, the more it will move farther away from one operating mode
static, fixed, callous and impersonal, and forwards in the direction of a functioning marked by a
fluid experience, changing and fully receptive of personal feelings differentiated. The
consequence of this movement is a change in personality and behavior in the direction of the
health and psychological maturity and relations more realistic with myself, others and the
surrounding world.
The subjective image
I spoke to the process of counseling and therapy in a objective way, emphasising that we
know and in transcribing it as an equation a little simplistic, where we can, at least, try to locate
the specific terms. But now I will try to address the issue from the inside and, without
downplaying the knowledge objectives, present this equation as it is subjectively both the
therapist and the client, and this is because the therapy is, in the process, an experience
profoundly personal and subjective. This experience reveals qualities completely different from
objective characteristics that indicate the pool.
The experience of the therapist
For the therapist, it is a new adventure begins. He feels: "Here is this other person, my
client. I am a little afraid of him, afraid to penetrate their thoughts, as I'm afraid to dive in my.
However, when I heard it, I start to feel a certain respect for him, to feel that we are coming. I

predict how terrible it appears your universe, with that voltage demand control it. I would like to
understand their feelings and that he knew that I understand. I would like that he knew that I am
close to him in his own little world of compact and tight, able to look at this world without
excessive fear. Perhaps I can take it less fearsome. I would like my feelings in this regard were
for him so obvious and clear as possible, in order that he photograph capturing as a reality
discemível that can always return. I would like to accompany him in this fearful to travel inside of
himself, to fear him hidden, to hatred, to the love that he has never been able to leave touch
itself. I recognize that is a trip very human and unpredictable both for me and for him and I
would venture, without even knowing that I'm afraid, the retract me in myself before certain
feelings that he reveals. I know that this imposes limits on my ability to help. I become aware
that my own fears may lead you to consider me as an attacker, as someone indifferent and
rejects it, as someone who does not understand. I fully accept these feelings, although I hope
also that my own prove so clearly in his reality that, with time, he cannot fail to see them. But,
above all, I want to see in me a real person. I do not need to wonder with embarrassment if my
feelings are 'therapeutic'. What I am and what I feel can easily serve as a basis for therapy, if I
could be transparently who I am and what I feel in my relationship with him. Then perhaps he
could be what he is, openly and without fear".
The customer experience
The customer, on the other hand, passes through a series of states of consciousness
much more complex, we can only suggest. Schematically, perhaps their feelings take one of the
following ways: "I am afraid of him. I need help, but don't know if I can trust him. Perhaps he see
in me things that I am not aware - elements and terrible evil. It does not seem to be judging me,
but I am sure that he does. I cannot tell you what really worries me, but I can tell you about
some past experiences in relation with my concerns. It seems that you understand these
experiences, so I can open up to me a little more with him.
"But now that I have shared with him a little of my bad side, despises me. I'm sure, but it
is strange that such a thing is not obvious. Is it a coincidence that I told him it is not so bad? Is it
possible that I do not need to be ashamed of a part of myself? I do not have the impression that
he would scorn me. This gives me desire to go further, in holding me , to speak a little more
about me. Meeting him as a sort of companion - seems to really understand me.
"I am again filled with fear, but now more profound. Didn't realize that, to explore the
unknown corners of myself, would feel prints that I had never experienced before. This is very
strange because, in a certain sense, are not new feelings. I suspect that were always there. But
seem to be so bad and disturbing that I never had ceased flowing in me. AND now, when I live
these feelings during the time I spend with him, I feel vertigo, as if my universe had crumbled in
I me. Before, he was safe and secure. Now is shaken, permeable and vulnerable. It is not
pleasant feeling things that until now has always been afraid. It is his fault. However, It is curious
that has desire to see him again and that I feel more secure with it.
"I do not know who I am, but, sometimes, when I am really certain things, I have the
impression, for a moment, my strength and my reality. I am disturbed by the contradictions that I
discover in me - I act in a way and I am in another. It is most disconcerting. But, other times, it
is a joyous adventure trying to discover who I am. Sometimes surprise me thinking that maybe I
am a good person; if that means anything.
"I am beginning to feel a lot of satisfaction, although I find this is often painful, to share
exactly what I feel in a given moment. You know, help really try to listen to yourself, listen to
what is going on in their hearts. I am not afraid of what is going on in me. I feel more confident.
During the few hours I spend with him, diving in myself to know what I am feeling. It is a hard
work, but I want to know . Most of the time, I have confidence in him and this helps me. I am
vulnerable and inexperienced, but I know he wants me badly and I also believe that it is
interested in me. It occurs to me that when trying to dive more deeply into myself, if I could pick

up what is happening in me, and understand what that means, perhaps you knew who I am and
also knew what to do. Pelb less happens to me sometimes when I am with him.
"I can even tell you exactly what I feel about him at a given time and, rather than kill the
relationship, as I once feared, it seems to strengthen it. It can be assumed that I will be able to
live also my feelings with the other? Perhaps this too is not very dangerous.
"I am floating in the current life, very dangerous- mind, being i. Sometimes I am defeated,
other times I am wounded, but I am learning that these experiences are not fatal. Don't
know exactly who I am, but I feel my reactions at each given moment and they seem to
provide a basis for my behavior, at each moment, very acceptable. Perhaps this is what it
means to be me. But, fearing made clear, this is only possible because I feel safe in my
relations with the therapist. Or you may be able to be myself also outside these relations?
Perhaps! Perhaps I can."
What I have to report does not happen very quickly. It can take years. You can also, for
reasons we do not understand very well, not never happen. But at least suggests to us an
insider's perspective of the image objective that I have tried to present the psychotherapeutic
process, such as takes place in both therapist and client.

Third Party
The process of becoming a person
I devoted myself to observe the process by which an individual grows and changes in a
therapeutic relationship.
Chapter 5
Some directions of the therapeutic process
In the second part, although there are brief descríções change process on the client, the
main emphasis was on the relationship that makes this change possible. In this chapter and in
the following we will deal with more especficamente the nature of the experience that the
customer has the change in him.
I am a afei.particular by this chapter. It was written in 1951-1952, at a time that she was a
great esfórço for sentii and after exprimfr the phenomena that seemed to be central in therapy.
Just publish my book Client-Centered Therapy, but already I felt insati.feito with the chapter on
the therapeutic process, which had been written, as is natural, two years before. I wanted to find
a more dynamic means of communicating what happens to the person.
Then I picked up a case of a client whose therapy if be to me of great importance and
that I had studied also from the point of view of research, and, on this basis, I have expressed
their joint intention!nir the perceptions that rehearsing the proce.swo therapeutic such as me
qfloravam. I felt full of courage and, at the same time, very insecure about myself, when I say
that, a treatment with good result, customers seem to acquire a real affection for themselves. I
felt however still more insecure to propose the hypothesis that the fund of human nature is
essenciainiente positive. Could not predict that the two statements would have a confirmation
each time more in my experience.
The process of psychotherapy, such as we have been learning from the guidance
focused on the customer, it is a unique experience and dynamic, different from individual to
individual, but patenting a law and order a stunning in its generality. Although I feel increasingly
impressed by inevitable nature of many aspects of this process, aggravates me of a crescent
form the kind of questions that are in this respect: "Heal a obsessive neurosis' ? ", "does not
want to it certainly delete a state of psychotic basis' ? ", "is appropriate to resolve marital
problems? ", "can apply to stutterers or homosexuals? ", "healings are permanent? ". These

questions and others of the same gender are so understandable and so iazoá- how to find
whether the gamma rays can heal the chilblains. They are, however, the wrong, I believe, when
it seeks to deepen the knowledge about the nature of psychotherapy or its field of application. In
this chapter, I shall raise a qúestão that seems to be much more vital on this process exciting
and legitimate that we call therapy, hoping to give a partial answer.
Allow me to present the issue as follows: whether it is due to luck, a penetrating
understanding, to scientific knowledge, to an art excels in human relations or the combination of
all these elements, we have learned to start a process can be described and that reveals a
series of stages that succeed one another in a predetermined order, more or less the same from
one customer to another. We know at least some attitudes necessary to trigger the process. We
know that, if the therapist adopt inwardly from the point of view of the client an attitude of deep
respect, complete acceptance of the customer as it is and of confidence in their potential to
solve their own problems; if these attitudes are impregnated with enough heat to be transformed
into a sympathy or a deep affection for the person; if it reaches a level of communication where
the client can begin to realize that the therapist understands the feelings that you are
experiencing and that you accept them to a deeper level of understanding, at this moment we
cannot be certain of that started the therapeutic process. Then, instead of trying insist that this
process serves to objectives that we have in mind (as welcome as can be these objectives), put
the only issue that can do really make progress in science.
AND the question is this: "What is the nature of this process? What seem to be its
intrinsic characteristics, which direction or directions adopts, and which are, if there is any, the
points of arrival of this process? ". When Benjamin Franklin looked the spark that leapt from the
key stuck in rope of your parrot, not worried that, fortunately, with the immediate and practical
implementation of his discovery. On the contrary, he began to ask that basic process took
possible such a phenomenon. Although many of the responses that emerged were full of
specific errors, the search was fruitful because if he had done the appropriate question. For the
same reason, I urge you to proceed in the same way in relation to psychotherapy, and if look
with an open mind describe, study and understand the basic process in that it is based therapy,
instead of distorting competition to adapt to our clinical needs, to our dogmas predesigned or to
elements evident in any other field. Let us examine ourselves it patiently to know what he is in
himself .
Recently I have tried to draw up a description of the therapy focused on the customer (3).
I will not repeat here the description, except to say that the data from the practice and research
seem to emerge certain characteristics in persistent process: increase of discernment regarding
the internal world of the maturity of the behaviors reported, more positive attitudes, to the
extent that the psychotherapy progresses; changes in the perception and acceptance of
themselves; incorporation of experience previously denied in the structure of i; change of
direction of the source of evaluation, from the exterior to the interior; changes in therapeutic
relationship; characteristic changes in the structure of personality, behavior, and in physiological
conditions.
Whatever the imperfection of some of these descriptions, they represent an attempt to
understand the process of therapy customer-centric as it is in itself, as it is in the clinical
experience, in full recording of interviews and in more than 40 studies that have been made in
this field.
My goal in this chapter is to go beyond this material and formulate some trends in therapy
that little is emphasized. I would like to describe some of the directions and arrival points that
seem to be inherent in the therapeutic process and that only recently have begun to distinguish
clearly enough; that seem to represent teachings very significant, but on which there are still no
studies of research. Trying to represent the most appropriate way these elements I will seek
examples in recorded interviews with a client. Also I will confine my discussion steel therapeutic
process is centerd on the client because I have come to the conclusion, although reluctant, that

it is possible that the process, the directions and the points of arrival of therapy will vary
according to the therapeutic orientations.
The experience of the i potential
One of the aspects of the therapeutic process that takes evident in all cases can be
referred to as the conscience of the experience or even as "the experience of experience". I at
this point the expression "experience I", although this term is not completely accurate. The
security of the relationship with the therapist is centerd on the client, in the absence of any
threat present or possible against the I, the customer can afford to examine various aspects of
your experience exactly the same way as you feel, as the traps through its sensory system and
visceral, without distorting to adapt them to the existing concept of i. Many of these aspects are
in extreme contradiction with the concept of ego and could not normally be experienced
fully, but, in this relationship of trust, the client could allow to manifest themselves in
consciousness without undergoing deformation. Here are so many times the following scheme:
"I am this and that, but experiment this feeling that does not have any relation to what I am"; "I
like my parents, but I feel a surprising rancor in relation to them, from time to time", "Really not
worth anything, but sometimes I have the impression of being better than any a'. Thus, in the
beginning, the expression is: "I am a me that is different from a part of my experience." later, it
turns into a provisional scheme: "Maybe I am some selves very different, or perhaps my I quit
more contradictions than I imagined." later still, the schema is: "I was convinced that I could not
be my experience - was too contradictory - but now I am beginning to believe that I can be
the whole of my experience:'
Perhaps I can understand something of the nature of this aspect of psychotherapy, using
excerpts of interviews with Ms. Oak. Ms. Oak, housewife, married, near forty years, had marital
difficulties and with the family when they came to deal with. Unlike many customers, interested
alive and spontaneously by processes that felt pursued within itself, and the recorded interviews
contains much material as your own frame of reference, about their perception of what was
happening. Thus had tendency to express what seems implicit in many customers, but that
these do not formulate verbally. This is the reason why the majority of the samples in this
chapter were drawn from this case.
At the beginning of the fifth session, she describes their awareness of what we were
discussing.
Customer: it is all very vague. But want to know the idea that occurs to me constantly: to me this
entire process is exactly as if you were looking at parts of a quebracabeça. Now it seems to me
that I am looking at the fragments that do not want to say really great thing. Probably I have- the
simply in hand, but without being able to even see the drawing. This is what occurs to me
constantly. AND I think this is interesting, because the truth is that I hate puzzle. I always have
provoked. But that is what I am. Both say that caught in pieces ( she gesticulates a lot during
the conversation to illustrate his statements) that have absolutely no sense, except for the fact
that you feel that I have simply in hand without seeing where the place, but only by catching
them I think that they should engage in some lugarfr here.
Therapist: well, at the moment this is the case, it is precisely by feeling the texture, the shape
and configuration of the different elements, with a vague idea of fund which, in fact, this is
trrumar in any way, but most of the attention is focused
About: "What is the feeling that this causes me? What is the texture?" C: is
this. It is like a thing physically. A, a ...
T: it is not able to describe it without using your hands. A real sense, almost sensory ... C: is this
even. Again it is, is a feeling of being very objective, however, has never been so close to me.
T: in the same way as if you were outside you looking and, at the same time, somehow being
closest to you ...

C: Hmmm ... Yes ... and, however, for the first time in many months I am not thinking about my
problems. In fact I am not, I am not working on them.
T: I have the impression that is not working in the resolution of "my problems". This is not the
feeling, in any way.
C: You are right. Is right. I suppose that what I really wanted to say was that I am not bringing
the puzzle, such as, as something that I had to see in the drawing. Perhaps I may, in fact,
is enjoying this process to feel. In any event, for sure I am learning something.
T: At least, there is an impression that what counts in the immediate future is to have this
feeling, and not that you're doing this for a drawing, the puzzle. What counts is the satisfaction
of really knowing each part. IS this ...
C: is this. IS this. AND he still makes this kind of sensuality, this touch. AND very interesting.
Sometimes it is not entirely pleasant, of course, but ...
T: An experience very different type, C: Yes.
Fully.
This excerpt shows clearly how it is that the elements that take conscious, without which
the patient should make an effort to be seen as a part of itself or to relate with other elements of
consciousness. It is, to be as strict as possible, the awareness of a vast field of experience,
without thinking about it, for the moment, in its relationship with the eu. Later, you can recognize
that what has been experienced could join the eu. That is why I have called this section "The
experience I potential". The fact that this is a form of new experience and not usual is
expressed in a manner verbally confusing, but emotionally very clear, during the Friday
interview.
C: Well.., I think that during these sessions, as well ... I was like that to sing a song. Now this
sounds vague and ... well.., I am not singing, it is a kind of song with no music. Perhaps a kind
of poem. AND I like the idea, I want to say, this seems to come to me, without anything built,
nothing. AND, following this, came to me, came to me another type of feeling, Well, I wonder if
this would be the way that the cases they take. It is possible that I am precisely to verbalize and
for a moment poisoned with my own words? AND after that, well ... came to me, well, I am doing
wasting time? And then, a doubt, a doubt. At that moment it occurred to me a thing.., well ... I
don't know from where I came. There is no logical connection. The idea that came to me was
this: we're doing pieces, ahem, we are not helpless or hesitant, or concerned or very concerned
when the blind learn to read with the fingers, Brailie. Don't know, maybe something like that, it's
all mixed up. That might be what I am feeling now.
T: Let's see if I can follow this sequence of feelings. First of all, it is as if. ..And it seems to me
that he is having a very positive feeling, it is as if you are about to create a kind of poem here a
song without music whatsoever, but something very creative and, at the same time, the feeling
of a great skepticism with regard to this. "I am, perhaps, saying only words, being carried,
precisely, by words that I, that I am talking about and that,. maybe all this is, really, a portion of
nonsense." And then comes the feeling that you might be close to learn a new way to
experience that can be so radically new as for a blind man to attempt to discover the meaning of
what he feels with your fingers.
C: Hmmm. Rum (PAUSA) ... AND sometimes I think to myself, well, maybe we could talk about
this pu of what. And then, when I come here, I wouldn't say nothing, it seems false. There is this
wave of words that in spite of everything does not seem forced, and then from time to time, the
doubt back. Well, seems to be taking shape, maybe you're just making music ... Perhaps that is
why I have my doubts, all of it, because it is something that is not forced. AND really feel that I
should have done was to organize all of this. I should make an effort and ...
T: a kind of deep questioning about what I'm doing with a i ( self ) that does not, does not try
to solve things? (Pause)

C: AND, however, the fact is that I, I really like this other kind of thing, I don't know, maybe a
feeling poignant, that is to say, it is a sentiment that I never had before. Because, like that .
Perhaps that is how it should be done. Today Simply do not know.
Here is the change in perspective that occurs almost invariably in any therapy a little
deep. AND can represent it schematically as follows: "I have come to resolve problems and now
I discover that I am simply experiencing myself? ". AND, as with the patient that we just
mentioned, this change in perspective is usually accompanied by an intellectual formulation of
that that is wrong and emotional appreciation of the fact that "it is good".
Therefore, We can conclude this section by saying that one of fundamental directions that
the therapeutic process takes is experiencing freely reactions sensory and visceral the real
body, without too much effort to relate these experiences with me. This is usually accompanied
by the conviction that these data do not belong to me or can be integrated into it. The end point
of the process is the point at which the customer discovers that may be your experience, with all
its variety and contradiction superficial; it can be set from your own experience, rather than
trying to impose a definition of your i to their experience by refusing to take conscience of
elements which do not come within this definition.
The full experience of an affective relationship
One of the elements of the therapy that more recently we realize is how the therapy is for
the client, the learning of a full acceptance and free, without fear, the positive feelings of another
person. There is a phenomenon that occurs with great clarity in all cases of long duration, but,
even in these cases, it has not evenly. However, it is an experience so profound that we have
come to ask you if it would not be in a direction very important in the therapeutic process, which,
in all cases bemsucedidos, perhaps if check to some extent, to a level not verbalized. Before
discussing this phenomenon, let us give it a certain consistency citing the experience of Ms.
Oak. The experience impressed her suddenly, between the 29th and the 30th session, having
spent almost the entire session following to discuss it. It was in this way that she opened the
30th session.
C: Well, I made a remarkable discovery. I know that ... (Laughs) i have discovered that you are
really interested in what is happening. (Both Laugh.) I had the feeling ... this is ... One thing as
well as a "maybe I let it get in the game". E. .. you see, a written examination would have been
able to respond very well, i.e. ... suddenly came to me an idea ... this thing between the
therapist and the client ... this really matters. It was a revelation, a ... nothing. I am not able to
describe. It was a ... well, it would be more accurate to say a kind of relaxation, not a ... voltage
drop, but a ... (Pause) a straighten up without voltage, if that has any meaning. I don't know.
T: Dir-if- ,aue this is not a new idea, but a new experience d a real sense of
I am interested in the subject, and, if I understand correctly, a wish that I'd enjoy.
C: Yes.
This acceptance of the therapist and his warm interest was without doubt one of the
dashes deeper therapy of that particular case. In an interview that followed the conclusion of
therapy, she mentions spontaneously this experience as the most important. What does this
mean? Certainly this is not a phenomenon of transfer and-reversal. Some psychologists
experienced that had been psicanalisados had the opportunity to observe the progress of a
case that is not mentioned. Were the first to raise objections against the employment of terms
and transfer-reversal to describe this phenomenon. The essence of what she said was that it
was something of mutual and appropriate, while the transfer and-reversal are phenomena
whose characteristic is conduct- if only in one direction and are inappropriate to the realities of
the situation.
Without doubt, one of the reasons why this phenomenon occurs with greater frequency in
our experience is that, as therapists, we began to fear less our feelings positive (or negative) in
relation to the customer. During the therapy, the feeling of acceptance and respect for the

therapist in relation to the customer tends to become something which approximates to the
admiration, to the extent that we are watching the fight deep and courageous person latch to be
itself. I think that there is no therapist a deep experience of the community behind - it should say
the fraternity? - Men. Therefore, he feels in relation to the customer an affective reaction, warm
and positive. This poses a problem to the customer that, many times, as in this case, think
difficult accept the positive feeling of another person. But, since the accepted, the inevitable
reaction on the part of the customer is to relax, to allow the heat and the affection of the other
reduce the tension and the fear that the turn went to look at the life of front.
But we are going very quickly. Let's look at some of the other aspects of this experience,
as it was experienced by the client. In the first sessions, she had spoken of the fact that you
don't like of humanity and, in a vague way and obstinate, felt that he was right, even if others
thought that she was wrong. Back to mention the fact, discussing how this experience has
clarified its stance in relation to the other.
C: The thing that occurred to me then, and I thought for a long time, it is more or less.., and I am
not sure why ... the same kind of interest that I feel when I say "I don't like of humanity", which
was always, that is to say, that I have always been convinced. This means it is not ... I knew it
was a good thing, you know. AND I think that this enlightened me.., what does this have to do
with this situation, I do not know. But I discovered that, no, I don't like it, but I'm very much.
T: Hmmm. Hum. I believe ...
C: I could express this better saying that touches me very closely everything that happens. But
the interest, the concern is a ... takes the form of ... its structure is that of trying to understand
and do not want to leave-taking, or contribute to these things that I feel that
Are false and ... it seems to me that in ... in love there is a sort of definitive factor. If it does, faith
it, so to speak, quite. AND a ...
T: AND that, so to speak.
C: Yes. It seems to me that this other thing, this interest, it is not a good word.., that is to say, it
would be probably needed another thing to describe this feeling. Say that is something
impersonal means nothing, because it is not an impersonal thing. I mean, I feel that it is much
more part of a whole. But it is something that doesn't stop ... It seems to me that if I could
have this feeling that if he loves humanity, that likes the people and, at the same time, contribute
to the factors that make people neurotic, who take sick ... when I sintô unía is resistance to
these things.
T: is interested enough to want to understand and to want to avoid contribute in some way to
increase the neuroses or these aspects in human life. C: Yes. AND this is ... (Pause). Yes, it is
something of that kind ... Well, I have to go back to talking about what I feel about the other
thing. It is ... I was not really called to give me same as ... as a auction. There is nothing
definitive ... It is one thing that perturbed me some times when I was forced to say to myself "I
don't like of humanity" and, even so, I knew that there was something positive. I was probably
right. E. .. maybe I'm now completely wrong, but it seems to me that this is connected in some
way with the ... with the feeling that I have, that the therapeutic value can be permanent. No,
now I can't connect, I cannot explain to me better.., well, that is to say that the process of
learning, the continuation of my achievement.., yes, you are interested in understanding
the situation created. It is as simple as that. I had never realized before. I could close the door
and me to leave and to talk about therapy say, yes, the therapist must have these or those
feelings, but, i mean, I would not have had the experience dinárnica.
In this part of the interview, in spite of the difficulty to try to translate their feelings, it
seems that what she is saying it is also characteristic of the attitude of the therapist to the client.
Their attitude, in the worst case, is devoid of this aspect of quidpro quo of most of the
experiments that we call love. It is quite simply the feeling that spurs one human being to
another, feeling that strikes me as even more important than the sexual instinct or the family
feelings. It is an interest by another large enough for that do not want to interfere in their

development or use it for selfish purposes. The satisfaction comes from the fact you left free to
grow in their own way.
Our customer explains then horn had been difficult for her in the last accept any help or
the positive feelings of others and how your attitude is changing. C: I feel.., that should make
things more or less alone, but it must also be able to do it with other people. (She mentions that
there was no wealth.s " circunstôncias in that could have accepted the .s'Impa tia and the
kindness of the.ç other.) I feel that I should be afraid that it would destroy me. ( It back the
queue of its relations with the therapist and their felt- nientos to with him.) to say that I should
open the way for myself. Almost up to ... parece-me ... that I tried to say in words in a certain
occasion ... a kind of ... sometimes I don't want to even if you formulate, did not want to reflect,
the thing was my. Of course, I can say that it was a resistance. But this does not mean that now
I worry about, that is to say.., perhaps in certain moments, in relation.., this particular thing ... I
had the strong feeling that I had, that is ii,ine. It was necessary that i desembaraçasse alone.
Understand'?
T: It is extremely difficult to express with precision by words and yet it seems to me that there is
a difference in relations which, starting from the feeling that "this is mine" , "I need it to me to do
it", "I will do it", etc. , it's a feeling a little different "I can let it be also".
C: Yes. Because.., well.., that is, will be what could be called the second volume. Finally,
because ... I'm still alone in the thing, but I'm not ... understands ... I am ...
T: Rum. Yes, this kind of paradox summarizes the situation, is it not?
C: is this.
T: In any case, there is a feeling, there is still.., any aspect of my experience that is my and this
is unavoidable and necessary. And yet, this is not the entire frame. In spite of everything you
can participate or show interest in the other and, in a way, this is new. C: Sym bols, This. It is as
if, as if things should be as well. I mean.., as it had to be. There ... there is a feeling that "this is
good". Therefore, this expresses well what I want to say, makes it more clear. I have the feeling
this ... this interest that you show on the subject, you are at the back, not very close, and I want
to open up a path for this thing, it is how to go cutting mato grosso and you also do the same.
don't feel embarrassed by following this path. I don't know. This does not make sense. That is to
say ...
T: Except that it has a very real sense of the appropriateness of this feeling that experience, isn't
it? C: Hum, hum.
No one can say that these sections depict the heart of the process of socialization? Find
out which one is not destroyed by if you accept the positive feelings that come from the other,
that it is not necessarily evil, that in reality "a person feels well" when you have someone with
you in the struggle to cope with life - this is perhaps one of the most profound learning
experiences that the individual may find, and whether or not therapy.
The Ms. Oak describes some aspects of the novelty and the non-verbal experience of at
the end of the 30th session.
C: I am having an experience of a new kind, a ... probably the only lesson that it is worth, a ... I
know that I am ... I have always said that I know does not help me here. What I want to say is
that the knowledge that I have gained I do not serve to help. However, it seems to me that the
learning process here was so dynamic, so a part of ... a part of everything, or is, for me, if I do
not take more than this, it is something that ... finally, surprise me if one day is able to expose in
the form of knowledge that here I have experienced.
T: In other words, what we learned was a completely different type and a much deeper level,
very vital, very real. And it was very important to you, but the question is this: can I form an
intellectual image clear from what has happened at this level of learning more profound?
C: Hmmm ... any thing as well.
Those wishing to apply to therapy calls laws of learning, extracted from storing syllables
without sense, would do well to consider this excerpt carefully. The learning as occurs in therapy
is something total, organísmico, often non-verbal, that you can follow or not the principles

governing the intellectual learning of data without importance and without any relationship with
the eu. This, however, is a digression.
Let us conclude this section by reviewing the essential aspects. It seems that It is
possible that one of the characteristics of deep therapy or significant is that the customer
discovers that it is not destructive admit fully in his own experience the positive feeling that
another person, the therapist, holds true in relation to him. Perhaps one of the reasons that
make this experience so difficult is that it involves primarily the acceptance of this sentiment: "I
am worthy of that love of me." this is the point that we will consider in the following section. For
the moment, it can be emphasized that this aspect of therapy is a living free and total of an
affective relationship that can be formulated in general terms as follows: "I cannot allow
someone worry me and I can accept fully without any reservation that interest. This lets me
recognize that I too am concerned and I'm deeply by others."
The affection in relation to himself
In the various articles and studies published on the therapy focused on the customer,
insisted on acceptance of themselves as being one of the directions and one of the results of
the therapy. We have established the fact that, in a psychotherapy successful, negative attitudes
to i decrease and positive attitudes are increasing. We measured the progressive increase in
the acceptance of themselves and we studied p Gçscimento correlative of the acceptance of the
other. But, the examiiiar these formulas and to compare them with our most recent cases, we
are left with the impression that they are not entirely accurate, The customer is not only accepts
- expression that can drag the connotation of a reluctant acceptance and without satisfaction of
the inevitable - but enough to love you truly. Not if trta of a presumption or a way to say: it is
more a quiet satisfaction to be who it is.
Ms. Oak perfectly illustrates this aspect in the thirty third interview. It is significant that this
interview if spend ten days after that in which it was able to admit, for the first time, that the
therapist is really interested in his case? Whatever our theories on this point, this fragment
reflects very well the quiet joy of being who we are, at the same time that the attitude of excuse
that, in our culture, people think that we should have in the face of an experience of this kind. In
the last few minutes of the interview, knowing that his time is coming to an end, she says.
C: One thing that bothers me.., I will be brief because I can at any time back to this ... a feeling
that I do not always do I repel, The feeling of being completely satisfied with myself. Again the
technical Q2. I came here once and impulsively I took my first card, "I am a personality
attractive"; I looked for the card with some dismay, but I was there, this is, honestly that was
exactly what I thought, finally, this annoyed me and now I understand what is happening. From
time to time, I have a good feeling, nothing more than, but precisely ... I don't know ... but I like
it. It is very clear. AND this annoyed me. However, admiro-me ... I rarely remember the things
that he has said here, but I wondered why it is that I was convinced and at the same time
reflected on what I felt, when hurt ... that is what I feel when I hear someone say to a child "do
not weep". Always thought: it is not right, if she cries is because it has a disgust, let it cry. Well,
that feeling of satisfaction that I have ... recently started to feel that it is ... something very
similar. E. .. we are not opposed to that children feel satisfied with themselves. It is ... that is to
say, it is not really vanity. E. .. maybe that people must feel.
T: You almost if rebuked by experience this feeling and, in spite of everything, goes further and
you can see the two aspects of reality: if a child has no desire to cry, why is that there is no
crying? AND if wants to feel satisfied with herself, you do not have the full right to feel satisfied
with herself? And it seems to be related to what you are saying, that seems to me to be an
assessment of itself that experience from time to time. C: Yes, yes.
T: "I'm really a person very rich and interesting."

C: Something similar to this. AND then I say to myself: "our society forces us to make laps and
the lost". AND I go back to my ideas about the children. Perhaps they are richer than us.
Perhaps we ... it was something that we lost when we grew up.
T: Perhaps they have a wisdom that we lost ...
C: this must be . Just my time.
It reaches this point, as many other customers, the achievement, hesitant and
embarrassed, that became like itself. enjoy, be happy with herself. We have the impression of a
spontaneous joy, free, a joie de vivre primitive, something analogous to titling of a kid in prado
or jumps cute a dolphin on the waves. Ms. Oak has the impression that it is a natural thing to
the body, to the newborn child, something that was lost during the process of our growth.
This case has already presented a precursor signal of this feeling, in an incident that
might make it more clear to its fundamental nature. The ninth interview, Ms. Oak reveals certain
embarrassment something that always kept for themselves. The fact that she had difficulty in
expressing it has been manifested by it have done precede the confession of a pause too long,
which lasted some minute..Then spoke:
C: You know, it is completely stupid, but I never said this to anyone ( laughs nervously) and this
will do me good. For years, perhaps since my youth, I was probably 17 years old, i felt what it
called to me same as 'ray of sanity".
I Never said istoa nobody (other laughter
embarrassed) and, however, in these moments, i felt perfectly healthy. AND very aware of life.
AND always with a terrible concern, and a great sadness, to see to what point Now in the way.
This is exactly the feeling that I have from time to time, I feel a person completely normal in a
world utterly chaotic.
T: This has been passenger and infrequent, but there are times when you think that your entire i
works and felt in the world, a world that is truly chaotic, let it be said in passing ...
C: is this. I mean, really know to what extent we are our own worst, as we are far from being
people who are completely healthy. AND, of course, does not speak in these terms. T: Do you
feel that it would be dangerous to speak of the person that sings in C: Where live this person?
T: AND almost as if there was no place for this person exists.
C: of course, you know, it makes me.., wait a moment ... this probably explains why it is that I
am here especially of feelings. This is without doubt.
T: Because their total person exists with all their feelings . Is more aware of their feelings, is this
not?
C: You are right. It is not, it does not reject the feelings and ... that's it.
T: This person total that you live the feelings instead of dust them to one side.
C: is this (pause). I suppose that from a practical point of view you could say that what it should
do is try to solve some problems, problems of the day-to-day. And yet ... what I am trying to do
is resolve, resolve something different, something that is great, it is very much more important
than the small day-to-day problems. Perhaps this summarize everything.
T: I wonder if deformarei his thought by saying that from a point of view utility you should spend
time thinking about specific problems. But it raises the question whether this is perhaps looking
for her i total and if this will not perhaps more important than the solution of the problems of dayto-day.
C: I think that's it. I think that yes, that is it. Must be without doubt what I wanted to say. If we
legitimately can meet these two experiences, and if we have reason to consider them typical,
we can then say that, both in the course of therapy as in brief experiences during the life, she
saw itself in a healthy way and satisfactory, as a total person and that worked well, and that this
experience occurs when she rejects their feelings, but the living.
At this point I seems to be an important truth and often neglected on the therapeutic
process. This operates in such a way as to allow the person an integral experience, and fully
aware of all their reactions, including their feelings and their emotions. When this occurs, the
individual feels a positive affection for himself, a true assessment of himself as a total unit in
operation, which represents one of the most important points of arrival of therapy.

The discovery that the center of the personality is positive
One of the concepts most revolutionary that stood out in our clinical experience was the
progressive recognition of the center more intimate part of human nature, the deeper layers of
your personality, the basis of their "nature animal", everything is naturally a good thing basically socialized, directed forward, rational and realistic.
This point of view is so alien to our current culture that I do not expect that it will be
accepted, and it is so revolutionary in suisimlicações that not \ 16-19be accepted without an indepth investigation. But, even if you resist the evidence, will be difficult to accept. The religion,
especially the Christian tradition protestant, permeated our culture the idea that man was
fundamentally sinful and that only a miracle can be canceled its sinful nature. In psychology,
Freud and his successors have demonstrated with convincing arguments that the id, the
fundamental nature and unconscious of man, consists in the first place by instincts that, if they
could speak, would lead to incest, murder and other crimes. The whole problem of therapy, as
this group sees it, is to know how to overcome these forces wild, in a healthy way and
constructive, rather than through the burdensome forms of neurosis. But it is accepted without
discussion the fact that man is basically irrational, asocial, destroyer of others and himself.
There are occasional protests. Maslow (1) vigorously defends the animal nature of man, noting
that the emotions anti-social - the hostility, envy, etc. resulting from the frustration of the
impulses deeper love, the safety of possession, which are in themselves desirable. Montagu (2)
supports the thesis that the cooperation, more than to fight, is the fundamental law of human
life. These solitary voices, however, are little heard. Overall, the opinion of professionals and
non-professionals is that the man, as it is in its basic nature, must be kept under control, covert,
or both things.
When I am addressing on the years I spent in clinical experience and research, I think
that it took too long to recognize the falsity of this popular concept and professional. I believe
that the reason for this lies in the fact that, in therapy, are constantly hostile feelings and antisocial, so that it is easy to get to the assumption that these feelings indicate the profound nature
and, therefore, the fundamental nature of man. Only little by little was taking evident that these
sentiments fierce and antisocial are neither the deepest nor the strongest and that the core of
the personality of the man is the body itself, which is essentially autopreservador and social.
To give a more specific meaning to this discussion, let us return to the case of Mrs. Oak.
Since it is dc a important aspect, I will mention some long passages of the recording of the
case, to illustrate this type of experience in which I base my previous statements. Perhaps these
extracts can illustrate the progressive opening of personality until it reaches its deepest layers.
It was the eighth interview that Ms. Oak raised the first defensive layer and has
uncovered a bitterness and a desire for revenge.
C: you know that in this area of, sexual disturbances, I had the impression that I am beginning
to discover that it is really very bitter. I ... I do not get myself ... I think that probably I have the
impression of a certain element of ... "HAVE been wrong" ( his voice is very tense and the throat
is contracted). I cover all of this very well, until you no longer worry about consciously. But I, I
was amazed to see that in practice, as dizer? ... of a kind of sublimation, which precisely by
below ... again words.., there is a kind of passive force is pas ... very passive, at the same time,
murderous .
T: so the feeling "I am really wrong. Recalquei and I pretended that I wasn t worried about and
that it was not important, but, fundamentally, there is a latent bitterness, but this and very, very
strong".
C: It is very strong. I ... i should know. It is incredibly powerful.
T: Almost as a force domination.
C: that rarely I am aware. Almost never ... As Well, the only thing that I am able to
describe is a kind of thing criminal, but without violence ... It is more like a feeling of wanting to

me avenge ... AND, of course, I'm going to get back, but I would like. Really I would like to take
revenge.
Up to here the usual explanation seems to fit perfectly. Ms. Oak managed to see beneath
the surface socially controlled his behavior, and he discovered a sense assassin of hatred and a
desire for revenge. It was only much later that she aprnfundou to exploit this particular feeling.
Incorporates the theme in the thirty first interview of therapy. Had a very hard start, felt
emotionally blocked and could not capture the feeling that it was accumulating.
C: I have the impression that it is not your fault (pause; cries). It is clear, that is to say, I am not
yet
Able to express it in words. (After a starter of emotion) That made me a terrible evil !
T: Rum.
There is no blame except in this sense that you have suffered in some way a blow.
C: (Crying) is that ... you know ... blamed me many times, but later, when I heard some parents
tell their children "stop crying", that impressed me, it made me ill, well, why is it that they say to
stop crying? Hesitated for themselves and who has more reasons to sympathize with himself
than the child? It is as if ... say ... I thought that they should leave the children cry. E. .. might
also have pity for her. The most objective way. Because ... this is. is a thing of this kind that I
have ever tasted. I mean, now ... just now. AND in ... in ...
T: Describes a little better the flavor of this sentiment: it is almost as if weeping really by itself.
C: Yes, this is it. AND as you can see, back to a conflict. Our culture is so that ... that is to say,
we must not have compassion for ourselves. But perhaps this ... it seems to me that this has not
fully this sense. It may be that yes.
T: It seems to think that there is a cultural objection that prevents them from feeling pity for
herself. AND, however, feels that the feeling that experience is in no way that the culture
prohibits.
C: AND, of course, I ended up ... see and feel that all of this, you know ... cover all
this (chora). But the mask with great bitterness and then, in turn, had to conceal this
bitterness. (Crying) was what I wanted to get rid. Almost no worries me if I do suffer.
T: (Gently and with tenderness in the face of pain that your customer is experiencing) You feel
that here, on the basis of its experience, there is a feeling of crying really by itself. But you
cannot show, should not show, and therefore covered him with a mantle of bitterness that it
does not like and that if I wanted to get rid. Has the impression that great outdoors than
absorbing the suffering, the ... to feel bitterness (pause). I say with great force: I suffer and I
tried to cover it.
C: I didn't know that.
T: Hmmm. It is really like a new discovery.
C: (Speaking at the same time) Really I never knew this. But ... you know, it is almost a physical
thing. It is ... it is as if you looked inside myself and saw all kinds of ... nerve endings and pieces
of things like crushed (chora).
T: As if some of the more delicate aspects of his person physically had been crushed or
wounded.
C: Yes. You know, I have the feeling that I am da Coitadinha thus finds itself (pause).
T: It is precisely because I couldn't help but feel a great pity for the person who is.
C: Do not think that has sorrow about the whole person; it is a particular aspect of the
thing. T: Disgusted to see this wound.
C: Yes.
T: Rum. Rum.
C: AND it is clear that there is this cursed bitterness that I want to get rid. It.., it causes me
disturbances. Because it is a strange thing, it makes me do strange things (pause).
T: It would seem that this bitterness is something that we wanted to get rid because he feels that
it does not do well.
C: (Chora. A long silence) I do not know . It seems to me that I am right in thinking: would gain
something to draw this guilt'? .Sçorraçar things that would make me a clinical case interesting,

let's say. That is why I would'? I have the impression that ... that the key, the reality, is the
feeling that experiment.
T: could find urn label and do everything to find it, but feels that the situation is the type of
experience that estájustarnente having here.
C: is this even. I mean, if ... I don't know what will happen to this feeling. Perhaps nothing
happens. Don't know, but it seems to me that what I could understand is part of the feeling of
having been injured ... not have importance the name that if you der (pause). Then I ... you can't
go ... so with a wound so exposed. That is to say that it seems to me that the next step in the
process should be a kind of cure.
T: It seems that cannot expose themselves as a part of itself is so wound and then asks for that
first heal the wound (pause).
C: AND, yet, you know ... it is a funny thing (pause). This saa horn the assertion of complete
confusion or the old mantra that the neurotic does not want to renounce to their symptoms. But
this is not true. That is to say, it is not true in this case, but it is ... I hope only that the light to
understand what I feel. I do not mind being wound. I mean, it occurs to me that the idea that this
does not worry me much. AND a ... what worries me the most ... this feeling of bitterness that is,
I know, the cause of this frustration, i mean.., it is more important to me.
T: is that? Although it does not enjoy the wound, feels however that can accept this fact. AND
bearable. But are things that used this wound, horn the bitterness, for example, that it is
precisely at this time cannot support.
C: Yes. It is precisely this. Well, it is as if, it seems to me, as if it were, well, something with
which I can deal. But the feeling of, well, even though I can still take advantage of life. But this
other thing, that is to say, this frustration ... this is, arrives in ways so different, I am beginning to
understand, isn't it? That is to say, it is precisely this sort of thing.
T: AND a wound you can accept. It is part of life in exactly the same way as so many other
things. You can make many things. But to have his whole life steeped in frustration and
bitterness, that you do not want and have now more aware of it.
C: Yes. AND now you can't disguise. You understand, I am much more aware ( pause ). Don't
know. Precisely at this moment, I do not know what will be the next step. Don't really
know (pause). Fortunately, this is a kind of development, and for this reason ... we don't have a
great influence on me.., i mean ... what I am trying to say is that, I believe, still it. I can still have
fun and ...
T: either precisely that I learn that in many things continues to live as they have always lived.
C: Exactly (pause). Oh, I have to stop and go.
This long passage, we saw clearly that, under the bitterness, the hatred, the desire to be
successful in a world that he smote, there is a feeling much less anti-social, the deep
experience of having been hurt. AND it is also clear that, in this profound level, do not have any
desire to put into practice their feelings criminals. She hates and would like to get rid of them.
The next excerpt was taken from the 34th interview. It is a very inconsistent, as are often
the verbal translations, when an individual seeks to express something deeply emotive. She
tries to come here in the depths of itself. He says that will be dificii to express themselves.
C: I do not know if I will be able to talk about it or not. I am going to try. Anything ... that is to
say, it is a sentiment .., that ... a kind of need to put out. I know that there is nothing that will
make sense. I think that perhaps we will put out a little, well, let's say, take this a little more
objective, this will be a most helpful thing for me. AND i don't know how ... i mean, it seems to
me that what I want to say, that what I want is to talk about myself . Of course that was what I
did during the whole time. But, no, this ... is my i. I have recently realized that rejected certain
statements because they seem to me ... it's not exactly what I want to say, I looked a little too
idealized. This is, I can remember always to say that this is more selfish than that. Finally ... I
have the idea to head beginning to see, yes, I wanted to say exactly that, but the selfishness of
which I speak has a completely different meaning. Vines using a term: "selfishness". I had then
the feeling ... I have never spoken of this before, of selfishness ... which means nothing. I will

continue speaking. A kind of pulsation. AND it was something conscious, permanent. AND still
is. AND I would like to be able to use it, too ... as a kind of fall for this thing. It is understood, it is
as if ... I don't know ... now balls! Won in a way something and a kind of familiarity with this
structure. As if the taste of color. It is a decision of conscience. Say ... a feeling of not having
been wrong, not have been engaged in there, not to be dragged into the thing, and a critical
sense of knowledge. But, in a way, because it is a thing hidden, can not be part of every day life.
AND, on the other hand, in certain moments, I have a feeling very unpleasant, but, at other
times, I have not so bad. AND why? I think that I know. AND this.., I also explains many things. It
is ... something that is completely devoid of hatred. I want to just say completely. Not with love,
but totally without hatred. But it is something exciting, also.., I think that maybe I am the type of
person that ... that is to say, perhaps likes to torment or that seeks to understand the things up
to the fund, that tries to see the set. AND I said to myself, now see, is a type of strong feeling
that you have. It is not constant. However you feel some times and when you can feel it, you
feel. You know, there are terms for this kind of thing in psychopathology. Perhaps this could be a
feeling that attaches conveys things on which everyone reads, That is to say, there are
elements.., that is to say, this pulsation, this excitement, this knowledge. AND i said.., I
understood one thing, that is to say, I was very, very strong, as I would say.., a sublimation of
the sexual instinct. Then I thought, well this is it. Had really solved the problem. There was
nothing but this. AND for a while I was very pleased with myself. Was this. And then I had to
admit that no, that was not so. Because there was something that I had a very long time before
it has been so frustrated sexually, That is to say, it was not.., but here", I started to see a little, in
the heart of the matter, an acceptance of sexual relations, the only kind that I thought that would
be possible. I was in this thing. None of this had been, ., that is to say, there had been no
sublimation or replacing the sexual instinct, No, In that I know.., is another type of sexual feeling,
I'm sure, That is to say, stripped of everything that is associated with the sex life, if you know
what I say. There was No search, nor persecution, neither fight nor.., well, any kind of hatred, as
it seems to me usually in these things, AND, however, this feeling was, without doubt, a little
disturbing.
T: I would like to see if I can capture something of what this means to you. It is as if he had
made the experience of itself in depth, a objective knowledge and, in this sense, if I had taken
more selfish * , and the notion of reality". in the discovery of which is the center of itself, as a
thing separate from all the other aspects, you arrive at the perception, which is a very profound
and exciting, in that the center of i is not only the absence of hatred, but it is really something
more akin to a holy, something really very pure, this is the term that I would like to employ. AND
you could try to denigrate. You can say that it may be a sublimation, perhaps a demonstration
duck- logic, a expiry, and so on. But inside of you, you know that that is not. This experience
brings feelings that could lead to a rich sexual expression, but it is broader than this and actually
more profound. AND, however, is entirely susceptible to include everything that is part of sexual
expression.
C: is probably something like this ... It is a kind of ... that is to say, a kind of descent. It goes
down when you could judge which should raise, but not ... I'm sure, is a kind of descent.
T: IT IS quáse unia descent and a dip in itself.
C: Yes. AND i ... I can't just throw it away. It seems that this is, oh, it is precisely this. It seems to
me something extremely important that I simply had to say. T: I will return one of your ideas to
see if I understand. It seems like you're exprimindq the idea that should capture something that
is not yet completely. Although the feeling exists, is a descent to capture something more
profound.
C: is this. Really ... there is something about it.., that is to say ... I have a path, and it is clear
that sometimes we are going to go about it, rejecting almost violently everything that is virtuous,
reject the ideal, the ... as ... and this expresses it; that is to say, it is a thing so I want to say. A
person rises to, I do not know. I mean, I am just a feeling, I am not able to follow. I mean, this is
not very strong if we started to overturn it. But, I wonder why I am truly the printing down.

T: it is not up to an ideal fragile. It is penetrating something that is amazingly real, solid, that ...
C: Yes.
T: ... that is truly more amazing that ...
C: Yes. That is to say, something that cannot be overcome. IS this ... I don't know.., seems to
me to be that way after you have explained everything. This lasts ...
All of this has been presented in a confusing manner, but it may be worthwhile to highlight
the different themes that were expressed: I'm going to talk to me same as ego -ísta, but with a
different connotation of the word. I won a familiarity with my own structure, know me deeply.
The down within myself, I discover something very interesting, a center completely
devoid of hatred. This may not be a part of every day life ... perhaps even abnormal.
I thought at first that it was simply a sublimation of the sexual instinct. But no, is broader,
more profound than the sex.
You could have thought that it was the kind of things that we discover the climb the fragile
kingdom of ideals. But, now, I have discovered that it is a descent into deep inside of myself. It
seems to me to be something essential, that remains.
Will be a mystical experience that she is describing? You could think that this is the
impression of the therapist, by the tone of your responses. We can assign any significance to
this type of expression to the way to Gertrud Stein? The author simply wanted to point out that
many customers eventually reach a similar conclusion about themselves, although not always
had if expressed with so much emotion. Even Ms. Oak, in an interview following the 30th fifth,
gives a clearer version and more concise in their prints, under a more realistic way. Also
explains why it is that it was an experience difficult to deal with.
C: I think that I am tremendously pleased to find or have been carried out or have to talk about
me. That is to say, is something very personal, very private, on which no one speaks. I can now
understand my feeling of oh, a slight seizure. It is ... well, it is as if I reject precisely everything
that represents the western civilisation, understand? To ask myself if I was right, that is to say, if
I was on the right path, and felt at the same time that he had, in spite of everything, reason. It
was obvious that there was a conflict. AND now this, i mean, now I have this impression, as
well, that is of course how I feel. To say that this is one thing ... what I call a lack of hatred,
which is very real. This makes itself felt at what I do, I believe in ... I think that is right. It is as if I
was saying to myself: well, tried to fill my head, since always, with superstition,
taboos, doctrines and laws poorly understood, and its science, its refrigerators, their atomic
bombs. But I will not do so; considers,. i.. the thing did not work. I think that what I am saying is
that, well, I am not I have reconciled, and is ... well, it is precisely that.
T: Do you feel at the moment that had a high level of awareness of all cultural pressures.., not
always very conscious, but "there were so many in my viqa and now climb down more deeply
into myself to know what I feel I am truly" and it seems to me that now is very far from their
civilization and this causes a certain fear, but is at the same time fundamentally good. IS this ...
C: Yes. Well, at this moment I feel that everything is ok, really ... There is still something else ...
a feeling that begins to grow; well, that is almost formed. A kind of conclusion, which I will leave
to find something terribly wrong. I do not know why. But, I want to say, precisely ... is this type of
thing. I am almost saying to myself what I know, what i found.., I am almost sure that I
desembaracei of fear and I am certain that it will not be afraid have a shock.. it until it would be
welcome. But, since the places I've been, what I have learned, it is also necessary to consider
what I do not know, it is a discovery that will mark a date in my life. MEANS?
AND now, without any kind of apology or attempt to concealment, I am simply saying that
I am not able to find what now seems to be bad.
T: it is surprised with this? TO THE extent that it is going down ever more deeply into itself and
is thinking about the things that you have learned and discovered, it becomes increasingly
strong conviction that, by further to go, you will find bad things and terrible. They have a
character very different.
C: Yes, it is something of this kind.

At this point, while recognizing that its printing goes against what teaches its culture, feels
compelled to say that the future of itself is not bad, nor terribly bad, but it is a good thing. Under
the layer of a superficial behavior controlled, under the bitterness and suffering is an I that is
positive and that does not feel hatred. I believe that that is the lesson that our customers teach
us for a long time and we only belatedly learned.
If the absence of hatred seems to be more a concept neutral or negative, perhaps we
should leave the Ms. Oak explain its meaning. In its 39th interview, as he feels that is near the
end of the therapy, back to refer to this aspect.
C: I wonder if I should clarify.., it is clear to me, and perhaps that is what really matters here, my
strong impression on an attitude without hatred. Now that we are operating in a rational field, I
know ... this seems to be negative. AND yet, in my way of thinking, in my.., not really thinking,
but in my way of thinking, and also to think about, yes to think, too, it is something much more
positive than this ... than the love.., and to me it seems easier to achieve, much less
cumbersome. But.., I understand that should equate to a total rejection of many things, many
beliefs, it is perhaps true. Don't know. But it seems to me more positive.
T: are you able to see how this might seem more negative for someone outside but, for you,
does not seem so restricted and so possessive, I believe, as the love. It is as if it could take the
most varied aspects, be more useful than ...
C: Yes.
T: ... any of these terms more restricted.
C: AND as I believe it is. It is easier. Well, in any case, it is easier for me to be this way. And I do
not know. It seems to me that it is as if I had found a place where one is not forced to reward
and where is obliged to punish. It is ... very important. It seems to me precisely be experiencing
a kind of freedom.
T: Rum. Rum. When it is free of the need to reward or punish, they all seem to become more
free.
C: AND this (pause). I am prepared for some depressions along the way. T: is
not waiting that everything goes by itself.
C: not.
This section is history - very briefly - the discovery made by a customer of that, the more
cavava itself, less had to fear; that instead of discovering something terribly wrong, I discovered
gradually a center of his that I did not want to either reward or punish others, an i without hatred,
one I deeply socialised. Do we have to generalize from this type of experience and say that, if
Faced with until our nature organísmica, you will reach the conclusion that the man is a positive
animal and social? This is the suggestion that gives us our clinical experience.
Be your own body, your own experience
The thread that runs through almost all of the material submitted in this chapter is that the
psychotherapy (at least one customer-centric) is a process by which a man becomes his own
body - without deformation, without any illusions about himself. What does this mean ?
Here We are talking about something that is at the level of the ex- words and that, if it is only
perceived in verbal level, will, therefore, deformed. Perhaps, if we deploy various descriptive
formulas, we will have an echo, by weak it may be, in the experience of the reader that the mild
to say: "Ah, now I understand. from my own experience, what he means".
The therapy seems to be a return to sensory perceptions and visceral experience. Before
therapy, the individual is led to ask himself, many times without any intention: 'what other people
think that I should do in this situation? ", "what is that my parents or my culture claim that I do? ",
"what is that I think that it is necessary to do? ". The individual acts thus constantly according to
the forms that would be imposed on your behavior. This does not necessarily mean that it
always act in accordance with the opinions of others. On the contrary, the individual may seek to
act in such a way as to contradict what others expect of him. He acts however

always depending on what others expect (often reacts to expectations introjected other). During
the therapeutic process, the individual has to ask himself, the purpose of areas increasingly
broader of their experience: "How is it that I vivencio this? ", "what does that mean for me? ", "If
I composed dc determined way, how is that I simbolizo meaning it will have for me? ". He has
just come to a way of acting on the basis of what could be called a realism - realism that
oscillates between the satisfactions and dissatisfactions that its action to bring to you.
Might help those who, like me, have a tendency to think in concrete terms and clinicians,
to outline some of those ideas that makes the process experienced by the patient. For one, so
you may want to say: "I thought that it should not only have love for my parents, but I discovered
that I felt at the same time love and a bitter resentment. I may be a person able to feel freely
both things, love and resentment". For another client, the learning can be: experience, a
phenomenon that does not translate easily into "I thought it was just bad and without value.
Now, I sometimes have the impression of having much value; other times I think that I am not
very value nor very useful. Maybe I am a person that has a variable experience worth". For
another: "I thought that no one could really love me by myself. Now I feel the affection
of another person for me. Maybe I am a person that can be loved by the other, but perhaps I
am this person". For another: "taught me to feel that it should not enjoy myself, but I
appreciate. Can I cry by myself, but I can also rejoice with me. Maybe I am a rich personality
that can feel at the same time joy and sorrow". Or to resume the example of Ms. Oak: "I
thought that was fundamentally bad and that my deepest aspects were terrible. Not vivencio
these aspects as being evil, but, on the contrary, as a positive desire to live and let live. Perhaps
I could be a person that is, the fund, positive". What makes all this possible that follows the first
part of these formulations? It is the accumulation of taken of conscience. In therapy, the person
adds to the experience the ordinary integral consciousness and not distorted their experience their reactions seisoriais and visceral. The individual is no longer deform, or at least diminishes
the conscience distorted that has some of their experiences. You can be aware of what is really
experiencing, not simply what it allows you to experience after having passed through a
conceptual filter. In this sense, the person becomes for the first time the full potential of the
human body, with the enriching of conscience freely added to the fundamental aspect of
sensory reactions and visceral. The person becomes what it is, how the customer says with so
much frequency during therapy. What this seems to indicate is that the individual becomes - in
his conscience what is - in experience. The individual is, in other words, a human body
complete and in full operation.
Already feeling the reactions of some of my readers: "to say that the result of the therapy
is just take the man a human body , a human animal ? Who will monitor? Who the socializará?
He will reject all their inhibitions? Have been simply released the beast, the id, the man? ". The
most appropriate response seems to be this: "The therapy the individual becomes truly a
human body, with all the riches that this implies. He is really able to control himself and is
irredeemably socialized in his desires. AND this is not the beast of man. There is Only man in
man, and it was this that we have been able to release".
In this way, the fundamental discovery of psychotherapy seems to me to be that, if our
observations have some validity, we should not fear being "only" Homo sapiens. It is a discovery
that, if we can add to the experience and visceral sensory, which characterizes the entire animal
kingdom, the gift of awareness free and non-deforming arthropathy of which only the human
being seems to be fully capable, then we have a body, that is perfect and constructively realistic.
Then we will have a body aware of the requirements of the culture as well as of their own
physiological needs of power or of sexual satisfaction - also aware of their need for relations of
friendship as his desire for personal advancement, conscious of his tenderness delicate and
sensitive in relation to the other, as their feelings of hostility. When this unique ability to be
conscious of the fact that the man has works in this way free and integral, we see that we have
before us, is not an animal that we have to fear, not a beast that must be monitored, but a body
capable of achieving, thanks to the remarkable integrative ability of your central nervous

system, a behavior balanced, realistic, valuing himself and valuing the other, behavior that is the
result of all these elements of consciousness. To express the same thing in other words, when
the man is less than a whole man, when he refuses to be aware of the various aspects of their
experience, we have in this case, in fact, all the reasons for receálo and fear your behavior, as
demonstrated by the current situation of the world. But when he is fully man, when it is a full
body, when the conscience of their experience, this attribute specifically human, fully functional,
we can have confidence in him, his behavior is so constructive. Not always will be conventional.
Will be individualized. But it will also be socialized.
For complete
I have explained the preceding section as strongly as I could because it represents a
profound conviction born of many years of experience. I am, however, fully aware of the
difference between belief and truth. Not asking anyone to agree with my experience, I would
only ask that check whether the formulations made here are in agreement with the experience
of each one.
Also do not apologize by speculative nature of this chapter. There is a time for
speculation, as there is a time for the filtering of the facts. It may be expected that little by little
some of speculation, opinions and suggestions clinics of this chapter may be subject to a final
proof and operational.
References
1.
Maslow, A. H. "Our maligned animal nature", Jour. ofFsvc1 nl., 1949, 28, pp. 273-278.
2.
Montagu, A. On Being Human, New York, Henry Schuman, Inc. , 1950. 3. Rogers, C. R.
- Client-Centered Therapv, Houghton Mifflin Co. , 1951, ch. IV. "The Process ofTherapy".
Chapter 6
What it means to become person
This chapter was first developed as a lecture in a meeting at Oberlin Coliege in 1954. I
was trying to enhance defàrma more fully organized
Some of the conceptions of therapy that has been developed in me. Pmcedi a slight revision.
As usual, I was trying to keep my pensamentopróximo to the bases of the actual experience in
therapeutic interviews, deforms that resorted to a large part of the recorded interviews as /bnte
of generalizations that I did.
In my work in Counselling Center of the University of Chicago, I had the opportunity to
work with people who have a wide range of personal problems. There is the student concerned
to repeat the year; a housewife troubled about your marriage; the indivídpo that feels that he is
on the verge of a complete collapse emociomfl or psychosis; the responsible professional who
consumes the greater part of his time in sexual fantasies and works of inefficient way in his
work; the brilliant student, the first of the class, which is paralyzed by the conviction that it is
hopelessly and impotentemente inadequate; parents who have been disturbed by the behavior
of his son; the girl popular that if you see inexpli cavelmente taken by trances treble of
depression black; the woman who fears that the life and the love pass away from it, and that its
notes of Graduation constitute a low reward; the man who has become convinced that sinister
forces and powerful are armando a plot against him. I could continue listing the problems more
various and unique that people bring us. They cover the full range of life experiences. Even so,
there is no satisfaction in providing this type of catalog, as therapist, I know that the problem as

stated in the first interview is not the problem as seen in the second or third session, and around
the tenth interview is still a different problem or series of problems.
However, I have come to believe that despite this multiplicity horizontal disconcerting, and
layer after layer of complexity vertical, there is perhaps only one problem. As I accompany the
experience many customers in therapeutic relationship we strive to create, it seems to me that
each one is raising the same issue. Below the level of situaçãoproblema on which the individual
is complaining behind the problem with the studies, or wife, or boss, or with your own
uncontrolled behavior or bizarre, or with their feelings scary, is a central search. It seems to me
that basically each person is asking: "Who am I, really? How can I get in contact with this I real,
underlying the whole my superficial behavior? How can I take myself?"
Behind the mask
Let me try to explain what I mean when I say that it seems that the goal that the individual
more seeks to achieve, the order that he intentionally or unconsciously crave, is to become
himself.
When a person seeks me, disturbed by its unique combination of difficulties, I be very
valid ,try to create a relationship with it in which is safe and free. AND my purpose understand
the way you feel in your own inner world, accept it as it is, to create an atmosphere of freedom
in which it can move, to think, feel and be, in any direction you want. As she uses this freedom?
In my experience, the person uses to take ever more herself. Begins to break down the false
fronts, or masks, or the papers, with which she faced life. Seems to be trying to discover
something more basic, something more truly itself. First, puts aside masks, which to some
extent is aware that it is using. A young student describes in an interview advice of the masks
that had been using, and as wasn't sure if, under this forward peaceful, pleasant, there would be
some i with real convictions.
I was thinking about this topic of standards. Somehow I developed a kind of way, I do
think - and a habit of trying to make people feel comfortable around me, or make things run
smoothly. Always there has to be some appeasing close by, the type hot cloths. In a small
meeting, or a party, or something I could to help things progress satisfactorily in a pleasant way
and seem to be having fun. AND, some times, I would be surprised by attacking an idea that
really believed when track that the person involved would be very unhappy if I didn't do it. In
other words, I simply was not ever - I mean, I don't track never being clear and defined with
respect to the things. Now why did it was probably by doing both this at home. I simply do not
defended my own convictions, even don't know if I have any convictions to defend. I have really
not been honestly myself, or in fact I have known who is my real, and I am simply playing a type
of false paper.
You can, in this excerpt, see it by looking at the mask that had been using, recognizing its
dissatisfaction with the same, and to find out how to get to the true self that is underneath, if
such i exists.
In the attempt to discover its own i, the client typically uses the relationship to explore,
examine the various aspects of their experience, to recognize and confront the deep
contradictions that often discovers. Learn how much of their behavior, even the feelings that vitriumphed, is not real, it is not something that flows of genuine reactions to your body, but it is a
facade, a front, behind which is hiding. Find out how much your life is guided by what he thinks
he should be, and not for what it is. Frequently discovers that he exists only in response to the
demands of the other, which seems to have no myself, and that is only trying to think and feel
and behave according cofn-n\w ay that others believe that should think about, and feel and
behave.
In this matter, I am always amazed to see how accurately the Danish philosopher, Soren
Kierkegaard, illustrated the dilemma of the individual for more than a century, with
a psychological insight scribe. He observes that the despair more common is being desperate

for not choosing, or not being willing to be himself; however, the most profound form of despair
is to choose "be another person who does not himself". On the other hand "want to be the one
I that really is, is in fact the opposite of despair", and this choice is the most profound
responsibility of man. As I read some of his writings, almost that I feel that he has been listening
to some of the statements made by our customers to seek and explore the reality of the i - often
a search painful and disturbing.
This operation becomes even more disturbing when they are involved in removing the
false faces that knew not be false faces. Begin to join the daunting task of exploring the feelings
turbulent and sometimes violent within itself. Remove a mask that believed constitute part of
your true self can be an experience deeply disturbing, but when there is freedom to think, feel
and be, the individual back to the target. Some statements of a person who had completed a
series of interviews psychotherapeutic illustrate this. It makes use of many metaphors to count
as he struggled to get to the essence of itself.
As I see it today, was peeling off layer after layer of defenses. I build, the experienced
and then the discounted when remained the same. I didn't know what was in the background
and was very afraid to discover, but I had to keep trying. First I felt that there was nothing inside
of me only a great void where I needed and wanted a solid core. Then I started to feel that I was
in front of a wall of solid bricks, too high to climb and too thick to pass through. One day the wall
became translucent, instead of solid. After that, the wall seemed to dissipate, but behind it, I
discovered a pond that waters represava violent and turbulent. I felt as if I were holding the
force of these waters and that, if I opened a little hole, i and all that was around me would be
destroyed in torrent that, feelings represented by water that would follow. Finally I could not
support the effort and I was flowing. Everything I did , in fact, was succumb will pity feelings,
then the hatred and then to love complete and absolute. After this experience, I felt as if we had
jumped a margin and I found the except from the other side, although still cambaleasse a little at
his bedside. Don't know what I was looking for or where I drove, but I felt then as always felt
every time that really lived, that I was moving forward.
I believe that this represents very well the feeling of many individuals that if forward false,
the wall, the dam, are not maintained, then everything will be dragged in the violence of the
feelings that he discovers are enclosed in your private world. However, it also illustrates the
urgent need that the individual feels is to find himself and to become himself. This also begins to
indicate the way in which the individual determines the reality in itself - when he experience fully
the feelings that it is a organic level, in the same way that this client felt pity feelings, hatred
and love, then he's sure that it's being a part of your i real.
The experience of feeling
I would like to say something more about this experience of feeling. Is It really the
discovery of unknown factors of i. The phenomenon that I am trying to describe is something
that I find it rather difficult to be transmitted in a way that makes sense. In our daily lives, a
thousand and one reasons for which we do not .detxemos experience our attitudes fully,
reasons from our past and present, reasons that reside in social situation. Experienciá them free
and fully seem dangerous, potentially harmful. However, the security and freedom .the
therapeutic relationship, they can be experienced fully, of course within limits of what they
are. They can be and are experienced in a way that I like to imagine how a "pure culture", so
that at the moment the person is his fear, or is their anger, or is its tenderness, or whatever it
may be. You might be able to again clarify this by providing an example of a client that will
indicate and send what I want to say. A young man, a graduate student who is deeply involved
in therapy, has been trying to decipher a vague feeling that realizes in himself. He gradually
identifies it as a frightening feeling of some kind, a fear of failure, a fear of not getting your PhD.
Then comes a long pause. From this point onwards we will let the recorded interview speaks for
itself.

Customer: I was like giving a time to assimilate it. But I called this fact to you and to my
relationship with you. AND one thing that I feel about it is a type of fear that go though; or this is
another thing is so difficult to understand - it is as if there are two conflicting feelings. Or two
"selves" in some way. One is the i terrified that want to stick to things, and this I think I can feel
quite clearly in this exact moment. You know, I like that I need things to me stick and I feel
frightened. Therapist: M-hm. This is something that you can feel at this exact minute, and has
been feeling and might be feeling with respect to our relationship also.
C: will you not me would have this, because, you know, I like that need that. I am so lonely and
frightened without this.
T: M-hm, m-hm. Let I support it because it would be terribly frightened if it did not do so. Let
me stick to it. (Pause.)
C: It is almost the same thing - will you not leave me have my thesis or PhD for that ... I like that
I need this small world. I would like to say..
T: In both examples is a thing means supplicant also, isn't it? Let me have it because I
need very appropriate. I would be terribly scared without this. (Long pause)
C: I feel that ... I can't somehow go beyond ... This is the kind of little boy supplicant, in some
way, even ... What is this gesture of entreaty? ( Joining your hands as if you were praying.) isn't
it funny? As this.
T: You joined their hands in a kind of prayer.
C: Yes, this is it! Will you do that for me, as that ... Oh, this is terrible! Who, I ask ?
Perhaps this excerpt to convey a little of what I am talking about, the experience of a
feeling to its limit. Here it is, for a moment, experiencing itself as anything other than garotinho
supplicant, subrogation can, implorador, dependent. At this time it is nothing more than his
supplication, until the end.
To make sure he almost immediately departs from such experience to say "Who, I
implore ? ", but the fact has already made its mark. As shortly afterwards: "It is something so
amazing that all of these new things arise in me. I am therefore surprised both at each time, and
then again there is this same feeling, as if I felt frightened that has both what I am storing them
or something like that." He gives an account of it overflowed, and that for a moment he is its
dependence, in a form that the perplexed.
It is not only the dependence that is experienced without reservations. Can be sorrow, or
grief, or envy, or destructive rage, or deep desire or confidence and pride, or tenderness
sensitive, or love outgoing. Can be any of the emotions of which man is capable.
What I have learned gradually from experiences such as this, is that the indivíd at a time
such as this, is coming to be what it is: When a person they experienced in this way, throughout
the treatment , all the emotions that organismicamente outcrop in it, having them experienced
this way aware and open, then she experienced herself, in all the wealth which exists within
itself. It became what it is.
The discovery of self in experience
Let us even more in this issue of what it means to become your own ego. It is a question
too disconcerting, and again I will try to get a suggestion of response from the declaration of a
client, written between interviews. She tells us about how the various facades through which
was living, is in a way amarfanharam and collapsed, bringing a feeling of confusion, but also a
feeling of relief. She continues: You know, it is as if all the energy that is applied to the
maintenance of arbitrary standard was unnecessary, a waste of money. You think you have to
make the pattern by itself; but there are so many pieces, and is so difficult see where you fit.
Sometimes, you put them in the wrong place, and the more pieces unseated, more effort is
spent to keep them in place, until finally you ve so tired that even messy horrible is better than
continue for a longer time. Then you find out that delivered them the pieces scrambled fall well
naturally in their own seats, and a living standard emerges without any effort on our part. Their

task is only discover this, and in doing so, you will find yourself and your own place. You must
up to let your own experience you reveal your own direction; at the time you reveal what it
means, you goes to war with himself.
Let me see if I can take his poetic expression and translate it in the sense that it holds for
me. I believe that what she is saying is that be it means you find the pattern, the underlying
order that exists in the flow ceaselessly changing your experience. Instead of trying to sustain
their experience in the form of a mask, or make it a form or structure that is not, be it means
discovering the unity and harmony that exists in their own feelings and reactions. This means
that the true self is something that is discovered smoothly through their own experience, and not
something imposed on this.
To provide excerpts of statements of these customers, I am trying to suggest what
happens in an atmosphere of affection and understanding of a facilitative relationship with the
therapist. It seems that gradually, painfully, the individual explores what is behind the masks that
presents itself to the world, and even behind the masks with which is deceiving. A profound and
often vivid, he experience the various elements of himself that were hidden within him. In this
way, more and more it becomes himself - not a facade of conformity to the other, not a cynical
denial of all feelings, nor a front of intellectual rationality, but a living process that breathes, feels
and swings - in short, it takes a person.
The person that touches on
I imagine that some of you are asking: "But that tlpo of person he takes? It is not enough
to say that he drops the facades. What kind of person is underneath? ". As one of the most
obvious is that each individual tends to become a person separate, distinct and unique, the
answer is not easy. However, I would like to highlight some of the trends that I have noticed. No
person exemplificaria fully these characteristics, nobody conforms completely to the
description that will give you, but I see that certain generalizations can be made, based on
experience of a relaçãoterapeutica with many customers.
Openness to experience
First I would like to say that in this process the individual becomes more open to their
experience. This is a phrase that came to become fruitful in meaning for me. It is the opposite of
defense. The psychological research has shown that if the evidence of our senses is in
opposition to our image of i, then the evidence is distorted. In other words, we cannot see all
that our senses report, but only the things that fit the image that we have.
Already in a safe relation of the type I have described, this defense or stiffness tends to
be replaced by an ever greater openness to the experience. The individual takes more openly
aware of their own feelings and attitudes as they exist in him at an organic level, as I have tried
to describe. Also if takes more aware of reality as it exists outside of himself, instead of
perceives it in preconceived categories. He sees that not all trees are green, not all men are
parents rigid, not all women are rejeitadoras, not all experiences of failure proves that he is not
good, and so on. Is able to assimilate the evidence in a new situation, horn it is, rather than
distort it to fit to the standard that he already sustains. As you would expect, this growing
capacity to be open to experience the takes much more realistic when dealing with our new
people, new situations, new problems. This means that their beliefs are not rigid, it can tolerate
ambiguity. He can get the evidence more conflicting without this force to close to the situation.
This opening of awareness to what exists in this mornento itself rnesrno and the situation is, I
believe, an important element in the description of the person that emerges from the therapy.
Perhaps you could give this concept a meaning more vivid if the illustrate from a recorded
interview. A young professional reports in the forty-eighth interview how took more open to some
of their bodily sensations, as well as other feelings.

C: I do not seem to be possible for anyone reporting all changes that feels. But I certainly have
a sense in recent times that I have more respect for my physical constitution, more objectivity
with respect to this. I would like to say that do not expect too much of myself. It works like this: it
seems to me that in the past he used to fight against a certain weariness that felt after meals.
Well, now I have full confidence that really I'm tired - of that I'm not doing tired - I am simply
physiologically weaker. It seems that I was constantly criticising my tiredness. T: Then you will
no longer be tired , instead of feeling, also a kind of criticism. C: Yes, that I should not be tired or
something like that. And it seems to me to a certain extent be deep well the fact that simply
cannot combat this fatigue, and this is accompanied by a real sense of what I have to go more
slowly, so that being tired is not something so horrible. I think that I would also like to establish a
connection here on why I should be as well, as my father is. and how does some of these
things. For example, let's say I was sick, and I Faget, and it would seem that openly he would
like to do something about it, but would also reflected: "Oh my God, more problems". You know,
something like that.
T: As if there was something very annoying with the fact of being physically ill. C: Yes, I am sure
that my father has the same contempt for their own physiology that I had. Last summer, I broke
my my back, I distendi, hear snap and everything else. First there was a real pain there all the
time, really acute. I went to the doctor to examine me and he said that it was not serious, that he
would heal by itself as long as I am not curvasse too. Well, this acnteu a few months ago and I
have noticed lately that ouch, is a real pain and still exists - and it's not my fault.
T: This does not prove something bad about them.
C: not. AND one of the reasons why I look like becomes more tired than should perhaps this
constant voltage, and then already scored a consultation with one of the doctors at the hospital
to which I examine and successfully exploited a radiography or something like that. In a way I
think that you could say that I am simply more accurately sensitive or objectively sensitive to this
sort of thing ... AND this is a change really deep as I have said, and of course my relationship
with my wife and my two sons is as well, you do not recognize if you could see me on the inside
as in fact, did you want to say it seems simply there is nothing more beautiful than real and
genuinely really feel love for their own children and at the same time receives it. Don't know how
to put this. We have had an ever greater respect both by Judy and we have noticed that - to the
extent that we participate, we noticed a huge change in it - this seems to be a sort of thing and
deep.
T: It seems to me that you are saying that you can listen to more accurately himself. If your body
says it is tired, you listens and believes in it, rather than criticize it; if you're in pain, you can
listen to this; if the feeling is really love for his wife or children, you can feel it, and this seems to
be also the differences caused them.
Here, in an extract from relatively small but symbolically important, you can see much of
what I am trying to say about openness to the experience. Previously he could not feel freely
pain or disease, because being sick meant to be unacceptable. Nor could feel tenderness and
love for their children because these feelings meant be weak, and he had to maintain his facade
of strong. But now he can be genuinely open to the experiences of your body - you can be tired
when you're tired, you may feel pain when your body is in pain, you can experience freely the
love that he feels for his daughter and can also feel and express annoyance with respect to it,
as it continues to say during the next portion of the interview. He can live fully the experiences of
your total body, instead of refusing to allow them to be perceived.
Confidence in own body
A second characteristic of people who emerge from the therapy is difficult to be
described. It seems that the person discovers each time more than their own body is worthy of
trust, which is a suitable instrument to discover the behavior more satisfactory in each
immediate situation.

If this seems strange, let me try to express it more completely. Perhaps it will help you to
understand my description if thinking in individuals who are faced with some existential choice:
"I must go home to my family during the holidays, or should I turn alone? "; "Should I drink this
third cocktail that is being offered? "; "this is the person who would like to have as my partner in
love and life? ". Thinking in these situations, which seems true about the person that emerges
from the therapeutic process? To the extent that this person is open to the entire experience, it
has access to all the data available on the situation, on which to base their behavior. She is
aware of her own feelings and impulses, which are often complex and contradictory. It is freely
able to perceive the social requirements, since the "laws" social relatively rigid until the wishes
of friends and family. She has access to your memories of similar situations and the
consequences of different behaviors in those situations. It has a perception relatively accurate in
their external situation in all its complexity. She is more able to allow your total body, his
conscious thinking participatory, consider, consider and balance cade stimulus, need and
demand, and its weight and intensidad relating. From this weighting and balance complex, she
is able to discover the course of action that seems to most closely approximates to the
satisfaction of all your needs in the situation, both the needs of long range as those immediate.
In this weighting and balance of all components of a particular choice of life, your body
would not in any way infallible. Wrong Choices can be made. But due to the fact that tend to be
open to their experiences, there is a greater awareness and more immediate consequences of
unsatisfactory, a fastest fix of choices that are wrong.
You can help us if we realize that the majority of us that interferes with that weighting and
balance is the fact that we include things that are not part of our experience, and we exclude
elements that make. In this way, an individual can persist on the concept that "I can control with
alcoholic beverages", when an opening to its past experience would indicate that this is hardly
the truth. Or a young man can only see the good qualities of your future companion, when an
openness to the experience would indicate that it also fails.
In general, then, seems to be true that when a customer is open to his experience, he
has more confidence in his body. He feels less fear of emotional reactions that have. There is a
gradual growth of confidence, and even affection by sampling complex, rich and varied feelings
and tendencies that exist in organic level. The conscience, instead of being the watchtower of
the many impulses dangerous and unpredictable, among them, a few are allowed to see the
light of the sun, it takes up the inhabitant calm of a society of impulses and feelings and
thoughts. that if notes are very satisfactorily self- rulers when they are not monitored with fear.
A focus on internal assessment
Another trend that is evident in the process of take-if person relates to the source or focus
of choices and decisions, judgments or unappreciative. The individual starts to realize
increasingly that the focus of evaluation is within himself. Increasingly looks to the other in
search of approval or disapproval; the following standards; of decisions and choices. He
recognizes that it's up to him even choose; that the only question that matters is: "Am I living in
a way that is profoundly satisfying to me, and that I expressed truly?" This is perhaps the most
important question for the creative individual.
Perhaps it would help if I provide an illustration. I would like to submit a brief snippet of a
recorded interview with a young man, a student of post-graduation, I sought for advice. She was
initially very disturbed with many problems, and was considering the possibility of suicide.
During the interview, one of the feelings that he discovered was a great desire to be dependent
on, simply to let someone else take the direction of your life. He criticized those who had not
given sufficient guidance. Mentioned several of their teachers, feeling bitterly that none of them
had taught him something with deep meaning. Gradually, he began to realize that part of the
difficulty was the fact that she had not taken any initiative in particlpar in these classes. Then
comes the passage that I would like to quote.

I believe that you will realize that this excerpt gives some idea of what it means to
experience, accept the focus of assessment as being within itself. Here then is a quotation from
one of the last interviews with this young man, to the extent that begins to realize that perhaps it
is partly responsible for shortcomings in their own education. C: Well, now I wonder if I have
taken a living doing this, getting only the basics of things, and not understanding, and not really
me deepening them. T: Perhaps you will only feeding on spoonful here and there, instead of
really digging somewhere more deeply.
C: M-hm. That is why I say (atwithdrew and very compenetradamente), however, with this type
of databases, as well, that really fits me . I mean, it seems to me in fact evident that I cannot
depend on another person to give me an education. (Very gently.) I really have to get it on my
account.
T: really begins to occur there is only one person who can educate it - that perhaps no one else
can give you an education.
C: M-hm. (Long pause while sitting thinking.) I have all the symptoms of fear. (Ri
Softly.)
T: Dread? Since this is somewhat intimidating, it is what you meant?
C: Mhm (Pause too long obviously struggling against the feelings within themselves). T: Do You
like to say something more about what you mean by this? That really makes him feel the
symptoms of fear?
C: (laughs) I, uh - I'm not sure if you really know. I want to say - well, it's really as if I were
loose (pause) and it seems that I do not know - in a vulnerable position, but I, uh, I raised this
issue and this, uh, somehow almost went without that I had said. It seems that it is something
that has escaped.
T: As if it were not a part of you.
C: Well, it kind of surprised me.
T: As if "Now, for the love of God, I said that"? (Both laugh secretly.) C: Really, I do not believe
that you have had this feeling before. I - uh, well, this is as if you were saying something that,
uh, is a part of me really. (Pause) Or, uh, ( very perplexed), it seems as if I had, uh, I don't know.
I have a feeling of strength, and yet, I have a feeling I can see that is so frightening, of dread.
T: This is you want to say that the fact to say something of this type at the same time gives you
a sense of strength to say it, and even so, at the same time gives you a feeling scary what you
have just said, is it?
C: M-hm. I am feeling this. For example, I am feeling this internally now - a kind of sudden
wave, or strength or escape. As if it were something really big and strong. And, uh, well first it
was almost a feeling of physical simply being outside alone, and as that off of a - a support that
was leading me.
T: Do You feel that it is something deep and strong, and that swells, and at the same time, you
feel as if you had switched off any support when he says this.
C: M-hm. Perhaps it is - I do not know - a disturbance of a type of pattern that vineyard taking
with me, I think.
T: So how that shakes a pattern as very significant, shakes it until it pops off.
C: M-hm. (Pause, then cautiously, but with conviction.) I, I think that - I don't know, but I have the
impression that then begin did not access more things that I know that would make ... There are
so many things I need to do. It seems that in so many areas of my life do I have to draw up new
forms of behavior, but - perhaps- I can see myself improving a little on some things.
I hope that this illustration of a concept of force that is experienced when a person is a
person only, responsible for themselves, and also the discomfort that accompanies this
assumption of responsibility. Recognize that "I am he who chooses" and "I am the man who
determines the value of an experience for me" is both an achievement encouraging as
frightening.
Desire to be a process

I would like to emphasize a final characteristic of these individuals as they struggle to find
themselves and take themselves. AND that the individual seems to show more satisfied to be a
process rather than a product. When you join the therapeutic relationship, the customer
probably want to achieve some fixed state; he wants to get to the point where their problems will
be solved, or where it will be effective in their work, ou.or1e your marriage will be satisfactory.
He tends, in freedom from the therapeutic relationship, to abandon these fixed targets, and
accept an understanding more satisfactory that it is not a fixed entity, but a process to take.
A customer at the completion of therapy, says in a very perplexed: "I do not log out the
task of integrating me and rearrange me, but this is only confusing, not discourages- pain, now
that I understand that this is an ongoing process ... It is exciting, sometimes disturbing, but
deeply encouraging feel in action, apparently knowing where you go even if you don't know
always consciously where this is." You can see here both the expression of confidence in the
body, that I have already mentioned, as well as the perception of the self as a process. Here is a
description of personal feeling to accept as a way of taking it, and not as a finished product. This
means that a person is a fluid process, not a fixed entity and static; a river current changes, not
a block of solid material; a constellation of potential continuously changing, not a fixed amount
of dashes.
Here is another statement of the same element of fluidity or live existential: "All of this
succession of experiences, and the meanings that until now I have discovered this, seems to
have triggered in me a process that is both fascinating and in some moments a little scary. It
seems to say that should I let my experiences I pursue, in a direction that seems to be forward,
toward the goals that I set vaguely, to the extent that I understand at least the current meaning
of that experience. The feeling is that travel in a complex chain of experience, with the
possibility fascinating to try to understand the complexity of its constantly
changing." Conclusion
I tried to tell what seemed to occur in the lives of people with whom I have had the
privilege to share a relationship as they struggled to become themselves. I have tried to
describe, as accurately as possible, the meanings that seem to be involved in this process to
take that person. I am sure that this process does not occur only in therapy. I am sure that you
will not see clearly or completely, since I am still changing my sympathy and understanding of
the same. I hope that the reader accepts this as a current picture and experimental, not as
something final.
A reason to emphasize the experimental nature of what I said is that I want to make it
clear that I am not saying: "This is what you must take; here is a goal for you." instead, I am
saying that these are some of the meanings that I observe in the experiences that my clients
and I share. Perhaps this experience of others can illuminate or give more meaning to some of
their own experiences.
I have emphasized that each individual seems to be doing a double question: "Who am I?
"And "How can I make me myself? ". I have stated that in a psychological climate favorable a
process of take-if it occurs; that the individual is no longer drops the defensive masks with which
had been approaching the life, one after the other; that he lived fully the hidden aspects of
himself; that discovers in these experiences the strange that vineyard living behind these
masks, the stranger that he himself is. I tried to display the my table of characteristic attributes
of the person that touches; a person that is more open to all the elements of your experience
organic; a person who is developing a confidence in his own body as an instrument of life
sensitive; a person who accepts the focus of evaluation as residing within himself; a person who
is learning to live in his life as a participant in a process fluid, continuous, in that it is constantly
discovering new aspects of himself in the flow of their experience. These are some of the
elements that seem to me to be involved in becoming person.
Chapter 7

The psychotherapy considered as a process
In the autumn of 1956 I had the great honor to receive the American Association of
Psychology one of the three first prizes for scientific contribution. There was however an
obligation attached to premium obligation prior to one year later that each of the winners to
submit an article for the Association. I decided that, rather than dedicating a year to a new job,
the best would be studying the process by which the personality change. I did so, but, when the
autumn neared, I realized that the ideas that draws up were still unclear, provisional, difficult of
presents,: I have tried, however, transcribe the confusing prints that were important to me, of
which emerged a concept of process dije flush of everything that before turning with clarity.
When I finished, I noticed that he wrote an article too long to be able to be delivered and,
therefore, I put a rçdução give him a Jàrma more brief, which I presented in 1ia September 2,
1957 in American Convention of Psicologiã, in New York. This chapter is not as long as the
original form, or as short as the second.
If in the preceding chapters the therapeutic process is seen from a point of view almost
exclusivamentefenomenológico, from the frame of reference of the customer, this demand
capture those qualities of expression that can be observed by another person and apartment,
therefore, within a framework of re/ &external.
From the observations con taken in this chapter, has drawn up a 'Scale of therapeutic
process " which can be experimentally applied to excerpts of recorded interviews, The method
is still in the process of review and improvement. Even under its current Jórma offers, in the
opinion of most experts, a reliability acceptable and provides results signficativos. Cases that,
by other criteria, were considered successful feature in this "Scale the process" a broader
movement than the cases less bemsucedidos. In the same way, and to our great surprise, it
was found that the cases bemsucedidos begin at a higher level of Scale than the cases in which
the treatment was not a result as good. Of course, we do not yet know with a sufficient degree
of s'curity as help therapeutically the individuals whose behavior, when they are before us, is
tiico of stages) and 2 described below. Therefore, the ideas expressed in this chapter, even
though I had similar at that time poorly prepared and malformuladas, already represent an
opening for new and interessanjes fields of thought and research.
The enigma of the therapeutic process
I would like to follow up on a journey of exploration. The purpose of the trip, the goal of
research is to look for information on the process of psychotherapy, i.e. the process by
which the personality changes. I must point out from the outset that the goal has not yet been
reached and that everything happens as if the dispatch had advanced only a few kilometers
inside the jungle. However, if I want to follow, you may be tempted to find new ways to access
that allow us to move forward in our investigations.
My personal reason for entering into such exploitation is very simple. In the same way
that many psychologists have been interested by aspects of personality, the unvarying aspects
of intelligence, temperament, personality structure -, also appealing to me, since for a long time,
by the constant involved in modficação of personality. The personality and behavior change?
That is common in these changes? What are the common points between the conditions that
precede the modification? But, and this is the main issue, which is the process by which these
changes occur?
Until a short time ago, we try to especially know anything about this process by studying
the results. We have on hand many facts regarding, for example, the changes that occur in selfperception and the perception of the other. We do not confine ourselves to measure these
changes whereas the overall process of therapy, but we did it during the treatment with a certain
regularity. But even this last technique provided us with few indications on the process itself.

Studies on results segmented are also measures of results and, therefore, provide relatively
little information about the way in which it operates the processing.
To address me on this issue, I understand how is restricted in research aims to study the
process, is in that field is. The research aims to provide an accurate representation of the interrelations that occur at a given time, offers us, in parties, moments crystallized of treatment. But
our understanding of a perpetual motion - whether of the fermentation process, the movement
of blood or of atomic fission - is generally provided by a theoretical formulation, often
accompanied, when this is possible, a clinical observation of the process. Then I realized that
maybe I was feeding an excessive hope to see the investigation procedures as directly the
processes in which the personality change. Perhaps only the theory is able to do so.
A method rejected
When I decided, there is more than one year, trying to understand how to make these
changes, I began to consider the various ways to describe the therapeutic experience in terms
of another frame of reference. There is much I felt attracted to the theory of communication, with
its concepts defeedback, with the signs "input and output", and so on. There was also the
possibility to describe the therapeutic process in terms of teona learning or in terms of the
general theory of systems. When I was studying these different ways of understanding, gained
the conviction that it would be possible to transpose the psychotherapeutic process for any of
these frameworks theoretical reference. I think that there would be some advantages in doing
so. But I am convinced that, in a field of research as new, was not ts.escort greater need.
I came to conclusion, that others before me had already reached, that a new domain may
require firstly that we prescribe in the events , which we catch of the phenomena with the
minimum possible prejudices, which assume the attitude an observer and descriptive of the
naturalist, extracting elementary inferences that seem to be more own the material studied.
The approach
For this reason, since the last year, I used the method that many of us use to make
hypotheses, a method which the psychologists of our country seem reluctant to explain or
comment on. I used me as an instrument.
As an instrument, I have quality and defects. For many years I experienced the therapy
as therapist. I have to experience the other side of the table, as a client. Reflecting on the
therapy, I have done research in this field, myself became familiar with the Irabalhos research of
my colleagues. But I purchased also prejudices, a personal vision of psychotherapy, and tried to
develop theoretical considerations about the therapy. These points of view and these theories
tend to become less receptive to the events themselves. It would be able to open to the
phenomena of therapy in a new way, naive? I could make my overall experience as effective an
instrument as possible, or prevent me-ami my prejudices to see what really happened? Only I
had no go ahead and make the attempt.
Thus, during this last year, I spent many hours listening to recordings of interviews
therapies - trying to listen to them as naively as possible. I tried absorb all the signs that it would
be able to apprehend concerning the process and the significant elements in changes. I have
tried then disregard of these prints the ideas more simple that could describe them. Under this
aspect, I was very encouraged and aided by the work of some of my colleagues, but I would like
to mention in particular, with my greatest recognition, Eugene Gendlin, William Kirtner and Fred
Zimring, whose capacity is to open new paths in these matters I was particularly useful to them
using constantly.
The next step was to bring together these observations and basic abstractions and
formulate them in order to highlight immediately verifiable hypotheses. This was the point where
I came in. I have nothing to forgive me for not presenting the experimental investigations that

are at the basis of these formulations. If past experience is in some way a guide, can I be sure
that the hypotheses that present, if they are in some way in accordance with the subjective
experience of other therapists, will help to stimulate research on a large scale, and in a few
years, it will be possible to determine clearly the degree of truth and falsity of the claims that
follow.
The dficuldades and the character instigates fie research
It may seem strange to them that go describe so much detail the personal journey that I
have travelled in search of some simple formulas and certainly inadequate. I am doing so
because I am convinced that nine tenths of research escape us completely and that the study of
fraction that we can see leads us to false conclusions. Just occasionally someone like Mooney
(6, 7) describes the entire method of research as there is in the individual. I also would like to be
a little the whole of that study, as it was forming in me, and not only the impersonal.
I would like to make them participate intensely of joys and disillusionment of the effort to
understand the therapeutic process. I would like to tell you a discovery that I made recently
about how the feelings "touch" customers a term that they enipregam frequently. The customer
is talking about an important issue when, suddenly, is "touched" by a feeling - anything that has
a name or a classification, but the experience of something unknown that must be carefully
explored, even before that if you can write a description. As umliente said: "It is a feeling that I
am dragging. Not even know what it connects." The frequency of this phenomenon impressed
me.
Another topic of interest was the variety of paths followed by customers to come into
contact with their own feelings. These feelings come to the surface as "air bubbles", they
"sprout". The customer "dive" in their emotions, often with caution and with fear: "I wanted to
dive in this feeling, but you know how it is difficult".
Another of these comments naturalists connects to the importance that the client gives
the accuracy of symbolization. He wants exactly the word need with which to express the feeling
that passed. A approximation it is not enough. This is to achieve better communication with
itself, because, if they were to communicate with the other, he would have at their disposal
several words of meaning equivalent.
I have, in this way, by recognizing the value of the so-called "dynamic moments", that is,
those in which it seems that a change actually occurs. These moments, with its concomitant
physiological more evident, will be later object to an attempt at description.
I should also mention the deep feeling of despair that I am sometimes naively lost in
unbelievable complexity of therapeutic relationship. It is no wonder that we would prefer to start
the treatment, have rigid prejudices. We feel that it is necessary to give an order to all of
this. We dare not wait that one can discover an order in this regard.
Here are some of personal discoveries, the embarrassment and the disillusionment that I
was encountering when working on these problems. It was from here that formed the ideas
more theoretical that I would like now to present.
A basic condition
To study the mechanism of the growth of the plants, we would have to accept some
conditions of temperature, humidity, and lighting, to develop our theory about the process that
we have seen. In the same way, when theorizing about the process of modification of
personality in psychotherapy, I have to accept a set of optimal conditions that facilitate this
change. Recently I have tried to establish in some detail these conditions (8). For our purposes
at the moment, I think I can summarize these conditions in a word. Throughout the presentation
that follows, I assume that the customer feels fully accepted. With this I mean that, whatever
your feelings - fear, despair, uncertainty, anguish -, whatever your mode of expression - silence,

gestures, tears or words -, whatever the impression on your situation at this time, he feels he is
being psychologically accepted as he is, by the therapist. This implies, therefore, the concept of
an understanding of empathy and the concept of acceptance. It should also be noted that it is
the experience that the customer has this condition that optimizes and not only the fact that this
condition exists in therapist. As Soon As, in what I have to say about the process of change in
the personality, I shall accept as a constant a condition great and maximum to be accepted.
The emerging continuous
The search for capture and conceptualize the process of change, I began to seek the
elements susceptible to characterised the change itself. . ) ? .ensava in change as an entity and
sought their specific attributes. Little by little, I was understanding, to the extent that I was
exposed to raw material change, it was dc a "continuous" of a species different from that which I
before imaginara.
I started to understand that the individuals do not move from a fixed point or a homeotase
for a new fixed point, although a process of this kind is possible. But the continuous more
significant is what will the fixedness for mobility, the rigid structure for the flow, the stasis for the
process. I issued the provisional hypothesis that perhaps the qualities of expression of customer
could, at any time, indicate its position in the continuous, indicate where you are in the process
of change. Development progressively this concept of process, distinguishing him seven
phases, but I stress that it is a continuous and that all intermediary points persist, whether
distinguished three or fifty stages.
I discovered that a certain customer, taken as a whole, reveals usual behaviors that
congregates around a section relatively short of continuous. In other words, it is unlikely that in a
sphere of its existence the customer expresses a certain commonality total and in another
sphere an absolute mobility. He would tend, overall, to be in this or that step in the process.
However, the process that I want to describe relates more specifically with certain areas of
personal meanings - where I raise the hypothesis that the customer if you think in this field in a
stage completely defined and shows no characteristic of other stages.
The seven stages of the process
I will try to outline how I see the successive stages of the process through which the
individual changes of fixedness for the fluidity of a point located near the pole of static
continuous to a point located near the his pole "in motion". If my observation is correct, it is
possible that, by examining and delimiting the qualities of experience and expression in an
individual determined, in a climate that he himself feels complete acceptance, we will be able to
determine the point at which it is in the continuous change of personality.
First stage
The individual who is in this stage of fixedness and distancing their experience will not
certainly of goodwill to therapy. However, I can illustrate, to some extent, the characteristics of
this stage.
Refusal of personal communication. Communication only on foreign affairs. Example:
"well, I will tell you-ci that always seemed a little silly to speak of himself, except in the case of
extreme need."
The feelings and the distinct logics requires personal are not seized or recognized as
such. The personal constructs (according to the expression used by Kellv (3) are extremely
strict. The intimate relations and communicative are regarded as dangerous. At this stage, no
personal problem is recognized or captured. There is no desire to change. Example: "I think that
I am perfectly well." There are many blocks in internal communication.

Perhaps these phrases and examples can illustrate in part a psychological inflexibility
inherent in this end of the continuum. The individual has little or no recognition of the flow and
the reflux of their affective life. The paths that follows to build his experience were determined by
their past and are not rigidly, affected by this. In his way of living, e1e is (to use an expression of
Gendlin and Zimring) determined by the structures of their form of experience (structurebound). In other words, reacts to the situation this assimilating it to a past experience and then
reacts to this past, feeling it" (2). The differentiation of meanings of personal experience is
summary or global, being this view in terms of black-and-white. The individual does not
communicate and not communicating but external aspects. It tends to be seen as not having
problems, or the problems that are perceived as completely outside himself. The internal
communication between the I and the immediate experience is seriously blocked. The
individual, at this stage, it is represented by terms such as stasis, fixedness, in opposition to
flow or change.
Second stage of the process
When the person in the first stage can experience itself as is fully accepts, then the
second stage. We seem know very little about how to deliver the experience of being accepted
for the person in the first stage, but sometimes this is achieved by playful therapy or in group. In
these circumstances, the person benefits from a climate of acceptance, without being obliged to
take any personal initiative, for a sufficiently long time to feel accepted. In every situation in
which experience this, note that the symbolic expression becomes a little more pliable and
smooth, which is characterized by:
The expression in relation to topics relating to non-i starts to be more fluent. Example: "I
suspect that my father has always felt very safe in your business relationships."
The problems are captured as external to me. Example: "The disruption continues to
appear unexpectedly in my life." there is no sense of personal responsibility for the
problems. Example: This is illustrated by a citation precedent.
The feelings are described as not own or, sometimes, as objects that are
passed. Example: therapist: "If you want to tell me what to bring here ... " customer: "The
symptom was ... was ... be very depressed." Here is an excellent example of how the interior
problems may be seized and reported as if they were totally exterior. The customers does not
say: "I am depressed", even: "I was depressed." She treats your feeling as a remote object, that
does not have, that it is entirely outside.
The feelings may be exteriorized, but they are not recognized as such, not related to the
individual. The experience is determined by the structure of the past. Example: "I suppose that
the compensation always tried was, more than trying to communicate with people or have good
relations with them, compensate for, well, as I say, be a intellectual level." Here the customer
starts to recognize the way in which your present experience is determined by the past. Their
statements illustrate also the distancing of experience at this level. It is as if she maintained her
experience at a distance.
The constructs pessoajs are rigid, not recognized as constructs, but designed as
facts. Example: "I can never do anything right ... I can't stop anything."
The differentiation of signficações personal feelings and is very limited and
global. Example: The citation precedent is a good illustration - "Never do I" is an aspect of
differentiation in white-and-black, as is also the employment of "right" in a sense as absolute.
The contradictions can be expressed, but with a small recognition of them as
contradictions. Example: "I want to learn, but I am looking at the same page for an hour."
As a comment to this second stage of the process you can say that a number of customers that
come voluntarily to the therapy are at this stage, but we (and probably mind therapists in
general) we were able to obtain a degree very modest favorable results when working with
them. This seems to be at least the completion of the study of Kirtner (5), completion acceptable

although your reference framework conceptual is a little different in our. We know very little
about how a person at this stage just to experience herself as "accept".
Third stage
If the slight malleability and the beginning of the flow in the second stage are not blocked
and the customer feel under these aspects fully accepted as he is, gives a greater flexibility and
fluency of symbolic expression. Here are some of the characteristics that seem to accompany
approximately this point of continuous: There is a flow freer expression of i as an
object. Example: "I have much to be perfect with it - enthusiastic, friendly, intelligent, talkative because I she likes me."
There is also an expression of personal experiences as if they were objects. Example:
"And then, still have this business to know how much you feel prepared for the wedding, and if
their professional vocation is important, and this is what you really is at this point, this limits the
contacts that can have." In this case, the customer is an object so far that this reaction should
be between the second and the third stage.
There is also expression of the self as an object reflected, that exist primarily in the
other. Example: "I am able to feel smiling gently as my mother or being stubborn and secure to
me as my father is sometimes - breech one by one to the personality or whoever, but that is not
my."
The customer expresses and describes feelings and personal distinct logics requires that
are not present.
Usually, as is evident, are communications about feelings passed. Example: "There were so
many things that I could not say to the people, so many bad things that I did. Sentiame so vile
and so bad!" Another example: "AND what I am now is precisely what I don't remember that
when I was a child."
There is an acceptance very little feelings. Most of the feelings is revealed as something
shameful, bad, abnormal or unacceptable in other ways. Are attentive and, in this case, some
times are recognized as such. The experience is described as passed, or as something away
from me. The previous examples illustrate these claims.
The personal constructs are rigid, but can be recognized as constructs and not as facts
outside. Example: "I felt so guilty when I was younger I thought had merit to be always be
punished by it. If I thought that does not deserved to be punished for something, felt that the
deserved by another." Of course, the customer sees the situation as how built the experience,
and not as a fact established. Another example: "Whenever I feel afraid when there is affection
involved because this implies submission. I hate this, but I think that I identify the two things and
that if someone expresses affection for me that means that I have access to everything that this
person you want."
The differentiation of feelings and signicados is a little more clear, less global than in
previous phases. Example: "I have said so many times, but now I really feel that. Is it any
wonder the fact I sense so unfortunate in these conditions, views the dirt
That made me? AND, on the other hand, I have also not an angel, I
know." There is a recognition of the contradictions of the
experience.
Example: The customer explains that, on the one hand, waiting to do something great
and, on the other hand, feels that can easily fail.
Personal options are often seen as ineffective.
The customer "decides" to do one thing, but discovers that his behavior is not in
accordance with this decision.
It seems clear that many of the people who come looking for psychological help are
approximately in this third stage. They can stay there for a long time, describing feelings that do

not feel at the time and exploring its i as an object, before they are prepared to move on to the
next phase.
Fourth stage
When the client feels understood, welcome, accepted as it is in the various aspects of
their experience at the level of the third stage, it is a gradual malleability of their constructs and
a fluency more free of feelings, characteristics of movement in continuous. We try to capture
some of the characteristics of this relaxation and designate them as the fourth stage of the
process.
The customer describes feelings more intense type "non-present-now. Example: "well, I was
really - has touched me deeply."
The feelings are described as objects in this. Example: "I am disappointed by me feel
dependent, because it means that I do not believe in me."
The feelings are sometimes expressed in this, other times appear as that against the
wishes of the customer. Example: a customer, after reporting a dream where appeared a
spectator dangerous, because looked their "crimes," says the therapist: "Well, I do not trust in
you".
There is a tendency to experience feelings of this immediately, but it is accompanied by
distrust and fear of this possibility. Example: "I am stuck on something. I need to be me! I cannot
think of any other explanation. I cannot give it to anyone. There is this node ... In some part,
inside of me ... This gives me desire is?Ióuco - and shouting - and flee!"
There is little acceptance of feelings, although already express some acceptance. The
preceding two examples indicate that the customer expresses a sufficient acceptance of its,
experience to cope with feelings that people are frightened. Its acceptance, however, is little
aware.
The experience is less determined by the structure of the past, is less distant and
appears even, sometimes, with a slight delay.
The same two previous examples illustrate very well this way less rigidly determined to
deal with the experience.
There is a flexibility in how the experience is built. There are some findings of personal
constructs; gives a definitive acknowledgment of its character of buildings; begins to question its
validity. Example: "This is funny. By that? However, because it is a little stupid on my part ... I
am a little worried, a little embarrassed by this ... and a little impotent (his voice sweetens and
he is sad). The humor was my defense the whole life; perhaps it is not very appropriate to really
see myself. A curtain that runs ... I am a little lost now. Where was I? What I was saying? I lost
dominion over something that serbia for me grab." This example illustrates the impact and the
changes that result from calling into question a basic construct, in this case, the humor used as
a defense.
There is a further differentiation of feelings, of constructs, of personal signficações, with
tendency to search for an exact symbolization. Example: This characteristic is adequately
illustrated in each one of the examples of this phase.
There is a concern in the face of the contradictions and inconsistencies between the
experience and the i. Example: "I'm not living in accordance with what I am. Could really do
more of what I do. How many hours I spent in the bathroom in this position, while my mother
said to me: 'Don't leave it until you have done something'. Produce! ... This happened with a lot
of things." This example illustrates at the same time the concern at the contradictions and the
questioning of how the experience was built.
The individual is aware of its responsibility toward their personal problems, but with some
hesitation. Although a close relationship still seems dangerous, the customer accepts the risk
up to a certain degree of affectivity. Some of the examples above illustrate this aspect,
especially the one where the patient says: "Well, I do not have confidence in you."

There is no doubt that this phase, as well as the following, is the biggest part of
psychotherapy, such as we know it. These behaviors are very common in any form of therapy. It
would be good to remember another time that a person is never exclusively this or that stage of
the process. Listening to the interviews and examining the transcripts typed, I am led to believe
that the words of a client in a given interview may include phrases and behaviors that are
particularly characteristic of the third phase, with frequent moments of rigidity of the second
stage or with greater flexibility of the fourth phase. I do not think, however, it is likely that they
are examples of the sixth stage of the interview.
What has been said with regard to the variability in general stage of the process in which
the customer is located. If we limit our research to uniwárea determined of personal meanings
expressed by the customer, I will propose the hypothesis of a regularity much bigger: the third
stage you will find yourself rarely before the second, the fourth stage will follow rarely to the
second without the third interposed. This is the kind of provisional hypotheses which can be
studied in an experimental mode.
The fifth stage
As we continued, we can try to fix a new point, which we shall call fifth stage. If the
customer feels accepted in their expressions, behaviors and experiences in the fourth stage,
this will encourage a malleability even greater and a renewed freedom in organísmico flow. I
believe that we can again outline about the characteristics of this stage of the process.
The feelings are expressed freely as if they were experienced in the present. Example: "I
expect to be rejected ... I'm always waiting for it ... I even seem to feel the same thing with
you ... I can barely talk about it, because I wanted to be the best that I can with you." Here, the
feelings in relation to the therapist and the client in its relationship with him, emotions often very
difficult to express, are openly expressed.
The feelings are about to be fully tested. Begin to "come to the fore ," " sprout ", despite
the fear and distrust that the customer experiences to live them in a way that is full and
immediate. Example: "This appeared as well and I am not able to understand how. ( Long
pause. )
I am trying to understand that terror is this." Example: The customer is talking about an
event pool. Suddenly, looks distressed, terrified.
The therapist: "what is ... that is what is happening?"
The customer: "I Don't know (CHORA) ... I have approximate me of something which I do
not want to talk about ... "Here, the client became aware of a feeling almost involuntarily.
Example: "I am held at precisely this moment. Why is it that my mind was empty? I have the
impression I grab anything, but dropped other and something in me is saying, 'The more you will
need to still give up?"
It begins to dawn a tendency to realize that experience a sense involves a direct
reference.
The three examples cited above illustrate precisely this aspect. In each of the cases, the
customer knows that he felt something, but realizes that cannot clearly express what he felt. But
also beginning to outline the understanding that the object of these vague knowledge lies in him,
a organísmico event in respect of which you can check the accuracy of their ancient and of their
cognitive formulations. This is often proved by expressions that indicate the character near or
distant that he feels in relation to this reference point. Example: "Really not much deepened, I
have confined myself to describe".
There is surprise and fear, rarely happy when the feelings come to the fore Example: The
customer, talking about their old family relationships: "I do not have any importance.
Rum. (Pause). It was however very important, but I have no idea why ... Yes, that's it! I cannot
forget that now ... it doesn't matter . Ai, that poverty and stupidity! ".
Example: The customer had to express their despair:

"I am still amazed at the strength of this. It seems to me that that is exactly what I feel."
There are increasingly have reworked call themselves of their own feelings and the
desire to live them, to be the "true self" Example: "The truth is that I am not the individual
pleasant and tolerant that I am trying to show that I am. There are things that irritate me. I am
Hard with people and I am sometimes selfish; and I do not know why it is that he had to pretend
qúe I am not so". This shows clearly the greater degree of acceptance of all feelings.
The experience is relaxed, no longer distant and often occurs with a slight delay .
There is a small gap between the event organísmico and its full subjective experience. This is
what a customer describes to us with admirable accuracy. Example: "I am still struggling to try to
express what it means this sadness and crises of tears. Just know that I feel this when I come to
a certain feeling and ... usually, when crying too, this helps me flinging a barrier that I raised
because of certain things that have happened. I am wounded by something and then,
automatically, it is as if this shield hide what is going on and I have the impression that it is
impossible to enter in contact with anything, to not be able to feel anything ... if it were able to
feel or could accept immediately that I am wounded, could immediately begin to cry, but I am
not able."
We see it here considering his feelings as the single internal reference to which you can
return in order to see things more clearly. At the moment he is about to cry, he realizes that this
represents the feeling partial and delayed have been injured. Then Recognizes that your
defenses are such that it is not able, at this stage, to really experience the event that hurts at the
moment in which this occurs.
The ways in which to build the experience are much more malleable. There are many
discoveries of new construtospessoais as constructs and an analysis and critical discussion of
these.
Example: a man declares: "This idea of the need to please - have to do this - it is really a sort of
fundamental assertion of my life ( cries quietly). You know, it is a kind of indisputable axiom this
that I have to please. I have no other outlet. I simply have to do it." Here is clear to him that this
assertion was built and it is clear that its status of undisputed is about to finish.
There is a strong trend and evident for accuracy in dfereneia of feelings and of
means. Example: " ... a tension that grows in me, a kind of despair, as if an incompleteness and my current life is really very empty ... Don't know. It seems to me that the closest thing to it
is the feeling of despair". Obviously, the individual attempts to capture the exact term that
symbolizes to him his experience.
The individual accepts increasingly face their own contradictions and inconsistencies in
the experience. Example: "My conscience tells me that I am good person. But, in any part,
inside of me, I do not believe it. I think that I am a coward, a useless. I have no confidence in my
ability to do anything about it."
The individual accepts each time with greater fricilidade its own responsibility to the
problems facing it, and is more concerned to determine as contri bui for them. The inner dialog
becomes more free, improves communicates çào internal and reduces its blockade.
Sometimes these dialogs are verbalize. Example: "something in me tells me: 'what more do I
need to give up? You already took so much from me'. This am I talking about ooi.iigo - the inner
self that speaks to me that directs the spectacle. Now is regretting saying: 'You're approaching
others. Go although' !" Example: Often these dialogs take the form of listening to the si mçsmo,
to check the cognitive formulations according to a direct reference to the experience. Thus, a
customer says: "isn't it funny? Nuiica thought it that way. I'm just trying see if this is it. Always
seemed to me that the tension was due cm far greater external causes ... that was not simply
something I used in that way. But this is true, it is really true."
I hope that the examples given in the fifth stage of the process to clarify some points.
Firstly, this phase is, psychologically, the many kilometers of the first stage described. At this
point, many aspects of the personality of customer tomaramse mobile, unlike the rigidity of the
first stage. He is much closer to your being organic, which is always in motion. He Abandons

Himself to much more easily to their feelings. Its constructions of experience are decidedly
malleable and constantly put to the test by the confrontation with reference points and with
evidence both external and internal. The experience is much more varied and, therefore, the
communication inside, already fluent, can be much more accurate.
Examples of processes in a given area
Since I were guiding me to talk about the client as a whole which was situated on a stage
or in another, it is again necessary to insist, before moving on to the description of the next
stage, which, in certain areas of personal significance, the process may fall below the general
level of customer due to experiences that are in deep disagreement with the concept of ego.
Perhaps I can illustrate this by referring to a particular area of affective sphere of a client,
something about the way that the process that I am describing operates in a narrow segment of
experience.
In a case reported by thoroughly Shlien (5), the quality of the expression of i in the
interviews was approximately in stages three and four of the continuous process that we
believe. Then, when the customer deals with the sexual problems, the process down to a lower
level in continuous.
In the course of the sixth interview, she feels that there are things impossible to tell the
therapist and then "after a long pause, mentions, almost inaudible, a sensation of itching in the
area of the rectum, to which the doctor had no explanation". In this case, a problem is seen as
completely outside the eu, and the quality of the experience is very remote. This could be
characteristic the second stage of the process as here described.
The tenth interview, the itching had passed to the fingers. It was then that, with great
embarrassment, described playfulness of his childhood in that if despia, and other sexual
activities. We have here also the characteristic aspect of the description of activities outside the
eu, but the feelings considered as objects of the past. We are, however, a stage more advanced
the process She concludes: "It is simply because I am poor, dirty". Here is a judgment on the "i"
and a personal construct, rigid and not differentiated. All this is characteristic of the third stage of
the process, as well as the following statement about itself, showing a greater differentiation in
personal meanings: "I think that on the inside I am hipersexuada, but on the outside I am
not sexy enough to attract the answer that I want ... I would like to be the same inside and out".
This last sentence ligase the fourth stage by subtle discussion of a construction personnel.
During the twelfth interview, it goes further in this discussion, stating that I was not
born to the promiscuity. This statement is clearly the characteristic aspect of the fourth stage,
refusing to form a definitive way profulamente rooted to build personal experience. During the
same interview, she gains courage to tell the therapist: "You are a man, a beautiful man, and my
entire problem refers to men as you. It would be easier if you were a little older, but would it not
be better for the long term". It is disturbed and embarrassed for having said this and feels
that "it's like being naked, nothing you can hide". We see expressed here a feeling immediately,
with reluctance and fear, without doubt, but expressed, not described. The experience is much
less remote and determined, and there is little detached in time, but refuses to accept it. The
distinction more clear of meanings is clearly evident in the phrase "would be easier, but not the
best". All this is entirely characteristic of the fourth stage of the process.
In fifteenth interview, the client describes many experiences and emotions passed in
relation to sex, in a style characteristic of the third and fourth stages as we describe. At a given
moment says: "I wanted to hurt me, so I started to go out with men that I could injure ... with his
penis. He enjoyed it and he was suffering, and thus had the satisfaction of being punished by
my pleasure at the same time". Here is a way to build the experience, so that it is perceived as
such and not as a fact. It is also clear that she puts in question, although in a way implied. There
is a recognition and a certain concern about the contradictory elements of pleasure
experienced, although thinking that should be punished. These aspects are absolutely
characteristic of the fourth stage, or even a little earlier.

Few moments later, she describes the intense feelings of shame that experienced in
sexual pleasure. His two sisters, "elegant and respectable", were not able to reach orgasm "and
thus I was again that was bad". Up to here these words illustrate the fourth stage. Then,
suddenly, she asks: "Or is it that I'm happy? ". This expression in the present of a feeling of
perplexity, in quality of "outburst", in immediate experience this astonishment, in frank and
decisive discussion of their personal construct previous, we find the characteristic aspects of the
fifth stage, which we have just described. She has made a lot in the process, in a climate of
acceptance, at a considerable distance from the second stage.
I hope that this example has shown the way in which an individual, a
Particular area of personal meanings, becomes ever more pliable, more fluent, a process more
bustling, in so far as that feels accepted. Perhaps the example also illustrates what I believe,
that is, that this process of greater mobility is not something that can happen in minutes or
hours, but in weeks and months. AND a process of irregular advance, sometimes of aft,
sometimes seeming static when it covers a larger area, but eventually resume always your
course.
The sixth stage
If I can give you an idea of the extent and nature of the malleability of growing feelings,
experiences and buildings in each stage, we can then move on to the next stage, that is, to
those who observes, as crucial. I will try to explain what I believe to be its characteristic
qualities.
Assuming that the customer continues to be fully accepted in the therapeutic relation, the
characteristic features of the fifth stage tend to be followed by a stage very distinct and often
dramatic. It is characterized as follows: a feeling that before was "locked ", inhibited in its
evolution, is experienced now in a way immediately. A feeling flows for your order full.
A feeling of this is directly experienced with all its richness in a plan of immediate
experience and the feeling with all their wealth in an immediate plan. The immediacy of the
experience and the feeling that constitutes its contents. ,os accepted.
This is something real and not something to be denied, feared or fought.
All previous claims seek to describe the different aspects of a phenomenon that, when it
occurs, it is clear and well defined. It would be necessary to have recourse to recorded
examples to communicate fully this quality, but I will try to give an example without recourse
to grawições. Extract a fairly long taken from the 88th anniversary interview with a boy perhaps
you can give us an idea of how a client arrives at sixth stage.
Example: "It could even happen that I had a kind of tenderness in relation to myself ...
However, as I would be able to be tender, to worry about myself, because we are one and the
same thing? However, I feel this clearly ... You know, it's like who cares for a child. You want to
give this and that ... I can understand that when it comes to another person ... but never could
see for ... myself, that I could do so for me. Is it possible that I want to now take really counts for
me and that this is the main purpose of my life? This means that I would have to deal with the
world as if I were the guardian of the most precious and most ambitious, that this I would be
between this i precious that I want to care for, and the world ... It is almost as if I loved
me myself - believes? - This is strange ... but it is true." The therapist: "This seems to be a
strange concept and difficult to understand. Could mean:
I face the world as a vital part of my responsibility to take care of this precious person that I
am ... that I love."
The customer: "With whom I am ... who I feel so near. Now, here is more a strange thing ."
The therapist: "It only seems strange."
The customer: "Yes! AND it goes even further. The idea of love me myself and I worry about
( his eyes wetting). It would be a very beautiful thing ... very beautiful."

The recording would help to see that this is a feeling that he had never been able to make
it run on it and it was in this moment of form immediately. It is a sentiment that evolves to your
order full, without inhibitions. IS experiencing with acceptance, without any attempt to divert it or
to deny it.
The experience is experienced subjectively and not as an object of sense. The client, in
its words, can move enough of feeling the point of feel about it , as in the previous example.
However, the record clearly shows the peripheral nature of these words in relation to the
experience that is doing with you and in which you are living. The best expression of this fact in
his words: "Now, here is more a strange thing."
The i as object tends to disappear
I, at this moment, this is the feeling. It currently exists, with a self-awareness reduced, but
mainly with a reflexive awareness, as Sartre assigns it. The eu is, subjectively, the existential
moment. It is not something that is perceived.
The experience at this stage . Assumes the quality of an actual process. Example: a
customer, a man who is approaching this stage, says that he feels anxious about the source of
a large number of secret thoughts. AND continues: "The thoughts are closer to the surface are
butterflies. Underneath there is a current more profound. I am very far away from it. The
deepest stream is like a big boatload that moves under water. I see the fish that appear at the
surface and I am sitting with my fishing line in one hand, with a hook at the tip - trying to find
something better than this hook or, better yet, a way to immerse yourself in this chain. It is one
thing that puts me
Fear. I head to the deck idea I want to be myself a fish."
The therapist: "Either dive on the chain and leave-taking."
Although the customer is not experiencing yet fully the evolution within a process and,
therefore, cannot serve as completely of illustration' of this sixth stage of the continuous, he
provides a way so clear that its description reveals the profound meaning of this stage.
Another characteristic of this stage of the process is the maleabilidadefisiológica that
accompanies it.
The eyes wet, tears, sighs, muscle relaxation are often evident. There are often other symptoms
concomitant physiological. I will propose to gladly the hypothesis that on these occasions,
having means to observe, there has been a cheapening an improvement in movement and
conductivity of nerve impulses. May indicate an example of nature "primitive" of some of these
sensations through the following passage.
Example: The client, a boy, had expressed the wish that their parents die or fade away:
"It's a bit like if I wanted to see them disappear, as if he wished that they had never existed ...
AND I am so ashamed of myself that when they call me I will soon! Their presence is still very
strong. Don't know. IS any thing dc almost visceral that I could feel it inside of me" ( and starts
gesticulating by pulling the navel, as if you wanted to start).
The therapist: "They actually relate in the umbilical cord."
The customer: "It's funny how real is what I feel ... It is like a burning sensation, more or meflos,
and when they say something that makes me anxious, I feel this exactly here (pointing). I never
thought about it that way."
The therapist: "it is as if, when there is a disturbance in the relationship between you, it had
precisely the impression of a voltage in the navel."
The customer: "Yes, it is as if it were here. AND it is so difficult define what I feel here." In this
case, the individual is experiencing subjectively in the feeling of dependence on their parents.
However, it would be very inaccurate stating that he is unaware of this feeling. Is it, experiencing
it as a voltage at its umbilical cord.
In this phase, the internal communication is free and relatively little blocked. I think that is
perfectly illustrated by the examples given. In fact, as each one of these examples shows, the
crucial moment is a moment dc integration, in which the communication between the different
internal foci is no longer necessary because it became one.

The incongruity between the experience and the conscience is highly experienced at the
very moment when that disappears inside of congruence. The personal construct corresponding
dissolved at the time of this experience and the customer feels detached from his frame of
reference previous stable. I believe that these two characteristics that take clear through the
following example. A boy had been having difficulty need a certain feeling unknown: "what I feel
is almost exactly ... my life as I lived, as I track dominated by terror of anything." Account as
their professional activities gave him a certain amount of security and "a small world in which I
would be safe, means? AND for the same reason (pause). It is as if I were no longer infiltrate,
but I also say it to you and to my relationship with himself and what I feel is the fear of letting it
escape. ( The tone changes as that to represent more precisely the sentiment. ) Let me keep
you. I have a real need for it . I am so s so afraid without it."
The therapist: "ahem, ahem. Let me grasp this because if not I would be with a terrified! .., is a
kind of prayer, isn't it?"
The customer: "Yes, is this: do not want to do it for me?, more or less. Oh, this is terrible! Who?
I? Implorar? ... It is an emotion that I never felt with great clarity - something that has never been
... (PAUSA) ... I am so confused. First, it is a thing so extraordinary have these new things
popping up in front of me! This amazes me always, and there is this feeling of fear before
everything that is in me (CHORA) ... I don't know. Here is one thing that never discerned, that
had not the slightest suspicion - there is one thing that I wanted to or a way of being that I
wanted to."
Here We have an awareness of their supplication and a clear recognition of
the discrepancy between their experience and the concept that he did of himself. However, this
experience of discrepancy exists at the same time as it disappears. Now, he is a person who
has the sense to beg , as have many others. At this time, this discovery dissolve their personal
constructs and earlier and he is freed from the world where until then Vivera ink - a sensation at
the same time beautiful and fearsome.
The moment of full experience becomes a clearly defined. The examples seem to
indicate that the customer does not have a conscience very clear what happened to him during
these times. However, this does not seem to be too important because this event is an entity, a
reference to that if you can always return, if necessary, to explorálo more deeply. You cannot
prove that the sentiments to beg, or "I love myself", appearing in these examples are exactly as
described. They are, however, solid points of reference to which the customer can return until
you have acquired a satisfactory knowledge of his own nature. Perhaps they constitute a
physiological event well defined, a substrate of conscious life to which the customer can return
to new investigations. Gendlin drew my attention to the quality of significant experience as a
point of reference. He is trying to build an extension of his psychological theory on this basis
(1).
The differentiation of experience is clear efundamental.
As each one of these moments is a point of reference, a specific entity, cannot be
confused with any other. The process of differentiation clear it builds on it and with reference to
him.
In this phase, there is no longer a "problems," exterior or interior. The customer is
experiencing subjectively a phase of your problem. This is not an object.
It seems clear to me that in all the examples given would be grossly inaccurate to say the
customer is unaware of their problem as inside or that is discussing how a problem inside. We
need a way to indicate that it has gone beyond that stage, that is, of course, very far from
noticing her problem as pool. The best description seems to be saying that he does not
understand your problem nor puts it in discussion. He lives just a portion of the problem,
knowing and accepting it. It took me and hold the definition of the sixth stage of the continuous
process because I think particularly important. I noticed that these moments of experience
immediate, full, assumed, are somehow irreversible. To resume the contents of my examples,
what I have seen and what I put as the hypothesis is that, with these customers, all the times

that occur a new experience of this kind, it will be consciously recognized for what it is: as the
cases, a theme concern for himself, an umbilical cord that makes him a part of their parents, or
the dependence of a boy who implores. It may be noted in passing that, once that experience
became fully aware and accepts, it can be dealt with effectively, as quakuer another real
situation.
The seventh stage
In the areas in which it has reached the sixth stage, it is no longer so necessary that the
customer feels fully accepted by the therapist, although it still seems to be of great help.
However, due to the tendency of the sixth stage to be irreversible, the client seems to be
reaching many times the seventh and last stage without having a great need for the help of the
therapist. This stage occurs both outside the therapeutic relationship as within it, and is often
reported more than experienced during the therapy session. I will try to describe some of their
characteristics such as I have observed. Are experienced new feelings of immediate mode and
with a wealth of detail, both in the therapeutic relation as outside it. The experience of such
feelings is used as a point of reference.
The customer demand with absolute awareness use these points of reference to learn
more clearly and more differentiated who you are, what you want and what are their attitudes.
This is true even if their feelings are unpleasant or cause fear.
There is a growing sense and continued acceptance of personal feelings in change and a
strong trust in its own evolution.
This confidence is based primarily on conscious processes that occur, but before the
entire process organísmico. A customer describes the way in which he takes the experience
characteristic of sixth stage, using terms which are characteristic of the seventh: "In therapy,
here, what mattered was sit me and say: 'this is my problem' and cycling around it for a while
until something come to the surface through a growing emotional, and the thing is resolved
looks different. Even then I am not able to say exactly what happened. I was exposing anything,
stirred it, gave turns: after, everything would be better. It is a little frustrating because I would like
to know exactly what's going on ... It is funny, because I feel that, at the bottom, didn't do much
for that. The only active part that I was to be on the alert and to grab an idea when it was
happening ... It is a kind of feeling as ... 'Well, what am I going to do now, since I have seen
what acontece? ... ' does not have this, you can talk and let. AND, apparently, is all. However,
this leaves me with a feeling of dissatisfaction, with the feeling of not having done anything. This
was done without my knowledge and without my agreement ... The fact is that I am not sure of
the quality of readjustment because I could not see him or verificá-lo ... All I can do is to observe
the facts check that eye to things in a different way, that I feel less anxiety, that I am much more
active. In general everything goes better. I am very happy with the way that things have taken.
But I have the impression of being a spectator." A little later, while continuing to accept, though
unwillingly, the process that it operates, adds: "It seems to me that I work best when I am
consciously only facts in front of me and I leave their analysis continue by itself, without
providing any attention."
The immediate experience lost almost completely their aspects determined and becomes
the experience of a process i.e. the situation is experienced and interpreted in its novelty and
not as past.
The example given in the sixth stage suggests the quality that I try to describe. Another
example, taken in an area well determined, is given to us by another client, in the course of a
follow-up interview in which he describes the different qualidadçs quç your creative work
adopted. Usually trying to be ordained: "Start at the beginning and progress is being made on a
regular basis until the end." Now they are aware that their inner process is different: "When I
work an idea, this is totajmente, as the latent image that appears when it is a photo. There is a
starting point to reach another ponfo, it spreads to the entire surface. At the beginning,

everything you see is a vague outline and question what will it appear; and then, gradually, a
thing fits here, another there, and all of a sudden, everything that takes clear." "It is obvious that
it was not simply to believe in the process, but that the experience as it is and not in terms of
last thing."
The i becomes increasingly simply the subjective consciousness and reflective of the
experience. The eu is increasingly less frequently as an object perceived and more frequently
as something felt in the process and in which the trust is.
I'll get a example in the interview mentioned above. In this interview, the customer,
because it is reporting their experience after treatment, takes again awareness of itself as an
object, but it is clear that this does not represent the quality of your experience of the day-today. After having reported a large number of transformations, says: "Really, had not related
these things with the treatment until this afternoon ... ( Smile ).
Pulls! Perhaps something has happened. Since then my life has been different. My income has
grown. My confidence increased. I am enclosed in situations that previously would have been
avoided and, on the other hand, I took me less daring in situations where before showed me
cheeky". It is clear that only later he realized that outside your i.
The personal constructs are provisionally redesigned, in order to be revalidated by the
experience of course, but even then, it remains pliable.
A customer describes how a construct has changed in the interval between interviews,
near the end of the therapy.
"I Don't know what (if changed), but I am absolutely different with respect to my memories
of the inifincia, and a part of the hostility toward my mother and with my father all but
evaporated. Replace the resentment he felt toward them by the acceptance of the fact that there
were a large number of things disadvantages that made me. But, more importantly, I discovered
with intense joy the idea - now that I realized that it is not right - that I can do something about,
correcting their mistakes." In this case, the way the individual builds his experience with parents
was profoundly altered.
I will give you another example, extracted from an interview with a customer who always
felt that should please the people: "I see now ... as it would be - that has no importance at all the
fact that it does not please him. Whether you like it or not, the thing is not for me any
importance. If I could say these things to the people - entende? ... the idea of saying anything
spontaneously ... without worrying if it pleases or not. - Oh, my God!, say
practically everything: but this is truth, he realizes? ". AND a little later he questions himself with
incredulity:
"I mean that, if I could really be what I desire to be, everything would be right? ". He is
struggling to rebuild some of the fundamental aspects of their experience.
The internal communication is clear, with feelings and symbols well combined and with new
terms for new feelings.
There is the experience of an effective choice of new ways to be a time that all the
elements of experience are available for the conscience, the choice is real and effective. Let's
look at the case of a customer who has just to take account of it: "I'm trying to find a way of
speaking that is a way of escaping to my terror to take the floor. Think aloud might be the way to
achieve it. But I have so many pensamentps qe could only do this up to a certain point. But
perhaps you could leave that my words were an expression of my thoughts real, instead of
trying to fit sentences already made in each situation." Here, the individual begins to feel the
pqssibilidade a choice effective.
Another customer starts to count a discussion that he had with the woman: "I was not
àssim so angry with me. I am not irritei much with me. I realized that I was reacting as a child
and, in some way, that is exactly what I decided to do."
It is not easy to find examples that illustrate this seventh stage, because it is a relatively
small number of customers that reaches that point. I will try to summarize in a brief way the
qualities of this end point of continuous.

When the individual has reached, in its process of transformation, the seventh stage, we
find ourselves lumped into a new dimension. The customer has integrated at this time the
concept of movement, flow, change, in all aspects of his life psychological, and it takes to its
main characteristic. He lives inside of their feelings, known occurred with a fundamental
confidence in them and aceitandoos. The ways in which builds his experience are in permanent
change and their personal constructs are altered due to each new event lived. The nature of
their experience is a process, feeling the newness of each situation and interpreting it in a new
way, using the terms of the past only to the extent that the new is the same as the past. Live the
experience of an immediate mode, knowing at the same time that you are experiencing. He
appreciates the accuracy in the differentiation of feelings and meanings of your personal
experience. The communication within the different aspects of himself is free and without locks.
Communicates freely in relations with the other, and these relations are not stereotyped, but
person-to-person. Is aware of itself, but not as an object. It is a reflexive awareness, a
subjective life of his person in motion. It is responsible for their problems. Sit in addition fully
responsible in relation to their life in all its aspects in movement. Fully lives in itself as a process
of constant change.
Some issues related to this ongoing process
Try to anticipate some of the problems which might arise in relation to the process that I
have attempted to describe.
This will be the only process by which the personality changes, or will be just one of
several methods of changes? I do not know it. Perhaps there are different types of processes of
change in the personality. Just wanted to specify that it seems to me that this is the process that
triggers when the individual makes the experience of being fully accepted. Apply this to all
psychotherapies, or this process only if there is a specific orientation psychotherapeutic
treatment? We cannot answer this question until we have more recordings of therapies
according to other guidelines. However, my opinion is that perhaps the therapeutic approaches
that emphasize very cognitive aspects and less the emotional aspects of the experience could
lead to a process of change completely different.
All agree that this is a process of change desirable, oriented to directions valid? I think not. I
think that certain people do not give value to fluidity. This is one of the judgments of social value
that individuals and cultures will have to do. The process of change can be easily avoided by
the reduction or elimination of the relationships in which the individual is fully accepted as is.
Will the rapid change in the continuous? My observation leads me to say exactly the
opposite. My interpretation of the study of Kirtner (4), which may be a little different from yours,
is that a client can initiate a treatment close to the second stage and finish it around the room,
getting both the client and the therapist absolutely satisfied with the progress substaiicií that
were affected. Occurs very rarely, is that occurs any time that a customer is characteristic of the
first stage to reach a point at which to present the characteristics of the seventh stage. If this
happens, you will need a few years.
Will the described aspects grouped properly in each stage? I'm sure have made a lot of
mistakes in the way have grouped my comments. I also wonder what the important elements
that were omitted. They could not describe the various elements of this continuous a more
succinct form? All of these issues, however, can be given an empirical response, if the
hypothesis that I propose has some merit in the eyes of a certain number of feet quisadores.
Summary
I have tried to outline in broad terms, and a provisional way, the unfolding of a process of
modification of personality that occurs when a customer feels is accepted, welcome and

understood as it is. This process includes several lines of force, the principle separated, but that
is increasingly taking a unit as the process unfolds.
This process implies a malleability growing feelings. At the lower end of the continuous they are
described as distant, impersonal and non-present. Later are described as objects and to some
extent claimed by the individual. Below are expressed as personal feelings in terms closest to
your immediate experience. An even higher degree of scale are experienced and expressed as
immediately present, with a fear of descending process. At this point, even the feelings that
were previously rejected the conscience begin to arise, are experienced and increasingly
recognized by the individual as his own. The top point of the continuous, within the process of
experience, a constant flow of feelings is characterized hence cm before the individual.
The process involves a transformation of the forms of experience. The continuum begins
with a fixedness in which the individual is too far from their experience and is unable to remove
or to symbolize its meaning implied. The experience is relegated to the past, before dc can be
understood, and this is interpreted in terms of meanings passed. The individual becomes the
expulsion in relation to their experience to the recognition of this same experience as a
disruptive process that takes place within it. The experience takes place gradually a reference
point inside more accepted, to which you can return to obtain meanings each time more
appropriate. Finally, the individual becomes able to live freely and to accept a process fluid
experience, using them with safety as the main reference for your behavior.
The process involves the crossing of the inconsistency to the congruence. The
continuous desenrolase from a maximum of incongruity that is totally unknown to the individual,
passes through different phases in which there is a growing recognition of the contradictions
and the discrepancies that exist in him, to finish in a experience of incongruity immediately
present. in such a way that the dissolve. On the upper end of the continuum are never more
than a temporary mismatch between the experience and the conscience, because the individual
no longer need to defend themselves against the threatening aspects of their own experience.
The process involves a change in the way the individual is capable of and how you want
to communicate in a climate receptive, also involving an extension of these capacities. The
continuous will of a disgust rich and changing the inner experience that communicates easily
when the individual wants.
The process involves an increasing flexibility of cognitive maps of the experience, THE
customer becomes an experience built in wouldest rigid, perceived as external facts, for a
development elaborated from the meanings more fluid experience, using the buildings that
change with each new experience.
There is a change in the relationship of the individual with their problems. One end of the
continuum, the problems are not recognized and there is no desire to change. Will then
gradually recognizing that there are problems. A stage more advanced, there is the recognition
that the individual has contributed to these problems, they do not only come from outside
sources. There is a growing sense of self-responsibility for their problems. Then there is the
experience of some aspects of the problems. The person lives their problems subjectively,
feeling responsible for contribution in the development of them.
It is a change in the way of establishing relations. At the beginning of the continuous
avoids the intimate relationships that you seem threatening. At the other end of the continuum,
he lives freely and openly in the relationship with the therapist and with the other, orientan its
behavior in relation to their immediate experience.
In general, the process part of a point of fixedness where all elements and lines of force
described above are easily discernible and understandable in isolation, until the culmination of
the therapy that all of these lines of force converge to form a homogeneous whole. In new
immediate experiences that occur in these moments, the feelings and the knowledge
interpenetrate each other, the i is subjectively present in experience, the desire is simply the
sequence of a harmonious balance toward organísmica. Thus, to the extent that the process is
approaching this point, the person takes a moving unit, The individual has changed, but what

seems to be more significant is the fact that he has taken an integrated process of
transformation. References
1.
Gendlin, E. Experiencing and the Creation ofMeaning, Glencoe, Illinois, Free Press.
(Especially chapter 7).
2.
Gendlin, E. , and F. Zimring "The qualities ... command or dimensions of experiencing
and their change", Counseling Center Discussion Papers, 1, 3, October 1955, Center of
Consultation of the University of Chicago.
3.
KeIly, G. A. The Psychology ofPersonal Constructs, vol. 1, New York, Norton, 1955.
4.
Kirtner, W. L. , and D. S. Cartwright - "Success and failure in client-centered therapy the
function ofinitial in-therapy behavior". J. Consult. Psychol., 1958, 22, pp. 329-333.
5.
Lewis, M. K. , C. R. Rogers and John M. Shlien "Two cases of time-limited clientcentered Redefinida", in Burton A. (cd. ). Case Studies of Coiinseling and Psvchotherapy. New
York, Prentice-Hall , 1959, pp. 309-3 52.
6.
Mooney, R. L. "The researcher himself', in Research is Curricititim Improvernent, National
Educ. Association, 1957, chapter 9). 7.
7.
Mooney, R. L. "Problems in the development of research men", Educ. Research Buli., 30.
1951, PP. 141-150.
8.
Rogers, C. R. - "The necessary and sufficient conditions oftherapeutic personality
change".
Consult. Psychol., 1957, 2), pp. 95-103

Fourth Part
A philosophy of the person
I was forming some philosophical opinions on life and the purpose for that walks the
individual when it is free.
Chapter 8
"Be it as it really is" - the personal goals seen by a therapist
In our days, many psychologists would consider an insult if they were accused of thinking
on a philosophical level. Do not share this reaction. I cannot help but wonder about the Magic
meaning of what I am. I think that the sense that I find myself in that I have some fascinating
implications for our modern world. In 1957, a friend, Dr RussellBecker that was my student and
after my colleague invited me to do a special conference before the whole school gathered at
York College, in Ohio. I decided then develop better the Magic meaning of guidelines that
personal customer seems to take in the atmosphere of freedom from the therapeutic
relationship. When the conference ended, I have many doubts about whether voicing something
new or significant. But the prolonged applause and quite unexpected assistance freed me in
part of my concerns The amount of time that has elapsed after that allowed me look more obj
etividade for what he had said and I am satisfied with the two points. I believe I have expressed
well the comments that to me if they narrowed their around two major themes: my confidence in
the human body when works freely and the existential quality of a satisfactory experience, a
theme taken up by some of our more modern philosophers, but that it had been beautifully
expressed for more than twenty-five centuries by Lao-Tsé -570-490, when he said: 'The way to
act is to be ."
The questions

"What my purpose in life? ", "what I want? ", "What is my purpose? ". Such are the
questions that any man puts himself, one time or another, sometimes calm and
meditativamente, other times in the agony of uncertainty and despair. Issues are old, very old,
which were made and answered in all the centuries of history. They are also questions that
every person, in his own way, you should ask and answer for himself. These are the kind of
questions that I, as therapist, I hear expressed in more varied ways by women and by men
disturbed trying to learn, understand or choose the directions that your life deveseguir.
In a sense, nothing new can be said about these issues. In fact, the sentence of
introduction that I have taken as the title of this conference is taken from the writings of a man
who they discussed for more than a century. It would seem presumption simply expressing a
personal opinion on this issue of objectives and intençõe. But, as I have worked for many years
with individuals disturbed and dysfunctional, I believe discemir a pattern, a direction, a common
element, a guidance in provisional answers to these questions that they have found for
themselves. For this reason I would like to communicate my way of looking at it is that the
human being seems to look out for when you have the freedom to choose.
Some answers
Before trying to make them enter the world of my own experience with my clients, I would
like to remind you that these issues are not pseudoproblemas and that neither the men of the
past nor the present if they agree on the same what is the goal of life, some have responded
with the words of the catechism, that "the main purpose of man is to glorify God". Others
thought that the end of his life was to prepare each one to immortality. Others sat in a purpose
much more earthly - enjoy, leave and meet all the sensual desires. Still Others - and this applies
to many today - consider that the purpose of life is to achieve the central america cluster of
material goods, a position, knowledge or power. Some had as objective to complete and
treasures to a cause that is beyond them, as for example the Christianity or communism. A
Hitler considered as the purpose of your life take the head of a superior race that would
dominate everything. Exactly the opposite, many eastern have striven to eliminate the personal
desires and exercise on you control more absolute. I mentioned this variety of options to
indicate some of the purposes extremely different to that men devoted their lives, to suggest
that there are in fact many objectives possible.
Charles Morris, a recent and important study, investigated objectively the living standards
preferred by students from six different countries: India, China, Japan, the United States,
Canada and Norway (5). As would be expected, found sharp differences in objectives between
these national groups. Also sought, through an in-depth analysis of these data, determine the
dimensions underlying valuing that seemed to guide the thousands of individual preferences.
Without going into the details of the analysis, we can see that emerge from five dimensions,
which, combined in various ways, both positive and negative, appear to be responsible for
individual options.
The first of these dimensions of value implies a preference for a participation in the life
responsible, moral, restrained, appreciating and preserving what the man managed to.
The second emphasizes the taste by vigorous action in overcoming obstacles. This value
implies an opening confident to change, either to solve personal and social problems, and to
overcome obstacles in the natural world.
The third dimension emphasizes the value of a life inside unattended with a
consciousness of itself rich and high. The control over the people and things is rejected in favor
of a more profound and sympathetic perception of oneself and of others.
The fourth dimensions underlying values responsiveness to people and nature. The
inspiration is seen as arising from a source that is born out of the i, and the person lives and
develops in a delicate correspondence to this source.

The fifth and last dimension emphasizes the pleasure of the senses, the search for
pleasure. Are valued the simple pleasures of life, an abandonment to the moment, a relaxed
openness to life.
This study is significant and is one of the first to measure objetivamcnte, .answers given
in different cultures to the question of what will be the final goal of life. This has increased our
knowledge of the answers. Also helped to define some of the fundamental dimensions in terms
of which the options. As Morris says, referring to these dimensions, "it is as if the people of
different cultures have in common the five tones of major musical scale in that make up the
various melodies" (5, p. 185).
Another perspective
However, I am vaguely dissatisfied with this study. None of the "ways of life" that Morris
confronts us with students as possible choice, and none of the factors involved, seems to end in
a satisfactory manner the purpose of life that emerges from my experience with my clients. To
see a person after another fight in their therapeutic sessions to find a formi of life, seems to
highlight a general pattern that is not fully captured by any of the descriptions of Morris.
I believe that the best way to expose this purpose of life, as I see the light of the
relationship with my clients, is to use the words of Soeren Kierkegaard "be what really is" (3, p.
29). I am perfectly aware that this statement may seem simple to the point of being absurd. Be
that is it seems more the formulation of an evidence of an objective. What does this mean?
What does this mean? I will devote myself to the analysis of these two points. I will simply say in
conclusion, that the assertion seems to want to say and imply strange things. From my
experience with my clients and my own investigations, I reach the conclusions that I would have
seemed very strange ten or fifteen years ago. Therefore, I hope that they consider these
conclusions with a critical skepticism and to accept them only to the extent that correspond to a
truth of their own experience.
Directions taken by customers
I will outline with clarity some of inclinations and tendencies that I registered at work with
customers. In the relationship with the people, my concern was to create a climate where
people breathe a lot of security, heat, empathic understanding, to the extent that I could create
with all sincerity. There I found it to be good or to help intervene in customer experience with
diagnoses or explanations interpretive or with suggestions and guidelines. Therefore, the trends
whose training assist departing from the client itself, more than me'.
Behind the facades
I noticed in the first place that, in a way characteristic, the client shows a tendency to
depart, with hesitation and fear, a i that it is not . In other words, even if you don't know where
that forwards, pulls something. AND, of course, in so doing, begin to define, albeit negatively,
what he is.
In principle, this can be expressed simply as the fear to show what it is. Let's look at what
a eighteen-year-old boy, one of the first interviews: "I know that I am not so lush and I fear that
the discover. That is why I am making these things ... Any day they discover that I am not so
exuberant. I am just doing everything to this day is the most distant possible ... If I knew how I
know (pause). I will not say who I think really that I am. There is only one thing that I don't want
to cooperate, and that is this ... do not improve their opinion about me knowing what I think of
myself." It is quite obvious that, in large part, the expression of this fear is to take what he is.
Instead of being merely a facade, as sefosse just this, takes ever more himself , it is
specifically a person with fear, that hides behind a facade because it looks for herself as an ugly
thing remaining to be seen.

In addition to the should
Another trend of the same genre appears on the client that deviates from a compulsive
feel what it "should be". Some individuals have absorbed so completely of parents the idea of
"should I be good" or "I have to be good" that only the largest inner struggles are able to depart
from this objective. It is a case of a young man who, to describe their relations unsatisfactory
with the father counts as first wanted his love: "I think that in all that he felt in relation to my
father I wanted really be in good relations with him ... I fervently hope that he advised me
without however achieve what I really want to". She felt- is always obliged to respond to your
requests and everything that he wanted from her, and that "had to be a lot, because once a
thing, there was another and another and another, and I never really could end up. It was kind of
a requirement without end". She feels that it was his mother, submissive and complacent
looking for match permanently to their requirements. "AND in fact I didn't want to be this type of
person. Do not think that that is a desirable way to be, but I think I have been convinced that, in
a way, it was as well that I had to be for that bothered me and like me. Bad who would like
someone so dull?" The therapist replied: "Who is really like a floor mat?" She continues: "At
least I would not be loved by the type of person who would like to a floor mat!" As well, although
these words do not tell us anything of I for which it forwards, the fatigue and the disdain of his
voice and the assertions made show clearly that it moves away from a i that has to be good,
that has to be submissive.
Interestingly, many individuals find that they felt compelled to perceive themselves as ill
and it is this idea of the self that fall apart. A young describes perfectly this movement, to say: "I
Don't know where it is that I get this impression that ashamed of me was an appropriate way
to feel ... Be ashamed of me was precisely as it had to be ... There was a world where
ashamed of myself was the best way to feel ... If we are anything that many decry, the only way
to have any respect for us is that we ashamed of that part of us that is deprecated ...
"Now, however, I refuse to think as formerly ... It is as if I was convinced someone had
said: 'The way it has to be is be ashamed of themselves - then, so be it ! '. Admit such a thing
for a long time, saying: 'In accordance, I'm like that! '. I now forward to anyone and say: 'I am
not happy with what you say . I will not be ashamed of mim!' ... ". It is clear that this young
man is abandoning the concept of themselves as shameful and bad. In addition to what the
others expect
Other customers realize that they are fleeing from what the culture expects them to be. In
our industrial civilisation current, for example, as Whyte said so firmly in his recent
book (7), there are enormous pressures to lead the people to have the characteristics of "man in
the organization". Thus, a person must be a full member of the group, must subordinate their
individuality to the needs of the group, it must be taken "man well developed that is able to
understand with men well developed".
A recent study carried out on the values of the students in our country, Jacob summarizes
its conclusions with the following words: "The main outcome of higher education on the values
of the students is to cause a acceptance generating a con4include standards and attitudes
characteristic of university's American community ... The impact of the university experience
is ... socializing the individual, refine it, poly-it and 'shape' your values so that integrates
comfortably in the ranks of graduates Americans" (1, p. 6).
In opposition to these pressures in favor of conformism, I have noticed that when
customers are liwes to be as they want, have shown a tendency to irritate and to discuss this
trend of organization, university or culture, for the shaping according to a particular model. One
of my clients says with great animation: "I have tried for a long time I defer to what was
significant to the other people and that was not effectively; no sense to me! And yet, at a certain
level, i felt so much more than that ." In this way, he, like others, tend to deviate from what is
expected.

In addition to pleasing to other
I noticed that many individuals formed trying to please others, but that, when they are
free, if they modify.
Thus, a man of liberal profession, seeing retrospective- the process that had just crossed,
writes near the end of the treatment: "I felt that I had simply to begin to do what I wanted
and not what I thought it should do . without worry about the opinion of others. It was a
complete reversal of my entire life. Have Always had to do things because it was what they
expected of me, or what was more important, so that the other would like me. It was all over! I
think now that I will be exactly what I am - rich or poor, good or bad, rational or irrational,
logical or illogical, famous or unknown. Therefore, thank you for having helped me to rediscover
the 'true to yourself', Shakespeare".
It can be said, therefore, that, in a way a little negative, customers define their objectives,
their intentions, through discovery, the freedom and the safety of congenial relations, some
directions that do not want to follow. They prefer not to hide, either to you or to your feelings, of
themselves or any other person that may be for them important. Don't want to be the one that
"should" be, and this must come from parents, or of society, whether it is defined in a positive or
negative way. Don't want to shape themselves or their behavior within a model that is to the
liking of the other. Don't want to, in other words, choose what you want it to be artificial,
something that they should be tax or set from the outside. They realized that these objectives or
purposes do not have value, even if they have lived up to now.
The path of waterline
But, which implies positive customer experience? I will try to describe a number of facets
that I noticed in directions that move.
First, the client forwards to the autonomy. This means that gradually begins to choose
goals that he wants to achieve. It is responsible for himself. Decides that activity and behaviors
mean something to you and that don't mean anything. I think that this trend to the waterline is
amply illustrated in the examples that I gave.
I do not mean to give the impression that my clients take this direction with joy and
confidence. On the contrary. The freedom for a person that is a freedom full of responsibility,
and an individual seeks to reach it with caution, with fear and, at the beginning, almost without
any confidence.
I do not want to give the impression that the customer is always considered choices. Be
responsibly involves self-directed options - and learn from the consequences. That is
why customers feel that it is a experience austere, but exciting. As I said one of them: "I am
afraid, I am vulnerable and without any support, but I am also grow in me the strength or the
pod'er This way to react is usual in customer when he assumes the waterline of your own life
and your behavior.
The path to be a process
The second observation is difficult need because we do not have appropriate terms.
Customers seem to go forward more openly to become a process, a fluidity, a change. They are
not disturbed to discover that they are not the same in each day that passes, that does not
always have the same feelings for a certain experience or person, which are not always
consequential. They are a flow and seem happy to remain in him. The effort to establish
conclusions and definitive assertions seems to decrease.
A customer declares: "things are certainly changing because not even I can predict more
my own behavior. Before he was able to do so. At this moment I do not know what I have to say
the following. It is a feeling and both ... I am even surprised that she said these things ... I see

new things each time. It is an adventure, it is what is inside of the unknown ... I am starting to
like this, I am satisfied, even with regard to such old negative things." This individual begins to
appreciate yourself as a fluid process, the principle only in therapy session, later in his life. I
cannot but think of the description that Kierkegaard makes the individual in their real existence:
"An individual that exists is in a constant process of becoming.., and translates everything that
thinks in terms of process. It is (with ele) ... the same as with the writer and his style; only those
who have never given anything by finished, but 'stirring the waters of language', starting afresh
always has a style. AND that is why the most common expressions assumes it the freshness of
a new birth" (2, p. 79). I think that this is an excellent description of the direction in which the
client moves, to be a process of emerging opportunities, more than to be or to take- if any
objective crystallized.
The path to be
This also implies a complexity of the process. Perhaps an example might help in this
aspect. One of our therapists, for whom psychotherapy also outside of great help, came up to
me recently to discuss their relationship with a customer very difficult and very disturbed. I
noticed with interest that he was not discussing the customer, except in passing. He wanted
above all make sure that was clearly aware of the complexity of their own feelings in the
relationship - their heartfelt sentiments toward the customer, his occasional frustrations and
irritations, his sympathy for the well-being of the client, their fear that the customer is to take
psychotic, his concern with what others would you think if the case is not resolved as well. I
realized that their attitude was that, if it could be , a completely open and transparent, all their
complex feelings in relation, sometimes inconsistent and contradictory, everything was going
well. If, on the contrary, it was only a part of their feelings and other party facade or defense,
was certain that the relationship is not good. I noticed that this desire to be all things to himself
in every moment - all the full richness and complexity, without anything to hide himself and
without being afraid of anything of himself - was a common desire to all those who seemed to
show much dynamism in therapy. It is not necessary to add that it is difficult, if not impossible in
an absolute sense. However, one of the most obvious trends in customers is to assume all the
complexity of his i in mutation in every significant moment.
The path of an opening to the experience
"Be it as it really is" also requires other components. One of them: quealvezjá has been
suggested, is the tendency of the individual to live in a relationship open, friendly and close with
his own experience. This does not happen easily. Many times, when the customer is unaware of
a new facet, initially the rejects. It is only when experience an aspect of himself denied until
then; a climate of acceptance, that may try to take it as a part of himself. Here's how it
expresses a customer a little impressed after having experienced the aspect dependent and
playground of himself: "It is an emotion that I never felt clearly - an emotion that he had never! ".
He is not able to tolerate the experience of their children's feelings. But, little by little, he begins
to accept them and to accept them as a part of himself, to live connected to them and them
when they appear.
Another boy, with a serious problem of stuttering, opens near the end of the treatment to
some of their hidden feelings. He says: "It was a terrible struggle. I have never understood. I
think that was very painful reaches this level. That is to say, I am starting to feel it now. Oh,
the terrible suffering.., was terrible talk ... I mean, I wanted to speak, and then not wanted ... I'm
sorry - I think I know - is simply a voltage - a voltage terrible - a pressure, this is the word, an
enormous pressure was what I felt. I just now feel that after all this years ... is terrible. I resume
the breath, i smothers" patients. I feel like that tightened inwardly (starts crying). I never
understood this, I never knew what it was" (6). He is opening the inner feelings which of course

are not new to him, but that until then had not experienced fully. Now that you can afford to try
them, they will be less terrible for him and will be able to live more connected to their own
experience.
Customers learn little by little that the experience is a resource friendly and not an enemy
to be feared. I think a customer who, near the end of the therapy, when a question the
embaraçava, placed his head in his hands and said: "Let's look at what I am feeling. I want to
get closer to me. I want to know". AND after waiting, quiet and patiently, to be able to discern
the exact nature of the sentiments that it occurred. I feel many times that the client tries to listen
to himself. tries to listen to the messages and meanings that are communicated from their own
physiological reactions. Do not have more so afraid of what you will discover. Not slow to
understand that their reactions and internal experiences, the messages of their feelings and
their viscera, are friends. Starts to want to be close to their internal sources of information more
than remain closed to them.
Maslow, in his study of people whom he calls autorealizadas, note this same
characteristic. Speaking of these individuals, says: "Its ease of penetration in reality, their
greater approximation of an acceptance similar to that of the animal or the child, and their
spontaneity imply a higher awareness of their own impulses, of their own desires, opinions and
subjective reactions in general" (4, p. 210).
This greater opening to what is going on inside is associated to an opening similar to the
experience of external reality. Maslow could be speaking of customers whom I knew when he
says: "The individuals self-made has a wonderful capacity for a consideration constant, fresh
and naive the basic goods of life, with fervour, pleasure, charm and even ecstasy, by more worn
that these experiences may seem to the other" (4, p. 214).
The path of an acceptance of the other
Closely linked to this openness to experience, both indoor and outdoor, is generally an
openness and acceptance of others. TO THE extent that an individual is able to take its own
experience, is moving toward acceptance of the experience of the other. He appreciates and
values both your experience and that of others for what they are. To cite again Maslow, referring
to his individuals autorealizados: "Nobody complains about the water being wet, nor of the rocks
for being harsh ... As the child looks at the world with a few large innocent eyes and that they
don't criticize but simply observe and repair for what is happening, without thinking or ask if it
could be any other way, so the individual self-performed looks to the human nature both in
themselves and in others" (4, p. 207). This attitude of acceptance in relation to which there is
develops customer along the therapy.
Walking to the confidence in himself
Another way to describe this pattern, that meeting in each client, is to say that,
increasingly, he trusts in this process that it is he, valuing it. The observation of my customers
made me understand much better the people creators. El Greco, for example, must be
understood, to look for some of his early works, that "the good artists do not paint as well". But
was confident enough in his own experience of life and in itself to be able to continue to express
their personal perceptions and unique. It was as if to say: "The good artists do not paint as well,
but I pinto". In another field, Ernest Hemingway was certainly aware that "the good writers do
not write as well". Fortunately, however, solved be Hemingway, be himself, preferably to
become any other conception of good writer. Einstein seemed never think about the fact that the
good physicist not thought like him. More than to renounce due to their inadequate academic
preparation in fisica, preferred to simply be Einstein, with his own thought, be it even a way as
true and as deep as possible. This is not a phenomenon that occurs only with the artist or the
genius. Many times I saw some of my customers, simple people, acquire an importance and a
creativity in their sphere of its own, to the extent that they gained greater confidence in the

process that they developed and dared have their own feelings, living with values that
discovered within himself and expressed them in their personal and unique.
The general direction
I will try to indicate briefly what is involved in this pattern of movement that I noted in my
clients, whose elements I am trying to describe. Seems to indicate that the individual moves in
direction to be , with knowledge of the facts and an attitude of acceptance, the process that he
is in fact in depth. Departs from what is not, to be a facade. Isn't trying to be more than it is, with
all the feelings of insecurity and the mechanisms of defense that this implies. Not trying to be
less than it is, with the implicit feelings of guilt or depreciation of itself. Is increasingly attentive to
what goes on in the depths of his being physiological and emotional and discovers increasingly
inclined to be, with a precision and a depth larger, what is the way more real. A customer, feeling
the direction it is taking, question yourself with astonishment and disbelief, during an interview:
"Do You want to say that if I really was as I feel that I am, everything would be right?" TO their
own experience and that of many other customers does strive for a positive response. Be really
what it is, here is the pattern of life that seems to be the highest, when it is free to follow the
direction that you want. It is not simply a choice of intellectual values, but it seems to be the best
description of behavior hesitant, tentative and uncertain through the exploration of what it wants
to be.
Some misunderstandings
For many peoas the trajectory of life that I have struggled to describe seem to be far from
satisfactory. Since this corresponds to an effective difference of values, I respect the difference.
However, I found that sometimes this attitude is due to certain misunderstandings. I would like
to clarify them as far as possible.
This implies regularity? For some, be that is remain static. They see such a goal or value
as a synonym to be fixed or immutable. Nothing could be further from the truth. Be that is is a
dive entirely in a process. The change is facilitated, and probably taken to the extreme, when it
is assumed that truly is. In reality, it is the person who denies their sentiments and their
reactions that demand treatment. This person has been trying for many years change, but met
fixed in behaviors that you dislike. It was only to take more in that it is, that could not be more
that in itself denied and consider any change.
This implies wickedness?
A reaction even more usual for this trajectory of life that is described is to be something
that really is would be bad, uncontrolled, destructive. Would release a sort of monster in the
world. This is an opinion that I know very well, since the meeting in almost all my clients: "If I
would dare let the feelings that represei here within, if by any chance I lived these feelings, it
would be a disaster." this is the attitude, expressed or not expressed, almost all customers
newcomers who are experiencing the unknown aspects of themselves. But her experience in
therapy runs counter to these fears. The individual discovers little by little that can be your
irritation, when that anger is his true reaction, and that accepts or transparent, this irritation is
not destructive. Find out what can be your fear and who know that they have fear not dissolve.
Discover that you can have self-pity and that this is not "bad". He feels he can be and feel their
sexual reactions, or their feelings of laziness or hostility, without which drops the heaven above.
The reason seems to be this: the more he is able to allow these feelings to flow and there is in
it, the better they find their proper place in total harmony. Find out who has other feelings that
join these and that is balance. He feels he loves, that is tender, respectful, cooperator, as also is
hostile, sensual or furious. Feel interest, zeal and curiosity, as feels laziness or apathy. Feel
courageous and daring as you feel fearful. Their feelings, when the lives of a way intimate and

accepts in its complexity, perform a constructive harmony and not a dip in any form of life
uncontrolled.
The people express sometimes this concern by saying that, if an individual is what it
really is, will be releasing the beast that carries in itself. This makes me laugh, because I think
that we should observe the beasts more closely. The lion is often the symbol of "fierce animal".
But what is the reality? Unless it has been modified by contact with the men, the lion has a
number of qualities that I have been describing. Without doubt that he kills when they are
hungry, but without making a carnage useless and without meet in addition to their needs. It is
better than some of us. When small, is dependent and defenseless, but demand the
independence. Not obstinately refuses in dependence. It is selfish and self-centerd in inffincia,
but in adulthood expresses a reasonable degree of cooperation and nourishes, protects and
cares for more new. Satisfy your sexual desires, but that does not mean that it delivered the
unbridled orgies. Their different tendencies and impulses harmonize within him. It is, in itself, a
member constructive and reliable of the species felis leo. AND I try to suggest that be true and
deeply a member únici1the human species is not something that should inspire horror. Tar thing
means, on the contrary, live fully and openly the complex process to be one of creatures more
sensitive, more gifted and but creators of this planet. Be completely this our unique character as
a human being is not, in my experience, a process that should qualify as bad. The words
appropriate divi would be that it is a positive process, constructive, realistic and worthy of trust.
Social Implications
Let us consider for a few moments some of social consequences of the path of life that I
have tried to describe. I presented it as a direction that seems to have a great significance for
individuals. Will, may have any meaning or relevance to the groups or organizations? Will be a
valid direction for a trade union, to a religious group, for an industrial corporation, to a university
or to a nation? My opinion is that this would be possible. Let us take as an example the behavior
of our country in its international relations. We usually, after listening to the statements of our
leaders over the past few years and to read their speeches, that our diplomacy is always based
on higher moral objectives; that always comes in the line of earlier policies followed; that does
not imply selfish desires; and who never erred in its judgments and choices. I think that they
may agree with me when I say that, if we hear a person speak in these terms, we would see
immediately that it is a facade, that similar statements may not truly represent the actual
process that occurs. Let us imagine for a moment how it is that we, as a nation, we should
introduce ourselves in international diplomacy, if we were open, knowing and accepting that
truly we are. Do not know with any precision what we are, but it is likely that if we express
ourselves as we are, then our communications with foreign countries should shut down
elements of the following type: As a nation, we are gradually becoming aware of our great
strength and power and responsibility that this force entails.
Let us turn, ignorant and a little blind, for the acceptance of the position of leaders of the
world.
Made many mistakes. We are often inconclusive. We are far from being perfect.
We are deeply fearful of the power of communism, a vision of life different from our own.
We have an attitude of extreme competition with communism and we feel angry and humiliated
when the Russians are beyond us in any field.
We have interests very selfish abroad, such as the oil in the Middle East. On the other
hand, does not aspire to a domain on the peoples.
We express feelings complex and contradictory in relation to the freedom, independence
and self-determination of individuals and countries: we wish them, we are proud to have given
our support in the past to these trends, and however we often afraid of what they might want to
say.

We tend to value and respect the dignity and worth of each individual, but when we are
afraid we distance ourselves in this direction.
Suppose that in putting forward this way, open and transparent in our foreign relations.
We will be the nation that we are, in all our complexity and even in our contradictions. What
would be the result? In my opinion, the result would be similar to the experience of a customer
when emai€truly what it is. Let's look at some of these conseqiencias probable.
Inanimate much more smoothly because we would have nothing to hide. We could
concentrate on the bottom of the problem, instead of spending our energies proving that our
behavior is moral and consequent.
We could use our creative imagination in the resolution of problems, instead of the we
deploy in our defense. We could openly show our own selfish interests and our sympathies in
relation to the others and let these desires in conflict if throwing in a manner acceptable to us,
as people. We could freely evolve and grow in our leadership position, because we do not think
it got stuck in rigid concepts of what we were, what we have to be, what we should be. There
has been a cheapening that were very least feared because the other would be less inclined to
suspect that hides behind the facade. Tenderíamos, through our own opening, causing a greater
openness and greater realism on the part of others. Fit-on-going in the solution of global
problems starting from the real issues, instead of motivating in terms of facades displayed by
the negotiators.
In summary, what I am suggesting through this imaginary example is that nations and
organizations can discover, as well as individuals did, that be what it is in depth is an enriching
experience. I am suggesting that this perspective contains the seed of a philosophical
perspective of a full life, that this approach is more than a trend observed in the customer
experience.
Summary
I started this chapter with a question that each individual makes himself - what is the
purpose, what is the goal of my life? I tried to say to them what I learned from my customers,
therapeutic relationship, liberated from every threat and with the possibility of choice, show in
their lives a similarity of direction and purpose.
I have noticed that they tend to move away from the idea that has already been made
about you, what others expect of them. I said that the movement characteristic of the customer
is what allows it to be he himself freely, the process unstable and fluid that it is. Forwards also
apply to a friendly opening to which it becomes learning to listen with sensitivity. This means that
it is increasingly a harmony of sensations and of complex reactions, instead of clarity and
simplicity of rigidity. i.e. that walks to the acceptance of its "essence", accepting the other of a
more attentive and understanding. Trusts and appreciates the complex internal processes of
himself, when they emerge to the expression. It is transform creatively realistic and realistically
creator. Discovers that this pro cess in itself is to raise the maximum processing capacity and
growth. Is permanently committed to the discovery of that be fully himself, in all its fluidity, is not
synonymous with being bad or uncontrolled. On the contrary, it is felt, with a growing pride, who
is a member sensitive, open, realistic, stand-alone, of the human species, adapting it with
courage and imagination to the complexity of the situations in change. This means that walking
continuously for be, the conscience and the expression, what is consistent with the set of
reactions organísmicas. To use the words of Kierkegaard, more aesthetically appropriate, this
means "be it as it really is". I hope to have shown that it is not a direction easy to follow or
which ever you can fully perform. AND a way of life to continue.
Looking for eplorar the limits of such a concept, I suggested that this direçãb 'riã3 is a
track necessarily exclusive of individuals undergoing therapy, nor to individuals seeking a
purpose for his life. In my opinion, it would have the same meaning for a group, an organization
or a nation and would involve the same beneficial consequences.

I accept entirely that estaforma of life that we have outlined is a option of values that
differs decidedly of objectives usually chosen or followed in behavior. But as it is of individuals
that enjoy greater freedom than the usual to choose, and because this way of life seems to
translate a widespread tendency in these individuals, I propose it to the account of you.
References
1. Jacob, P. E. - Changing Values in Coilege, New Haven, Hazen Foundation, 1956.
2. Kierkegaard, S. - Final Unscientific Postscript, Princeton University Press, 1941. A philosophy
of the person
3. Kierkegaard, S. - The ageneral Include Death, Princeton University Press, 1941.
4. Maslow, A. H. Motivation and Personalit-y, Harper and Bros. , 1954.
5. Morris, C. W. Diversity Among ofHuman Value, University ofChicago Press, 1956.
6. Seeman told Fides about Julius - The Case ofJim, Nashville, Tennessee, Educational Testing
Bureau, 1957.
7. Whyte, W. H. , Jr. - The Organization Man, Simon and Schuster, 1956.
Chapter 9
The vision of a therapist about the good life: the person in full operation
In 1952 or 1953, during one of my fingers crossed the winter to warmer climates, I wrote
an article entitled "The concept of the person in full operation ". It was an attempt to outline the
framework of the person that would arise in the case of therapeutic treatment achieve its
positive result maximum. I felt a little overwhelmed by the person malleable, individualistic,
'relativist ', which seemed to be the logical result as therapeutic. There are two questions to me.
It would be correct to my logic? If ofàsse, was this kind of person that I gave value? To give
myself the opportunity to meditate on these ideas, I have made copies of the article and, during
the following years, distributing hundreds of them the researchers concerned. As was becoming
more and more secure in their content, I submitted it to one of the most important journals of
psychology. The editor wrote to me saying that the publish, but that rqnecessário submit it a
psychological framework much more conventional. Suggested me many fundamental changes.
It made me think that my article would not probably accepted by psychologists in the form in
which it was written and I resigned to the idea of posting it. From then continued to be a center
of interest for people with different interests, and the Di: Hayakawa wrote an article on this
concept in the journal of semantics ETC. Therefore, this was one of the articles that came to my
mind when I decided write this book.
However, when I read, I discovered that, during the years that have passed since its
writing, its themes and ideas more central had been absorbed, and perhaps better exposed, in
other articles included here. For this reason, I put it once more to one side, with some
reluctance, and replace with an article about my vision of "the good life " article that was based
on 'The person in full operation' and that expresses, I believe, the key aspects of this Article in a
manner more brief and more readable. My only concession to the past has been given to this
chapter a subtitle.
My ideas about the meaning of "the good life" are based largely on my experience of
working with individuals nurnaação very intimate and close to which it gives the name of
psychotherapy. These ideas have therefore a foundation empirical or experiential in contrast
with perhaps a theoretical foundation or philosophical. I learned what the "good life" was
through observation and participation in the struggle of people who are disturbed and restless to
achieve that life.

I should make clear from the prineípio that the experience I gained comes from a
particular guidance given to psychotherapy, guidance which has been developing over the
years. Very possibly, all forms of psychotherapy are fundamentally similar, but as I am now less
sure than in the past, I would like to insist on clarifying that my therapeutic experience followed
lines that seem to me to be the most effective, that is, the type known as therapy "customercentric".
I will try to give a very brief description of how it would be this therapy if it were, in all
respects, the best possible, because I think that where more learned about the good life was in
therapeutic experimentation took a deep dynamism. If the therapy reached an optimum level,
both intensive as extensively, this would mean that the therapist would have been able to
establish with the client an intensely personal and subjective - not a relationship such as the
scientist with your object of study, not as a doctor who demand diagnose and heal, but as a
relation of person to person. This would mean that the therapist considers the client as a person
unconditionally valid: valid whatever their behavior, their feelings or their condition. This would
mean that the therapist is authentic, which is not hidden behind a facade defensive, but that is
going to meet the customer with the feelings that you are experiencing organically. It would
mean also that the therapist is able to abandon themselves to understand your customer, that
there are no internal barriers which prevent them to feel what it is like to be a customer at each
moment of the relationship, and that can transmit something that understanding empathetic
customer. This means, finally, that the therapist is the willingness to enter fully in the relationship
with the customer, without knowing in advance where to forward, satisfied with the fact to
provide a climate that makes possible for the individual to greater freedom to take himself.
For the customer, this therapy great would mean a holding in himself with feelings
increasingly strange, unknown and dangerous, holding which is only possible due to the gradual
understanding that is unconditionally accepted. Then begins the confrontation with elements of
their experience, which in the past had been denied to the conscience as too threatening, too
traumatizing for the structure of i. Find out if experiencing fully these feelings in the relationship,
so that, at every moment, he is your fear, your anger, your tenderness or its strength. AND to
the extent that lives these different feelings in all their degrees of intensity, discovers that he has
experienced himself , that he is all of these feelings. Faced with their behavior changing in a
constructive manner in accordance with its i, which had recently experienced. Begins to
understand that it does not need to fear that the experience can you propose, but that you can
accept it freely as a part of your i in transfonnação and in development.
Here is a quick sketch of where comes the therapy focused on the client when it reached
its degree great. I am presenting this outline here simply as a picture of the context in which I
was forming my conception of "the good life".
A negative comment
To seek to live and understand the experiences of my clients, i got little by little to a
negative conclusion about the "good life". It seems to me that this is not a fixed state. It is
not , in my opinion, a state of virtue, of contentment, of nirvana or happiness. It is not a condition
in which the individual is adapters, carried out or completed. Using the terms of psychology, it is
not a condition of reduction of impulses, voltage reduction or homeostasis.
I think that all of these terms have been used in a manner that implies that, if one of these
states is reached, the purpose of life is too. Certainly for many people the happiness or
adaptation are considered as states synonyms of "the good life". On the other hand, the social
sciences speak frequently to reduce tension, to the obtaining of the homeostasis, or balance, as
if these states constitute the purpose of the process of life.
It is, therefore, with a degree of surprise and concern that I note that my experience does
not confirm any of these settings. If I focus on the experience of individuals who seem to have
demonstrated the highest degree of dynamism during the therapeutic relationship, and on those

who in the years following this relationship show have done and make real progress in the
direction of the "good life", then it seems to me that these individuals are not adequately
described by any of these terms, which Archbishop Sanon pointed out fixed states of existence.
I believe that they themselves would feel insulted if they were described as "adapted", and that
they would consider a falsehood being described as "happy", "happy" or even "performed". For
my part, I would consider it very inaccurate claim that all their impulsive tensions were reduced
or that are in homeostatic state. I am forced to ask myself if there is any adequate definition of
"the good life" that respects the facts as I have noticed. Do not think that it is easy, and what
follows is a provisional attempt.
A positive note
In seeking to capture in a few words what seems to me the truth about these people, I
believe that will come more or less to this: The "good life" is a process, not a state of being. It is
a direction, not a destination.
The direction represented by the "good life" is one that is chosen by total body, when
there is psychological freedom to move in any direction .
This direction selected in such a way organísmico seems to have certain qualities distinct
general that reveal themselves as being the same in a wide range of individual and personal.
In this way, can I integrate the statements made so far in a setting that can, at least, serve as a
basis for study and discussion. The "good life", from the point of view of my experience, is the
process of moving in a direction that the human organism selects when is inwardly free to move
in any direction, and the general characteristics of this chosen direction show a certain
universality.
The characteristics of the process
Now we must specify what is revealed as characteristic of this process of movement and
which appears in people during therapy.
An increasing openness to experience
Firstly, the process seems to involve an increasing openness to experience. This
proposition has for me a meaning ever higher. IS the opposite pole to defensive attitude. I
described this latest attitude as being the body response to experiences seized or anticipated as
threatening, as inconsistent with the image that the individual makes himself or herself in
relation to the world. These experiences are threatening temporarily taken harmless, to be
deformed pelacnsciencia or denied by it. I, literally, I cannot see exactly these experiences,
feelings, reactions in me differ substantially from image already possessed myself. A large part
of the therapeutic process is the constant discovery on the part of the individual that is
experiencing feelings and atihides which before had not been able to take conscious, that had
not been able to make "own" as part of himself. If, however, a person could be completely open
to your experience, all stimulus - whether its origin is the body or the environment - would be
freely relayed through the nervous system without being distorted by any defense mechanism.
There would be no need for the mechanism of "subcepção" through which the body warned
against any experience threatening to me. On the contrary, whether the stimulus was the impact
of a configuration in shape, color or sound in the external environment acting on the sensitive
nerves, whether it was a memory from the past or a visceral sensation of fear, pleasure or
disgust, the person "hinting" that experience, would make it entirely available to consciousness.
For this reason, one of the aspects of this process, which I will call the "good life" appears
as a movement that moves away from the pole of a defensive attitude toward the pole of
openness to experience. The individual becomes progressively more able to listen to yourself,
to experience what is happening in itself. Is more open to their feelings of fear, despair and
regret. It is also more open to their feelings subjectively, as there are, and it is also free to be

aware of them. It becomes more able to live fully the experience of your body, instead of
keeping it out of awareness.
Increase of existential experience
A second characteristic of the process that represents for me the "good life" is that it
implies a growing trend to live fully each moment. This idea can be easily misunderstood and
perhaps even a little vague in my own spirit. Let's see if I can express what I want to say.
I think it is clear that a person who was fully open to each new experience, completely
devoid of a defensive attitude, living every moment of your life as new. The complex
configuration of internal and external stimuli that exists in a given moment never before existed
exactly the same way. Therefore, this person would understand that "what I'll be in the next
moment and what I will do is born of that moment and cannot be laid down in advance nor by
me or by others". It is not uncommon to find customers who express precisely this type of
feeling.
A way of expressing the fluidity that is present in this existential experience is to say that
the ego and the personality emerge from the experience, instead of saying that the experience
was tra Become person tricity or deformed to fit a preconceived structure of i. This means that a
person becomes a participant and an observer from the ongoing process of experience
organísmica, instead of controlling it.
This live at the moment means an absence of rigidity of organization close, imposition of
a structure to the experience. On the contrary, It means a maximum adaptability, a discovery of
the structure of experience , an organization fluent, mutable, the I and the personality.
IS this trend to an existential experience that to me is a good patent for people involved in
the process of "the good life". You could almost say that it is its most important characteristic. It
involves the discovery of the structure of the experience in the process of living this experience.
Most of us, on the other hand, applies to experience a structure and a avação pre-formed, and
never abandons, compressing and deforming the experience to adapt it to our preconceived
ideas, irritating the aspects fluids that take so difficult to adapt to our pockets carefully
constructed. Open your mind to what is happening now, and discover in this process this any
structure that is present - this is, in my view. one of the qualities of the "good life", the life
matured, as that I see customers achieve.
A growing confidence in their body
Another characteristic of the person who lives the process of "the good life" reveals a
growing confidence in their body as a means of achieving a behavior increasingly satisfactory in
each existential situation. I shall explain what I mean by this statement.
Many people, when choosing the attitude to be taken in a situation any, rely on guiding
principles, a code of action established by a group or an institution, in the judgment of the other
(since the wife and friends Emily Post2) or in the way they have behaved in a similar situation in
the past. However, observing the customers whose life experience both taught me, I discovered
that these individuals became increasingly able to rely on their reactions organísmicas total
before a new situation in which they are gradually discovering that, if they were open to their
experience, they would feel that it would be good to do, these reactions would be a guide
competent and trustworthy behavior that really satisfies.
In trying to understand the reason for this, I found myself in the following line of thought:
the person that is completely open to your experience will have access to all possible data of
the situation, on which it will base its behavior; social requirements, their own needs complex
and possibly in conflict, their memory of similar situations, their perception of the unique
character of this particular situation, etc. , etc. The data would be in fact very complex. But the
individual could allow your total body, with the participation of their conscience, consider each
stimulus, each need and each requirement, its intensity and importance concerning and, from

this consideration and review complex, discover the attitude that more fully met their needs in
this situation.
An analogy that could be used almost as a description would be to compare this person
with a gigantic electronic computer. Once that is open to their experience, all the data of your
prints sensory, memory, learning antenor, internal states and visceral, are inserted in the
machine. This records all these trends and forces that are provided and quickly calculates the
action that will be the vector more economical satisfaction of needs in this existential situation.
This is the behavior of our hypothetical individual.
The defects that invalidate the confidence in the process many of us are the inclusion of
information that does not belong to the present situation, or deleting information that they
belong. AND when the memories and learning prior to introduce in the calculations, as if they
were this reality and not memory and learning. that appear answers holds- wrong mentally. Or,
then, when certain experiences threatening are inhibited in relation to conscience and,
therefore, are subtracted from the calculations or introduced in a distorted way, also errors
occur. Our hypothetical individual, however, consider your body perfectly safe, because all
possible data would be used and would be present in an exact way, without distortion. Your
behavior would in the best way possible all their needs - the need to be recognized, to be
associated with other individuals and others of the same genre.
In this calculation, weighting or appreciation, your body would not maneirnenhuma
infallible. Always give the best response taking into account the data provided, but these
sometimes would be insufficient. However, due to the element of openness to experience, any
mistake, any behavior that is not met, it would be quickly corrected. The calculations would be
always in some way a process of correction because they would be continually put to the test in
tomportamento.
Perhaps disliked my analogy with the electronic computer. Well, let us go back to the
customers that I know. As they become more open to their integral experience, discover that it is
increasingly possible to have confidence in their reactions. If you wish to express irritation,
express-in and verify that the result is satisfactory, because they are also aware of their other
desires of affection, of association and of relationship. BE amazed with their own intuitive
capacity to find solutions to behavioral human relations complex and disturbed. Only after they
understand how their internal relations were amazingly reliable for possibilitarlhes a satisfactory
performance.
The process of a functioning more full
I'd like to meet these three items that describe the process of "the good life" in a more
coherent image, showing that the person who is psychologically free moves in the direction of
becoming a person working in a manner more fully. The individual is more able to live fully and
with each one of their feelings and reactions. Makes a greater and greater use of its equipment
for organic feel, as exactly as possible, the existential situation inside and outside. It makes use
of all the information that your nervous system you can provide, using them in all conscience,
while recognizing that its total body can be, and often is, more wise than his conscience. The
individual becomes more able to allow your body total operates freely in all its complexity,
choosing between a large number of possibilities, the behavior that at any given moment the will
satisfy more generally and more genuine. The individual is able to rely more on their body in
relation to its operation, not because it is infallible, but because it can be completely open to the
consequences of each one of his acts, and correct them if they do not meet.
The individual is more able to try out all their feelings and are less afraid of them; he is his
own sieve in view of the facts, but it is more open to the facts that come from other sources;
immerse yourself completely in the process of being and becoming the that is, discovering that it
is a social being so deep and realistic; he lives in a way more full time, but learns that that is
always the way more healthy living. The individual becomes a body that functions more fully

and, due to the awareness of himself that runs freely in and through their experience, becomes
a person with a functioning more full.
Some implications
Any opinion on what constitutes the "good life" brings with it many implications, and which
I have described is not an exception. I hope that these implications may feed the reflection. I
would like to comment on two or three of these consequences.
A new perspective on the freedom versus determinism
The first of these implications may not be immediately obvious. It refers to the old
problem of "free will". I will show how it is that I see this issue now under a different light.
For some time I felt perplexed with the paradox living that exists in psychotherapy
between freedom and determinism. In relation terapui, some of subjective experiences
more intense are those in which the customer feels within himself the power of clear choice. It
is free to become what it is or to hide behind a facade; to make progress or to rewind; stop
following by paths that deplete or destroy the other, or railways that the enrich; he is literally free
to live or to die, both in physiological and psychological sense of these terms. AND, however,
when we enter into the field of psychotherapy with objective methods of research, we are
obliged, as all scientists, to adopt a strict determinism. From this point of view, any thought,
feeling or action from the customer is determined by what he is immediately preceding. There
cannot be a thing called freedom. The dilemma that I am looking for describe is not different
from that found in other fields - it is simply more central and seems more insoluble.
This dilemma, however, can be seen from a new perspective if we consider in terms of
the definition that we gave the person in full operation. We could say that, at the point of optimal
therapy, the person experiences precisely the most complete and absolute freedom. The
individual wants or chooses to follow the line of action that represents the vector more costeffective in relation to all internal and external stimuli, because that is the behavior that can
satisfy it in a way more profound. But this is the same line of action, from another point of view,
it can be said as determined by all the factors of the existential situation. Compare this
description with the image of a person organised defensively. She wants or chooses to follow
certain line of action but discovers that cannot behave the way that he had chosen. The
individual is determined by factors of existential situation, but these factors include its attitude of
defense, its denial or distortion of some important aspects. Their behavior, therefore, certainly
not satisfy fully. Their behavior is determined, but he is not free to make an effective choice. The
person who works fully, on the contrary, not only experience but uses the greater freedom, when
spontaneous, free, and voluntarily chooses and either which is also absolutely determined.
I am not so naive to assume that this position completely resolves the conflict between
the subjective and the objective, between freedom and necessity. But, at least, this means to
me that the more the person to live a "good life", the more you will experience the freedom of
choice and more your choice will translate efficiently in its behavior.
The criativadade as an element of "the good life"
I think I have made it clear that a person who is involved in the process signal that I have
termed the "good life" is a creative person . With its opening sensitive to the world, the
confidence in their own ability to form new relationships with its environment, it would be the
type of person who comes from the production and creative experiences. I would not
necessarily be "adapted" to its culture, and certainly would not be a conformist. But, at any time
and in any culture, living in a constructive way, in great harmony with your cultural environment
to achieve a balanced satisfaction of their needs. In certain cultural situations, could in some
ways be a person very unfortunate, but would continue to progress to take itself and to behave
in such a way that would satisfy a as completely as possible their deepest needs.

A person so it would be, I think, recognized as the most able to adapt and survive in the
event of a change in the environmental conditions. It would be able to adapt properly, both the
new and the old conditions. It would be precisely at the forefront of human evolution.
Human nature is fundamentally worthy of trust
It is evident that another implication from the perspective that I am presenting is that the
profound nature of the human being, when works freely, is constructive and worthy of trust. For
me, This is a conclusion you can't refuse a quarter of a century of experience in psychotherapy.
When we have been able to release the individual from their attitude of defense, so that it is
open to the vast field of their own needs as well as the field equally wide of demands of the
environment and society, we can be confident that their reactions are positive, progressive and
constructive. We need not ask who the socializará, because one of their own deepest needs is
to associate and communicate with the other. As the individual becomes more fully himself, it
also becomes socialized in a more realistic manner. We need not ask who is to control their
aggressive impulses; as if it is taking more open to all his impulses, his need to be loved by
others and their tendency to offer affection will be as strong as the impulses of violence or
attack. The individual will be aggressive in situations where the aggression is really appropriate,
but do not feel a need disorderly aggression. Your total behavior, in these and other fields, as
always driving to the openness to experience, will be more balanced and realistic, behavior that
is appropriate for the survival and development of an animal highly social.
I feel little sympathy for the idea quite widespread for that man is fundamentally irrational
and that their impulses, when not controlled, lead to the destruction of themselves and of others.
Human behavior is extremely rational, evolving with a subtle complexity and ordered for the
objectives that your organization is striving to achieve. The tragedy for many of us is the fact
that our defenses prevent us from perceiving this rationality, so that we are consciously walking
in one direction when organismicamente followed another. But, in the person of whom we are
speaking and living the "good life", there would be a decreasing number of these defense
barriers and increased participation of the rationality of your body. The only control the impulses
that exist, or that it would be, is the natural balance and internal of a need in relation to another
and the discovery of behaviors that follow a vector most closely connected to the satisfaction of
all needs. The experience of extreme satisfaction of a need (aggressive, sexual, etc. ) so that
kept the satisfaction of other needs (friendship, tenderness, etc. ) - an experience that is very
common in person organized defensively - would be very low. The individual would participate in
activities self-regulatory complex of your body - the thermostatic controls both psychological and
physiological way to live in harmony growing with himself and with others.
A final implication of this that I would like to mention is that this process of living the "good
life" implies a wider field, a wealth greater than life restricted in that great part of us is.
Participate in this process means that one is immersed in experiences, often fearful and often
satisfactory, of a life that is more sensitive, with a greater amplitude, greater variety and greater
wealth. It seems to me that the customers that have made significant progress in therapy live a
more intimate with their painful feelings, but also living more intensely their feelings of
happiness; the rabies is most clearly felt, but love also; the fear is an experience made more
deeply, but also the courage. AND the reason why they can live in a way so full in a field which
is so vast that they are in themselves an underlying confidence of being instruments worthy of
confidence to face life. I think it is clear why it is that, for me, adjectives such as happy, happy,
happy, pleasant, do not appear to be adequate for a general description of the process to which
I gave the name of "the good life", even if the person involved in this process experin1loved
each of these feelings in due time. But the adjectives that seem generally more appropriate are:
enriching, exciting, rewarding, stimulating and meaningful. I am convinced that this process of
"the good life" is not a kind of life that best suits jue discouraged easily. This process involves
the expansion and maturation of all the potential of a person. Requires the courage to be. This
means that you can dive in full on the chain of life. E. however, what is most deeply fascinating

to humans is that, when the individual becomes free inwardly, choose this "good life" as a
process of transformation.

Fifth Part
The observation of the facts: the role of research in psychotherapy
I confront my clinical experience with the reality, not without feeling a certain
philosophical perplexity about what would be the 'reality' more valid.
Chapter 10
Person or science? A philosophical problem
I think this article one of the most liked to write and that continues to be a satisfactory
expression of my views. I think that one of the reasons to enjoy both it is the fact that you have
written just for me. Not thought to publish it or use it for any other purpose than that of me clarify
about a problem and a growing conflict within myself.
A retrospective look leads me to recognize the orige!n of conflict. It was an opposition
between the logical positivism in that i jàra educated by which had a deep respect and a
existential thought oriented subjectively that grew in me because I seemed to suit per/eitamente
my therapeutic experience.
I have studied existential philosophy. The first contact I had with the work of Soeren
Kierkegaard and Marfen Buber must- if the insistence of some students of teoloia of Chicago
who undertook a job with me. They were confident that the thought of these men ressoaria with
my own, which was quite correct. Although there was Kierkegaard, for example, many of the
points which for me meant nothing, there were and there are, from time to time, insights and
convictions profándas expressing perfectly perspectives that i had but was unable to make.
Although Kierkegaard has lived about a hundred years ago , I cannot fail to consider him a
friend, sensitive and highly perceptive. I believe that this article will show you my debt to him,
especially because the reading of his work I opened perspectives and led me to trust and to
express my own experience.
Another factor that has helped me to write this article jài the fact I find far from my
colleagues, passing the winter in Taxco, where I wrote the greater part. Uni year later, when I
was on the island of Grenada, the Caribbean, I finished it, writing the last section. As I have
done in relation to other chapters of this book, distribute copies of this article to my colleagues
and students. Some years later, at the suggestion of others, submitted to publication and /ói
accepted, with some surprise on my part, by Arnerican Psychologt. I include it here because it
seems to me to express better than any other article I, the context in which I see the research
and because it clarifies the reason for my "double life "of subjectivity and objectivity.
Introduction
This is a very personal, writing in the first place for myself, with the objective of clarifying
a question that intrigued me increasingly. Will be of interest to other people to the extent that the
issue also exists for them. I shall, therefore, describe this introduction how this chapter was
forming.
With the experience I gained as therapist, accompanying the experience stimulating and
enriching of psychotherapy, and taking into account my work as scientific researcher to discover
some of the truths about the therapy, I have taken a greater awareness of the separation
between these two functions. The best therapist I took (and I believe that this is true), more

aware earned my complete subjectivity when exercising better this function. But, to make me
better researcher, more stubborn and more scientific (as I believe have happened), i felt a
growing embarrassment before the distance between my objectivity strictly as a scientist and
my subjectivity almost mystical as therapist. This article is the result.
The first thing I did was work as therapist and describe the way as soon as possible the
essential nature of psychotherapy as a lived with many customers. I would like to emphasize
that this is a very fluid and staff and that, if it had been made by another person or by me two
years ago or two years from now, it would be different in some respects. Then I was working as
a scientist, as a stubborn spirit in search of facts in the kingdom of psychology - and I tried to
imagine the significance that the science could find for therapy. After that, continue the debate
inside, raising the issues that each point of view legitimately proposed to another.
In the midst of my efforts I discovered that I only had exacerbated the conflict. The two
points of view seemed to me more than ever irreconcilable. I have discussed this issue at a
seminar for teachers and students and their comments were for me a great help. During the
following year I continued to regurgitating this problem until I started to feel emerge in me an
integration of the two perspectives. More than a year after writing the first sections, I have tried
to express in words the attempt and, perhaps, make a temporary integration.
For this reason, the player that came with my struggle in this area will see that
unconsciously she assumed a dramatic way - being all dramatis, that personae within myself:
First Protagonist, Second Protagonist, Conflict and , finally, the Resolution. Without further ado,
I present the first protagonist, myself as therapist. tracing as clearly as possible the framework
of what the experience of therapy seems to be.
The essence of therapy in terms of their experience
I am in relationship with a hypothesis, or a belief that my sympathy, my confidence and
my understanding of the inner world of another person will cause a significant transformation
process. Entro in relation, not as a scientist, not as a doctor who demand diligent- mind the
diagnosis and the cure, but as a person who is part of a personal relationship. As I look to the
customer as an object, it will tend to become just an object.
I would venture, because to the extent that the relationship is deepened, if what develops
is a failure, a regression, a rejection of me and of the relationship by the customer, in this case I
feel that I lose myself, wholly or in part. Sometimes this risk is very real and very acute.
Abandonment immediacy of the relationship to the point that it is all over my body, and
not just my conscience, which is sensitive to the ratio and instructs her. I am not consciously in a
planned manner or analytical, but I am simply in a non-reflective to the individual, based on my
reaction (although not consciously) in my sensitivity totil organísmica to that other person. I live
the relationship on that basis.
The essence of some of the most profound of therapy seems to be a unit of experience,
The customer is able to freely experience the feelings in all its intensity, as a "pure culture",
without inhibitions or precautions intellectuals, without being trapped by the knowledge of
contradictory feelings; and I am able to experience with equal freedom my understanding of this
feeling, without thinking about it consciously, without any apprehension or concern to know
where this will lead, without any sort of diagnosis or analysis, without any barriers, emotional or
cognitive, for a total input in understanding. When there is this complete unit, this singularity, this
fullness of the experience in the relation, then this reaches the quality of "out of this world" as
the observations of a large number of therapists, a kind of feeling of ecstasy in respect of which
the customer and I emerged from the end of the session as the one who comes out of a well or
a tunnel. It is in these moments a true relationship "I-Thou", to use an expression of Buber, a
timeless experience the experience that exists between the client and myself. Is the opposite
pole of a vision of the customer or of myself as an object. It is the culmination of personal
subjectivity.

I am often aware of the fact of not knowing , cognitively, where lead the immediate
relations. It is as if we were two, the client and I, on this slide, often with fear, for the power of
becoming, a chain or process that drags us. IS the fact that the therapist you have left afloat in
this chain of experience or of life previously, have discovered that it is gratifying, that makes it
increasingly less anxious to dive. IS my confidence that makes it easier for the customer
boarding also, a little more each time. It seems often that the current experience is heading for a
particular purpose. However, it is probably more accurate saying that his character rewarding
remains internal to the process itself and that its main benefit is to make both the customer and
myself, later, regardless, surrender to the process of becoming.
As the customer, to the extent that the therapy takes place, discovers that dares to
become himself, in spite of all the dire consequences that implies having to bear to be himself.
What it means to become in that if it is? This seems to be less afraid of the reactions
organísmicas, reactions that are not reflected that has confidence gradually accompanied even
of affection by the complex, varied and rich assortment of feelings and tendencies that exist in
themselves in organic level or organísmico. The conscience, instead of being the watchtower a
pile of impulses dangerous and unpredictable of which only a few will be able to see the light of
day, it becomes the inhabitant and installed a is and varied society of impulses, feelings and
ideas, which are manifested autogovernando satisfactorily when they are not saved with fear or
an authoritarian manner.
Involved in this process of becoming in which is a profound experience of personal
choice. The customer understands that you can choose to continue to hide behind a facade or
that can assume the risks that involves the fact that he is even; that is a free agent, holding the
power to destroy the other, or to destroy himself, Mr also the power to raise the other and dc up
to himself. Confronted with the reality of the decision, choose take the direction to be himself.
But what if it is not "solve the problems". Simply Opens a new way of life which makes
the experience of their feelings in a way more profound and high, in a field more tense and more
dilated. The individual feels more unique and more s, but it is much more real, in such a way
that its relations with the other lose their artificial nature, become deeper, satisfactory, and
introduce more the reality of the other person in the relationship.
Another way to see this process, this ratio is to consider it as a learning tool by the
customer (and by the therapist in a lesser degree). But it is a strange type of learning. Almost
never is a learning note that by its complexity and, even when it has reached the degree more
profound, never seems to adapt well to verbal symbols. Learning often takes forms as simple
as: "I am different from the others"; "Really I hate"; "I'm afraid to feel dependent on"; "I feel
sorry for myself"; "I am focused on myself"; "I have feelings of tenderness and love"; "I could be
what I want to be"; etc. But, in spite of its apparent simplicity, these discoveries have a immense
significance in a field that is very difficult to define. We can look at it in different ways. Are
discovered self-appropriate based, in one way or another, on the experience and not in
symbols. They are similar to the discovery of the child who knows that "two and two are four"
and that one day, playing with two objects and with two more objects, you realize
suddenly experience a discovery absolutely unprecedented, that "two and two are really four".
Another way to understand these findings is to consider them an attempt delayed to
match symbols and meanings in the world of feelings, a project for a long time now just in the
field of knowledge. Intellectually, we meet with all the caution symbol that we chose with the
meaning that an experience is for us. Thus, I say that something happened "gradually", after
having briefly reviewed (and to a large extent unconsciously) terms such as "slow",
"seamlessly", "step by step", etc. , rejecting them because not expressing the precise meaning
of the experience. In the field of feelings, however, has never learned to assign symbols to the
experience with the concern of precise meaning. This thing that I feel rising in me, in the safety
of a relation of acceptance - what is it? It is sadness, anger, regret, shame of myself, it is the
irritation by missed opportunities - and I go to laps, trying to remove a large assortment of
symbols a to "adjust", which matches, which seems adapt really to experience organísmica. In

so doing, the client discovers he has to learn the language of sentiment and emotion as if it
were a child learning to talk; worse still, he is forced to unlearn a false language before they
learn the true.
Let us also give another definition of this type of learning, describing this time it is not.
AND a type of learning that cannot be taught. The essence is this aspect of stimulates. The
"knowledge", as we are accustomed to designing it, can be taught from one person to another
as long as both have motivation and adequate capacity. The significant learning that occurs
during therapy, however, nobody can teach it to anybody. The teaching would destroy the
learning. I could teach a customer that, for him, is safe be himself, that perform freely their
feelings is not dangerous, etc. The more taught him this, least he learns in a meaningful way,
experiential and self-apropriante. Kierkegaard considers this latest form of learning as the true
subjectivity, stressing that there can be no direct communication or on this. The maximum that a
person can do for another is to create certain conditions that make possible this form of
learning. The person may not be required.
A final way to try to describe this learning is to say that the patient gradually learn to
symbolize a state total and unified, in which the state of the organism, in experience, sentirnep
and knowledge, can be fully described in a unified manner. To make the matter even more
vague and unsatisfactory, it is absolutely unnecessary for this symbolization is expressing. It is
usually expressed because the client wants to communicate at least a part of himself to the
therapist, but it is probably not essential. The only thing required is the corfipreensão intimate
the condition of total body, unified, immediately, "snapshot", which I am. For example, fully
understand that at this moment this unit to me is simply the fact that I have a deep fear of the
possibility of me take different" is the essence of therapy. The client that recognizes this fact can
be absolutely sure that you will understand this state of his being and take conscience him
always to take the case in a similar manner. In all likelihood, will recognize and understand more
fully some of the other sentiments existential that it occur. In this case, are turning to a state in
which it will be more truly himself. You will, of a more unified, what organismicamente is, and
this seems to be the essence of therapy.
The essence of therapy in terms of science
I shall now give the floor to the second protagonist, I myself as a scientist, and let it make
its vision in this same field.
Addressing the complex phenomena of therapy with the logic and the methods of
science, the aim is to work toward an understanding of the phenomena. In science, this means
an objective knowledge of the events and functional relations between these events. Science
can provide the possibility of a greater forecasting and control of these events, but this is not a
necessary result of scientific research. If the scientific was achieved in this area, we know that
probably in therapy certain elements must associate with certain types of results. It is as if,
knowing this, we were able to predict that a particular situation of a therapeutic relationship
would have determined result (within certain limits of probability) because it involves certain
elements. Then We could control very easily therapy results by manipulating the elements
contained in the therapeutic relation.
To clarify that, by more profound that is our scientific research, she never would discover
an absolute truth, but only describe relations that would have a probability of occurrence ever
greater. We could never find an underlying reality as regards the persons, to relations or to the
universe. We could only describe relations between observable events. If, in this field, the
science would follow the same course that in other areas, the operational models of reality that
educational ferment will emerge ( during the construction of the theory), move were becoming
more of reality captured by senses. The scientific description of therapeutic relationships and
therapy would be increasingly less similar to phenomena such as they are experienced.

It is clear from the beginning that the therapy, because it is a complex phenomenon, it is
difficult to measure. However, "everything that exists that can measure" and, if the therapy is
considered a significant relationship, with implications that extend beyond it, it is worth
overcoming the difficulties to discover the laws of personality and interpersonal relations.
Once that already exists in therapy customer-centric a rudimento theory (although it is not
a theory in the scientific sense of the term), we have a starting point for the selection of
hypotheses. For the purpose of this discussion, let us consider some of the assumptions that
rudimentary can remove this theory, and let us see what a scientific approach can be done with
them. Let us leave aside, for the moment, a full translation of the theory in terms of a formal
logic, which would be very good, and we consider only some of the assumptions.
Quote, originally, three of them in its rudimentary form:
1.
The acceptance of the client by the therapist leads to greater acceptance of%own on the
part of the customer.
2.
The more the therapist realizes the client as a person and not as an object, the more the
customer is apprehended himself as a person and not as an object.
3.
Along the therapeutic treatment, gives the customer a discovery type of themselves living
and effective.
As we will have to translate each of these hypotheses in operational terms and how do we test
them? What would be the results of similar demonstration? This is not the appropriate place for
a detailed response to these issues, but the research already performed provides answers in a
general way. In the case of the first scenario, you can choose or reverse certain devices to
measure the acceptance. You could use tests of attitudes, objectives or projective, the
technique Q or any thing of the same kind. It can be assumed that the same instruments, with
instructions or resentatives of spirit slightly different, could be used to measure the acceptance
of the client by the therapist and the autoaceita of customer. Then, in an operating mode, the
degree of acceptance of the therapist could be considered mathematically.
The change of self-acceptance of the client during therapy could be indicated by
measurements taken prior and later. The relationship between the change in the treatment
would be determined by comparing changes in therapy with the changes during a control period
or a control group. We would be finally able to say when there is a relationship between the
acceptance of the therapist and self-acceptance from the customer defined operationally, and
which the correlation that exists between the two.
The second and third hypotheses involve a real difficulty of measurement, but there is no
reason that leads us to suppose that cannot be objectively studied, to the extent that increases
the degree of sophistication of our psychological measures. As an instrument to measure the
second hypothesis could employ some test of attitudes or a type of technical Q, measuring the
attitude of the therapist to the client, and this for himself. In this case, there would be a
continuity between the objective consideration of an object pool and a personal experience and
subjective. The instruments for the third hypothesis could be physiological, since it seems likely
that an experiential discovery has physiological effects measurable. Urn another possibility
would be to infer the discovery living from their effectiveness and, in this case, you could
measure this effectiveness in different fields. In this phase of our methodology, perhaps the third
hypothesis to overtake, but without doubt, in the near future, it can be defined in operational
terms and put to the test. The results of these studies would be in the following order. Let us
take as a starting point the field of assumptions to arrive at concrete. Suppose that we would
discover that the acceptance by the therapist leads the customer to self-acceptance and that the
correlation between the two variables to be around 0.70. In the second hypothesis, we find that
this is not justified, but discover that the more the therapist considers the client as a person, the
more the customer accepts himself.
We know that focus on the person is a factor of acceptance, but that have very little to do
with the fact that the customer will become a person to himself. Suppose also that the third

hypothesis is confirmed by experiential discovery of certain elements descritiveis observed
much more in therapy than in the control group.
Without attention to all qualifications and ramifications that could arise in the results, and
by omitting the reference to new indications that would accumulate on the dynamics of
personality (since they are hard to imagine in advance), the preceding subparagraph provides
us, however, a notion of what science can offer in this field. Science can give us a description
increasingly exact events of the therapy and the changes that occur in it. Science can begin to
formulate some provisional laws of dynamic das.ret s human. You can make public statements
and reproducible that, if there is no therapist or in respect certain conditions operationally
definable, then they can expect the customer certain behaviors, with a known degree of
probability. The science can no doubt do so in the field of therapy, and on the changes of the
personality, as it does in the areas of perception and learning. Eventually, the theoretical
formulations could combine different fields, spelling out the laws that seem to govern the
changes in human behavior, whether situations that we classify as perception or that we classify
as learning or changes in more global and massive that occur in therapy and that involve both
the perception and learning.
Some issues
Here are two very different methods to capture the essential aspects of psychotherapy,
two approaches and several of the area that we believe. As outlined here, and as they are often
in reality, it would appear that there is no common measure between the two descriptions. Each
one represents a defined shape to consider therapy. Each one seems to be a route of access to
significant truths of therapy. When these views are adopted by individuals or by different groups,
form the basis of a serious disagreement. When each of these ways of seeing it seems true to a
single person, as is my case, then there is an internal conflict. Although they may be
superficially reconciled, or regarded as complementary to each other, they manifest themselves
as fundamentally antagonistic, and in many ways. I would like to point out some issues that
these two points of view I put.
The issues of scientist
I will indicate in the first place some questions that the scientist raises for the living
(employment terms science and experience just how arbitrary assignments of two points of
view), The scientist rigorous hears the report of that vi- victorious and raises the following
detailed questions:
1. First of all, do you want to know "how do you know that this report, or any other report anterior
or posterior, is true'? How do you know if it corresponds to reality? If we are trusting in that
inner experience and subjective, as being the truth as regards the human relations or the
different ways to change the personality, in this case the Yoga, Christian Science, and the
delusions of a psychotic who thinks he is Jesus Christ, everything is true, as true as this report.
Each one of those positions represents the truth as it is captured inwardly, by an individual or by
a group. If we want to avoid this pile of truths multiple and contradictory, we must return to the
only method we know of to get closer and closer to reality, the scientific method".
2. "Secondly, this experiential approach makes it impossible to improve the technical ability or
discover the less satisfactory aspects of relations. The least that we consider this description as
perfect, which does not appear to be happening, or the current level of experience in the
therapeutic relation as the most effective way possible, it is not likely to happen, then there are
defects, imperfections, gaps in the report as it stands. How can we find them and fix them? The
experiential approach cannot propose anything to not be a trial and error process, a slow
process, which offers no guarantees to reach the end in view. Even the criticisms and

suggestions of others are of little help, because it does not arise from within the experience and
therefore has no authority to vital the relationship itself. The scientific method, however, and the
processes of logical positivism contemporary, has much to offer. Any experience that can be
described it can in termosoperacionais. The hypotheses can be formulated and put to the test
and the 'good' that holds the truth can be separated from 'bad' who live in error. This seems to
be the only safe path to improvement, to the self-healing, to the advancement of knowledge."
3. The scientist has yet another comment to make: "is implicit in his description of therapeutic
experience the idea that there are elements that may not be provided for which there is as it
were a kind of spontaneity or (sorry) of free will in action. You speak as if a part of the behavior
of the client - and perhaps also the therapist - had not question, does not represent a link in the
sequence of cause and effect. Without going into the metafisica, perhaps I could ask if it is not
defeatism. Once we can discover with certainty what causes great part of behavior - you even
talk about creating the conditions in which certain results of behavior appear, then why back in
another point? Why not try to discover the causes of behavior ? This does not mean that the
individual should be considered an autômato, but, in our investigation of the facts, not that we
embarrassed by dc belief that some ports are closed".
4. Finally, the scientist cannot understand why it is that the therapist, the "experiential", puts cm
issue the single instrument, the only method that is responsible for most of the progress that we
admire. "In the cure of diseases, the prevention of infant mortality, in the development of larger
harvests, in conservation of food, in the manufacture of everything that makes life more
comfortable, since the books to nylon, the understanding of the universe, which is the
cornerstone of the building? IS the scientific method, applied to each one of these cases and
many others. It is true that science makes progress also the methods of war, serving to
destructive instincts of man at the same time that serves your objectives constructive, but even
here the potential of social use is immense. So, what is the reason to doubt the same method in
the field of social sciences? There is no doubt that here it is progressing slowly, which still
showed no law so fundamental as the law of gravity, but outrider this method because of our
impatience? What is the alternative that offers hope similar? If we are in agreement on the fact
that the social problems of today's world are pressing, if psychotherapy opens a window for the
dynamic more decisive and important changes in human behavior, it is therefore evident that
should apply to psychotherapy the canons more rigorous scientific method, and the largest
possible scale, in order to achieve as soon as possible a knowledge of the laws of individual
behavior and the modification of attitudes."
The issues of "experiential"
Although the questions of scientist seem to some solve the problem, your comments are
far from dc completely satisfy the therapist who lived the experience of therapy. This has several
observations to be made in respect of the scientific perspective.
1. "In the first place, notes the 'experiential', the science always has to deal with the other, with the
object. Several logical science, including the psychologist Stevens, showed that the basic
element of science is that it always occupies the observable object, the other observable. This is
true even though the scientist make the experience on himself, because in this case it treats
itself as the other observable. AND it has nothing to do with the experience. As well, the quality
of the science does not show that it is always irrelevant in an experience such as the therapy,
which is intensely personal, highly subjective in his interiority and completely dependent on the
relationship of two individuals where each one of them is a I lived? Oicia can, of course,
studying the events that occur, but always in a way irrelevant to what is happening. You could
say by analogy that science is capable of performing an autopsy on the dead events of therapy,
but that by its nature can never penetrate the physiology of living therapy. This is the reason
why the therapists recognize - usually by intuition - that any progress in therapy, any new
knowledge in this field, any significant assumptions, derived from the experience of therapists

and clients, and can never come from science. Revert to a new analogy. Some celestial bodies
were discovered only by analysis of scientific measurements of stellar trajectories. Then,
astronomers have sought the hypothetical bodies and found. Seems decidedly unlikely that one
day you check something similar in therapy, since science has nothing to say about the
personal experience inside that 'i' I am in therapy. Science can only speak of the events that
occur in 'it' ."
2. "The fact that the field of science be the 'other', the 'object', means that everything it touches
that takes object. This has never caused problems in physical sciences. In the biological
sciences has caused some difficulties. A certain number of doctors are now wondering if the
growing tendency to consider the human body as an object, in spite of its scientific efficiency,
will not be detrimental to the patient. They prefer that this is again seen as a person. It is
however in social sciences that takes an issue that truly would be. That is to say, the people
studied by social scientists are always objects. In therapy, both the patient and the therapist
become objects of dissection, but not with people who are still living relationships. At first
glance, this may not seem important. It can be said that it is only in its role as a scientist that the
individual considers the others as objects. It can also leave your paper and take a person.
Looking back, however, more closely, we will see that this is a superficial response. If in
projetarmos in future and supusermosjá have the answers to most of the questions that the
psychology today investigates, what would happen? We would see obliged to deal with the
other, and to ourselves, increasingly as objects. The knowledge of all human relations would be
so great that the that instead of living them spontaneously. Already know the flavor that it has in
sophisticated attitude of parents who know that affection 'is good for the child'. This knowledge
prevents them frequently they own, free and spontaneously - affection or not. Therefore, the
development of science in a field such as therapy, or is irrelevant to the experience, or may, in
fact, become more difficult living the relationship as a personal event, experiential."
3. The "experiential" has another concern. "When science turns people into objects, as stated
above, has another effect: the end result of science is lead to manipulation. This is less true in
fields such as astronomy, but in medical sciences and social knowledge of the events and their
relations allows the manipulation of some elements of the equation. This is undoubtedly true in
psychology and it would be true in therapy. If we know everything that's happening with the
learning, we use this knowledge to manipulate people as if they were objects. This check does
not imply any value judgment on the manipulation, which can be done in a manner highly
ethical. We can even handle ourselves as objects, using such knowledge. Therefore, knowing
that the learning takes place much more rapidly with each repeated revisions of that with a long
concentration in a lesson, I can use this knowledge to manipulate my learning of Spanish. But
knowledge is power. To learn the laws of learning, I use them to manipulate the other by means
of advertising, propaganda, forecasting of their responses and the control of them. It is not an
exaggeration to say that the increase of knowledge social dciencias contains within itself a
powerful tendency for social control, to control the majority by a minority. It can be seen that
there is a tendency also strong to the weakening or destruction of the person existential. When
all are considered objects, the individual subjective, the inner self, the person in the process of
transformation, the spontaneous awareness of being, all the inner side of life is weakened,
devalued or destroyed. Perhaps the best example of this are two books. The Walden Two of
Skinner is a picture of paradise seen by a psychologist. Skiimer should judge him desirable,
unless they were writing a tremendous satire. It is the paradise of manipulation, where the
possibility for someone to be truly a person is extremely reduced, unless it is a member of the
supreme council. Brave new world by Huxley is frankly satirical, but portrays vividly the loss of
condition of person associated with it an increase of knowledge psychological and biological. In
this way, to go straight to the subject, it seems that the development of social science (as it is
designed and carried out) leads to dictatorship and the loss of the individual person. The
dangers's perceived risk in by Kierkegaard on the same subject around a century ago now
seem much more real than could opinion then".

4. "Finally, declares the 'experiential', does not indicate that ethics is a consideration more
fundamental than science? I am not blind to the science as an instrument and I am aware that it
can be a very valuable tool. But, if it is not the instrument of ethical people, with all that the term
person means, could not become object of blind devotion? We've spent a lot of time
acknowledging this problem, because in fisica the ethical question took centuries to become
crucial, but eventually if it. In the social sciences, the problems most ethical appear much more
quickly because they are in game people. But, in psychotherapy, the problems arise more
quickly and at a deeper level. Here, everything is subjective, interior, staff is taken to the
extreme point; here the relationship is lived, not analyzed, and it is a person that emerges, not
an object; a person who feels, who chooses, who believed that acts, not as a autômato, but as a
person. AND the ultimate end of science is the exploration objective the more subjective
aspects of life; the reduction hypotheses and, possibly, the theorems, of everything which had
until then considered the more personal, the more completely inside, the world more particular.
AND because these two points of view are mentioned here in full, we have to choose - a
personal choice of ethical values. We can do it by omission, not raising the issue. We can make
a choice that preserves something of two values - but we have to choose. AND I ask you to
think long and with seriousness before abandoning the values related to be a person, with the
immediate experience, with the experience of a relationship, with the take-if, with the eu as a
process, with the "i" in existential moment, with the inner self subjective and alive." The
dilemma
Here are the opposing views that are sometimes explicitly, but much more frequently than
a implicitly, in conceptions psychological chains. Here is the debate that is taking place in me.
Where are we going? Where we're headed? Was it the problem described correctly or will it be
a problem an illusion? What are the errors of perception? Or, if things go as we describe, we
have to choose one of the two perspectives? AND if this is the case, which of the two should we
choose? Or is there a broader wording covering a way happy the two points of view without any
damage to the other?
A modified vision of science
During the year that followed the wording of the text already mentioned, discuss from
time to time these issues with students, colleagues and friends. The few I have, without a doubt,
some of the ideas that have been developed in mim2. I started little by little to believe that the
fundamental error in original wording was the description of science. I would like to try to correct
in this section this error and to reconcile in the following section the two perspectives magazine.
I think that the biggest mistake was in fact to consider science as something external, such as a
C capital, a "body of knowledge" that exist in a given point in space and time. According to many
psychologists, I thought in science and those who believe in a systematic collection and
organized facts more or less checked, and via the methodology of science as the means
socially approved to build up this body of knowledge and to pursue its venficação. This
description could compare to a reservoir where everyone could immerse your bucket to get
water - with the guarantee of 99% purity. When you track the science in this way outside and
impersonal, was not absurd assign it a lofty character and a certain depersonalization, a
tendency for the manipulation, a denial of freedom of fundamental choice with which I found
relatives put themselves in therapy. I would now like to consider the scientific approach from a
different perspective and, hopefully, more appropriate.
The science in people
Science only exists in people. Any scientific project has your creative impulse, its
process, its provisional conclusion, in a person or in several. The knowledge - even the scientific

- is one that is subjectively acceptable. The scientific knowledge can only be communicated to
those who are subjectively prepared to receive your communication. The use of science only
gives himself through people who are looking for values that mean something to them. These
statements summarize very briefly something of change of emphasis that I wanted to make in
my description of science. Follow the various stages of science from this point of view.
The phrase creative
Science has its initial impulse in a determined person who demand purposes, values,
objectives, which are to it a meaning personal and subjective. As part of this search, the
scientist, in a given field, "want to find out". Therefore, if you want to be a good researcher,
immerse yourself in the experience in question, whether it is the laboratory of physics, the world
of plant or animal life, the hospital, the laboratory or clinical psychology or that you know. The
immersion is complete and subjective, similar to the immersion of the therapist in therapy, as
previously described. The individual feels is the field in which you are interested, live it. More
than "thinking" in him, he leaves his body seizing him and react, both on a conscious level as
unconscious. Just by feel on this field more than could verbalize, and reacts organismicamente
in terms of relations that are not present to consciousness.
This subjective immersion complete emerges a creative way, a sense of direction, a
vague formulation of relations until then unknown. This creatively, sharp, polished, formulated in
accordance with clearer, takes on a hypothesis that the assertion of a provisional belief,
personal and subjective. The scientist declares, by relying on the experience all the known and
unknown: "I have the intuition that there is this or that relationship, and the existence of this
phenomenon corresponds to something of my personal values."
What I am describing is the initial phase of science, probably the most important stage,
but that the American scientists, and so pu-especially psychologists, tended to minimize or
ignore. Level both have been denied, but for having been quickly put aside. Kenneth Spence
said that this aspect of science "is simply accepted without discussion"3. As many other
experiences considered obvious, this is likely to be overlooked. But it is really at the heart of this
experience immediate, personal and subjective, that the whole science and that all scientific
research individual has its origin.
Comparing with the reality
The scientist has a creator to his hypothesis, its provisional belief. But will this hypothesis
to reality? Experience has shown that each and every one of us that is very easy to be
mistaken, belief in something that a subsequent experience shows not be so. How can I say
that this belief has any real relationship with the observed facts? I can use not just one line of
evidence, but several. I enclose my observation of the facts of several precautions to make sure
that I'm not ilu dindo
I can see other people also concerned not be deluded and learn to detect my unjustified
beliefs founded on a wrong interpretation of the observations. In a word , I can start to use all
the elaborated methodology that science has been accumulating. Discovering that the fact of
exposing my hypothesis in operational terms prevents me miss by paths without output and
false conclusions. I learn that the control groups can help me avoid false deductions. I learn that
the correlations, the tests, the critical evaluations and the whole set of statistical procedures can
also help me achieve only deductions correct.
The scientific methodology is seen in this case as it really is: a way to avoid that i fooled
in relation to subjective intuitions formed a creative way, elaborated on the basis of the
relationship between my material and i. It is in this context, and it is perhaps only in him, that the
immense structures of operacionalismo, logical positivism, of research plans, tests of
significance, etc. , has its place. They exist, not independently, but as helpers in an attempt to
confront the subjective, intuition or the chance of a person with the fact that objective.

And yet, despite the employment of methods as stringent and impersonal, the important
options of scientist are made in a subjective way. What are the chances that I will dedicate my
time? What is the control group more favorable to avoid deceiving me in this particular type of
research? Until where I will take the statistical analysis? Up to that point I can rely on the results
obtained? Each of these judgments is necessarily subjective and personal, highlighting the fact
that science, in its splendid structures, remain fundamentally subject to its use subjective on the
part of the people. It is the best tool that we have been able to invent until now to prove our
intuition organísmica of the universe.
The findings
If, as a scientist, I appreciate the way in which I conducted my research, if I am open to
all the evidence, if I have selected and used intelligently all precautions against the self-delusion
that I was able to assimilate the other or invent for myself, in this case I have a confidence in
provisional results. I consider them as a starting point for more in-depth investigations.
I believe that the primary goal of science is to provide a hypothesis, a belief and a faith
more secure and better satisfy the investigator himself. To the extent that the scientist seeks
prove anything to someone - an error in that domestic purchases at more than once, I believe
that he is serving the science to remedy a personal insecurity, diverting it from its true pael
creative at the service of the individual.
In relation to the findings of science, its foundation is subjective and patent on the fact
that, eventually, the researcher can refuse to believe in their own discoveries. "The experiment
showed this and that, but I think that this is false" here is that any investigator experienced a
time or another. Some discoveries very fruitful are from the disbelief of persistent scientist in
relation to their own findings and those of others. In the final analysis, he can have more
confidence in their reactions organísmicas total than in the methods of science. There is no
doubt that both can result serious errors, such as scientific discoveries; this shows once again
the importance of the role of the subjective use of science.
The communication of scientific discoveries
Strolling this morning over a coral reef in the Caribbean, I saw a great blue fish - or I think
I saw. If anyone else had seen, regardless, I trust in my own observation. This is called the
intersubjective verification and that has an important role in our understanding of science. If I
monitor (in a conversation, in an article or in any other way) through the steps that I followed in
my research and if they are of the opinion that I was not mistaken, that I discovered a new
relationship with my values and that it is justified that i has a provisional faith in this relationship,
then begins the Science with C capital. It is at this point that we can probably think that we have
created a body of knowledge. Up to now this body of knowledge does not exist. There are only
provisional beliefs, there are subjectively in certain people. If these beliefs are not temporary,
then it is a dogma, not science. If, on the other hand, the investigator is the only one to believe
in his discovery, then this discovery, or is a personal matter, a case of psychopathology, or a
true exceptional discovery by a genius cm whom nobody is still subjectively prepared to believe.
This leads me to make a comment on the group that you can believe in provisional mode in a
given scientific discovery.
Communication for whom?
It is clear that scientific discoveries can only be communicated to those who accept the
same rules of research. The Aborigines in Australia does not impress with the discoveries of
science with regard to bacterial infection. He knows that the disease is actually caused by evil

spirits. It is only when he accepts the scientific method as an effective means to avoid the selfdelusion that is susceptible to accept its conclusions.
But, even among those who accept the basic rules of science, belief in provisional results
of scientific research only occurs when there is a subjective preparation for it, The examples
abound. The majority of psychologists can be found absolutely prepared to believe in the fact
that the reading system produces a significant increase in learning, but nothing is prepared to
believe that one can discover the downside of a letter of deck thanks to a gift called
extrasensory perception. AND, however, the scientific evidence for the latter are much more
significant than for the first. The same goes for the so-called "studies of Iowa" that, when
emerged, showing that the intelligence could be significantly altered due to environmental
conditions, were not accepted by many psychologists who criticized the scientific methods used.
The scientific evidence of this discovery are not today more convincing than when the studies of
Iowa appeared, but the subjective preparation of psychologists to believe this discovery has
changed greatly. A historian of science noted that the empiricists, if at that time existed, would
have been the first to doubt asdcobertas of Copemico.
It is clear from all this that I believe the scientific discoveries of others, or in my own
studies, depends in part on the my readiness to believe in these discoveries. One of the
reasons why we are not fully aware of this fact is subjective, especially in physical sciences,
impelled him gradually embraced a wide range of experience in which we are prepared to
accept any discovery if it can prove that it is based on the rules of the game scientific, played
correctly.
The use of science
But it is not only the origin, the development and the completion of the science that exists
only in subjective experience of people - is also its use. The "Science" never despersonalizará,
manipulate or control individuals. Only the people can do. This observation is certainly obvious
and trivial, but for me it was very important to have a deeper understanding of this fact. This
means that the use of der scientific discoveries in the field of personality is and will be a matter
for decision subjective and personal - the same type of option that the person is in therapy. To
the extent that the individual, by defense, closed to his conscience different areas of experience,
will have a greater tendency to make choices that are socially destructive. In so far as it is open
to all the stages of their experience, we can be certain that this person is much more likely to
use the results and the methods of science (or any other instrument or capacity) in a way that is
socially and personally construtiva5. There is, therefore, any entity threatening, call "Science",
which in any way could affect our destiny. There are Only people. Although many of them are
actually threatening and dangerous due to their attitude of defense, and the scientific knowledge
modern multiply the dangers and social threats, this is not all: there are two other significant
aspects.
1. There are many people that are relatively open to their own experience and, therefore,
susceptible to be social- mind constructive.
2. The subjective experience of psychotherapy and scientific discoveries in this field shows that
the individuals have reason to evolve and that they can be helped to change toward a greater
openness to the experience and, therefore, a line of conduct that favors the person and society,
rather than destroy them.
In short, Science can never threaten us. Only people can do it. That individuals can be
immensely destructive with the instruments that the scientific knowledge puts in their hands is
just one of the aspects of the problems. We already have a subjective knowledge and objective
of fundamental principles that allow individuals to embrace the social behavior more
constructive, according to the nature of its process organísmico of development.

A new integration
What this line dc thought helped me to achieve was a new integration in which the conflict
between the "experiential" and "scientist" tends disappear. This particular integration may be
unacceptable to the other, but it has a meaning for me. Its main elements are largely implicit in
previous section, but I will try to expose them now in a way that takes into account the
arguments of opposing views.
The science, as therapy, and all other aspects of life, has its root and is based on
immediate experience, subjective, of a person. It springs from inner experience total,
organísmica, which is communicable only in part and imperfectly. It is one of the phases of
subjective experience. AND by acknowledging the value and satisfaction in human relations that
entro nüma rlação call treatment, where the sentiments and the knowledge amalgamate into a
unitary experience that is lived in time to be analyzed, whose conscience is non- reflective and
in that I am more of a participant than an observer. But portue feel curiosity in relation to
ordination delicate that seems to exist in the universe, and in this respect, I cannot ignore the
experience and look at it as an observer, making dc myself and/or others, objects of this
observation. As an observer, I use all the intuitions that are born of this experience. As an
observer, I am not mistaken, to achieve a more appropriate framework of the ruling class, I use
all of the processes of science. Science is not something impersonal, but simply a person who
lives subjectively another phase of itself. A deeper understanding of the therapy (or any other
problem) may arise from the fact of living it or observe it according to the rules of science, or the
communication inside the i between the two types of experience. As to the subjective
experience of choice, it is not only essential in therapy, but it is also vital in the use of the
scientific method by a person.
What I will do with the knowledge gained through the scientific method - whether it be for
my raise, enrich or to control, manipulate and destroy - is a question dc choose subjective and
depends on the values that have a personal meaning for me. If, out of fear or for defense, not
abiding my conscience vast areas of experience - if only I am able to observe the facts that
support my beliefs today and I'll just take blind to all other - if only I am able to see the objective
aspects of life and I cannot realize me of subjective aspects - if, in any way, prevent my
perception of use throughout the length of his true sensitivity - in this case I may be social- mind
destructive, or use as an instrument the knowledge and the resources of science, or the power
and the strength of emotional subjective relations. AND, on the other hand, if I am open to my
experience and I can allow all the prints of my complex body are available on my conscience, so
I'm able to use myself, my subjective experience and my scientific knowledge, so realistically
constructive.
This is, therefore, the degree of integration that I have been able to achieve so far
between the two approaches, first expenmentadas as conflicting. This does not fully resolve all
issues raised in the first section, but it seems to suggest a solution. Recolocase the problem or
revise the question, putting the person subjective, existential, with the values that it has, as the
basis and root of the therapeutic relationship and the scientific. Also for the science, since the
first time, is not a question of "I-Thou", with a person or with several. AND it is only as a
subjective person that I can penetrate into any of these relations.

Chapter 11

The modification of personality in psychotherapy
This chapter offers some of the most characteristic notóveis large-scale research carried
out in the Center of advice from the University of Chicago, in the years ranging from 1950 to
1954, research that has become possible thanks to the generous support of the Foundation
Rockefellet through its Department of Medical Sciences. I was invited to present a paper in Fifth
International Congress on Mental Health, in Toronto, in 1954, marching on and describe some
points of this research program. A ,nes after delivery of this Article, fih) connection published by
University/Chicago Press our book that exposed the entire program. Although Rosalind Dymond
and eujôssemos organizers and authors of certain parties, the merit belongs also to the other
authors, by the book and by the amount of work whose most important aspects this article
highlights. These other authors are. John M. Butlet; Desmond Cartwright, Thomas Gordon,
Donald L, Grummon, Gerard V Haigh, Eve S. John, Esselyn C. Rudikoff Julius Seeman told
Fides about RollandR. Tougas eManueli Vargas.
The main reason to include this article in the present volume resides in /iito of it present in the
form of a summary of some exciting progress that we made in measuring this unstable,
nebulous, highly significant and determinant of personality that is the eu.
The objective of this Article is to present some of the main aspects of the experience that
my colleagues and I did when we measure, using scientific methods objectives, the results of a
form of individual psychotherapy. In order to take understandable these essential points, I will
describe a way soon the context in which this research was undertaken.
I worked for many years with my fellow psychologists in the field of psychotherapy. We
learn through experience that we did ear analysis in this field which is effective to cause a
constructive change in the personality and behavior of people who are disturbed or ill-adapted
to seek help. We were formulating little by little a psychotherapeutic treatment approach based
on this experience, the method that has been designated as nãodiretivo or customer-centric.
This method and its theoretical fundantos have already been described in many books (1,
2, 5, 6; 8) and numerous articles.
One of our permanent objectives was to submit the dynamics and results of therapy to
rigorous experimental investigations. We are convinced that the psychotherapy is an existential
experience deeply subjective for both the customer and the therapist, repldta of subtleties
complex and encompassing many shades of personal interaction. However, we are also
convinced that dc, if our experience means anything, if it appear profound teachings that cause
a change of personality, in this case these changes must be verified by experimental research.
During the last 14 years, we are many investigations of this kind, focusing at the same
time on the process and on the results of this form of therapy (see 5, especially chapters 2, 4
and 7 for a summary of this set of investigations). Over the past five years, the Advice Center of
the University of Chicago, we expanded the limits of research thanks to a coordinated series of
studies aimed at clarifying the results of this form of psychotherapy. I would like to present some
significant aspects of this program of research is still in progress.
Three aspects of our research
The three aspects of our research that would, I believe, greater interest for us le, are the
following:
1. The criteria that we are using in our study of psychotherapy, criteria that departs from the way of
conventional thinking in this field.
2. The plan of research, with which we have certain difficulties which until then had hindered the
sharpness of the results.
3. The progress that we have implemented in objective measurement objective phenomena of
subjective and subtle.

These three elements of our program could be used in any attempt to measure a change
in personality. They are therefore applicable to investigations on any form of psychotherapy, or
to research on any process that seeks to modify personality or behavior.
Now we turn our attention to the three elements to which we refer, examining them in
order cm that were listed.
The criteria of research
What is the criterion for research in psychotherapy? This is a difficult issue that we have
had to face at the beginning of our planning. It is widely accepted the idea dc that the goal of
research in this field is to measure the degree of "success" in psychotherapy, or the degree of
"cure" reached. Although we do not suffer the influence of this way of thinking, we abandon this
idea after a careful consideration, because it is not capable of definition, involving essentially a
value judgment and for not being able, therefore, be considered as scientific in this field. There
is a general agreement on what is meant by "success" the disappearance of symptoms, the
solution of conflicts, the improvement of social behavior or any other type of amendment. The
concept of "cure" is totally inappropriate, since, in most disturbances in question, we have to
deal with a learned behavior and not with a disease.
As a consequence of our way of thinking, do not ask during the research: "We have been
successful? The Cured Because They disease? ". Instead, we have a question that is,
scientifically, much more defensible, i.e. : "What are the changes of concomitant therapy? ".
In order to have a basis to answer this question, we assume the theory of psychotherapy that
we are developing and it extracted the theoretical description of the amendments that we
assume occur in tratamenfo. The objective of the research is to determine if these hypothetical
changes occur or not in a degree that you can measure. It was thus that, from the point of view
of the theory focused on the customer, we have established hypotheses such as these: during
treatment, feelings that had previously been denied to awareness are experienced and are
assimilated to the concept of i; during the therapy, the concept of i takes more congruent with
the concept of i-ideal; along and after therapy the observed behavior of the customer becomes
more socialized and more mature; during and after therapy, the client shows an attitude of
greater self-acceptance, attitude that is correlated with a greater acceptance of the other.
These are some of the assumptions that we have been able to investigate. Perhaps it has
become clear that we abandon completely the idea of a general criterion for our studies and that
the exchange of a number of variables clearly defined, each a specific hypothesis that we were
looking at. This means that trusted to expose research our conclusions in a form such as this:
the psychotherapy customer-centric causes measurable changes in characteristics a, b, d ejÇ
for example, but does not produce changes in the variables and and and. When are possible
conclusions of this type, the psychologist professional and the lay person are in a position to
make a judgment of value and to decide whether they consider to be a "success" a process that
causes similar changes. However, these value judgments should not in any way change the
lowdown on our slow and progressive scientific knowledge of the dynamics of effective change
of personality. Therefore, in our research, we use, instead of the overall test of "success",
several specific criteria variables, each extracted from our theory of therapy and defined
operationally.
This solution of the problem of criteria represented a great help in making a smart choice
of research instruments susceptible of being used in our battery of tests. Do we have the
insoluble question: what would be the instruments capable of measuring the success or the
cure. Instead, we are wondering about specific problems posed by each hypothesis. What is the
instrument capable of measuring the concept that the individual has of his I? What is the
instrument that can give a satisfactory measure of the maturity of the behavior? How can we
calculate the degree of acceptance of the other by the individual? Although it is difficult
questions, you can discover operational responses. Therefore, our decision in relation to the
criteria has served us well to solve the whole problem of the instrumentation of the surveys.

The plan of research
The fact that there is no objective evidence of a constructive change of personality,
caused by psychotherapy, has been referred to by a number of writers serious. Hebb declares
that "there is no set of facts to show that the psychotherapy is valid" (4, p. 271). Eysenck, after
reviewing some of the available studies, points out that "there are no data to prove that the
psychotherapy, whether freudian or not, will facilitate the restoration of patients neurotic" (3, p.
322).
This unfortunate situation has drawn our attention and seemed to be that our study
should be of a sufficiently rigorous to the confirmation or refutation of our hypotheses could
demonstrate two points: (a) that a significant change has occurred or not occurred, and (b) that
this change, having been checked, can be attributed to therapy and not to any other factor. In a
field as complex as the therapy, it is not easy to imagine a research plan that meets these
objectives, although we believe that we have made real progress in this direction.
Having chosen the hypotheses that we wanted to put to the test and the instrnmentoiais
suitable for your calculation operational, we were now ready for the next step. A selected
series of instruments of research aims were used to calculate the various characteristics of a
group of customers before treatment, immediately after, and, finally, at a time when located
between six months and one year after, as is indicated in figdra 1. Customers were, roughly
speaking, the type of which is presented in the Center of advice from the University of Chicago.
The objective was to gather these data, including the recording of all interviews of at least
twenty-five customers. The choice performed allowed an intensive study of a restricted group,
instead of superficial analysis of a larger group.
A part of the group therapy was highlighted as a group of internal control. This group was
submitted to the battery of research instruments , asked him to wait during a control period of
two months and was held for the second time the battery before starting the treatment. The
justification of this process was that, if there were a change in individuals simply because they
were motivated to therapy or after monitoring because they had a certain type of personality
structure, this amendment should occur during the period of control.
Another group of individuals who were not in therapy was selected as a control group
equivalent. This group was equivalent to the group therapy in the distribution of ages and more
or less equivalent in the socio-economic conditions, the proportion of men and women, students
and non-students. It was subjected to the same tests that the group therapy, at the same time
intervals. A part of this group was submitted to the battery of tests four times, in order to take it
strictly comparable to the control group in internal therapy. The justification of this control group
equivalent is that, if there is a change in individuals as a result of the passage of time, the
influence of random variables or artificial modifications caused by the repetition of tests, then
this change would be evident in the results of this control group equivalent.
The logic of this supreme plan doubly controlled resided in the fact that, if the group
therapy in uncovering, during and after the treatment period, changes significantly larger than
those who register during the period of internal control or in the control group equivalent, then
duty-s- .ia assign with reason these changes to the influence of the therapy.
I cannot, in this short exposure, enter the details and complex branching of different
projects that were carried out in the framework of this research plan. A fuller account (7) was
prepared and it describe thirteen of the projects executed until now. Suffice it to say that the
complete data on twenty-nine clients treated by 16 therapists were obtained at the same time
that the full data on a group of corresponding control. A careful evaluation of the results of the
research autorizanos come to some conclusions as these are profound changes during and
after the therapy, the i that the customer sees; there is a modification in constructive
characteristics and the structure of the personality of the client, modification that the closer to
the characteristics of the personality of an individual who "works well "; there is a change in
directions defined as integration and personal adaptation; there are changes in the maturity of
customer behavior, such as the friends are watching. In each case, the transformation is

significantly higher than that found in the control group or in customers during the period of
internal control. AND only in relation to the hypotheses concerning the democratic attitudes and
acceptance in relationships with others that the results reveal a degree of confusion and a
relative ambiguity.
In our opinion, the program of research that had already been carried out was enough to
change comments as of Hebb and Eysenck. In relation to psychotherapy focused on the
customer, at least, there is now an objective evidence of positive change in personality and
behavior in directions that are usually considered as constructive, and these changes can be
attributed to the therapy. Was the adoption of multiple specific criteria of research and the use of
a plan of research strictly controlled that made it possible to reach such a conclusion.
The measurement of changes in i
Since I can only make a very limited number of examples of our results, I will choose
them in an area where we have the impression of having achieved the methodological progress
more significant and more surprising results, i.e. our attempts to measure changes in the
perception that the customer has of himself and the relationship of perception with a number of
other variables.
In order to achieve an objective indication of self- perception of customer, we employ a
new technique Q prepared by Stephenson (9). Extracted a large "universe" of statements
Resilient tape-recorded interviews and other sources. Some typical statements are worded as
follows: "I am a submissive person", "I have no confidence in my emotions ", "I feel the desire
and nothing bothers me", "I'm afraid of sexual issues", "a general taste of people", "I have an
attractive personality", that other people think of me". The instrument of work consisted of a
hundred of these statements the randomly selected and edited with a view to their clarity.
Theoretically, we now have at our disposal a sample of all the ways in which an individual can
realize himself. Each one of these 100 statements was printed on a card. They were then given
to the customer, asking him to group the cards that represented "as it is now", distributing them
in nine batteries, starting by most distinctive features and ending by less characteristic. We
asked him to put a number of these characteristics in each stack, in order to obtain a distribution
approximately normal. The customer logged this division and this grouping the main moments of
the therapeutic process, before therapy, at the end of the therapy, and a follow-up period, as
well as on several occasions durartt therapy. Each time that gathered the cards to draw a
picture of themselves, I would ask if you also to group them in such a way as to represent what
he would like to be, your i-ideal.
Pormenorizamos and aim in this way, the representations of the self-perception of
customer publicb various moments and the perception of its i-ideal. The different groups were
then correlated, a high correlation between two groups indicating the similarity or the absence of
modification, and a weak correlation indicating a dissimilarity or a marked degree of change.
In order to illustrate how this tool was used to test some of our assumptions in relation to
myself, I will present some of the results of the study of a customer (taken from 7 ch. 15) In
relation to various assumptions. I believe that this will define the nature of encouraging results in
the most appropriate manner in which to put the general conclusions of our study of perception,
although look for mention of crossing these general results.
The observation of the facts: the role of research in psychotherapy
The customer that provided the data of where I took the following information was a
woman of 40 years, very unhappy in marriage. His daughter, adolescent, suffered a nervous
breakdown that she felt guilty. Suffering from disturbances very deep and the diagnosis revealed
it as seriously neurotic. It was not part of the group of internal control and therefore immediately
began the therapy after having performed the first battery of tests. Presented to 40 interviews

that lasted for a period of five and a half months, and ended then the therapy. The follow-up
tests were administered seven months later and at that time did have 8 more interviews. A
second follow-up study was conducted five months later. The therapist felt that there had been a
considerable change in therapy.
Figure 2 presents some data on the change in the perception of this customer. Each
circle represents a grouping to describe the i-ideal or i. The groupings were performed before
therapy, after the seventh and twenty-fifth interviews and at the end of therapy, as well as in two
moments later indicated in the previous paragraph. The correlations are given between many of
these groups.
Now Let's look at the data that relate to one of the hypotheses subject to analysis, that
stated that the i that the customer sees that change more during therapy than during a period of
non-therapy. In this particular case, the amendment was higher during therapy (r 0.39) than
during each of the periods of follow-up (r = 0.74; 0 ,70) or that the total period of 12 months of
follow-up (r = 0.65). Therefore, in this case = the hypothesis is confirmed. Under this aspect,
our client had characteristics of all our customers, residing the final result in the discovery that
the change in I that the customer sees during the therapy was significantly higher than during
periods of control or subsequent to therapy, as well as was also significantly greater than the
change in the control group.
Now Let us consider a second chance. It was predicted that, during and after therapy, the
i that the customer sees would be evaluated more positively, i.e. become more congruent with
the i-ideal or I valued.
The customer to which we refer was manifested when he came in contact with the
therapy, a remarkable discrepancy between the i that she was and I would like to be (r = 0.21).
During and after the therapy, this discrepancy decreased, by registering a undeniable degree of
congruence at the time of the follow-up study end (r = 0.79), which confirmed our hypothesis.
This is typical of our general conclusions, which show a significant development in congruence
between I and ideal for the group as a whole.
A careful examination of figure 2 shows that, at the end of our study, the customer
perceives itself as having become very similar to the person who wanted to be when you started
the therapy (r IA. EF2 = 0.70). It may also be noted that the i-ideal end becomes slightly more
similar to her I initial (r EA. 1F2 = 0.36) that was your initial ideal.
Let us consider briefly one another hypothesis, according to which the amendment I
realized we would not at random, but in a direction that competent evaluators would classify as
adaptation.
As a contribution to our study, the Q cards were delivered to a group of clinical
psychologists not associated with the research, asking them to into subcategories cards as you
would a person "well adjusted". It was this "adjustment coefficient", indicating the coefientes
higher a higher degree of "adaptation".
In the case of this client, we believe qu the adjustment coefficients for the six groups of
successive cards defining the I indicated in figure 2, starting with the i as was perceived before
therapy and ending in the second follow-up, are the following: 35, 44, 41, 52, 54, 51. The trend
toward a better adaptation, as defined operationally, is evident. It is also true for the group as a
whole, experiencing a sharp increase in the coefficient of adjustment during the period of
therapy and a regression very slight in the period subsequent to therapy. Not yet registered an
essential change in the control group. In this way, both for our customer as well as for the whole
group, confirming our hypothesis.
When carrying out a qualitative analysis of the different groups that define the i, later
results confirm this hypothesis. When comparing the initial image of the I with the descriptions
after the therapy, it is clear that, after the therapeutic process, the customer is modified in many
respects. She feels that they have more confidence in themselves, that is safer for you, it is
easier to understand, which feels a greater tranquility pool and have relations more comfortable
with the other. I know less guilty, less resentful, less threatened and less insecure, having less

of a need to seek refuge in itself. These qualitative changes are similar to those that other
customers have expressed in the course of research and are generally in accordance with the
theory of therapy focused on the customer.
I would like to indicate some additional results interesting that can discover in figure 2. It
is clear that the representation of i-ideal is much more stable than the representation of i. The
intercorrelated are all above 0.70, and the conception of the person she would like dc be
changes if relatively little during the entire period. This is characteristic of almost all of our
customers. Although we have not formulated a hypothesis on this aspect, we had hoped that
our customers could achieve a greater congruence between the I and the i-ideal, first by
amendment of their values, after the amendment of the eu. Our experience has shown clearly
that it was not so and that, with some exceptions occasionally, it proved the concept of i which
expresses greater change.
However, there is a certain change in i-ideal in the case of our client, and the direction of
this slight change is interesting. If figuring the "conversion factor" antenormente described the
successive representations of i-ideal of that customer, we shall find that the average price for
the first three is 0.57, but the listing of three following the therapy is 0.51. In other words, the iideal became less perfectly "adapted" or more accessible. It is, to a certain extent, an objective
that requires less painful efforts. Also under this aspect, our customer is characteristic of the
trend of the entire group.
Another conclusion concerns the "I remember" which is shown in figure 2. It was this
group of cards asking the customer, at the time of the second follow-up study, choose the cards
that best represented what it was when you started the therapy. This I pointed out has proved to
be very different from the description that I had made at the time of starting the therapeutic
process. The correlation with self-representation made at that time was only 0.44. In addition, it
was a description much less favorable and with a difference much larger in relation to its ideal (r
= - 0.21), and with a low coefficient of adaptation a coefficient of 26 compared with 35 for the
initial description of the i. This leads to the thought that, in the group relative to the I pointed out,
we have a gross measure objective the reduction of defense attitude that if operated over the 18
months of the period of our study. The end contact, the customer is able to give an image much
more true of the person disturbed and ill adapted that it was when you started the therapy, an
image that is confirmed, as we shall see, by another witness. AND, thus, the degree of change
in the eu during the total period of a year and a half is perhaps best represented by the
correlation -0.13 between the I remembered and I end, than by 0.30 correlation between the i
initial and final.
Now Let us consider a new hypothesis. The therapy focused on the customer, our theory
is that the psychological security of the therapeutic relationship the individual is able to accept
his conscience feelings and experiences that would normally be suppressed or denied to
awareness. These experiences previously rejected are now incorporated into the eu. For
example, a customer who repressed all feelings of hostility might experience, during the
therapy, their hostility in a way free. His concept of himself reorganized itself, therefore, in order
to include this understanding that has, from time to time, hostile feelings in relation to the other.
Their self-image becomes, at this level, a map or a more adequate representation of the whole
experience.
We have tried to translate this part of our theory a hypothesis operational, we expressed
as follows: during and after the therapy should be given an increase of congruence between the
I, as it is perceived by the customer, and the customer as it is seen by those who makes
odigióstico. We assume that, when a trained person is a 'psychological diagnosis of client, has a
greater awareness of all the forms of experience, both conscious and unconscious, of which the
client itself. Therefore, if this assimilate in description aware that makes of himself many of the
feelings and experiences that previously reprimira, casb, the image of himself will look more to
the image that outlines what is your diagnosis.

The method to investigate this hypothesis was the adoption of a projective test (the Test
of Moreover Thematic or TAT) that the customer was submitted cm each of the steps, being the
study of these four tests done by a clinician. In order to avoid any judgment biased, not if said
this psychologist which order that had administered the tests. Pediuse him to sort the cards Q
for each of the tests, so as to represent the client as it was at that time. This process gave us a
diagnosis whose assessments were exempt from any judgment biased, expressed in the same
terms that the customer used to portray itself, which made possible an objective comparison
and direct through the correlation between the various groups.
The result of this study in relation to the customer that we have seen in referring is
evident in figure 3. The top of the diagram is simply a condensation of information in figure 2.
The bottom line shows the groups of cards made by diagnosticador and correlations allow us to
test our hypothesis. It can be observed that at the beginning of therapy there was no
relationship between the perception of itself by the client and the perception of this by
diagnosticador (r = 0.00). Even at the end of the therapeutic process the situation was the
same (r 0.05). But at the time of the first follow-up study (not shown) and the second, the
perception that the customer had to itself has become substantially similar to that which it had
the diagnosticador (first monitoring, r = 0.56; second monitoring, r = 0.55). In this way, the
hypothesis is proven, since have increased substantially the congruence between the I and is
picked up by the customer and the customer as is seen by diagnosticador.
There are also other interesting conclusions from this aspect of the study carried out. It
should be noted that, at the time that began therapy, the client as is seen in the diagnosis is
very different from the ideal that she conceived for itself (r = 0.42). Near the end of the study,
the diagnosticador sees the client as clearly similar to the ideal that it nourishes itself at this time
(r = 0.46) and even more similar to the ideal that had at the time that started the therapy (r =
0.61). We can therefore say that the witness objective indicates that the client has become, in
its self-perception, and in the description of their personality, substantially the person that I
wanted to be when he began the therapy.
Another noteworthy point of interest is that the change in the perception of the customer
by the diagnosticador is considerably sharper than the change in i the customer as she realizes
(r = 0.33, compared with r = 0.30). This fact is interesting, if the closer we are to the general
opinion of those professionals that customers exaggerate the change that they are
experiencing. It is also suggested the possibility that an individual reveal a change so sharp
after a period of 18 months to reach the conclusion that the differences between his personality
and that was at the beginning are greater than the similarities.
A final comment on the figure 3 refers to "I remembered". It is noted that the image of I
remembered is a positive correlation with the impression dignóstica (r = 0.30), which tends to
confirm the statement previously made that it represents a most appropriate image and
less defensive than the client had been unable to give of herself at the start of the therapy.
Summary and conclusion
In this chapter, have sought to indicate at least the broad outlines of the vast research
plan of psychotherapy, as was done at the University of Chicago. We have listed some
important points.
The first is the rejection of a criterion in global study of the therapy and the adoption of
criteria for modification of specific personality defined operationally, based on detailed
assumptions rooted in a theory of the dynamics of therapy. The employment of a large number
of specific criteria allowed us to make some scientific advances in determining the types of
change that accompany or level therapy focused on the customer.
A second important aspect is the new way of approaching the problem, until now
resolved, control in studies of psychotherapy. The plan of investigation included two control
processes: (1) a group of equivalent control responds by the influence of time, by repeated

sessions of testing and by random variables; and (2) a group of internal control in which each
client in therapy is compared with himself during a period of non-therapy, with the goal of
responding by variables of personality and motivation. With this dual control plane was unable
to reach the conclusion that the changes which are reported during therapy, and that could not
be explained by the variables controlled, should the treatment itself.
Another important result that I selected to present here is a sample of the progress that
has been made to undertake a research strictly objective of subtle elements of the subjective
world of the client. We can show: the change of the self-concept of the customer; the degree to
which the I that the customer perceives becomes similar to I appreciated; the increase of
security and adaptation of I noticed; the degree to which the self-perception of customer takes
more congruent with the diagnosis made. These results tend to confirm the theoretical
formulations that we include the place of the self-concept in the dynamic process of psicterapia.
Finally, there are two conclusions that I would like to mention. The first is that the program
of research that I described shows clearly that an objective evidence, putting into practice the
usual criteria of precise scientific research, not only can be achieved in the field of personality
and behavioral changes caused by psychotherapy, as was obtained for a given orientation
psychotherapeutic treatment. This means that, in the future, we could obtain a proof similar
objective in cases in which there is a change of personality as a result of other
psychotherapies.
The second conclusion is, in my opinion, even more significant. The methodological
progress operated in recent years makes a great number dc subtleties of the therapeutic
process is now widely open to research. Sought to illustrate this aspect, giving me the
investigation of changes in self-concept. But there are also other possible similar methods to
objectively assess the change in the relations between the client and the therapist, the attitudes
of "transfer" and "-reversal", changing the source of the system of values of the client and other
similar aspects. I believe that if you can say that almost all the edificio theoretical that is
believed to have in relation to the modification of the personality or the process of
psychotherapy is now open to scientific research in new perspectives. Continue in this new
direction should clarify very the dynamics of personality, especially on the modification of
personality in a interpersonal relationship.
References
1.
Axiline. V. M. - Play Therapy, Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co. , 1947.
2.
Curran, C. A. - Personalitv Factors in Counseling, New York, Grune and Stratton, 1945.
3.
Eysenck, H. J. - "The effects of redefinida: an evaluation" ,i Consult. Psychol, 1952, )
6,PP. 3 19-324.
4.
Hebb, D. O. - Organization ofBehavior, New York, Wiley. 1949.
5.
Rogers, C. R. - Client-Centered Therapy, Boston, Houghton MifflinCo., 1942.
6.
Rogers. C. R. - Counseling and Redefinida, Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co. ,
1942. 7. Rogers, C. R. and R. Dymond (eds.) - Redefinida and Personality Change, University
of Chicago Press, 1954.
8. Snyder, W. U. (CD.) Casebook ofNondirective Counseling, Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co. ,
1947.
9. Stephenson, W. U. - The Study ofBehavior, University of Chicago Press, 1953.

Chapter 12
The therapy focused on the customer in the context of research *

How could I explain to a European audience, relatively little accustomed to the American
tradition of empirical research in psychology, the methods, the results and the sign stayed
research on therapy customer-centric? This task I was imposed by the fact that the Dr. G.
Marian Kinget and I were writing a book about the therapy focused on the customer, to be
published first in Flemish and then in French. Dr. Kinget presented the principles of clinical
therapy and i the central theories of therapy customer-centric (virtually identical to the
presentation English, 'The Theorv of Therapy, Personaliiy and accurately Relationships ", S.
Koch (organ. ), Psychology: A Study of the Science, vol. III, New York, Mc Graw-Hill , 1959, pp.
184-256). I wanted to introduce them now in the research that we have undertaken to confirm
or invalidate our theories. This chapter (slightly odficado) is the result of such intention and
hope that signflquç a grayhound for both the Americans and the Europeans.
* This is a translation of the English version of Chapter XII of volume Psvchotherapie en
mensehjke vechoudingen: théorie en praktUk van nondirectieve therapie, - CarI R. Rogers and
G. Marian Kinget. Utrecht, The Netherlands: Uitgeverij Het Spectrum, 1960.
I ask the indulgence of the reader to a small point. Three para- graphs that describe the
development and use of cards Q, by means of which is measured perception, are almost
identical to similar material presented in chapter 2. Deixeios in such a way that a chapter can be
read independently, without reference to the other.
This chapter begins with our older attempts to investigates, by around 1940, and
concludes with a description of a series of incomplete designs that still absorb the best of our
efforts in 196). I have tried, in this way, present at least a small sample of the result of years of
esjàrço research.
The incentives for research
One of the most important characteristics of orientation customer-centric iics therapy is
that, from the outset, not only stimulated the spirit of research, as it has developed in the context
of research. The number and variety of the investigations carried out so far are impressive. In
1953, Seeman told Fides about and Raskin, a critical analysis of the trends and directions of
this movement of research, described or mentioned close to fifty research studies related to the
therapy focused on the customer, with adults (9). In 1957 , Cartwright published an annotated
bibliography of one hundred and twenty-two research and theoretical synthesis on the therapy
focused on the customer (4). This author, as Seeman told Fides about and Raskin, omitted all
references to studies on child therapy or group therapy guidance focused on the customer .
Seems to be, therefore, no doubt that the theory and the practice of therapy focused on
customer did arise a surprising number of studies of experimental research. It is therefore
justified to ask about the reason for this fact.
A first factor is that the theory of therapy focused on the customer was seen not as a
dogma or as a fact, but as a property of hypotheses, as a tool in the service of our scientific
knowledge. It was always in mind that a theory, or any part of it, is only useful if it can be called
evidence. We have therefore the constant concern of controlling objectively every important
aspect of our chances, because we believe that the only way dc isolate the scientific
knowledge of individual prejudices and voluntarism is by means of a research objective. For a
research be objective it is necessary to be carried out in such a way that an investigator,
collecting data in the same way and subjecting them to the same operations, find the same
results or similar results and comes to the same conclusions. In a word, we assume that the
psychotherapy only exert an influence by open analysis and objective of all the hypotheses
expressed through forms reportable and replicable publicly.
A second reason for the stimulating effect of our guidance customer-centric is the
guideline according to which a scientific study can begin no matter where, at what level is,
elementary or complex; that is, it is a direction and not a fixed degree of instrumentation. From
this point of view, a recorded interview represents a small beginning of scientific research

because it involves an objectification greater than the remembrance of an interview; a
conceptualization of elemental therapy and the rudimentary instruments designed to measure
these concepts are more scientific than its absence. Therefore, our researchers thought they
could begin to follow a scientific direction in areas that had for them the greatest interest. From
this attitude, was creating a series of increasingly refined for the analysis of the protocols of the
interviews and began, in a significant way, the measurement of constructs apparently
impossible to grasp, as the self-concept and psychological atmosphere of a therapeutic
relationship. This brings me to what I believe to be the third most important reason for the
degree of success that our theory had the incentive to investigations. The constructs of the
theory had been, in their vast majority, formulated in such a way as to provide an operational
definition. This definition in operational terms it was a pressing need for psychologists and other
researchers, who wanted to advance knowledge in the field of personality and seeing prevented
because its theoretical constructs were not suitable to an operational definition.
For example, the phenomena described in a general way by the terms I, ego, person. If it
produces a construct - as some theorists have done that encompasses both interior events nonconscious phenomena as interior conscious of individual, it is not possible at this stage to an
operational definition of a construct of this genre. But, limiting the self-concept to what is
happening in the conscience tóh-and possible the theoretical formulation of the construct in
operational terms increasingly refined through technical Q, the analysis of records of interviews,
etc. , and this opens the researcher a vast area of research. It is possible that, with the time and
thanks to the development of research, if you cannot give a definition from operations = income
of certain structures even unconscious.
The employment of concepts can be defined in operational terms also had another effect.
It became completely unnecessary the use of the words "success" and "failure" two terms that
are not usable in science - as criteria in studies of therapy. Instead of thinking in global terms
and morbid, the researchers were able to make specific predictions in terms of constructs
operationally definable and confirm or invalidate these forecasts of an entirely independent of
value judgments about the character "successful" or "unsuccessful" of therapy. He despoiled it
one of the biggest barriers to scientific progress.
Another reason for the effectiveness of the system to promote the research was the most
constructs used. Since psychotherapy is a microcosm of the interpersonal relations significant,
fundamental learning and important changes in personality and perception of the individual, the
constructs prepared to sort the field has a high degree of penetration. Constructs such as selfconcept, or the need for a positive acceptance or the conditions of change of personality, could
be applied to a wide variety of human activities. Could be used for the study of fields as diverse
as the military leadership or industrial, the change of personality in psychotic individuals, the
psychological climate of a family or a school class, or even the inter-relation of psychological
changes and physiological.
If we look in a special way, to finish, a circumstance very happy. Unlike psychoanalysis,
for example, the therapy focused on the customer has always in the context of university
institutions. This resulted in a continuous process to separate the tares from the wheat, in a
situation of personal security key. This also meant being exposed to constructive criticism of
colleagues in exactly the same way that the new prospects opened up in chemistry, biology and
genetics are subjected to a critical examination. The academic atmosphere meant above all that
the theory and technique were accessible to the curiosity of enthusiastic young people,
university students are wondering and criticize; suggest alternative formulations; undertake
experimental investigations to confirm or invalidate the various theoretical hypotheses. This
helped a lot to keep the therapeutic orientation centered on the client as an open perspective
and self-criticism, instead of making it a point of dogmatic view.
These were the reasons that led to the therapeutic orientation develop through scientific
research. From a point of view limited, largely supported in the technique, without empirical
verification, we reached a theory elaborated in the personality and interpersonal relations as

well as the therapy, which coordinates a remarkable body of knowledge experimentally
established.
The initial period of research
The research objective in psychotherapy does not have a long history. There was no
doubt, before 1940, some attempts to record interviews therapeutic, but the obtained material
was not used for research purposes. Before that there were no serious attempts to use the
methods of science in the measurement of the amendments that were thought occur in therapy.
We are therefore talking about a field that is still, in some way, in its embryonic state. However,
some progress has been made.
In 1940, our group of the University of the State of Ohio managed to record an entire
therapeutic interview. Our satisfaction was gr?i, but vanished quickly. To listen to the recording,
so little structured, complex, desanimávamos to achieve our goal which was to use this material
as given for research objective. It seemed almost impossible to reduce these data elements
susceptible to a treatment goal.
However, some progress has been made. The enthusiasm and the creative spirit of our
students have remedied the lack of funds and equipment. The elements in the rough of therapy
were transformed, thanks to their ingenuity and inventiveness, in categories of elementary
techniques of the therapist, as well as the responses of the customer. Porter examined the
behavior of the therapist under some important facets and Snyder examined the responses of
the customer in various cases, discovering some of the trends that existed. Other researchers
have also inventive and, little by little, the possibility of research in the field of psychotherapy
took a reality.
These initial studies were often rudimentary, disordered on the plan of research, often
based on a sufficient number of cases, but their contribution to the opening of new paths was,
however, great.
Some illustrative studies
In order to give you an idea of the growing current research, blank slate some studies
with sufficient detail, with the aim of making people understand the reader the methodology and
the specific results. The studies described were not chosen because they are particularly
significant, but because they represent the different trends of research as it was developing. Will
be presented in chronological order'.
The center of the assessment
In 1949, Raskin (5) carried out a study on the origin of the values captured by the
customer or the center of the assessment process (locus ofevaluation). This study
acknowledged the simple formulation of the function of the therapist was not the thinking
at or about the customer , but with him . In the first two cases, the center of valuation is clearly
in therapist, but at last it tries to think and enter into empathy with the client within the framework
of references this, respecting the specific process of valuation of customer.
The question that Raskin raised was whether the center of valuation picked up by
customer if there was during therapy. In more specific terms, there will be a decrease in the
degree to which the values and norms of the client depend on the judgments and expectations
of others and a greater reasoning of these values and norms in a confidence in their own
experience?
In order to carry out this study of an objectively, Raskin has determined the following phases of
research:

1. Asked if the three evaluators, who worked independently, to select in various interviews
recorded statements that were related to the source of the values and standards of the
customer. The comparison of the results showed that there was more than 80% agreement in
the selection of these statements, which indicates that the study contained a construct
outsiders.
2. From the material so selected, Raskin chose twenty-two of these items to represent a wide
variety of values and gave twenty evaluators, asking them into subcategories such statements
in four batteries in accordance with the ongoing study, separated by intervals approximately
equal.
Raskin has built a scale from the center of valuation with the twelve items that showed
greater consistency, scale that went from 1.0 to 4.0. The grade 1 representing an attitude of
dependence unconditional to assessments made by the other, THE degree 2 included those
propições which wrote a predominant concern with what others thought, but also expressed a
certain dissatisfaction in relation to that state of dependence. The grade 3 represented those
expressions in which the individual reveals an attitude dc respect, both by its own system of
values and the values and ideas of others, showing be aware of the difference between its own
process of valuation and the dependence of the values of the other. The grade 4 was reserved
for the propositions that clearly indicated that the individual was based his system of values in
their own experience and their own judgments.
An example that illustrates the degree 3 can give a description of living scale. The
following statement of client was considered as belonging to this degree of scale: "I was able to
take a decision that I do not know whether it is right. When you belong to a family where one of
the brothers went to the university and where all are intelligent, I don't know if it will be right
thinking that I am as I am and that I can do these things. I have always be what others thought I
should be, but now I wonder if should not see that I am precisely what I am" (6, p. 151).
3. Raskin used then this scale to assess fifty-nine interviews fully recorded on the ten cases
therapeutic brief, and that had been the object of other investigations. After evaluating them and
before analyzing them, I wanted to determine the reliability of their judgments. Chosen at
random in each of the fifty-nine interviews an item referring to the center of valuation and
entrusted the classification of the material thus obtained to another evaluator who knew nothing
about the origin of these items, or better, that he didn't know if they came from interviews that
were at the beginning or end of the case. The correlation between the two sets of evaluations
was 0.91, which represents a degree dc reliability highly high.
4. Raskin, having built a scale intervals of approximately equal and having demonstrated the
reliability of the instrument, when it was prepared to determine if produced a displacement of the
center of valuation during therapy. The average value obtained from the first interviews was
1.97, for the final interviews was 2.73, a significant difference in the level of 0.01. Therefore, the
theory of therapy customer-centric track is confirmed at this point. It was possible to add a
further confirmation. The 10 cases referred to had been studied by other objective methods, so
that we had objective criteria from other studies to determine the degree of therapeutic success
in each case. Considering the five cases that, according to these objective criteria, were those
who were more successful, it is clear that the displacement of the center of valuation was even
more clear, and the mean for the initial interviews of 2.12 and 3.34 for the latter.
This study is, in many respects, a typical example of a vast set of investigations that were
carried out. Starting from a given hypothesis of the theory of therapy focused on the customer, a
questionnaire was susceptible to calculate the degrees of variation of a particular construct. The
instrument itself is then put to the test, in order to determine whether vat num- measures what it
is intended and if any qualified person can use it and get the same result or a similar result. The
instrument is then applied to the data of therapy according to a method that can sort of objective
(for example, in the case of Raskin, the checking by another evaluator of fifty-nine texts
randomly selected shows that deviations, conscious or unconscious, do not introduce
appreciably in the standings made). The data resulting from the employment of the instrument

can then be analyzed in order to determine whether they confirm or invalidate the hypothesis. In
the case to which we have referred, the hypothesis was confirmed, supporting the theory that
customers, in therapy focused on the customer, are less dependent on the face of the other,
letting himself be guided increasingly less by values and by the expectation of others, showing,
on the contrary, tend to increase the confidence in autovalorações based ia au own experience.
The only major weaknesses of this study resides in the fact that the number of cases was small
and the therapy very soon (as was typical of the first period). It is likely that, if it is returned to
be applied to a greater number of cases longer, the results would still be the same. This study
shows, however, an intermediate degree of sophistication in research, a stage which is situated
between the initial studies rudimentary and work more meticulously planned currently in
progress.
The relationship between the autonomic function and therapy
Thetford has embarked on a study of a different type, also completed in 1949 (li). His
hypothesis far exceeds the therapeutic theory focused on the customer, proposing to study
physiological consequences consistent with the theory, but that had never been made. In short,
their main hypothesis was that if the therapy makes the individual able to refocus their way of
living and to reduce the tension and the anxiety that you feel in relation to their personal
problems, then the reactions of his nervous system automatic, for example in a situation of
stress, should change. Essentially, it proposed the hypothesis that, if the therapy there is a
change in the way of life and the internal voltage, this will result in changes of organísmicas
autonomic functioning, area over which the individual has no conscious control. In other words,
Thetford wondered up to that point would be profound changes caused by the therapy focused
on the customer. They would be sufficient to affect the functioning organísmico total of the
individual?
Although the procedure was really complex, however, we can describe it in its essential
elements. Thetford has recruited a group of nineteen individuals formed by customers the
Advice Center of the University of Chicago. These were invited to voluntarily participate in a
study about the personality. Since all the invited guests attended, except some, prevented by
circumstances of practical, it was a representative group of students-the Center's clients. Ten
individuals were submitted to individual therapy, three participated simultaneously in individual
therapy and group, and the remaining six were in group therapy. Met after a control group of 17
individuals not subjected to therapy, approximately the same age level and educational that the
group therapy.
All individuals, both belonged to the group therapy or to the control group, were submitted
to the same experimental procedures. The most significant aspects are described later. With the
help of electrodes, the individual was connected to a polygraph that recorded both a reflection
psicogalvânico (GPR), blood pressure and respiration. After a rest period to establish a
baseline, diziase the individual that the memory of numbers was generally recognized as a good
index of intelligence and that the experimenter wanted to submit it to a test of this kind. The
series of figures used ami growing up to a point at which the individual failed considerably. After
an interval of two minutes, the experimenter presented new series of numbers that would cause
a new failure evident. After another interval, another failure frustrating. As all individuals were
students, there is no doubt that your amorpróprio and frustration were obviously real, since the
experience was challenging their intellectual capacities and the put in doubt. After a last interval,
dispensavase the individual, but this was informed that it would be called later for a second
session. Never has the lowest ratio of experience with the treatment of individuals, and the
administration of the tests was performed in another building.
Complete therapy, customers were again called and submitted to. ,uesmo experimental
procedure - three episodes of frustration alternating with periods of recovery, being continuously

measured various aspects of autonomic functioning. The individuals in the control group were
also called back with corresponding intervals and subjected to the same procedure.
Were calculated various índfces physiological to the groups in therapy and control. The
only significant differences between the groups lived in rapid recovery of frustration during the
two sessions. In general, the group submitted to therapy was recovering his frustration more
quickly in the second session of the first, while in the control group the results were reversed:
these individuals had they recovered more slowly during the second series of frustrations.
I will try to explain myself a little better. The group therapy showed a change in the ratio of
recovery" based on RPG, significant change in level of 0.02 and recorded in the direction of a
more rapid recovery of frustration. The control group showed a change in the ratio of recovered
significant cooperation at the level of 10% in the direction of a delayed recovery. In other words,
they were less able to overcome the frustration suffered during the second session than during
the first. Another measure RPG, designated as "percentage of recovery", also showed that the
group therapy recovered more quickly in the second test, a significant change in the level of 5
%, while the control group had no change. With regard to cardiovascular activity, the mean
variation in arterial blood pressure of the individuals in the group therapy was lower in the
second session, registering a significant change in the level of 5 %. The grupocontrole not
manifested any amendment. Other indices revealed some consistent changes such as those
mentioned above, but not as significant.
It can be said therefore that, in general, the individuals that were submitted to the therapy
acquired a threshold of frustration higher and a capacity to recover your homeostatic balance
more quickly in frustration later, purchase that was made during the therapeutic contact. On the
other hand, in the control group, there was a slight trend toward a reduction in the threshold of
frustration during the second session and a recovery clearly slower of homeostasis.
In simpler terms, the significance of this study seems to be that, after therapy, the
individual is able to face, with a greater tolerance and a minor disturbance, emotional situations
of depression and frustration; that this amendment applies even if the depression or the
frustration had not been specifically considered in therapy; that the coping more effectively the
frustration is not a superficial phenomenon, but occurs in a manner evident in autonomic
reactions that the individual cannot control consciously and that they have no conscience.
This study of Thetford is characteristic of a number of pioneering research and the more
daring that were carried out. Their hypotheses beyond the theory of therapy focused on the
customer as this was worded, but are in agreement with the theory and perhaps even implied
therein. Its starting point was the assertion that the therapy became the individual capable of
mastering better your stress the psychological level, it was also evident at the level of autonomic
functioning. The current investigations prove the basis of the statement. There is no doubt that
the effect of confirmation in relation to the theory is more important when some predictions
distant are put to the test and find out if they are correct.
The customer's response to different techniques
A small study conducted by Bergman (2) in 1950 is an example of how the recorded
interviews lend themselves to microscopic studies of the therapeutic process. Bergman sought
to study the problem of the nature of the relationship between the method or the technique of
teaputa and the response from the customer.
We chose to study all the opportunities, in ten cases recorded (the same that Raskin and
others studied), in which the client required a consideration on the part of the therapist. We
collected 246 passages in ten cases in which this happened, in that the client asked for a
solution to their problems, an assessment of its adaptation or progress, a confirmation of his
own point of view or a suggestion on how it should be done. Each of these passages was
included in the study as a response unit. The response unit was the expression of total

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

1.
2.
3.
4.

1.
2.

3.

customer that included the request, the immediate response of the therapist and the general
expression of the customer that if he went to the assertion of the therapist.
Bergman found that the responses of the therapist could be divided into the following
categories:
A response based on an assessment. This type of response could be an interpretation of the
material the customer, an agreement or disagreement with it or suggestions or information.
A response "structuring". The therapist can explain its own role or how you perform the
therapy.
A request for clarification. The therapist can indicate that the meaning of the client's request is
not clear to him.
A reflection on the context of the application. The therapist can respond by attempting to
understand the context of the customer's request, but without a specific recognition of this
request.
A reflection on the request. The therapist can show that you understand the customer's request
or that the situation in the context of other feelings.
Bergman has drawn up the following categories to group the terms of subsequent
customer responses to the therapist:
The client repeats again the request for an assessment, either in the same way, either with a
certain enlargement or modification, or another application.
The client, accepting or rejecting the response of the therapist, abandons the attempt to explore
their attitudes and problems (usually by immersing a material less relevant).
The customer continues to explore their attitudes and their problems.
The client verbalizes an understanding of the relationship between the sentiments expressed
an insight.
Having verified the reliability of these categories, both in relation to the customer as in
relation to the therapist, and considering it to be satisfactory, Bergman was examining the
evidence gathered. Determined which categories occur more frequently combined with other
categories and that it could not give the chance. Here are some of the conclusions found.
There is fundamentally a relationship just coincidence between the categories in the initial
request of the customer and their subsequent response. The same occurs between the initial
request by the client and the response of the therapist. For this reason, nor the response of the
therapist, nor the subsequent expression of client seem to be "caused" by initial request.
On the other hand, there is a significant interaction between the response of the therapist
and the subsequent expression of the customer.
The reflection on the feeling by the therapist is followed, with a higher frequency than would
assign to chance, a self-continued exploitation or insight. This relationship is significant at the
level of 1 %.
The responses of the therapist of types 1 and 2 (responses based on an assessment and
interpretive responses or "structuring") are followed, with a frequency that is higher than it would
be to assign to chance, the abandonment of self-exploitation. This is also significant in the levels
of 1 %.
A response of the therapist asking a clarification tends to be followed by the repetition of the
request or a reduction in self-exploration and insight. These consequences are significant
differences in the levels of 1% and 5 %, respectively.
Bergman is lealo then to conclude that the self-exploration and insight , positive aspects
of the therapeutic process, seem to be favored by the replies that are "reflections on the
sentiments", while the evaluative responses, interpretative and "structuring" tend to arouse
negative reactions in the therapeutic process. This study illustrates how, in a number of
investigations, the recording of interviews therapies was examined with all the thoroughness
and rigor in order to illuminate some aspects of the theory of therapy focused on the customer.
In these studies, the internal events of therapy were analyzed objectively by clarifying that can
bring to tera peutico.

A study on the self-concept
There have been many investigations on the changes to the concept that the customer
has of me. This construct is central to the theory of therapy focused on the customer and his
idea of personality. Blank Slate of a brief study of Butler.
A method that has been used frequently to achieve this objective consisted in technical
Q, drawn up by Stephenson (10) and adapted to the study of the eu. Since Butler and Haigh
have used this technique as a tool, can be useful describes it quickly before presenting the
results of the study itself.
A large number of recordings of cases of therapy were isolated all expressions of selfreference that formed a large population for the survey. These expressions were selected 100,
edited for the purpose of clarity . The aim was to choose the largest possible number of ways in
which the individual perceives. The list included items such as these: "I am often resentment", "I
am sexually attractive", "I'm really disturbed", "I feel uncomfortable when talking with the other",
"I am relaxed and nothing worries me really".
In the study by Butler and Haigh asked each person to separate the cards which were
printed as 100 points referred to. First had to distribute these cards "to describe as today you
see". I would ask him to group the cards into 9 piles, on the basis of which were further of what
was thought to be for those who more perfectly thought that the described. I would ask him to
put a number on each stack (the numbers in each cell were 1, 4, 11, 21, 26, 21, 11, 4, 1,
therefore representing a forced distribution and approximately normal data). When the
individual gave this task completed, We asked you to group the cards, but now "to describe the
person would like to be". Thus, obtained for each item the perception of the individual as well
as the value assigned to that characteristic.
It becomes clear that it is possible to correlate the various groupings. It is possible to link i
preterapia with i post-therapy, the I with the i-ideal, or the euideal a customer with the i-ideal of
another client. High correlations indicate a small discrepancy or amendment, and the low
correlations the opposite, The study of specific items that changed place during therapy, for
example, provides a qualitative image of the nature of the change. Due to the large number of
items considered, is safeguarded the clinical richness along the statistical research. In general,
this process has enabled researchers convert data in phenomenological elements objectives
and manipulated.
Now Let us consider the use of this method in the study of Butler and Haigh. The
Hypotheses were: (1) the therapy focused on the client reduces the discrepancy between the I
noticed and I valued; and (2) this reduction of discrepancy is more pronounced in those
customers has been recognized, based on independent criteria, greater movement in therapy.
Within the framework of a program of investigations much more broad (8), researchers
have approached twenty-five customers using the tapeworms Q for the I and the i-ideal, three
times: before the start of therapy, after its conclusion and a follow-up period ranging between six
and twelve months after its completion. The same program of evidence was applied to a group
of control outside of therapy, similar to the first in age, gender and socioeconomic status.
The results were very interesting. The correlations between the I- ideal for group of
customers before therapy TAA of -0.47, a discrepancy very marked between the I and the Iideal, until 0.59, number that indicates that the i is appreciated as it is. The mean correlation
before therapy was -0.01. At the end of therapy, the mean was 0.34 and the follow-up period
was 0.31. This represents a significant change, confirming the hypothesis. The fact that the
correlation download only very slightly during the period that follows the therapy offers a very
special interest. The change is even more marked when the focus is on the seventeen cases
which, in the opinion of therapists and according to the results of the Test of Moreover Theme
(ATT), showed the most positive result in therapy. In these cases, the mean correlation before
the therapy was 0.02 and the subsequent period of
0.44.

The group of internal control was formed by 15 members of the group. We tested the first time
requiring treatment, asking them then to wait 60 days before initiating therapy. Were tested
again at the end of the period of 60 days, as well as at the end of the therapy and the follow-up
period, within the limits of six to twelve months. In this group of internal control the correlation Iideal in the first test was -0.01 and at the end of the period of 60 days was identical: -0.01.
Therefore, the amendment that was found during the therapy is clearly associated with the
therapy and is not simply the result of the passage of time or the decision to initiate therapy.
The control group showed a very different picture of group of clients in therapy. The
primitive correlation between I and i-ideal was of 0.58, and has changed very little, being
0.59 in follow-up period. It is obvious that this group did not feel the tension experienced by the
group of customers, tended to the valuation of himself and, in this respect, has not changed
appreciably.
It is, therefore, reasonable to conclude from this study that one of the changes associated
with therapy customer-centric is the perception, that changes in a direction in which the eu is
more valued. This amendment is not transient, but continues after the therapy. The reduction of
inner tension is highly significant, but, at the end of therapy, I still is less valued than among the
members of the control group did not undergo the therapy. In other words, the therapy does not
establish a "perfect fit" or a complete absence of voltage. It is also apparent that the amendment
that we were discussing was not simply as a result of the passage of time or the determination
to go to therapy, but it is crucially linked to the therapy.
This study is just one example among many of the investigations made to clarify the
relationship between the therapy and the perception. According to these other studies
(mentioned by Rogers and Dymond, 8), we know for example that is essentially the self-concept
that is changing along the therapy and not the i-ideal. The latter shows a tendency to
modificarse, although slightly, and their modification is in the direction of a lower demand and a
greater achievement. We know that the self-image that emerges at the end of therapy is
assessed by therapists (in a way that excludes any possible deviations) as more suitable. We
know that this emerging I have a greater degree of interior comfort, understanding and selfacceptance of responsibility in relation to himself. We know that this I later to therapy is a
satisfaction and a tranquility higher in relationships with others. Little by little, we were able to
irjuntando to our objective knowledge new conhecinto on the modifications caused by therapy
on self-perception of the customer. The psychotherapy causes changes in daily behavior?
The studies described so far in this chapter, and others that could be mentioned, show
that the therapy focused on the customer causes many changes. The individual makes choices
and establishing values in a different way; engage the frustration with a physiological tension
less prolonged, modifies the way to see and enjoy. But this still does not respond to the question
of the laity and of society: "Will Change the daily behavior of the customer so noticeable and
positive will be the nature of this change?" was to try to answer this question, with the help of
some of my colleagues, I have undertaken a research on changes in the maturity of customer
behavior related to therapy, a study published in 1954 (6).
The theory of therapy focused on the customer raises the hypothesis that the internal
changes that occur during the process.
The observaçãó facts: the role of research in psychotherapy
Therapeutic lead the individual, after therapy, a behavior less defensive, more socialized,
more receptive to the reality in itself and in its social environment, a behavior that shows a
system of values more socialized. In other words, your behavior will be considered as more
mature, and the forms of child behavior tend to decrease. The difficult question that we raised
was whether they could give an operational definition of this hypothesis with the purpose of
subjecting it to an experimental confirmation.

3.
4.

5.
6.
7.

There are a few instruments to measure the quality of the daily behavior of a person. The
best test for our order was what Willoughby had some years ago, and that was known as
Emotional Maturity Scale (Scale of Emotional Maturity). Has produced many items describing
the behavior, printed them on cards and distributed them by 100 therapists, psychologists and
psychiatrists - to determine the degree of maturity that they represented. On the basis of these
judgments, selected 60 items to compose its scale. The degrees of the scale extends the value
of 1 (the more immature) to 9 (the more mature). The following propositions, together with the
value of maturity that is assigned, will allow the reader to make an idea of the scale: Value 1.
The Subject (5) asks usually help to solve their problems (Item 9).
Value 3. When driving your car, 5 is calm in ordinary situations, but is angry when other
drivers prevent next ( Item 12). Value 5. When demonstrates clearly his inferiority in a particular
aspect, 5 is impressed, but console themselves thinking in the activities in which it is
superior (Item 45). Value 7. 5 Organizes and plans to their efforts to a specific objective,
whereas clear that a systematic method is a means of achieving it (Item 1 7). Value 9. S
welcomes the occasions of legitimate sexual expression; not feel shame, fear or concern in
relation to this aspect (Item 53).
Having chosen our instrument, we could formulate our hypothesis in operational terms:
once the therapy focused on the customer, your behavior will be considered by you and those
who know him as well as more mature, reaching a higher degree of the scale of emotional
maturity (E-M Scale).
The method of research was necessarily complex, because they are difficult to obtain the
strict measures and in daily behavior. The research was conducted as part of a wider program
that involved close to 30 customers and on an identical control group (8). The different phases
of the study the following:
1 . The customer, before initiating therapy, was invited to a self-assessment of their
behavior according to the E-M Scale
. 2 . I was wondering if after the customer the name of two friends who knew well and
who are willing to issue assessments to your respect. The contact with these friends was done
by mail and their assessments according to the E-M Scale referred directly to the Advice Center.
Each friend was asked to evaluate, at the same time evaluating the customer, another person
that I knew well. The purpose of this request was to determine the reliability of the evaluations
made by friends.
Half of the members of the group therapy was designated as group of internal control and was
submitted to the E- M Scale when entered for the first time in contact with the Center and
sesseita days later, before initiating therapy. The evaluations of customer made by his two
friends were also made in these occasions.
At the end of therapy, the client and her two friends were again invited to an assessment
according to the E-MScale.
Between six and twelve months after the therapy, I would ask you again to the customer and
their friends who provide assessments of behavior.
The members of the control group evaluating your behavior in scale AND-M in corresponding
moments in which the same evaluation was obtained from members of the group in therapy.
These various applications of scale provided a wide range of data that allowed different
angles of analysis. I shall confine myself to enumerate the main results. The scale of emotional
maturity (E-M Scale) showed a satisfactory reliability when it was used by any of the assessors,
the customer or a friend-observer. However, the agreement between the various assessments
was not very clear. The individuals in the control group did not undergo the therapy did not
reveal any significant change in their assessments of behavior during all periods involved in this
study.
Customers who were part of the group-internal control did not show a significant change
in the behavior during the period of 60 days of waiting, either according to his own judgment,
either according to the assessment of friends. There were no significant changes in

assessments of the observer about the behavior of the client during the treatment period or
during the follow-up period. This fact was, of course, contrary to our hypothesis. Therefore
seemed preferable to examine if these negative results were valid for all individuals, regardless
of the progress that we behave in therapy. Therefore, customers were divided by therapists in
three groups, depending on protestors evident progress, moderate or minimal in therapy.
It has been found that, when compared to the group that showed the greatest progress in
therapy, the assessments of the friends on the maturity of the customer's behavior had
increased significantly (at the level of 5 % ). In the group that patenteava moderate progress
there was a small change, and in the group where outside minimum progress had a negative
change in the direction of a behavior more immature.
There was a significant correlation and conclusive between the evaluations of the
therapist on the progress operated in therapy and the comments of friends of the client about
the change in his daily behavior. This correlation provides a particular interest, due to the fact
that evaluation of therapist is based only in reactions of the client during the treatment session,
with little or no knowledge of external behavior. The evaluations of the friends were based solely
on observation extenor, without any knowledge of what was happening in therapy.
In general, these results were parallel to the assessments of their own behavior on the
part of the customer, with one exception.iteressante. Customers who had been evaluated by
Sus therapists as revealing progress in therapy assessed as demonstrating an increase in
maturity, and their assessments came to coincide with those of observers. But customers who
were assessed by therapists as having registered minimal progress in therapy, and by
observers as revealing a deterioration of the maturity of the behavior, described as having
recorded a large increase in maturity, both at the end of therapy and at the end of the monitoring
period. This fact seems to demonstrate a self-assessment defensive when the therapy was not
successful.
You can, therefore, justify the general conclusion according to which, when the therapy
focused on the customer was evaluated as indicative of progress or movement, there is a
significant change in observable everyday behavior of the customer toward a greater maturity.
In situations in which the therapist feels that there has been a little progress, or even none, in
therapy, there is then a deterioration of behavior in the direction of greater immaturity. This latest
discovery has a particular interest, because it is the first evidence that divisive consequences
may follow unsuccessful efforts to get help, in a relationship with a therapist guidance focused
on the customer. Although these negative consequences are not significant, they should,
however, receive an in-depth study.
This type of research illustrates the attempts that have been made to investigate the
different effects that psychotherapy can cause behavior. At the same time, suggests some of the
difficulties implied to outline a plan of research sufficiently rigorous to be sure that (a) there was
actually changes in behavior and (b) that these changes are a consequence of therapy and not
of another factor.
Once this is done this global study of changes in daily behavior, it is possible that the
investigations on these aspects is to perform better in the laboratory, where changes in the
behavior of problem solving, adaptation, response to situations of distress or dc frustration, etc. ,
can be studied in terms of more rigorous control. However, the above-mentioned study was a
study of vanguard, to establish that the therapy bemsucedida causes a positive change in
behavior and that a failed therapy can produce negative changes in behavior.
The quality of the therapeutic relationship in relation to progress in therapy
The final study that I would like to mention was recently completed by Barret-Lennard
(1) . This study took as its starting point a theoretical formulation my on the conditions
necessary for therapeutic change. He went on the assumption that, if there were five conditions
attitudes in relation, could occur on the client a therapeutic change. To search for this problem,

Barret-Lennard drew up an Inventory of Relations" with different forms for the client and the
therapist, suitable for analysis of five dimensions of the relationship. Until now, he has examined
only the elements provided by the perception of the relationship on the part of the customer and
are the results reached under this aspect that I am reporting.
In a series of recent cases, in which I knew that would get various objective measures of
the degree of change, Barret-Lennard gave its Inventory of Relations to each customer after the
fifth interview. In order to suggest the character of this study, I will quote some of the items on
each of vanáveis.
Barret-Lennard was, for example, interested to know to what extent the client felt
empaticamente understood. Then included items such as the exposed below, in which the
customer evaluated the therapist according to a scale of six degrees that would be very true to
the highly non-genuine. It is obvious that the following items represent different degrees of
empathic understanding.
He appreciates what my experience means to me. He tries to see things through my
eyes. Sometimes, he thinks that I feel a certain way because he feels that way.
He understands what I am saying from a point of view distant, objective. He understands my
words, but not what I am. Barret-Lennard sought to measure a second element, the level of
acceptance, the degree of esteem of the client by the therapist . For the analysis of this aspect,
established claims such as the following, classified again, since extremely true to extremely nottrue. Worries me. Absolutely Mindless for me. It is curious to see how it is that I do it", but is not
really interested in me as a person. It is indifferent to me. Rejects me.
To measure the character of unconditional acceptance that the therapist expresses or the
degree of depth of the esteem of the therapist, were included items with the following wording:
either I am expressing "good" feelings or "bad" feelings, this does not seem to make a
difference in what he feels for me.
Sometimes responds to me in a more positive and more friendly than others. His interest
in me depends on what I am talking with him. With the aim of measuring the congruence or the
authenticity of the therapist in the relationship, resorted to claims of this type: It behaves exactly
as she is, in our relationship.
Pretending that likes me or that understands me more than really makes it. Sometimes
your answer outside is very different from their reaction inside of me. Is representing a role with
me.
Barret-Lennard wanted at the same time measure another variable that I thought
important- the accessibility or the provision of the therapist to make themselves known. To
measure this, we used items such as the following: He always tells me freely their own feelings
and thoughts when I want to know what they are.
Sit little at will when I ask him something about himself. It is unable to tell me how you
feel about me. Some of their results are interesting, The most experienced therapists was seen
as having the first four qualities in a higher degree than the therapists less experienced. But, the
"provision to make themselves known", the reverse was true.
Between customers more disturbed, the first four measures all have a significant
correlation with the degree of modification assessed by the therapist. The empathic
understanding is significantly associated with the change, but the authenticity, the level of
acceptance, unconditional acceptance is also associated with the therapy bemsucedida. The
provision to make themselves known was not associated with significantly.
We can say, therefore, with any degree of certainty, that a relationship characterized by a
high degree of congruence or authenticity of the therapist, for a sensitive empathy and need on
the part of the therapist, by a high degree of acceptance, respect, esteem in relation to the
customer, and by the absence of restrictive conditions such acceptance reveals a high likelihood
of and take an effective therapy. These qualities are manifested as the factors more important
that cause changes in personality and behavior. The conclusion that can be drawn legitimately
from this and other studies of the same type is that these qualities can be measured or

observed in small samples of interaction, relatively early in the relationship, and that if you can
even predict the end result of this relationship.
This study is an example of the most recent studies that propose as objective test the
aspects more subtle theory of therapy focused on the customer. It should be noted that this
study does not discuss facts or technical conceptualizations, but sticks before the qualities
experiential and attitudinal intangible. In my opinion, the research in psychotherapy had a long
way to go to take able to investigate these intangible elements. The demonstration positive in
relation to four of the variables and the absence of evidence in respect of the fifth is to me an
indication that results may not be discriminatory and usable studies performed at this level.
It is curious that the qualities of the relationship that are associated to therapeutic
progress are all related to attitudes. Although it is likely that the degree of professional
knowledge, or the skills and techniques, it is also associated with the modification of the
personality, this study shows the possibility of encouraging that certain qualities of attitudes and
experiences can by themselves, regardless of intellectual knowledge or training of medical or
psychological, be sufficient to serve as a stimulus to a therapeutic process positive.
This research is also a pioneer in another aspect. It was one of the first explicitly planned
to study the elements of psychotherapy that caused or caused the changes. Under this aspect,
the theory has made sufficient progress, as well as the further development of methodology, so
that we can expect a growing number of studies on the dynamics of changes of personality.
With time, we will be able to distinguish and measure the conditions that cause or that cause
positive changes in personality and behavior.
Some current research
The investigations in the field of psychotherapy are experiencing a remarkable expansion
in the United States. Even the group psychoanalysis begins to address a series of studies on
the process of analytical therapy. Therefore, it would be impossible to try to define the full
picture of what is done in this field, whose configuration is so complex and so quickly
changeable. I will confine myself to give a slight sketch of several projects of research and study
programs concerning the therapy focused on the customer that I am familiar with.
Is being carried out a study at the University of Chicago, under the direction of Dr. John
Shlien, which aims to investigate the changes that occur in a therapy of limited duration and
compares these changes with those that occur in usual therapy, without limit of time. In the
therapy of limited duration, the customer has a precise number of interviews (20 in most cases,
40 in some) and the therapeutic process ends at the end of that period. The objective of this
study is to analyze, on the one hand, how the customer uses the time it is granted and, on the
other hand, the possibility of shortening the period of therapy. This program is expected to be
complete in the not too distant future.
Another study closely connected to the previous is a research about the therapy
adleriana of limited duration. With the active collaboration of Dr. Rudolph Dreikurs and his
colleagues, Dr. Shlien undertook a study exactly parallel to the previous one. If the program is
carried out according to the forecasts, this study will prove that there can be a direct comparison
of two therapies nitidanendivergentes to Adler and the customer-centric - in quafs are applied
the same batteries of tests before and after therapy, both have the same duration and all
interviews are recorded. This research is a milestone and greatly expand our knowledge of
common elements and of divergent elements in different forms of the therapeutic process.
The Drs. Desmond Cartwright, Donald Fiske, William Kirtner and others are conducting at
the University of Chicago a further investigation. Seek to investigate, in a base exceptionally
wide, many of the factors that may be associated with therapeutic changes. AND an attempt too
broad to investigate much of these elements that until now were not considered, which,
however, may be related to the progress or lack of progress in therapy.

At the University of Wisconsin, the Drs. Robert Roessler â, Norman Greenfield, Jerome
Berlin and I have undertaken a diverse program of studies which, hopefully, will, among other
things, to clarify the corollaries and physiological autonomic therapy of customer-centric. A part
of the research involves the reflex registration psicogalvânico (RPG), the temperature and pulse
of the customer during the therapy session. The comparison of these data with the recorded
interviews may provide the information more rich on the nature fundamentally
psychophysiological process of modification of the personality.
A project more restricted, in that work to several individuals, involves the study of the
process of psychotherapy. In a recent article (7), put a theoretical framework, based on the
observation, the unbroken sequence of stages of psychotherapeutic process. We are currently
engaged in the translation of this theoretical description in terms of an operational scale that can
be used in the study of therapeutic interviews recorded. Studies are now in progress related to
the validity and reliability of this scale.
You should quote from yet another program of the University of Wisconsin, in which Dr.
Eugene Gendlin and I are the principal investigators and that has as an objective comparison of
the process of psychotherapy in patients with schizophrenia (both acute and chronic) with
psychotherapy in normal individuals. Each therapist who participates in the project will meet
three customers at a time, with the same age, of the same sex and with identical socioeconomic
situation: a chronic schizophrenic, an acute schizophrenic and an individual "normally" adapted
to the community. Thanks to the variety of tests before and after treatment, and the recorded
interviews, it is expected that this study will reach results many interesting. This analysis leads
to the demonstration of the hypotheses of therapy focused on the customer for a new domain,
the individual hospitalized psychotic patients. A fundamental part of the hypothesis in which sits
this study is that, given the necessary conditions of therapy (such as are described in the study
by Barret-Lennard ), the process of change will prove identical, both in individual schizophrenic
as in normal individual.
I trust that these summary descriptions are sufficient to indicate the volume of objective
investigations suggested by the practice and the theory of therapy focused on the customer,
always in a continuous process of growth and differentiation.
The importance of research for the future
To conclude this chapter, I would like to comment on a question frequently raised: "Where
that leads? What is the purpose of all these investigations? ". In my opinion, the meaning more
important of investigations is that a growing body of knowledge objectively verified in
psychotherapy will be elimination of "schools" of psychotherapy, including that we represent. TO
THE extent that they increase the sound knowledge about the conditions that make it easy to
change therapy, on the nature of the psychotherapeutic process, on the conditions that
bioqueiam or inhibit fapia, on the characteristic effects of therapy in terms of modification of
personality or behavior, stress will be much less formulations purely theoretical and dogmatic.
The different views, the psychotherapeutic techniques differ, the various assessments on the
effects, all this would be subjected to an experimental proof instead of being delivered to
debates or theoretical arguments.
In current medicine, for example, we did not find a "school of treatment with penicillin"
opposite the other schools of treatment. There are differences of opinion or appraisal, no doubt;
but it is believed that this is resolved in the foreseeable future, thanks to a research carefully
planned. For this reason, I believe that psychotherapy will address progressively to the facts,
instead of dogmas, as judge of differences.
At the same time, walk to the development of a psychotherapy each time more effectively
and in a permanent state of evolution, which does not require any label, but that will include
everything that is susceptible to a concise check in any of the guidelines in psychotherapy.

I could stop here, but I would like to add a word addressed to those harrowing to see investigate
a personal domain as delicate and inaccessible as the psychotherapy. These people can judge
that submit a relationship so close to an objective observation is the same as despersonalizá it,
strip it of its essential qualities, reducing it to a cold system of facts.
I would simply like to point out that, up to now, this was not the outcome of the
investigation. On the contrary. TO THE extent that the research was expanded, it became
increasingly clear that the significant changes in customer if they operate at the level of
experiences eminent- subjective and sensitive, such as interior options, greater unity of
personality, a feeling different in relation to his own. In relation to the therapist, is evident in
several recent studies, the more he is warm and sincerely as human therapist, only interested in
understanding at each moment of the feelings of a person who started a relationship with him,
the more will be an effective vocational. There is certainly nothing to indicate that a therapist
coldly intellectual, systematic and analytical is effective. Seems to be one of the paradoxes of
the psychotherapy that, to move forward in our understanding in this area, that requires an
individual to abandon their beliefs more passionate and of their convictions more firmly in favor
of impersonal tests of empirical research; but, to be effective as therapist, the individual has to
use this knowledge only to enrich and expand your own i subjective and that has to be i, freely
and without fear, in relations with your customer.
References
1.
Barrett-Lennard G. T. "Dimensjons ofthe customers experience ofhis therapist associated
with personality change", Phd thesis, University of Chicago, 1959. 312 Become person
2.
Bergman, D. V. "Counseling method and client responses", 1 Consult. Psychol.,
1951 , 15, pp.
2 16-224.
3.
Butler, J. M. , and G. V. Haigh "Changes in the relation between self-concepts and ideal
concepts consequent upon client-centered counseling", C. R. Rogers, and Rosalind F. Dymond
(eds. ), Redefinida and Personality Change, University of Chicago Press, 1954, pp. 5 5-75.
4.
Cartwright, Desmond S. - "Annotated bibliography ofresearch and theory construction in
client-centered therapy", 1 of Counsel. Psvchol., 1957,4, pp. 82-100.
5.
Raskin, N. J. - "An objective study ofthe locus-of-evaluation factor in Redefinida", W.
Wolff, and J. A. Precker (eds. ), Success in Fsychotherapy, New York, Grune and
Stratton, 1952, chapter 9). 6.
6.
Rogers, C. R. "Changes in the maturity ofbehavior the related to therapy", C. R. Rogers,
and Rosalind F. Dymond (eds. ), Redefinida and Personality Change, University of Chicago
Press, 1954, pp. 2 15-237.
7.
Rogers, C. R. - "The process conception of Redefinida", Amer. Psychol., 1958, 13, pp.
142-149.
8. Rogers C. R. , and Dymond, R. F. (eds.) - Psvchotherapy and Personality
Change, University of Chicago Press, 1954, 147pp.
9.
Seeman told Fides about, J. , and N. J. Raskin - "Research perspectives in client
centered therapy", O. H.
Mowrer (ed. ), Redefinida: theory and research, New York, Ronald, 1953, pp. 205-234.
10.
Stephenson, W. The Study j Behavior, University of Chicago Press, 1953.
11.
Thetford, William N. - "An objective measurement of frus tratio tolerance in evaluating
Redefinida", W. Wolff, and J. A. Precker (eds. ), Success in Psvchotherapy, New York, Grune
and
Stratton, 1952, chap. 2.

Sixth Part
What are the implications for the life?
I found the experience of psychotherapy sigrnficativas implications and sometimes deep
to education, communication interpessoai for family life and for the creative process.
Chapter 13
Personal reflections on teaching and learning
This chapter is the shortest of the book, but, if my experience can serve as a criterion, it
will also be the most explosive. He has (for me) a funny story.
I had agreed , with some months in advance, to participate in a study meeting organized
by Harvard University on the following theme: "Perspectives on the influence of lessons in
human behavior ". Tinhamme request to do a demo of "teaching student centered" - teaching
Jándamentado in therapeutic principles that I sought to apply to education. It seemed to me,
however, to spend two hours with a group already advanced for students to try to help them
aformular their own objectives and respond to what they thought, accompanying them in this
intention, it would be rather artificial and little satisfàtó river. I didn't know what to do or make.
At that juncture, I flew to Mexico to leastone our travels of winter, have painted it, I wrote
and took Jàtografias, inergulhando at the same time in the works of Soeren Kierkegaard. I'm
sure that the honest effort of this author to call things by their name influenced me more than I
thought. When I was about to return I had to face my obligation. It struck me that he had
managed sometimes start during the class discussions truly meaningful, expressing a personal
opinion and then attempt to understand and accept the reactions and feelings are often
extremely divergent studies. I thought that this would be the way to carry out my job at Harvard.
I then to write, the more it would be that I could, my experiences in relation to education,
as this term is defined in the dictionary, as well as my experience with the learning. He was very
far from psychologists, pedagogues and colleagues cautious. Simply wrote what he felt, with
the certainty that, if not the esti vesse doing correctly, the discussion I would help to get back on
the right path.
It is possible that there was naive on my part, but it is not the material thus prepared
flammable. And then, I thought, all participants in the study meeting were cults, profeores
accustomed to self-criticism, connected by an interest co"nlm by methods of discussion in the
classroom.
When i arrived at the meeting, I presented my ideas as I had writing, spending it only a
few moments , and declared open the discussion. Waiting for a reply, but I didn't expect the
turmoil that followed. The excitement was intense. It seemed that I was ameaçahdo
employment, which was, of course, saying things whose meaning escaped me, etc. , etc. From
time to time, arose a calm voice of appreciation of a teacher who felt the same, but never
dreamed put it.
It seemed that none of the members of the group remembered that the meeting was a
demonstration of teaching centered on student. I have, however, the hope that, to reconsider
what happened, each one will understand that lived an experience of teaching student
centered. I refused deJender me with answers to questions and attacks that sprang up
throughout the room. I accept and enter a contact empathize with the anger, frustration, the
criticism that the participants were demonstrating. I stressed that I had simply expressed some
personal perspectives. Not asked for, nor expected, that the others agree with me. After much
ado, the members of the group began to express with a frankly growing, their own feelings
signficativos with respect to teaching - feelings very divergent my and divergent. It was a

session extremely stimulating for reflection. I wonder if some of the participants in this meeting
managed to forget it.
The comment most significant came from one of the participants in the meeting, the next
morning, when I was preparing to leave the city. He told me only the following: "You yesterday
took the sleep much gente.N will made any attempt to publish this short fragment. My views on
the psychotherapy had already made me a 'controversial figure " between psychologists and
psychiatrists. I would not add the educators to this list. The text was, however, widely distributed
among participants of the meeting and, some years later, two magazines have asked
permission to publish it.
After these historical foundation, may be disappointed with the text. Personally, I never
thought that was incendiary. He continues to translate some of my more entrenched views in
the field of education.
I want to make a few brief remarks, in the hope that, if provoke reactions on your part, I
can clarify my own ideas.
I think that thinking is something embarrassing, particularly when I think of my own
experiences and try to remove them the meaning that seems to be genuinely inherent in them.
In principle, these reflections are quite satisfactory because they seem to lead to the discovery
of a direction and a certain structure in a whole complex of isolated elements. But, then, often it
takes disappointing because I understand how these reflections, it is to me both value, seem
ridiculous to a lot of people. I have the impression that, almost always, when I try to discover the
meaning of my own experience, I have taken the findings considered absurd.
I will therefore condense, in three or four minutes, what extract from the experience of teaching
and experience in individual therapy or group. The result isn't trying to be a conclusion for
anyone or a guide to what the other should be or do. It is an expression very temporary
meaning that, in April 1952 , my experience was for me and some of disturbing questions raised
by its absurd character. I am going to ask each one of the ideas to which I arrived in a separate
paragraph, not because align in a logical order any, but because each result has an importance
that it is specific.
a) I can take as a starting point the following idea, given the goal desa.reuni. In my
experience, I can't teach the otitra person the way to teach. It is dc a attempt that is, for
me, in the long term, vain.
b) I think that if you can teach the other person does not have large
Consequences, with little or no significant influence on the behavior. This seems to act
ridiculous that I cannot put it in doubt at the same time that I am asking.
c) I understand more and more that I am just interested in learning that
HAVE a signflcativa influence over behavior. It is very possible that this is only a personal
idiosyncrasy.
d) I feel that the only learning which significantly influences behavior is the
Learning autodescoberto, self-appropriate.
e) A knowledge autodescoberto, this truth that was personally appropriate and
Anchored in experience, cannot be communicated directly to another person. As soon as an
individual attempts to communicate this experience directly, often with an enthusiasm absolutely
natural, he began to teach, and the results it has no consequences. Animated- I recently
discover that Soeren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, reached a similar conclusion, on the
basis of its own experience, and the voicing with all the clarity around a century ago. Therefore
appears less absurd.
f) As a consequence of what has been said in the previous paragraph, I realized that I had
Lost interest in being a teacher.
g) When I try to teach, as I do sometimes, I am dismayed by the results, which seem to me
almost no consequence, because, sometimes, the teaching seems to be successful.
When this happens, I find that the results are harmful, seem to lead the individual to be

wary of their own experience and this destroys an acquisition of knowledge that is
significant. For this reason, I feel that the results of the education or has no importance
or are harmful.
h) When I see the results of my past education, the real conclusion seems to be
The same - or was harmful or nothing significant has occurred. This is frankly appalling.
i) Therefore, I realized that I was only interested in being a student, of
Preferably in materials that have any significant influence on my own behavior.
j) I feel that it is extremely rewarding to learn in a group, in relations with other
Person, as in therapy, or by myself.
k) I think that, for me, one of the best ways, but the most difficult to learn is to abandon my
defenses, at least temporarily, and trying to understand how the other person sees and
feels his own experience.
l) For me, it is another way to learn is confess my own doubts, seek to clarify my enigmas,
in order to better understand the real meaning of my experience.
m) All of this series of experiments and conclusions to which I arrived they cast me a
Process that is both fascinating and, at times, frightening. In other words, seems to indicate that
I should leave lead by my experience in a direction that I think is positive, for goals that I can
define rather confusingly say, when I am trying to understand at least the normal meaning of
that experience. This gives the impression of floating in a complex chain of experience, with the
possibility fascinating to understand the complexity of their constant changes.
I am afraid I have me away from the problem in discussion: learn and teach. Allow me to
re-introduce a practical observation, stating that these interpretations of my own experience, by
themselves, may seem strange and aberrant but not particularly shocking. AND it is at the
moment that I understand their implications that I shudder a little to see how much I will depart
from the world of common sense that, as we all know, is right. I can illustrate it by saying that, if
the experience of others is similar to my own and if they have reached the same conclusions, it
will take this fact countless consequences:
a) Such An experience would imply that we should abandon the teaching. The people would
have
To meet if they wanted to learn.
b) We should renounce to exams. They measure only the type of education
Inconsequential.
c) For the same reason, we should do away with notes and credits.
d) We should abandon the diplomas as titles of competence, in part for the same reason.
Another lies in the fact of a diploma mark the end or completion of something, and that
aprenestá solely interested in continuing to learn.
e) Another implication would be abolish the exposure of conclusions, because they
understand that nobody learns nothing significant from conclusions.
I think that it is better to stay here. Don't want to rush me in fantastic. What, above all else
I want to know is if something of my inward thought, as I tried to describe it, says something to
your teaching experience as you lived it and, if so, which will be for you the meaning of
their experience. Chapter 14
The significant learning: in therapy and education
The Goddard College, in Plainfleld, Vermont, is a small experimental school that, as a
complement of their efforts to fermar their students, often organizes conferences and
workshops for educators where they face important problems. They asked me to address one
of these workshops in February 1958 on "The Implications of Psychotherapy in
Education ". Teachers and school administrators from the east of the country, and especially the
area of New England, paved the way through a thick mantle of snow to spend three days
together, focused on their work.

I decided trying to reformulate some points of view my about the teaching and learning at
this meeting, waiting follow a path that would provoke less disturbance than the presents çõo
the previous chapter, but without changing the radical implications of a therapeutic approach.
This Chapter I is the result of that resolution. For those of you who are familiar with the Second
Part of this book, the sections on "The conditions of learning in psychotherapy" and "The
learning process in therapy will be redundant and can be omitted their reading, because they
are just a repetition of the basic conditions of therapy, comojáforain described.
For me, this chapter is the recasts that most satisfies me on the meaning of the
hypotheses of therapy focused on the customer in the field of education.
What is presented here is a thesis, a point of view about the implications that the
psychotherapy has for education. It is a position that I am provisionally and with some
hesitation. I have many unanswered questions about this thesis. But it is, I believe, clear, and
can therefore provide a starting point from where you can highlight clearly the differences.
Meaningful Learning in psychotherapy
Let me start by saying that my long experience as therapist me convenceue that
meaningful learning is facilitated in psicoterIpia occurs in therapeutic relationship. For
meaningful learning I believe that that causes a change, either in the behavior of the individual,
in the orientation of future action that chooses or in their attitudes and in their personality. It is a
penetrating learning, which is not limited to an increase of knowledge, but that penetrates
deeply all parts of their existence.
But it is not only my subjective impression that a learning of this type exists. This
impression is confirmed by research. In the orientation that I am most familiar, the therapy
focused on the customer, where did the majority of the investigations, we know that a
therapeutic contact this nature leads to learning or to changes such as the following: The person
begins to see differently.
It is accepted and accept their feelings in a way more total. It becomes more self-reliant
and more autonomous. It is more in the person that you would like to be. Adopts goals more
realistic. It behaves in a way more mature. Modifies their maladaptive behaviors, even if it is a
behavior long-established as the chronic alcoholism. Accepts more openly with the other. It is
becoming more open to the evidence, both in what is happening outside of himself as in his
heart. Modifies their basic characteristics of personality, in a constructive manner'.
I think that perhaps it will be sufficient to indicate that all of these are forms of significant
learning and leading to changes in behavior.

Meaningful Learning in education
I think I am right in saying that the teachers are also interested in learning that cause
changes. The simple knowledge of the facts has its value. Find out who won the battle of SE
Poltava or when it was performed for the first time a certain work of Mozart can render 64
thousand dollars or other sum any the possessor of this informação2, but I believe that in
general the educators feel a little embarrassed about the idea that education would be the
acquisition of this type of knowledge. This reminds me of the vigorous expression of a professor
of agronomy that I had in my first year of university. Although the knowledge that I have gained
in this course have completely disappeared, I remember however, with the First World War as a
backdrop, he likened the knowledge of the facts to ammunition. This professor ended his little

speech with the exhortation: "Do not be a wagon of ammunition; a shotgun! ". I think that most
educators shall be supporting the view that the knowledge exists mainly to be used.
It becomes more flexible, less rigid in their perceptions.
Therefore, to the extent that the educators are interested in learning that are functional,
which cause changes in behavior, which penetrate the person and their actions, they can look to
the field of psychotherapy in search of examples and ideas. A certain amount of adaptation to
the education of the learning process that occurs in psychotherapy can offer favorable
possibilities.
The conditions of learning in psychotherapy
Let us, therefore, what is essentially involved in the possibilities of learning that registers
to the therapy. I would like to enumerate, as clearly as possible, the conditions that must be met
for this phenomenon to occur.
Facing a problem
The customer facing, in first place, with a situation that he learns as a serious problem
and important. It may discover that behaves in a way that you cannot control, or which is
dominated by confusion and conflict, or that their married life is unraveling, or that is unfortunate
in its work. In short, they are faced with a problem that tries to resolve and cannot. It is,
therefore, eager to learn, while at the same time feel overwhelmed with what might discover
disturbing in itself . In this way, one of the conditions almost always this is a desire undefined
and ambivalent to learn or to modify, desire that comes from a perceived difficulty in meeting
with the life.
What are the conditions that an individual faces when it comes into contact with a
therapist? Recently outlined a theoretical framework of conditions necessary and sufficient that
the therapist offers a constructive change or a significant learning (8). This theory has been
proven in many of its aspects by experimental research, but should still be considered as a
theory based more on clinical experience than on facts proved. I will briefly describe the
conditions that appear to be essential in the attitude of the therapist.
Congruenca
To ensure that the therapy is successful, it is necessary that the therapist is, in
comparison, a person unified, integrated or coherent. What I mean by that is that he should be
in the relationship exactly what it is - not a facade, a paper or a fiction. I have used the term
"congruence" to designate this combination requires experience with the conscience. When the
therapist is complete and very aware of what is experiencing at any given moment of the
relationship, then he is fully congruent. How much less congruence there is, the less likely it is
to occur a significant learning.
Despite the complexity of the concept of coherence, I believe that all we recognize
intuitively and natural in individuals with whom we deal with. We recognize an individual that he
not only wants to say exactly what it says, but that their deepest feelings that reveal what is
expressing. Therefore, when the individual is angry or is affectionate, when is ashamed or
enthusiastic, we feel that it is the same at all levels - in that it is experiencing in organísmico
level, at the level of conscience and in his words and communications. In addition, we recognize
that accepts their immediate feelings. We say of a person that we know "exactly where it is".
We tend to feel comfortable and confident in a relationship of this type. With another person, we
recognize that what she is saying is, almost certainly, a defense or a facade. We wonder what it
is that she really feels and experiences behind this facade. Also wonder if she knows what they
feel, recognizing that it may be perfectly unconscious of feeling that is actually experiencing.

With a person of this kind tend to be cautious and prudent. This is not the kind of relationship in
which you can delete the defenses or that can occur a change and a significant learning.
Therefore, the second condition of the therapy is that the therapist is characterised by a
considerable degree of consistency in the relationship. He is freely, deeply himself and it is
accepted as is, with a real feel of his sentiments and reactions combined with an acute
awareness of these feelings and these reactions as they occur and change.
The fourth condition necessary to therapy is that the therapist experience an acute
understanding and empathetic of the world of the customer, as if it were viewed from inside.
Capture the private world of the client as if it were your own world, but never forgetting the
character of "as if" - is this the empathy, which appears to be essential in the therapeutic
process. Feel the anguish, the fear or the confusion of the customer as if they were their
sentiments and, however, without the anguish, the fear or the confusion of the therapist to
worship with the client, this is the condition that we are trying to describe. When the client is
clear for the therapist, it moves to the will, in which case it can communicate their understanding
of what is clearly known by the customer and can also express meanings of customer
experience that this can hardly have conscience. That an empathy penetrating of this type is
important for the therapy is what emerges from the studies of Fiedler where aspects such as
those below mentioned are considered important in the description of the relationship
established by experienced therapists: The therapist is able to understand the feelings of the
patient. The therapist never has any doubts about what the patient wants to say.
The comments of the therapist fits exactly to the provisions and attitudes on the part of
the patient. The tone of voice of the therapist shows his perfect ability to share the feelings of
the patient (3).
The fifth condition
A fifth condition for which a meaningful learning in therapy is that the customer
experience or arrests something of congruence, acceptance and empathy of the therapist. Not
simply that these conditions exist in therapist. It is necessary that, in a certain degree, have
been reported with success to the client.
A condition is the therapist feel a warm concern for his client - a concern that is not
possessive, that does not require any personal gratification. It is simply an atmosphere that
demonstrates: "I am"; and "I am with you behave this way or that". Standal (11) appointed this
attitude as "account unconditional positive", since they are not aggregated conditions of
assessment. I frequently the term "acceptance" to describe this aspect of therapeutic climate.
He implies that if must accept both the negative expressions of the client, the feelings "bad", in
disgust, fear or abnormality, as their expressions of feelings "good", positive, mature, confident
and social. The acceptance implies that you can see the client as an independent
person , allowing you to experience their own feelings and discover what your experience
means. It is in the measure in which the therapist can ensure that climate of security and
account unconditional positive that can arise on the client a significant learning.
The learning process in therapy
Our experience teaches us that, when these five conditions exist, there is inevitably a
process of change. The rigid perceptions of himself and the other, on the part of the customer,
distend and open to reality. The rigid forms with which he built the meaning of their experience
are analyzed, and it discovers questioning many of the "facts" of his life, discovering that are
"facts" only because he found them. Find out feelings that did not realize and try them all, often
in a living way, during the therapeutic relationship. Learn to be more open to their
experienciaintral - both in that it is interior and exterior. He learns to be more to their
experience, to be their feelings, both the feelings that it considered fearsome as those

recognized as being more acceptable. Take a person more flexible, more changeable, more
able to learn.
The main reason for change
In the therapeutic process is not necessary that the therapist "motivate" the customer or
fomeça the energy that causes the change. In a sense, the motivation nor comes from
customer, at least in a conscious manner. Let us say rather that the motivation to learn and to
change derives from the tendency toward self-fulfilling of life itself, the tendency of the body to
scroll through the different channels of development potential, to the extent that they can be
experienced as favoring the growth.
Could prolong me quite on this issue, but my goal is to focus on the process of therapy
and learning that result from it, nor the motivation of this learning process, but before studying
the conditions that make possible. So I will conclude this description of therapy, saying that it is
a type of meaningful learning that occurs when 5 conditions are met:
The customer feels is faced with a serious problem and significant.
The therapist is a person congruent in relationship, able to be the person that is.
The therapist feels a consideration unconditional positive in relation to your customer.
The therapist feels an empathetic understanding of acute private world of the client and
communicates to this understanding.
The client learns a greater or lesser degree the congruence, the acceptance and the empathy of
the therapist.
Implications in the field of education
What is the meaning of these conditions applied to education? Without doubt that a
teacher would give a better answer than mine, from their own experience. I suggest, however,
some of these implications.
The contact with the problems
Firstly , it can be said that there is a more easily a meaningful learning when the
situations are perceived as problematic. I believe I have evidence to support this assertion. In
my various attempts to driving courses and groups in ways consistent with my therapeutic
experience, I discovered that this approach was more effective, I believe, in workshops than in
normal courses in extension courses than in courses magistral. The individuals who participate
in workshops or extension courses are those that are in contact with problems which they
recognize as problems. The student who follows a course normal university, in particular the
mandatory classes, is prepared to consider the course as an experience in which his
expectation is survive liabilities or full of resentment, or the two things at the same time, an
experience whose connection with their own problems it often does not see.
However, my experience has shown me that, when a class of normal university sees her
course as a experience that you can use to resolve problems that affect them, it is amazing the
feeling of relief and the progress that we can. AND this is true for courses as diverse as
Mathematics or Psychology of Personality.
I believe that the current situation of education in Russia confirms this point of view.
When an entire nation is having to face the urgent problem of its delay in agriculture, in
production industriL in scientific development and the progress of arramentos - gives an
astonishing increase of meaningful learning, that the Sputniks are a tangible example.
Therefore, the first involvement in the field of education could be to allow the student, is
at what level of education is, establish a real contact with the major problems of their existence,
so as to distinguish the problems and issues that you want to solve. I am fully aware that this

implication, as other that I will mention, go in the opposite direction to the current trends of our
culture, but I will comment on this aspect later.
I think it is clear that my description of therapy that an important implication for education
would be that the teacher's task was to create a climate in the classroom that facilitates the
occurrence of a significant learning. This implication may unfold in several subsections.
The authenticity of the teacher
The learning can be facilitated, it seems, if the teacher is congruent. This implies that the
teacher is the person who is and who has a full awareness of the attitudes that takes. The
congruence means that he accepts their real feelings. Then It becomes a real person in
relations with their students. You can show it is enthusiastic about matters that likes ë upset with
those who have no predilection. You can irritate it, but it is also able to be sensitive or friendly.
Because it accepts these feelings as their own, they do not need to impose them on their
students, nor insists that they react in the same way. The teacher is a person, not the
incarnation abstract a curricular requirement or a sterile channel through which the knowledge is
passed on from generation to generation.
I would suggest only a proof that confirms this point of view. When I think of the teachers
who facilitated my own learning, it seems to me that each one of them had this quality to be an
authentic person. I wonder if the memory of you not say the same. If so, you may import less
that the teacher complies with all the established program or use the audiovisual methods more
appropriate; the most important thing is that he is consistent, authentic in its relations with the
students.
Acceptance and understanding
Another consequence for the teacher is that the significant learning is possible if the
teacher is able to accept the student as he is and to understand the feelings that he expresses.
Resuming the conditions third and fourth therapy which we have specified, the teacher who is
capable of a warm acceptance, which may have a positive consideration unconditional and
enter into a relationship of empathy with the reactions of fear, of expectation and
discouragement that are present when it faces a new matter, will have done much to establish
the conditions of learning. Clark Moustakas, in his book The Teacher and the Child (5), offers a
large number of examples of individual situations and group, from nursery up to higher
education, where the teacher is striving to achieve this type of goals. Perhaps some people feel
disturbed by the fact that the professor take these attitudes, looking for accept the feelings of
students, not only in reactions in relation to school work, but in attitudes toward parents, the
sentiments of hatred in relation to brothers and sisters, in relation to themselves in all sorts of
attitudes. Have these feelings and these attitudes the right to exist openly in a school? My thesis
is that yes. Are related to the development of the person, with their effective learning and its
effective operation, and deal with these feelings in a way sympathetic and receptive has a
strong connection with rendizagem the geography of Pakistan or with the process of making a
long division.
The available resources
The anterior aspect leads me to another implication of therapy in the field of education. In
therapy, the resources for that someone learn how are you interiors. There are only a few
elements that the therapist can provide to the customer and that they can help you, because the
data exist within the person. In education, this is not true. There are many features of the
knowledge, techniques, theories, which are raw materials to be used. I think that what I have

said about the therapy suggests that these materials, these resources must be made available
to the students and not taxes. It is here a great sincerity and a great sensitivity.
I need not relate the means commonly used - books, maps, manuals, recordings, rooms,
equipment and other materials. Let us meditate a moment on how the teacher uses to himself,
to his knowledge and experience as a medium. If the professor might adopt the point of view
that I have been dealing with, it would probably put himself at the disposal of the class, at least
in the following ways: The teacher would allow students to become familiar with the specific
experience and the knowledge they have in a given area, allowing them to use their
competence. I Do Not, however, that they feel obliged to use it that way.
I would hope that they know that their own way of thinking about this field, to organize it,
would be at your disposal , even through an oral presentation, if they so wished. I would like that
to be considered an offer, which can either be accepted as refused.
Would become known as a resource provider, The teacher would be willing to consider
the possibilities of achieving, as a source of reference, any information that an individual or the
group as a whole seriously wanted to increase their knowledge. He would seek to ensure that
the quality of their relationship with the group is such that their feelings were available to all,
without imposing and without taking a restrictive influence. Might as well share the enthusiasm
and the excitement of their own learning, without insisting that the students follow their steps;
the attitudes of indifference, of satisfaction, of astonishment or pleasing to adopt forward to
individual activities or group not become rewards or punishments for students. He would like to
be able to say, simply, to himself: "Don't like it ", and I would like the student could also say with
equal freedom: "But I like."
In this way, whatever the teaching resources that provide - a book, a work room, a new tool, an
opportunity to observe an industrial process, an exposure based on its own study, a table, a
chart, or a map, or your own emotional reactions he would feel that these things are offered to
be used if they are useful to the student, hoping that would be regarded as such. Don't you want
them to be guides, expectations, commands, charges or requirements. Would he even all other
features that could discover, to be used.
The fundamental reason
After this it is clear that the teacher relies basically on autorealizadora tendency of their
students. The hypothesis of that time is that the students who are in actual contact with the
problems of life are seeking to learn, they want to grow and discover, expect master and want to
create. Its function would be the development of a personal relationship with their students and
a climate in the classrooms which would allow the implementation of these natural tendencies.
Some omissions
We have seen some of the consequences of a therapeutic perspective applied to the
educational process. To set them a little better, let us consider some aspects that are not
involved in this perspective.
Do not include conferences, seminars and exhibitions on certain matters that are
imposed on students. All of these processes could be part of the experience if they were
desired, implicitly or explicitly, by the students. Even here, however, a teacher who work
according to a hypothesis based on therapy quickly feel the variation of that desire. He may
have been invited to make a conference call with the group (and to make a
conference invited is very different from the usual experience in classes), but, if detect in group
a disinterest and a boredom growing, will react to this by attempting to understand the feelings
aroused, because their response to their feelings and their attitudes have precedence over your
interest in exposing the matter.
Do not include any design for the evaluation of the students' learning in terms of external
criteria. Does not include, in other words, the exams. I think that test the results of a student to

see if they are going to meet the criteria established by the teacher is directly contrary to the
implications of therapy for significant learning. In therapy, the exams are posed by life. The
customer faces them, winning a few times, failing in others. He discovers that you can use the
resources of the therapeutic relationship and its experience in it to organize himself dc to meet
more satisfactorily the trials of life, the next time that they will encounter. I also this aspect as the
paradigm of education. Imagine what this could mean.
An education of this kind, the requirements concerning the many situations of life would
be part of the means that the teacher provides. The student will know that it cannot follow a
course of engineering without a certain mathematical level; that cannot get jobs in a certain
undertaking without a university degree; that may not be a psychologist without having done
independent research for a PhD; that may not be a doctor without knowledge of chemistry; that
cannot steer a vehicle without having passed an examination of traffic laws. These requirements
are established not by professoi but by life. The teacher is there to provide the means by which
the student can use to learn how to become able to cope with such evidence.
Could there be, inside the school, similar assessments. The student might have to face
the fact of not being able to join the club of mathematics without having obtained a certain level
on standardized tests of mathematics; to not be able prove your movie without having given
proof of chemical knowledge and laboratory techniques; to not be able to enter the special
section dc literature before have proven a wide reading and ability to write. The natural place of
assessment in life is as an entry ticket, not as a shot on the recalcitrant. Our experience in
therapy suggests that the same should happen in school. Should you leave the student free to
choose, as a person who respects and that motivates itself, if you want to make an effort to
reach these entrance tickets. Avoid- that it would force him to conformism, to sacrifice their
creativity and to take his life in terms of outside standards.
I am well aware of the fact that the two elements that I have just mentioned - the
conferences and exhibitions imposed on the group by the teacher and the assessment of the
individual by this - are the main education usual. In this way, when I say that the experience in
psychotherapy suggests that both should be eliminated, it becomes even more clear that the
implications of psychotherapy in the field of education are in fact surprising.
Results pro
If we contemplate the drastic changes that I have outlined, what would be the results that
could be justified? There are some experimental investigations on the results of a type of
teaching student centered (1, 2, 4), although these studies are far from adequate. Firstly, the
situations studied vary greatly in the degree in which fulfill the conditions that I have described.
Most of them only covers a period of some months, although a recent study with a class of
children with low purchasing power had lasted for a whole year (4). Some investigations make
use of appropriate controls, others do not.
I think we can say that these studies indicate that, in the situations students who at least
attempt to bring the climate described, the results are the following: knowledge of the facts and
of the programs is practically equal to that of conventional classes. Some studies have reported
a slight increase, others a slight decrease. The group focused on student reveals acquisitions
significantly higher than the conventional classes, with respect to personal adaptation, to
extracurricular learning self-initiated, the creative ability and personal responsibility.
I started to understand, to concentrate on these jobs and by seeking to discover what
would be the plan of studies more informative and more decisive, that the results of these
investigations never would respond to our questions. These results must be assessed in the
light of objectives that currently go to education. If we value above all the acquisition of
knowledge, we can move aside as useless the conditions to which I have referred, since it is not
evident that they may promote a higher degree or a higher knowledge of concise. We can then
prefer measures of the kind which, as I understand, are defended by a number of members of

Congress: create technical schools for scientists according to the model of military academies.
But if we give due value to creative ability, if one can only deplore the fact that all our fertile
ideas in atomic physics, psychology and other sciences come from Europe, then perhaps we
are trying to forms that facilitate the learning that more promises freedom of thought. If we value
independence, if you feel uncomfortable by increasing conformity of knowledge, values and
attitudes to which our system leads, then you may want to establish the conditions for learning
that encourage originality, the autonomy and the spirit of self-initiative in learning acquisition.
Some questions to complete
I have tried to present a picture of the kind of education that would arise from our
experience in the field of psychotherapy. I have tried to give suggestions very short of what it
would mean, if the central point of application of the efforts of the teacher would be the
establishment of a relationship, an atmosphere that would lead to a significant learning where
the individual would motivate and self-satisfied. This is, however, a guidance clearly away from
habits of educational and pedagogical trends chains. Mentioning some of the issues that arise
necessarily when we reflect on this approach.
Firstly how to design the goals of education? The approach that I have described has, I
believe, advantages on the achievement of certain objectives, but not others . We need to see
with clarity the objectives that we reserve for the education.
What are the current results of the kind of education that I described? We need a large
number of investigations stringent, deeply thought, to know the current results of this type of
education compared with the conventional education. We can then decide on the basis of the
facts.
Even if we try this method to facilitate learning, it raises many difficult issues. We cannot
allow students to come in contact with the real problems? Our whole culture - through the
customs, the laws, the efforts of the trade unions and the administration, by the attitudes of
parents and educators - demand insistently keeping young people out of any contact with the
real problems. The young people do not have to work, to take responsibility, to intervene in
problems civic or political, has no place in the discussion of international issues, are simply
preserved of all direct contact with the real problems of life of the individual or the social life. Not
if account with them for a help at home to earn a living, contribute to science or deal with moral
issues. This is a trend that has lasted for more than a generation. Will be possible to invert it?
Another question is whether we can allow that the knowledge is organized in and by the
individual, rather than being organised for the individual. Under this aspect, the teachers and
educators to align with the parents and with the national leaders to insist that the students
should be guided.
Must be introduced in knowing that if organized for them. You cannot trust them to
organise knowledge in operational terms that they are specific. As Herbert Hoover on
their students in the second grade: "You simply cannot expect that people of that age determine
the type of education you need, without being partly oriented"3. This seems so obvious to most
people that even the simple fact of the matter seems to be lack of good sense. Even a rector of
a university question if the freedom will be really necessary to education, stating that perhaps
we have exaggerated its value. He declares that the Russians have made remarkable progress
in science without this and concludes that we must learn to do as they did. Another question is
whether we want to oppose the current violent that seeks to make education a training for
knowledge merely concise. Everyone should learn the same things in the same way. Admiral
Rickover stated its view that "we must somehow find a way to introduce uniform standards in
American education ( ... ) For the first time, the parents would have an effective method to
assess their schools. If a local school persists in teaching materials as pleasant as 'adaptation
to life' ( ... ) instead of French and physics, your diploma would be lower than in the eyes of
everyone"4. It makes a point of view very widespread. Even a supporter of the ideas advanced

in education as Max Lerner says on this point: "what a school can do is to equip their students
with instruments that they can use later to become men instructed" (5, p. 741). It is clear that he
has no hope that there is a place in our school system for a meaningful learning and do you
think that learning should take place outside it. Everything that the school can do is to forge the
instruments.
One of the most characteristics of inculcate these instruments of concise knowledge is
the "machine to teach", known as B. AND Skinner and his collaborators (10). This group shows
that the teacher is an instrument out of fashion and ineffective to teach arithmetic, trigonometry,
French, literary criticism, geography or other materials. I have no doubt that these machines to
teach, rewarding immediately answers "certain", will develop on a large scale and be widely
used. Here is a new contribution in the field of behavioral sciences with which we should expect.
Will it take the place of the perspective that I described or will complement? This is one of the
problems that we must consider when we come back to the future.
I hope that, by raising these issues, has clearly shown that the problem, both of
meaningful learning as the way to achieve it, puts all of us face problems deep and serious. We
are not in a time in which suffice the answers timid. I have tried to give a definition of meaningful
learning as she appears in psychotherapy and a description of &ffidições who facilitate this
learning. I tried to point out after some implications of these conditions in the field of education. I
proposed, in other words, a response to these issues. Perhaps we can use what I have stated
as a point of departure for a new response that go against public opinion çorrente and current
knowledge of the behavioral sciences.
References
1.
Faw, Volney - "The psychotherapeutic method of teaching psychology", Amer. Psychol.,
4, pp. 104-109, 1949.
2.
Faw, Volney "Evaluation of student-centered teaching", unpublished manuscript, 1954.
3.
Fiedler, F. E. - "The comparison oftherapeutic relationships in it got circumscribed, nondirective and Adlerian therapy", J. Consult. Psychol., 1950, 14, pp. 43 6-445
4.
Jackson, John H. "The relationship between psychological climate and the quality of
leaming outcomes among Iower-status pupils", Phd thesis, University of Chicago, 1957.
5.
Lerner, Max America to Civilization, New York, Simon and Schuster, 1957.
6.
Moustakas, Clark The Teacher and the Child, New York, Mc Graw-Hill , 1956.
7.
Rogers, C. R. Client-Centered Therapy, Boston, Houghton MifflinCo., 1951.
8.
Rogers, C. R. "It necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality
change", 1 Consult. Psychol., 1957, 21, pp. 95-103.
9.
Rogers, C. R. , and R. Dymond (eds.) Redefinida and Personality, University of Chicago
Press, 1954.
10.
Skinner, B. F. - "The science oflearning and the art ofteaching",
HarvardEducationalReview, 1954,24, pp. 86-97.
11.
Standal, Stanley "you need is positive scrutiny: The contribution to client-centered
theory", doctoral thesis unprecedented, University of Chicago, 1954.
Chapter 15
Teaching student centered as experienced by a participant
It has already been made clear at the beginning of this volume that I must not be content
simply to offer my vision of psychotherapy; I believe it is essential provide also the perception
that the customer has the experience, since this is in fact the raw material from which I have
formulated my own opinions. The same way I believe that it could not be satisfied simply to

formulate my opinions of that education is, when this is built from the learning of psychotherapy;
wanted to show also the perception of the student of education.
For both, I have considered the various reports and 'sheets' reactions that gather
students in different courses during these years. Excerpts of these would have fulfilled my
purpose. In the end, however, I chose to bring in two documents written by Dr Samuel
Tenenbaum et al, the first, writing imedialtimente after their participation in a course I, the
second, in a letter addressed to me a year later. I am deeply grateful to you for having allowed
that i utilize these personal statements. I would like to situate them in context for the reader.
In the summer of 1958, I was invited to give a course of four weeks in Brandeis
Universily As I recall, this was entitled "The Process of Change of Personality
".
I didn't have high expectations with regard to the course. It was one of several courses
that students follow, finding themselves in sessions of two hours per week, instead of the
default of workshops concentrate that I prefer. I knew in advance that the group would be
unusually heterogeneous - teachers, candidates the doctorate in psychology, academic tutors,
many fathers, at least one from outside psychotherapists in practice particulaa school
psychologists. The group was, on average, more mature and experienced than is commonly
find in a university course. I felt very relaxed with regard to all of this. Would You do what you
could to make it an experience significativapara us all, but doubted that it would have the
impact, for example, workshops of advice that had already addressed.
Perhaps due to the fact that they have expectations so modest in relation to the group
and myself, he spent as well. Without doubt I cIassjflca between attempts more satisfactory
materials to facilitate learning in courses or workshops. This should be taken into account when
lera material of Dr. Tenenbaum et al.
I would like to have strayed from here a little, and say that I am much more security in
confronting a new client in therapy than in confronting a new group. I feel that I have a sufficient
understanding of the conditions of therapy in order to experience a reasonable confidence
about the process that will follow. However, with groups, I have much less confidence.
Sometimes, when I had every reason to suppose that a course would as well, learning vital,
self-initiated, self-directed, simply did not occur in any degree. At other times, when I had
questions, they were extremely well. For me, this means that our formulation of the process of
facilitating learning in education is not enough to be accurate or complete as our formulations
about the therapeutic process.
But, returning to the course of Justice Brandeis. This was clearly an experience that is
highly significant for almost all its participants, confirm that. makes clear in its report on the
course. I was particularly interested in the report of Dr. Tenenbaum et al, writing for both their
colleagues quantopara me. Here was a scholarly mature, not a young student impressive. Here
was a teacher sophisticated, who already had to his credit a biography published by William H.
Kilpatrick, ofilósofo education. In this way, their perc epções experience seemed unusually
valuable.
I would not want to understand that share all the perceptions of Dr Tenenbaum et al.
Portions of experience were perceived by me deforms quite different, but this is que.fez with
that their comments were so helpful. I was particularly concerned with the fact that it appeared
to be an approach of "Rogers ", which was simply my person and my idiosyncrasies that had
fried the experience what it was.
For this reason, I was delighted to receive a long letter comes out a year later, reporting
their own teaching experience. This confirmed what he had learned from a wide variety of
individuals, which is not simply the personality of a teacher specific which means that this is a
dynamic experience, but the operation of certain principles that can be used by any 'facilitator
"take the appropriate attitudes.
I believe that the two exposures of Dr. Tenenbaum et al will make it clear that teachers
who experienced the type of learning in group that is described, never more can return the ways

more manure typed of education. Despite the frustration efracasso occasional, is still trying to
discover, with each new group, the conditions that will trigger this learning experience vital.
Carl R. Rogers and The Teachingby Director Samuel Tenenbaum et al, PhD
As a person interested in education, I participated in a methodology of classroom that is
so unique and so special that I feel compelled to share the experience. The technique, it seems
to me, is so radically different from the usual and accepted, so parching of old, that should be
known more widely. A good description of the process as any other - I suppose that it is - CARI
R. Rogers, the instructor inclinaria to use would be teaching "non-director".
I had a notion of what the word meant, but frankly I wasn't ready for anything that could
prove as irrefutable. It is not bound by the conventions. My educational influences stronger if
they originate from William Heard Kilpatrick and John Dewey, and any that are the more slightly
familiar with their thoughts would know that not rescendem to narrow or provincial. But this
method of that Dr. Rogers if it was worth it in a way that gave the Brandeis University was so
unusual, something that does not believe it can be, the less chemical fesse part of the
experience. I hope to describe the method in a way that gives them a vague notion of feelings,
emotions, affection and enthusiasm that the engendrava method.
The course was entirely non-structured; and it was exactly this. At any time if I knew" nor
even the instructor, what the next moment would have in the classroom, that matter to raise for
discussion, that questions would be raised, which needs, feelings and personal emotions
hovered. This atmosphere of freedom non-structured - as free as human beings can allow the
other - was established by Dr. Rogers. A friendly, relaxed, he sat down with the students
( approximately twenty-five) around dc a big table and said that it would be good if would not be
allowed our intentions and we were. What followed was a tense silence; nobody has spoken
out. Finally, to break this, a student timidly raised his hand and spoke their part. Another
uncomfortable silence, and then another hand raised. Soon after, the hands have risen more
quickly. At any time the instructor encouraged any student to speak.
Approach unstructured
Then he informed the class that had brought with it an abundance of materials republication, brochures, articles, books; he distributed a bibliography of recommended reading.
In no time he indicated that he hoped that the students read or do anything. As I recall, he made
only one request. Some students spontaneously offered to organize this material in a special
room that had been reserved for the students of the course.
Two students offered promptly. He said also that he had tape recordings of therapy
sessions and also rolls of films. This has created a afa of excitation and the students asked if
they could be heard, or assisted, and Dr. Rogers said yes. The class then decided the best way
to do it. The students volunteered to deal with the recorders, find a projector for movies; for the
most part this was also initiated and organized by students.
After that, what followed were four sessions difficult and frustrating. During this period,
the class seemed to get nowhere. The students spoke randomly, saying that they were the
head. Everything seemed chaotic, without goals, a loss of time. A student would raise some
aspect of the philosophy of Rogers; and the next student, completely ignoring the first, would
DEPART the group to a different direction; and a third, completely not taking into account the
first two, i was to enter in another matter altogether new. Sometimes there was some timid
efforts to achieve a cohesive discussion, but for the most part the procedures of classroom
seemed to be devoid of continuity and direction. The instructor received all contributions with
attention and consideration. He thought no contribution of students appropriate or inappropriate.
The class was not prepared for an approach so completely without structure. Don't know how
to proceed. In his perplexity and frustration, demanded that the teacher should play the role that
he had been appointed by custom and tradition, which he set up for us in a authoritarian

language what was right and wrong, what was good and bad. They had not been so far to learn
from own oracle? They were not lucky? They were not about to be initiated in the rituals and
practices correct by the great man in person, the founder of the movement that bears his name?
The books were suspended in the air waiting for the moment of climax, when the oracle speak,
but for the most part they remained tact.
A very strange way, from the very beginning, even in his anger, the members of the group
if they felt united, and outside of the classroom, there was an excitement and an effervescence,
because, even in their frustration, they had communicated as they had never done antesm any
classroom, and likelihood recur never before the way they did. The class was bound by a
common experience unique. In the classroom of Rogers, they had talked about what they
thought; the words didn't come from a book, nor were the reflection of the thinking of instructor,
nor any authority. The ideas, emotions and feelings came from them; and this was a process
releaser and exciting.
In this atmosphere of freedom, something for which they had not barganhado or for which
they were not prepared, the students talked about how the students rarely do so. During this
period, the instructor took many blows; and it seemed to me that often seemed to be shaken;
and although it would be the source of our irritation, had, strange as it may seem, a great
affection for him, as I do not seemed right be angry with a man who was so supportive, so
sensitive to the feelings and ideas of others. All felt that what was at stake was a lack of
understanding that once deciphered and remedied would cause everything would be well again.
But our instructor, gracious enough at the surface, had a "whim of steel". He didn't seem to
understand; and if he did, he was stubborn and relentless; she refused to give the issue closed.
In this way, this cable of war continued. All joy.132 our expectations in Rogers and Rogers us. a
student in the midst of the general approval, observed: "We are focusing on Rogers, not
centered on the student. We have come to learn from Rogers."
Encouraging the thought
Another student had discovered that Rogers outside infuenciado by Kilpatrick and Dcwey,
and using this idea as a springboard, he said that he thought that he realized where Rogers was
trying to reach. He thought that Rogers he wished the students think independently, creatively;
that students become deeply involved with their own people, their own selves, hoping that this
would lead to the "reconstruction" of the person - in the sense that Dcwey gave the
term -' appearances, attitudes, values and behavior of the person. This would be a true
reconstruction of experience: would be learning in a real sense. Certainly, it does want the
course ended in an examination based on books and lectures, followed by traditional note at the
end of six months, which usually means conclusion and oblivion'. Rogers had expressed the
belief since the beginning of the course that nobody can teach nothing to another person.
However, the thought, this student insisted, begins at fork in the road, the famous dilemma
posed by Dewcy. As we arrived at the fork in the road, we do not know what path should we
take to reach our destination; then began to examine the situation. The thought begins at this
point.
Kilpatrick also sought the original thinking of their students and also rejected a type of
learning that regorgitasse books, but presented with critical issues for discussion, and these
problems aroused great interest and also created vast changes in people. Why committees of
students, or individual students could not meet these problems for discussion?2 Rogers heard
severally and said: "I see that you really have strong convictions in this respect". This
observation concluded the matter. If I remember correctly, the next student who spoke,
dismissed by complete what had been suggested and has launched a new topic, as well as
conformity to the custom established by class.
Intermittently, during the session, the students were demonstrating in favor of the
suggestion above, and began to demand more insistently that Rogers did not assume the

traditional role of teacher. At this point, the blows were driving the Rogers fairly frequent and
intense, and I thought I saw him bend in any way before them. (In particular, he denied that
affect both.) During a session, a student stTgeriü that he would make an exposure for one hour
and to proceed to a discussion in class after this. This suggestion seemed to adjust their plans.
He said that he had an article not published. He warned us that this was available and that we
can read it for ourselves. But the student said that it would not be the same thing. The person,
the author, would be outside, with the emphasis, inflection, emotion, those nuances that give
value and meaning to the words. Rogers then asked the students if that is what they wanted.
They confirmed. He read for more than an hour. After the trade and vivid acrimoniosas with
which had been accustomed to, this was certainly a disappointment, monotonous and Quotas
merely work like sedatives to the extreme. This experience has put an end to all requirements
for subsequent exhibitions. In one of those moments when you apologized for this episode
( "AND better, more excusable, when students require. " ), he said: "You have asked me to
make an exposure. AND truth that I am a resource, but what sense would there be in fact I do
the exposure? He brought a large quantity of material, republication of any number of lectures,
articles, books, recordings and films."
Around the fifth session, something defined happened; there was no denying. The
students communicated with each other; thumping to Rogers. The students asked to be heard
and wanted to be him, and that before it constituted a group falters, faltering, growing out, it took
a group that interacted, a cohesive unit completely new, continuing in a unique manner; and
from them came discussion and reasoning that no group to not be this could repeat or
reproduce. The instructor also joined him, but his role, more important than any other in the
group, in some way it merged at the same; the group was important, the center, the basis of the
operation, not the instructor.
What has caused this? I can only postulate regarding the reason. I believe that what
happened was the following: For four sessions the students refused to believe that the instructor
would refuse to play the traditional role. They still believed that he would establish the tasks;
that he would be the center of what you ocorrese and that manipularia the group. It took four
sessions for the group realized what was wrong; he had been with nothing beyond himself, in
addition to his own person; that if they really wanted that something were to happen, it would be
they provide the content - a situation uncomfortable, challenging indeed. They were the ones
who should decide, with all the risks that came with it. As part of the process, they shared, they
opposed, agreed, disagreed. Either way, their people, their selves deeper were involved, and
from this situation, this special group and single, this new creation was born.
The importance of acceptance
As you may know, Rogers believes that if a person is accepted, fully accepts, and in this
acceptance there is no judgment, only compassion and solidarity, the individual is more than
they should be, most of them that was right, but the group itself, by the very act of being, and
not the establishment of rules, ended up imposing its authority; and unless a person was very
badly or insensitive, the members, in this respect, if line more or less what we expected of them.
The problem - the hostile, the ruler, the neurotic - was not very acute; however, if measured in a
formal way, with a stopwatch, at any time a session was free of interlocutions without purpose
and loss of time. But even when observed the process, persisted the idea that perhaps this loss
of time would be necessary; it may be that this is the way by which man learns best; because,
certainly, as I say I am looking for the whole experience, I'm pretty sure that would have been
impossible to learn as much or as well or so completely, in a context of traditional classroom. If
you accept the definition of Dewey of education as reconstruction of experience, that another
better way for a person to learn to staying involved with your i integer, his own person, his
impulses, emotions, attitudes and values of origin? No series of facts or arguments, no matter
how logical or brilliantly organized, can even vaguely if compare to this sort of thing.

In the course of this process, I saw people hard, inflexible, dogmatic, in the brief period of
several weeks, change before my eyes and take supportive, comprehensive and up to a certain
degree non-sensible. I saw people obsessive, compulsive, become more confident and take
more aceitadoras of themselves and of others. In one example, a student who particularly
impressed me by its change told me when I mentioned this: "It is true, I am less rigid, more open
to the world. AND taste more of me for this. I have never learned so much in any other place." Vi
shy people take less timid and aggressive people become more sensitive and moderate.
It could be said that this seems to be mainly an emotional process. But I think that this
would be a way able to see himself, to develop the courage to abandon their defenses and face
your true self. I saw this process work. In the midst of their first efforts to communicate, to find
a modus vivendi, there was the group experimental exchanges of feelings, emotions and ideas;
but after the fourth session, and progressively after this, this group, meeting aimlessly, had its
members approximate and their true selves emerged. TO THE extent that interacted, there were
moments of insight, revelation and understanding that were almost stunning in nature; they
were, I believe, that Rogers would describe as "moments of therapy", those fertile moments
when you see a human soul revealed before you, in all its wonder breathless; and then the
silence, almost as a reverence, to take account of the class. AND each member of the class is
involved in a fondness and appreciation that jut out of the mystical. I, for my part, and rye almost
sure that the other also, I have never had an experience like this. It was learning and therapy;
and for therapy do not want to say disease, but which could be characterized by a healthy
change in the person, an increase in their flexibility, their openness, their willingness to listen. In
the process, all in sentimoselevados, more free, more aceitadores to ourselves and others,
more open to new ideas, trying to understand and accept.
It is not a perfect world, and there was no evidence of hostility to the extent that the
States differed. In some way, in this context, every blow was softened, as if the sharp edges
have been removed; if it was not deserved, the students would be the other thing; and the blow
of some form would be in vain. In my own case, even those students who originally irritavam
me, as I knew the better, I began to accept them and to respect them; and I was thinking, when I
tried to understand what was going on: When the people you are approaching a person, realize
their thoughts, their emotions, their feelings, it takes not only understandable but good and
desirable. Some of the most aggressive spoke totally inaccurate to describe it. There was an
abundance of intellectual content, but this was significant and crucial to the person, in the sense
that it meant so much to her as a person. In fact, one student raised the same question. "We
should worry about," he said, "only with the emotions? AND the intellect has no time?" It was my
turn to ask: "Are there any other student who has read both or thought so much for any other
course?"
The answer was obvious. That we spend far hours and hours reading; the room reserved
for us had occupants up to ten hours of night, and many only flattering because the guards of
the university wanted to close the building. The students heard the recordings; watched the
movies; but best of all, they talked and talked and talked. In traditional course, the instructor
exposes and indicates what should be read and learned; students diligently write down all this in
their books, do the exam and feel good or evil, depending on the iesJiado; but in almost all
cases is a full experience, with a sense of purpose; the laws of oblivion begin to operate quickly
and inexorably. In the course of Rogers, students Liam and thought within and outside of the
classroom, and they chose, from the readings and thoughts, what was significant, in the
instructor.
This type of teaching non-director, I must emphasize, not obtained 100% of success.
There were three or four students who found the idea quite unpleasant. Even at the end of the
course, although almost all had become enthusiasts, a student, as far as I know, was intensely
negative feelings; another, highly critical. They wanted that the instructor gave them a piece of
intellectual goods chewed that could store and return in an examination. Would then the
certainty that they had learned what they should do. As one student put it: "If I had to write a

report on what I learned in this course, that could mean?" I must confess that, it would be much
more difficult than in a traditional course, if not impossible.
The method Rogers was free, fluent, open and permissive. A student could start an
interesting discussion, this would be empunhada for a second, but a third student could divert
us in the other direction, bringing a personal matter of no interest to the class; and we all felt
frustrated. But this resembled the life, flowing like a river, apparently futile, never with the same
waters, flowing, and no one knows what will happen in the next moment. But there was an
expectation, a readiness, a vividness; it seemed to me the closest thing to a vestige of life that
can be achieved in a classroom. For the person authoritarian, who puts his faith in facts stacked
in good order, this method, I believe, can be threatening, because here it derives no reassuring
children, only one opening, a flow, no closure.
A new methodology
I believe that a large part of the agitation and effervescence that characterized the class
deviase this lack of closure. In the cafeteria, you could recognize the students of Rogers for
their lively debates, by their desire to be together; and sometimes, as there was not a table
large enough, they sat in two and three rows; eating with the dishes in her lap. As Rogers points
out, there is no purpose in the process. He never makes sumarizações (against all conventional
laws of teaching). The questions are left without resolution; the issues raised in class are
always in a state of flux, continuity. In their need to know, to reach an agreement, the students
gather, desiring to understand, seeking closure. Even when it comes to notes, there is no
closure. A note means an end; but Dr. Rogers does not give the note; it is the student who
suggests; and as he does so, even this signal of conclusion is left without resolution, without an
order, not closed. Also, as the course is not structured, each one placed his person on the
scene in course, speaking, not with the textbook as gauge but with his person, and in this way, it
was like a person who communicated with the other, and, as a result, in contrast to the
impersonal that the normal course covers, here develops this approximation and affection.
Describe the many graceful episodes that have occurred may convey some idea of the
feeling of approximation. A student invited the class to your home for a meal in the open air.
Another student, a Spanish priest, was so overjoyed with the group who spoke to start a
publication for not losing sight of what was going on with the members of the group after its
dissolution. A group interested in advice from students met on their own account. A Member
State has taken steps to qe class visited a mental hospital for children and adults'; ligth
arranged for that observe the experimental work that was being done with psychotic patients by
Dr. Lindsley. The members of the class have brought recordings and printed material to add to
the material from the library that was reserved for our use. Of all the ways, the spirit of good will
and cordia1age was manifest to a degree that only rarely occurs in rare and isolated cases. In
many courses that I have not seen anything like it. In this regard, it should be emphasized that
the members formed a group that had been meeting in the aimlessly; that came from different
backgrounds and that covered a wide age range.
I believe that what has been described above is truly a creative contribution to the
methodology in the classroom; it is radically different from the old. It contains the ability to
mingle with the people, to make them more free, with minds more open, more flexible, I have no
doubt. I witnessed the power of this method. I believe that education does not-director has
profound implications that, even those who accept this point of view, cannot at the moment see
fully. Its importance, I believe, goes beyond the classroom and extends to the entire area where
the human beings communicate with each other and try to live with each other.
More specifically, as a methodology of classroom, ensures the discussion, research and
experimentation more extensive. There is the possibility of opening a new dimension of thought,
new and original, because this approach, in its practice, in its philosophy, it differs so
fundamentally from the former. It seems to me that this approach should be tested in all the area

of primary education, second degree, school, wherever human beings come together to learn
and overcome the old approaches. At this stage, we should not be too concerned with respect
to its limitations and shortcomings, as the method was not refined and do not know as much
about them as we should. As a new technique, it starts with a handicap. We are reluctant to
abandon the former. The former is anchored by tradition, authority and respeitabiIidade and we
ourselves are your product. If we consider the education, however, as the reconstruction of
experience, this does not would presume that the individual should carry out its own
reconstruction? He must do it himself, through the reorganization of its i, its values, its more
profound attitudes, his own person. What better method would be to absorb the individual; put it,
their ideas, their feelings in communication with each other; breaking down barriers that create
the insulation in a world where, for their own safety and mental health, the man has to learn to
be part of humanity?
I feel compelled to write about my first experience of teaching after my exposure to his
thought and influence. You may not know, but I had a phobia with respect to teaching. Since my
work with you, I began to realize more clearly where resided the difficulty. It was basically my
concept of the role that I had to play as a teacher - the motivator, director and head of
production activity. I was always afraid of being "nervous" in the classroom - I believe that this is
your expression and have come to love it -, the class apathetic, disinterested, not responding,
and I lamuriando, lamuriando until lost the plummet, the sentences are not forming, being
issued artificially, and the time passing slowly, slowly, each time more slowly. This was the
horror that was imagined. I suppose that plots that happen to every teacher, but I would put
them all together, and I am closer to class with feeling uneasy, not truly myself.
AND now comes riha experience. I was asked to give two summer courses for the
Faculty of Education, University Yeshiva, however had a perfect alibi. Was coming to Europe
and could not. Could not then take a temporary course, concentrated, 14 sessions during the
month of June; and this does not interfere with the trip? I had no excuses and I agreed, because
I wanted more I wriggle out of the situation and, also, because I was willing to look at it once
and for all. If I did not like to teach (I had not se lected by approximately ten years), learns
something. AND if you'd like, also learns something. AND if I had to suffer, this was the best
way, since the course was concentrated and the time factor was short.
You know that I have been strongly influenced in my thinking about education by
Kilpatrick and Dewey. But now I had another ingredient powerful - you. When I met with my
class for the first time, I did something that had never been done before. I was honest with my
feelings. Instead of feeling that a teacher should know and that the students were there to be
taught, I admit weakness, doubts of dilemmas and NOT KNOWING. Since I like that I gave up
my role as a teacher for the class and for me, my most natural emerged more free and I was
talking about quiet and even creatively. By "creatively" I would like to say that my ideas I came
as spoke, absolutely new ideas that I felt were very good.
Another important difference: It is true that as I have been influenced by the methodology
of Kilpatrick always welcomed with pleasure the broader discussion , but I know now, that I still
wanted and hoped that my students knew the text and expository material to them was
reserved. Even worse, I know now that although welcoming the discussion, I wanted to, above
all, that, after everything that had been said and done, the final conclusions of the abundant
class according to my way of thinking. In this way, none of the discussions discussions were
true, in the sense that they are open and probing; none of the issues were real issues, to
seek evoke the thought; all of them were loaded, in the sense that I had convictions well defined
on what he believed to be good answers and, sometimes, correct answers. In this way, came to
the class with the matter and my students were really instruments by means of which situations
were manipulated to produce the inclusion of what I considered a subject desirable.
In the latter course, didn't have the guts to simply dismiss the matter already planned,
but, this time , really hear my students by giving them understanding and solidarity. Although
dispendesse hours and hours preparing each lesson, I noticed that any time I have already

mentioned a note of voluminous material with which had adentrado the room. Dei reins loose to
students, not arresting anyone no guns, and allow me to digress a fuller; and follow the students
wherever you lead me.
I remember discussing this with a prominent educator and he said to me, in a tone that i
thought disappointed and disapproving: "You insists, of course, in good reasoning." I mentioned
William James, who said, in effect, that the man is a grain of reason in a sea of emotion. I told
him that I was more interested in what we could call a 'third dimension', the part of the feelings
of the students.
I cannot say that I have listened to all the way, Dr. Rogers, already expressing views and,
in some moments, unfortunately, did exhibitions; and I believe that this is bad, since the
students, since they are expressed views authoritarian, don't tend to think about, but are looking
for advinhar what is going on in the head instructor and give what he could appreciate, so that
they are favored in her eyes. If I had to do it again, she would do less of it. But I tried and I
believe he has succeeded, in large measure, to give each student a sense of dignity, respect
and acceptance; was very far from my mind exainá them or evaluate them, giving them notes.
AND the result - and it is for this reason that I am writing - was for me an unmatched
experience, inexplicable in common terms. I even I cannot fully explain it, except be grateful for
the fact that it happened with me. Some of the many qualities that I didn't experience in your
course, I found this course to dci. I appreciating these students as I had never enjoyed any
other group of people, and I have noticed - and they expressed in their final reports - they began
to feel affection, appreciation and acceptance for one another. Orally and in their work, reported
how touched they were, how much they had learned, as if they felt as well. For me, this was a
whole new experience that left me perplexed and prostrate. I had many students who, I believe,
met me and admired me, but I have never had an experience of classroom where underscore
so much affection and closeness. In fact, following his example, I avoided establish any
requirements fixed in terms of reading or preparation of the classroom.
What was not mentioned is a "perception biased" was evidenced by reports I have
received outside of the classroom. The students have made so many good references about me
that the faculty members wished to attend a class. Best of all, at the end of the course the
students wrote a letter to the Rector Benjamin Fine where said great things about me. AND the
Rector, in turn, wrote to me doing the same.
Say that i was dumbstruck by that occurred only vaguely reflects my feelings. I have se
lected for many years but have never experienced anything that resembles remote- mind to
what occurred. I, for my part, I have never met in the classroom both of whole person upside
down, so deeply involved, so deeply instigated. In addition, I too wonder if the traditional
context, with its emphasis on respect, exams, notes, there is, or can be a space for the person
who "becomes", with its profound needs and multiple, in so far as they struggle to complete. But
this would be digressing too much. I am only reporting what happened and say that I am
grateful and also impressed by the experience. I would like that you knew, because again you
are responsible for a contribution and enrichment of my life and ser3.
Chapter 16
The implications for the family life of therapy customer-centric
When, a few years ago, I was asked to speak to a local group on any subject to my
choice, I decided consider especficamente changes that register in the behavior of our
customers in their relations fámiliares. This resulted in this Article.
TO THE extent that it increased the number of therapists and psychologists who have
endeavored to individuals and groups disturbed, registering an agreement on the fact that our
experience is important and has implications for all areas of interpersonal relations. An attempt

was made to express some of these implications in certain fields - for example, in the field of
education, in the direction of groups, in the field of relations between groups -, but never try to
formulate explicitly which its importance in life lmi1iar. This is the aspect that I will seek to clarify,
trying to home a picture as clear as possible of what the perspective of therapy focused on the
customer in relation to more closed to all interpersonal circles the family group.
It is not my intention to go into this objective a level abstract and theoretical, what I want
to do is provide some information about the changes that our customers registered in their
family relationships as they strive to lead a more satisfying life in their contacts with the
therapist. I will quote verbatim the statements of these people so that they can have a taste of
their actual experience and draw their own conclusions.
Although part of the experience of our customers appear to counteract the current
concepts about what a family life constructive means, I am not particularly interested in
discussing these differences. I am not particularly interested in establishing a model for family
life in general or to propose the manner in which they should live in their family situation. I
simply present the essence of the experience of very specific people in some family situations
very concrete. Perhaps your fight to live a satisfactory way mean to you something.
What are the ways in which customers change in his family life as a result of a therapy
customer-centric?
Urn best expression of feelings
Our experience tells us, in first place, that our customers are gradually express a more
fully their real feeling in relation both to the members of his family as the other people. this is the
case both in relation to the feelings considered negative - resentment, anger, shame, envy,
hatred, boredom - as feelings judged positive - tenderness, admiration, affection, love. It is as if
the client were discovered in therapy that you can remove the mask that he wore and make
himself a more authentically. A husband will realize that is increasingly irritated with his wife and
expresses that anger, when before at 2,53 - or considered it necessary maintain a calm attitude
and objeti the ante your behavior. Everything happens as if the map of expression of feelings
corresponded more adequately to the territory of the emotional experience this. Parents and
children, husbands and wives, begin to express with more truth the feelings that really has,
instead of the hide to other people, or to other people and to themselves.
Maybe an example or two clarify better the meaning of what we said. A young married
woman, Mrs. M. , seeks advice. She complains that her husband is too formal and reserved with
it, it does not talk about him reveals his thoughts, that do not have it any consideration, that are
sexually incompatible and that are moving away quickly from one another. As you speaking, the
framework of their attitudes undergoes a dramatic transformation. It expresses the deep sense
of guilt with which he looks at his life before marriage, when Noah walked with some men,
mostly married. Understands that, although it is joyful and spontaneous with the greater part of
the people, in relation to her husband is cold, tense, somewhat spontaneous. You realize also
that is demanding that her husband is what she wants. At this time, the therapy is interrupted
due to the fact that the therapist is out of town. She continues to write to the therapist
expressing how you feel and adds: "If at least I could say these things to my husband, I could be
myself at home. But how would that shake their confidence in people? Feel the lord revulsion for
me if it were my husband and I knew the truth? I would like to be a 'good small' instead of
being a doll'. Estraguei so much! ".
The next item is a letter of which is justified cite a long passage. It counts as if annoyed,
as it was unpleasant when one night the friends have visited. After their departure.
"I was worse than a cockroach by me having behaved so badly ... I felt distressed, guilty, angry
with myself and with Bill! - I felt so unfortunate as before they have been. "Then, I decided to do
what I really want to and constantly postponed because he felt that it was too much to ask of
any man: say the Bill precisely what made me act so badly. It was even more difficult than tell

you - and this has been hard. I could not tell you with so much detail, but I could reveal some
sordid feelings in relation to my parents and even more so in relation to these 'cursed' men. The
thing more beautiful than any day I heard him say was: 'Well, maybe I can help you on this' when I was speaking of my parents. AND quietly accepted the things that I had done. I told him
how I felt so uncomfortable in many situations, because there were a lot of things that I have
never ceased to do, or even learn how to play cards. We talk, we discussed, and we were really
very deep into our feelings. Not told her everything about the men who knew - their names -, but
deilhe an approximate idea of the number. Well, it was so comprehensive and things were so
clear that TRUST HIM. Now I am not afraid to talk to him all these small things nonsensical quej
came constantly to the head. AND if I don't I'm afraid, they may cease to torment me. When the
other day I wrote to you, I was about to give up I thought precisely in leaving the city (escape all
this). I understand, however, that was fleeing from and would not be happy without the face.
We talked about children and, although we had decided to wait that Bill mdis is near the end of
the studies, I am happy with this decision. Bill thinks the same as me in relation to the problem
of children - what we want for them, and what is more important, what we do not want .
Therefore, only return to receive letters desperate,already knows that everything will run as well,
as much as possible.
"Now, I wonder: would know the lord from the beginning that it was the only thing that i
had to do to mc approaching Bill? It was something that I J. alimentation to say to myself that it
would be unfair for the Bill. This would destroy his confidence in me and in everyone. There was
a barrier so great between me and Bill that I felt almost like a stranger. The only reason that led
me to do so was that I realized that, if not try to at least know their opinion in relation to what I
was worrying about, that would be unfair to him - leave it without giving him a chance to prove
that he could trust him. He proved more than this - showing that the felt in relation to their
parents and the many other people in general also the very disturbing."
I believe that this letter no comments. Means for me simply that, by having experienced
during therapy the satisfaction of being itself, to express their deep feelings, it becomes
impossible for him to behave in a different way in relation to her husband. She discovered that it
should be, and express their own feelings, even if it seemed threaten your marriage.
Another element in the experience of our customers is more subtle. They discover, as in
the example mentioned, that the expression of feelings is something deeply pleasant, when
there is very little time they seemed disastrous and destructive. The difference seems to be a
consequence of the following fact. When a person lives behind a facade of a mask, their
feelings not expressed will accumulate until a point explosive and a particular incident may
cause an explosion. But the feelings that invade the person and that is expressed in these
moments - in an attack in a bad mood. in a deep depression, in a wave of autocompaixão often has a detrimental effect on the people, because they are very poorly suited to this specific
situation and therefore seem extremely illogical. An explosion of anger about dc a contrariety in
relations can represent in fact the feelings denied or significations in dozens of similar
situations. But the context in which this attitude is illogical and therefore is not understood.
Here's how the therapy helps to break a vicious cycle. When the customer is able to overstep
the anguish, the fury, the despair or the emotions that he feels, and when they accept these
feelings as their, they lose their explosive power. It is therefore more able to express, in any
family relationship specific, the feelings that these relations cause. Since it does not entail an
overload of the past, are more appropriate and more easily understood. Little by little, the
individual perceives expressing their feelings at the time that the experience, and not later, when
the will corrode and poisoned.
The relations can be experienced on an actual basis
There is also another consequence caused by the therapy in the way our customers
experience their family relationships. The client discovers, many times to his great surprise, that

we can live a relationship on the basis of real feeling, instead of relying on a defensive look.
This takes on a deeper meaning and comforting, as we have already seen in the case
mentioned by Ms. M. Gives security discover that can express the sentimefitos of shame,
anguish and boredom and that the relationship survives this. IS deeply reassuring to express
tenderness, sensitivity or fear, without being betrayed. The reason for this positive result seems
to lie in the fact that, in therapy, the individual learn to recognize and express their feelings as
their,and not as a fact that pertains to another person. Therefore, say to her husband:
"Everything you're doing is wrong" can only lead to a discussion. But to say: "I am very
concerned with what you're doing" is in fact say the feelings of those who speak, a reality that is
not possible to deny. This is not to accuse the other, but to express a personal feeling. "It's your
fault, if I disoriented" is a moot point; but: "I Am disoriented when you proceed this way or that"
simply adds a real fact the relationship.
But it is not only the verbal level that this situation occurs. The person who accepts in
itself its own feelings discovers that a relationship can be lived by taking as a basis the real
feeling. Let me exemplifies with a series of excerpts from recorded interviews with Ms. S.
Ms. S. lived with her ten-year-old daughter and her mother of seventy, that tiranizava
throughout the house on the pretext of their "little health". Ms. 5. was dominated by his mother
and was unable to control his own daughter, Carol. I was resentful with the mother, but could not
admit it, because "all my life I felt guilty. I grew up with a sense of guilt, because everything that
he had the impression that ... in any way affect the health of my mother ... In fact, some years
ago, I came to the point of dreaming that ... sacudia my mother and ... i ... I felt that I wanted to
push it out of my way. E. .. I am able to understand how Carol feels. It does not have the
courage ... and I am not".
Ms. S. knows that many people are of the opinion that it would be much better if you
leave the mother, but she is not able: "I know that, if you leave it, could not be happy, I would be
concerned about it. AND I would have so many remorse for leaving a poor and old lady alone!"
Although complain of being so dominated and controlled, he begins to see the role that is
representing a role coward: "I feel that I have the hands attached. Perhaps the guilt is my ...
more than my mother. In truth, I know, but I am fearful when it comes to my mother. I am able to
do anything to prevent her scenes the purpose of something more insignificant."
TO THE extent that better understands itself, begins to come to the conclusion that we
should try to live relations as you think that it is true, instead of living in accordance with the
wishes of the mother. This is the who reports at the beginning of an interview: "well, I made an
amazing discovery: is that perhaps it is my fault that I have submitted too to my mother ... in
other words, it spoiled. I have decided to me then, as every day, but this time I think that I will be
in front, trying to ... well, be quiet, be quiet, and ... if it is one of their crises, ignore it more or less
as a child that makes tantrums to attract attention. Therefore, I tried. It annoyed with something
small. He got up from the table and closed in the room. Well, not ran behind her, nor her I
apologized, not ask you to go back, I have ignored it simply. Then, after a few minutes, she
returned and sat down and seemed emburrada, but soon recovered. I will try to do it this way for
some time and ... "
Ms. S. understands clearly that the basis for your new behavior is it have begun to accept
an authentically their own feelings toward the mother. She says: "well, why is it that there was
no face the situation? Understands. I felt that it was horrible thinking so in relation to my mother;
ready, that is what I feel, I am sorry, but I have to face up to this fact and do what I can."
TO THE extent that it will be accepting itself more openly, begins to respond to their own
needs and the needs of the mother: "There were a number of things that I wanted to do for
years and only now beginning to be able to do them. I think my mother may be alone until ten in
the evening. Have the phone next to the bed and ... if there is fire or any oútro accident of
gender there are neighbors, or if she feel ill ... So I am going to follow a course night and I will
do many things that I wanted to do my whole life; it was a kind of martyrdom stay at home and

think about it ... thinking that I had to do and did. Well, now, now things have changed. AND I
think that, after the first time, things will go well."
As soon as their new feelings in relation to the mother are put to the test: "My mother had
a heart attack very seriously and I said that the best would be to go to the hospital and ... and
that she needed to be hospitalized; i took it to the doctor and he said that the heart of it was
great and that she should go out and get sidetracked a little. Then it was to do a one-week visit
in the home of a friend, was the theater and amused. For this reason ... when he'd want to go to
the hospital, as I was bad and the contradicted in front of Carol and other things of this kind, it
generally calmed people down". and was facing the fact of his heart be strong as a stone and,
therefore, could well use it for fun a little. Now everything is going well; very good indeed."
Up to this point, it could be judged that relations have improved for Ms. S. , but not for the
mother. Now let's look at the other side of the table. A little later, Ms. S. declares: "I am still very,
very sorry for my mother. I would hate be like her. AND another thing, you know, I got to to hate
my mother; I couldn't touch it, or ... say ... rub it, or something like that. I am not talking about
when I was upset or with anything else. But ... i found also a feeling of affection for it; two or
three times, even without thinking about it, I give you a kiss and give him good-night, when I
went out of the door. E. .. I am more delicate with it; is passing the resentment that had, at the
same time that it no longer has authority over me. So much so that ... dei so yesterday, when
the helped to tidy up; before, cluster bomb while working him the hair and it was a long time that
cost me, in that I couldn't bear touching it; put him rolls, everything; and now ... i discovered
suddenly that this does not really upsets me; really is almost fun."
These extracts seem to show a pattern of change of family relations that we are very
familiar. Ms. S. feels, though hardly admitting it, even to herself, resentment toward the mother
and have the impression that they have no rights of their own. It seems that only difficulties
entailed the fact of leaving these feelings exist openly in the family relationship. However, when
allowing them emerge from the situation, discovers itself acting with more security, with more
integrity. The relationship improves instead of getting worse. The most surprising thing is that,
when the relationship is to be lived on the basis of real feeling, she discovers that the
resentment and bitterness are not the only ones feelings they have toward the mother. The
relationship also included feelings of tenderness, affection and pleasure. It is clear that there
can be moments of discord, of zanga and irritation between the two. But there is also respect,
understanding and friendship. They seem to have learned that many other customers also
learned: that a relationship should not be necessarily lived from simulated feelings, but on the
basis of the variety always fluent of feelings that really exist.
It would seem, by the examples I have chosen, that only the negative feelings are difficult
words or difficult to live. This is far from the truth, Mr. K. , a young man, liberal professionals,
found that it was so difficult to express the positive feelings hidden by a facade, as negative. An
excerpt brief may indicate the quality of the change with his daughter for three years.
He says: "What I was thinking about while coming through here was as eyejo differently
to our daughter - was playing with it this morning - and - and us, as well - why is it that it is so
difficult to leave out the words now? It was really a wonderful experience - comforting,
something happy and pleasant, and it seems to me that the vi and felt very close to me. Here is
what I believe it is significant - before, I could talk to Judy. I could say hting positive about it and
count the things funny that she was doing, talking about it as if I felt a father very happy, but
there was this something unreal ... as if I were to tell these things simply because she should
feel all this and that it was thus that a father should speak of his daughter, but that was not really
true, because I felt at the same time other negative feelings and confused about it. I think at this
time that the child is more beautiful that exists in the world."
T: "Before, you felt that 'i should be a father happy' - this morning you are a father happy ...
" C: "I felt this with certainty, this morning. It rolava in bed ... and then asked me if I wanted to
sleep again and I said yes and she said she would seek your blanket ... and contoume after a
history ... a confusion of three stories.., and I felt that is what I really want to ... I would like to

have this experience. I felt that I was ... I felt that grew, it was adult. I felt that he was a man ...
this now seems strange, but I felt that it was as if it was actually a good father, responsible and
adult, which was sufficiently large, serious and happy to be the father of this child. Whereas,
before, I felt really weak and perhaps almost unworthy, incapable of being something as
important, because it is something very important to be father".
This client has discovered that it was possible to accept positive feelings toward you as a
good father, and fully accept his ardent love for her daughter. No Longer had to pretend to like it,
fearful that any other feeling was lurking.
I think that it will be no surprise that some time after he told us how he felt more at ease
to express their reactions to quarrel or irritation in relation to her daughter. Discovered that
feelings that exist are good enough to live with them. It does not need to be covered with
varnish.
Improvement of communication in both directions
The therapeutic experience seems to prove another change to the way our patients live
their family relationships. They learn how to start and maintain a real communication in both
directions. Understand the background of the ideas and feelings of another person, with the
meaning that this experience has for her, and, conversely, be deeply understood by that other
person - is one of the most humane and more rewarding and, at the same time, one of the most
rare. Some individuals who were undergoing therapy reported many times the pleasure felt at
discovering that authentic communication of this type is possible with members of their own
family. In part, this appears to be due, to an absolutely direct, to their experience of
communication with the therapist. It is such a relief, such a relaxation of its defenses, feel
understood, that the individual wants to create this atmosphere with the other. Discover along
the therapeutic relationship that the most terrible thoughts, feelings more strange and abnormal
dreams and aspirations more ridiculous, the worst attitudes, everything that can be understood
by another person, it is an experience extraordinarily liberating. We are beginning to see this
situation as a resource that can extend to the other.
There is still, however, a reason that seems to be more fundamental and by which
customers are able to understand the members of his family. When we live behind a facade,
when you try to act in a way that is not in accordance with our senjnientos, we cannot hear the
other freely. Temós always be alert for fear that the other breaks our defensive facade. But when
a customer lives according to the way I have described, when it tends to express their true
feelings in the situation in which they occur, when their family relationships are lived on the
basis of feelings that are present, then the individual abandons its defenses and can actually
hear and understand the other members of the family. You can allow yourself to see life as it
appears in the eyes of the other person.
Part of what I am saying may be illustrated by the experience of Ms. S. , if we are talking
about in previous section. During a follow-up contact after the end of their therapy, asked to Ms.
S. describing some of the reactions that he had given his experience. She said: "I did not have
the impression of being a therapy. You know, I thought that, well, I am only talking, but ...
reflecting on that now, I understand that it was a treatment, and the best, because eujá had
received advice, excellent advice, doctors, relatives, friends ... and have never worked. I believe
that to reach out to people you do not need to raise barriers or other such things, because then
you can't reach the reaction true ... But I thought about that a lot and now I am a little bit the
same with Carol (laughing) or try to do, you know. E. .. the grandmother says to him: 'How can
you be so bad for your Grandma so sick'; you know, I know precisely what Carol feels. She
would like to knock it for being so terrible! But I said nothing more to Carol, nor tried to guide it. I
have tried to express.., let it feel that I am with her and at the rear, whatever you do. Allow him
to tell me what you feel and what are their small reactions to things, and everything is doing
well. She said to me: 'O mother, the grandmother is old and sick for such a long time! '. I told

him that yes. AND not to condemn or approve and then, for some time now, she starts ... oh, to
divert the spirit of certain things and ... without that I investigate or try ... everything is doing well
with it. AND it seems to me that things are going better with my mother."
I think we can say that the Ms. 5., having accepted their own feelings and having more
willingness to express them and live them, find out now on his part a greater willingness to
understand the daughter and the mother, as well as to feel empathy with the reactions of them
to life. Freed sufficiently from its defenses to be able to hear of a way receptive and feel how the
other face to life. This type of evolution seems characteristic of the modifications that occur in
family life of our customers.
You want the other is independent
There is, finally, another trend that we noticed and that I would like to describe. We have
verified that our customers tended to allow each member of the family had their own feelings
and was an independent person. This seems to be a strange, but it is certainly one of the most
decisive. Many of us do not have probably aware of the tremendous pressure that we tend to
put on our wives or husbands, about the children, that they may have the same feelings that we
have. Many times, it is as if to say: "If you want that I likes you, think and feel as I do. If I am of
the opinion that your behavior is bad, you must also believe that it is bad. If I have the
impression that you should want a particular purpose you should think the same." Now, the
trend that we recorded for our customers is the inverse of this: there is an acceptance of the fact
that the other person has different feelings, different values, different objectives. In short, there
is a desire that the other is an independent person.
I believe that this trend develops to the extent that the person discovers that you can rely
on their own feelings and reactions - that their own deep impulses are not
destructive nençtastróficos, that the person does not need to be defended, but can cope with life
from a real basis. TO THE extent that you will learn that you can trust in itself, with its unique
character, it is more able to rely on a woman, in children, and accept the feelings and the unique
values that exist in the other person.
We could see something of what i mean in the letters that I received from a couple.
Husband and wife were my friends and received a copy of a book that I wrote because they
were interested in the work that I performed. The purpose of the book, however, appeared to be
identical to the therapy. A woman wrote to me and included in his letter a paragraph giving an
account of their reactions: "With fear that think that we are completely futile, we are reading your
book Client-Centered Therapy. I am almost at the end of the day. Most of what is on the books
are not accurate, at least for me. In fact, this provoked in me something similar to a therapeutic
experience. The book has led me to think of some of our family relationships unsatisfactory,
especially in my attitude to Phillip (his son of 14 years). I realized that for a long time it was
expressing no real love, because he was resentful at their apparent indifference to follow some
general rules that I always ponder that were important. As soon as I take upon me the
responsibility of their objectives and I told him as a person, as I have always done with Nancy,
for example, were amazing the changes that have occurred in their attitudes. Not an
earthquake, but a beginning of distension. We have to chase him because of studies and it was
he who voluntarily came to us one day that he had had a 'Good' on a math test. For the first
time this year."
Some months later, I received a letter from her husband: "You will not even recognize Phil
... It cannot be said that talk a lot, but it is not the sphinx that was, and it will go much better in
school, although we did not expect that pass with distinction. A large part of their improvement is
due to you, because he started to expand when I started finally to trust it would he and I try to
shape it according to the glorious image of his father at the same age. If we could erase past
mistakes!"

This concept of having confidence that the individual is itself assumed to me great
significance. I imagine sometimes that would be a child educated this way since it was born.
Think of a child who had been allowed to have their own and irreducible feelings - let us imagine
that it never had to repudiate their feelings in order to be loved. Imagine that your parents were
free to have and express their own feelings, often very different from that of the child, and often
different among themselves. I like to think of all the meanings that an experience of this kind
could have. This would mean that the child would grow in respect for the other as a person only;
that, even when their behavior should be addressed, it could maintain a clear "ownership" of
their feelings; that their behavior would be a realistic balance, taking into account their own
feelings and the feelings expressed by others. I believe that this child would be responsible and
autonomous, that it would never need to hide their feelings of itself, that it would never need to
live behind a facade. It would be a person relatively free of about disorders that paralyze us a
lot .
The general framework
If I can correctly discern the various trends that reveal themselves in the experience of
our customers, then the therapy focused on the customer seems to have a number of
implications for family life. I will try to finish, provide a more general framework of these
implications.
It appears that, in the long term, the individual finds satisfaction in exprimii person with
whom he is talking, all the attitudes emoci'nais strong or persistent, in the situation in which they
appear and the profound level in that arise. This is more satisfactory than refusing to accept
these feelings, allow them to accumulate until a degree of explosion or drove them in a different
direction from that in which they were born.
It seems that the individual discovers that is more satisfactory in the long term living
determined family relationship based on actual interpersonal feelings that exist, rather than
living the relationship on the basis of deceit. One aspect of this discovery is that the fear of this
relationship will be destroyed if we realize the true feelings do not usually have foundation, in
particular when you express the feelings as their own and not as belonging to another person.
Our customers find that, to the extent that they are expressed in such a way more free, to the
extent that they match more closely the superficial nature of relations with the floating attitudes
underlying them, may waive certain defensive attitudes and truly listen to the other. Start many
times to understand for the first time what the other person feels and why is it that you feel that
way. Therefore, the mutual understanding begins to invade the interpersonal interaction.
Finally, There is a growing acceptance that the other is itself. TO THE extent that I accept
better be myself, I discover that I am more prepared to allow the other be himself, with all that
this implies. This means that the family circle tends to move in the direction of taking a complex
of people independent and unique, with values and goals individualized, but united by true
positive and negative feelings - that exist between them, and the satisfaction of the bond of
mutual understanding of, at least, a part of the private world of each other.
It is in this way that, I believe, a therapy that leads the individual to become more fully
and in a way more profound he also leads to the discovery of a greater satisfaction in family
relations real that pursue the same purpose: to facilitate in each member of the family the
process of discovering whether and to be himself.
Chapter 17
The treatment of disturbances in interpersonal communication and intergroups

To situate it in time, this study was one of the first that I drafted. It was written in 1951, to
be presented at the Congress Centenary on communications, at Northwestern University, with
the title "Communication: its blockade and its facilitation ". It was printed a half dozen times, by
different
groups
and
in
various
journals,
including
the Harvard
Business
Review and ETC, magazine of the Society for General Semantics.
Although some of the examples may seem a little old fashioned, include them due to
their importance, in my opinion , regarding the consideration of tension, both national and
international. The suggestion on the tension between the United States and Russia seemed at
that time hopelessly idealistic. I believe that it is now considered by many as reflecting only
common sense.
It may seem strange that a person who copsagra throughout their professional activity to
the psychotherapy if interest in the problems of communication. What is the relationship
between providing a therapeutic aid to an individual who presents about disorders emotional
and the objective of the conference, i.e. consider the barriers to communication? However, the
relationship is very close. The entire work of psychotherapy refers to a communication failure.
The person emotionally inadequate, the "neurotic", have difficulties, in the first place, because
he broke the communication with itself and, secondly, because, as a result of this disruption, the
communication with the other was impaired. If this seems a little strange, let me express in
another way . The individual "neurotic", parts of it that remained unconscious, or suppressed, or
denied to awareness, suffer an obstruction that prevents communication with the conscious part
or leader of the individual. While this happens, give distortions in the form of communication
between the individual and the other, suffering he both within himself as in the intersubjective
relations. The role of psychotherapy is to help the person to achieve, through a special
relationship with the therapist, a perfect communication with herself. Once this is done, she is
able to communicate mais.1ive more effectively with others. We can, therefore, say that the
psychotherapy is a good communication within the person and between people. We can also
reverse the affirmation and it continues to be true. A good communication, free communication,
within or between people, is always therapeutic.
In this way, this is coming from a background of experience with communication in
counseling and psychotherapy that I would like to make them two ideas. Delivery of what I
believe to be one of the main factors that block or hinder communication and, then, I will present
what in our experience reveals itself as a very important to improve or facilitate the
communication.
I would like to propose for consideration of you as a hypothesis, that the biggest barrier to
interpersonal communication is our tendency very natural to judge, evaluate, approve or
disapprove the statements of another person or group. Let me illustrate what I mean by some
very simple examples. As soon as they come out of that meeting, one of the assessments that
possibly hear is this: "Do Not i liked what this individual said." well, what will respond? Almost
invariably, the response will be of approval or disapproval of the attitude expressed. Or you
respond: "I also didn't like it. I thought the conference horrible", or then may respond: "No, I
think that was a really good conference." In other words, your primary reaction is to appreciate
what has been said from his point of view, your frame of reference.
Let us take another example. Let us imagine that I say with conviction: "I believe that the
attitude of the republicans is now forms of very good sense." What will be the response to form
in your mind when you hear this? Most likely will be a reply apreciativa. Agree or disagree, or
speaking on a judgment such as this: "He seems to be convinced", or: "must be a conservative."
Let's look at an example taken from the international scene. Russia says with vehemence: "The
treaty with Japan is a conspiracy by the United States to wage war." Rise as one man to say:
"It is a lie!"
This last example introduces another element linked to my hypothesis. Although the
tendency to carry out the assessments it is common in almost all exchanges of language, it is

intensifying immensely in situations that involve deep feelings and emotions. Thus, the stronger
our feelings, with much greater ease there will no longer be common elements in
communication. There will be exactly two ideas, two feelings, two judgments, each in his own
hand in psychological space. I'm sure that recognize this situation from your own experience.
When they are not emotionally involved and attend to a heated debate, depart often thinking:
"Well, they are not talking about the same thing." AND in fact are not. Each proceeded to an
assessment, it was a judgment, from your own frame of reference. There was really nothing that
could be called communication in authentic sense of the term. This tendency to react to any
statement loaded with emotion making an assessment from our own point of view is, I repeat,
the biggest barrier to intersubjective communication.
But is there a way to solve this problem, to avoid this barrier? I have the impression that
we are making impressive progress in this direction and I would like to present them in a form
as simple as possible. The real communication logs, and the tendency for the assessment is
avoided, when we heard with understanding. What does this mean? This means that if demand
see the idea and the attitude expressed by another person from their point of view, feel how it
reacts, seize your frame of reference in relation to what about what you are talking about.
Said that way, as well as summarized, it may seem absurdly sin4es, but not
It is. It is a form of contact that we discovered teh extremely powerful in the field of
psychotherapy. It is the most effective agent that we know to modify the structure of basic
personality of an individual and to improve its relations and communication with the other. If I am
able to hear what he can tell me, if I am able to understand how it seems as if I am able to see
what this means for him, if I am able to feel his emotional reaction to such a thing, in this case I
am freeing him powerful forces for processing. If I am really able to understand how he hates
his father, or the university, or the communists - if I am able to capture the flavor of its mode of
dementia, or of his terror of the atomic bomb, or Russia -, it will be for him a great help in the
transformation of this hatred and this fear and in the establishment of realistic relations and
harmonious with many people and many situations in which experienced hatred or fear. We
know from our research that an empathetic understanding of this type - understanding with a
person, not on a person is a mode of contact effective that can cause major changes in
personality.
Perhaps some of you think that hearing people well, but it never managed to these
results. There are, however, strong probability that its way to listen does not match the type I
have described. Fortunately, I can suggest a small lab experience to search for testing the
quality of their understanding. The next time you have a discussion with his wife, or with a
friend, or with a small group of friends, stop the discussion for a moment, then, to carry out the
experience, establish the following rule: "Each one of these people can only speak to defend
their own ideas after having returned to expose the views and opinions of the person who spoke
before her and with full satisfaction of this". It is possible to imagine what that would mean.
Simply mean that, before submitting them to your own point of view, it would be necessary for
them to have really picked up the frame of reference of another party - that understand their
feelings and their ideas as well as the merit in bringing in for him. It seems simple, doesn't it?
But, if they make the experience, you will see that it is one of the things more difficult that ever
tried to do. However, once they were able to see the other side's point of view, their own reviews
have to be thoroughly reviewed. Discover also that the emotion has been ruled out of the
discussion, that the differences have been reduced and that the that still remain are reasonable
and understandable.
Can you imagine what this type of contact would mean if it were extended to vast areas?
What would happen if a labor dispute between workers and employers follow this path, so that
the workers, without being necessarily in accordance with the direction, could formulate
correctly the point of view of this, and the bosses, without approving the position of workers,
were able to expose the problem of these in a way that they consider correct? This would mean

that if there was a real communication and that if I could almost guarantee that if I would be a
reasonable solution.
If a form of contact of this type is an effective way for a good communication and a good
relationship and I am absolutely sure that would agree with me if they were to experience that I
mentioned, which is why this path is no longer sought and followed? I will try to enumerate the
difficulties that hinder the use of this process.
Firstly , it takes courage, a quality that is not so very scattered. I am very grateful to Dr. S.
1. Hayakawa, professor of semantics, having observed that exercise psychotherapy this way
represented a very real risk and that required courage. If you really understood a person in this
way, if we are willing to enter into your private world and to see how the life it seems, without
any attempt to make judgments of value, we run the risk of being ourselves to change. To see
as he sees, it is possible that a person feel influnciada in their attitudes or their personality. This
nauseating to see modified is one of the most fearsome prospects for the majority of us. If I
introduce as completely as is possible within the private world of an individual neurotic or
psychotic, not that there is a risk of losing me? Almost all of us are afraid of the risk. AND if we
had here this evening a coiiferencista Russian or senator Joseph McCarthy, how many of us
would have the courage to try to see the world from each of their perspectives referred to? The
vast majority could not hear ; we would be compelled to evaluate, because you hear could be
too dangerous. Therefore, what is required in the first place is courage, and always have.
But there is still a second obstacle. It is precisely when the emotions are stronger that is
more difficult capturing the frame of reference of another person or group. However, it is at this
moment that this attitude is more necessary, if we want to establish the communication. We do
not, through our experience in psychotherapy, it is an insurmountable obstacle. A third party, that
will be able to suspend their own reactions and judgments of value, can provide a great help to
hear comprehensively each of individuals or groups and clarify the perspectives and attitudes
that each takes. We discovered that this was very effective in small groups where there were
attitudes opposing or contradictory. When the parties to a dispute if they realize they are being
understood, that someone sees as the situation appears for each one of them, the statements
take less exaggerated and less defensive, and it is no longer necessary to maintain this attitude
of "I'm 100% right and you are 100% wrong". The influence of an approach of this kind,
understanding the situation, plays a key role as a catalyst in the group and allows its members
to ever closer the objective truth implied in the relationship. It is in this way that establishes the
mutual communication and if takes much more possible a particular type of agreement. We can
therefore say that, although the intensity of emotions become much more difficult understand an
opponent, our experience clearly shows that a certain type of moderator or a therapist, neutral,
comprehensive and with the role of a catalyst, can overcome this obstacle in a small group.
This last statement, however, suggests another obstacle in employment of the approach
that I have described. So far, our experience was made with small groups - groups that were
demonstrating professional tensions, religious, racial, and therapy groups where there was a
large number of personal tensions. In these small groups, our experience, confirmed by a
limited number of investigations, shows that an empathetic approach causes a greater
acceptance of one another and contributes to attitudes that are more positive and more
susceptible to lead to solutions. There is a decrease in the attitude of defense, the exaggeration
of the claims in the behavior lover and critical. But these results were obtained with small
groups. How can we seek to extend the understanding between larger groups, geographically
distant? Or between groups that face and that does not speak for themselves, but simply as
representatives of others, such as the delegation of the United Nations? Frankly, we have no
answer to these questions. I believe that the situation could be addressed as follows: as social
scientists, we have a temporary solution to the problem of the breakdown of communication. To
confirm, however, the validity of this solution and to take it to the enormous problems of broken
communication between classes, groups and nations, require-if-ami complementary resources,
investigations on a much larger scale and a creative thinking of highest level.

But, even with the limitations of our current knowledge, we can see some of the steps
that should be taken, even in large groups, to increase the capacity to listen and to reduce the
number of value judgments on. Using the imagination, imagine for a moment that a group
interrfcioial, therapeutically oriented, found the Russian leaders and to say: "We want to have an
authentic understanding of their points of view and, more importantly , his sentiments and
attitudes in relation to the United States. We will condense and summarize these points of view
and these feelings, if necessary until you will agree that our description represents the situation
as you see it". Suppose then that they would do the same with the leaders of our country. If it
were given greater dissemination to these points of view and these attitudes, clearly expressed,
but without insults, is not a major effect? This would not provide the type of understanding that I
have tried to sketch out but it would be much more feasible. We can understand more
appropriately the feelings of a person who hated us when their attitudes are carefully described
by a third person neutral, than when looking at us in clenched fists.
But describe a first attempt of this kind is to suggest another obstacle to this method of
understanding. Our civilization has not yet believes sufficiently in the sciences os ciai in order to
use their results. The reverse is true for the physical sciences. During the war, when in
laboratories if found a solution to the problem of synthetic rubber, spent millions of dollars and
an army of talents to discover the possibility of applying this solution. If the synthetic rubber
could be produced in milligrams, could come to be, and was produced in thousands of tonnes.
In the field of social sciences, however, if it has found a way of facilitated communication and
mutual understanding in small groups, there is no guarantee that it will be possible to use this
finding. You can spend a generation or more, before the money and the brains exploit these
discoveries.
Finally, I would like to summarize this solution on a small scale, to the problem of barriers
to communication and emphasize some of its characteristics.
I said that our investigations and our experiences have proved so far that can avoid
breaks in the communication and the tendency to judge, which is the barrier more important for
the communication. The solution is provided by the creation of a situation in which each of the
parties to reach understanding of the other, from the point of view of the other . This can be
achieved in practice, even when the feelings are intense, through the influence of a person who
seeks to understand each of the points of view with empathy and that, in this case, it acts as a
catalyst to precipitate a further understanding. The process has important characteristics. Can
be initiated by one of the parties without the other is ready. You can even be initiated by a third
party neutral, since that has a minimum guarantee of cooperation of each of the opposing
parties.
This process can bump with lack of sincerity, with exaggerations defensive, with lies, with
"facades" that characterize the most failures of communication. These distortions defensive end
by themselves with a rapidity astonishing, when people understand that the only objective is to
understand and nãojulgar. This approach leads regularly and quickly to the discovery of the
truth, a realistic appraisal of objective barriers to communication. The abandonment of a certain
spirit of defense by one of the parties leads to an abandonment of this same spirit by the other
party, and the truth is addressed more closely.
This process gradually leading to a mutual understanding. The mutual communication
tends to incline toward the solution of problems, instead of being directed to the attack of people
or groups. It leads to a situation in which I see as the problem appears to others, and as if I
appears, and the others see as it appears to me, as it appears to them. Defined in this way, with
accuracy and realism, it is almost certain that the problem will be dealt with in an intelligent way,
or if it is in part insoluble, will be quietly accepted as such.
It seems to be a trial solution for the ruptures of communication reported in small groups.
It will be possible to consider the answer given in this small scale, investigate it in greater depth,
drafting it, develop it and apply it to tragic failures of communication, and almost fatal, which

threaten the very existence of the contemporary world? My opinion is that this is a possibility
and a challenge that we should explore.
Chapter 18
A provisional formulation of a general law of interpersonal relations
During one of the last summers, reflecting on a theoretical problem that was chasing
me." it would be possible to formulate a single hypothesis, the elements that make any
relationship more facilitator of growth or that, on the contrary, the hamper? I wrote some
notes brief for my personal use and I had after an opportunity to submit them to a working group
and a few dirigintes company, during a conjárencia. It seemed to me that the theme was
interesting to everyone, but especially enthused about the leaders of industries that have
discussed the pros and cons of problems such as these." relations between super- visors and
operate rivers, between the staff and the direction, training managers, interpersonal relations in
level of direction.
I consider this chapter a simple attempt, and I am not entirely sure that is appropriate. I
am, however, because many of those who read it found it stimulating and because its
publication can inspire research studies that begin approve its validity.
I asked many times to myself as it is that our discoveries in the field of psychotherapy
could be applied to human relations in general. In recent years, reflecting quite on this issue,
seeking to establish a theory of interpersonal relations as part of a broader framework of the
theory of therapy focused on the customer (1, section IV). This article seeks to expose in a
somewhat different way, one of the aspects of this theory. Examines the order underlying all
human relations, an order that determines when it is that the relationship is in the direction of
growth, improvement, openness and maturity of individuals or, on the contrary, where it
contributes to the inhibition of the psychological development, for the formation of defensive
attitudes and to the lifting of barriers to both parties.
The concept of congruence
As a key point of all that I can say is the concept of congruence. This concept was
developed to define a group of phenomena that are important in therapy and in toi.as subjective
interactions. I will try to define it.
Congruence was the term that we use to indicate a match more appropriate between the
experience and the conscience. It may also be extended to the adequacy between the
experience, awareness, and communication. It may be enlightening to example of what is
happening with a child of the sub-frame. If the child has an experience of hunger a physiological
level and visceral, his conscience is manifested as adapted to this experience and the
communication is also consistent with their experience. The child is hungry and is not satisfied,
and this is true for it at all levels. At this moment, it integrates or unifies in fact "hungry". On the
other hand, if you are satisfied and happy, it is also a congruence unified, identical in visceral
level, the level of awareness and the level of communication. It is a unified person in all aspects,
both consider their experience in physiological level, at the level of either awareness or
communication. Probably, one of the reasons why many people are attracted to the children is
that they are so entirely true, integrated or congruent. If a child expresses affection, zanga,
contentment or fear, no doubt that it is that experience, in all its aspects. The child is afraid, or
likes a thing, hunger or any other reaction in a transparent manner.
To find an example of inconsistency we have to look for someone who has passed the
stage of inffincia. We could cite the example easy to identify the man who exalts himself in a

group discussion. The face crowded, the tone of voice translates the irritation, with the finger
threatens the opponent. However, if a friend tells him: "Now, don't exaltes because of this," he
responds with a sincerity and a surprise evident: "But I'm not exalted! I am not angry about
nothing. I shall confine myself to pointing out the logical facts!" The other members of the group
laugh of this declaration.
That is what happens in this case? It seems clear that, on a physiological level, this
individual experience irritation. This experience of irritation is not captured by conscience.
Consciously, he is not angry, nor communicates its irritation (at least with awareness). Here is a
real mismatch between the experience and the awareness and between the experience and the
communication.
Another point that should be emphasized in the example above is that the communication
takes in fact ambiguous and unclear. The words, there is a logical statement of the facts. In the
tone of voice and gestures that accompany it, sends a different message: "I'm angry with you." I
think that this ambiguity or contradiction of the communication is always present when a person
who is, at any given moment, incongruous attempts to enter into communication.
The following example illustrates yet another facet of the inconsistency. The individual is
not competent judge in relation to its own degree of congruence. It is for this reason that the
laughter of the group indicates a clear consensus judicative mistake that the individual is
exalted, and the think or not. This, however, from the point of view of his own conscience, it is
not true. In other words, it appears that the degree of congruence cannot be appreciated by the
person at that moment. We cannot make progress in order to calculate this degree from a frame
of reference pool. We are also very knowledgeable about the inconsistency from the own
capacity of person to recognize their own inconsistency in relation to past experiences.
Therefore, if the individual that we take as an example was in therapy could return to an incident
of this kind, and in the safety of the therapeutic session, say: "Now I understand how I felt angry
with him, even though at that time I thought the contrary". Eventually recognize that their
defensive attitude at this moment the stifling to realize their irritation.
Another example will illustrate a new aspect of the inconsistency. Ms. Brown, .xq badly
disguised himself the yawns and looked to the clock constantly, from bows out of the one who
called him, saying: "I really enjoyed being here. It was a very pleasant evening!" In this case,
the inconsistency is not established between the experience and the conscience. Ms. Brown is
well aware of being boring. The incongruity is recorded between the conscience and the
communication. It should, therefore, be noted that, when there is a mismatch between the
experience and the conscience, is generally applied in an attitude of defense or a refusal of the
conscience. When the mismatch is between the conscience and the communication, it is usually
in falsehood or duplicity.
There is an important corollary to the concept of congruence that is not absolutely clear.
You can formulate it as follows : if an individual is at a given point in time, fully coherent, its
physiological experience can be adequately represented in the conscience and the
communication will be as this awareness, never including, therefore, the expression of a fact
outside. If an individual is congruent does not say "this rock is tough", "he is stupid", "you are
bad", "she is intelligent". The reason why we never make statements of this kind lies in the fact
that their experience never be "facts" of this type. The awareness as to the experience will be
expressed as feelings, perceptions, meanings derived from a framework of internal reference. I
never know if this individual is stupid or if you are bad. I am only able to grasp that I am arises
in this way. Also, speaking in the strict sense of the term, I do not know if the rock is hard, even
if you are sure that the above as if it were falling on top of it (and even in that case I can allow
the physicist to see how a mass very permeable to atoms and molecules at high speed). If a
person is deeply congruent, it is clear that all of your communication is necessarily l997 in the
context of self-perception. This fact has very important implications.
I could mention in parenthesis that the fact of a person always speak in the context of
self-perception does not necessarily imply congruence, because any mode of expression can

be used as a typical attitude of defense. Therefore, a person in a certain moment of
congruence, communicates necessarily your perceptions and feelings as such, and not as facts
about another person or on the outside world. However, the reverse is not necessarily true.
I said perhaps enough to indicate that the concept of congruence is relatively complex,
with a number of characteristics and implications. This concept is not easily definable in
operational terms, although if they have completed some studies, and others are currently in
progress, which provide operational indicators of what is experienced, as distinct from the
awareness of this experience. It is believed that they are possible elaborations more depth.
To complete our definition of this concept in a way that is easily understandable, I believe
that sludge tend to recognize the congruence or incongruence in the individuals with whom we
have enjoyed. With some individuals, we understand that, in most of your activity, not just
translate aware- mind your thoughts, but also express their deepest feelings, whether they are
reactions of cholera or and rivalry, affection or collaboration. We felt then that "we know exactly
where that person is". With another individual, we recognize that what he is saying is almost
certainly a facade, a mask. We wonder what he really feels. We wonder if he knows what you're
feeling. We tend to be wary and be cautious with an individual in the genre.
It is clear, therefore, that individuals differ in their degree of congruence and that in the
same individual this degree is variable according to the moments, degree depends on what is
experiencing, and their attitude to accept consciously to their experience or to defend it.
Connections between the matching and communication in interpersonal relations

1.
2.

3.

4.

5.

6.
7.

It is possible that the meaning of the concept of coherence in the field of personal
interactions can be more easily recognized from some propositions about two hypothetical
people, Smith and Jones.
Any communication of Smith Jones is marked by the degree of relative congruence that exists
in Smith. This is clear from what has been said above.
The greater the congruence of experience, awareness and communication in Smith, more easily
Jones feel this communication as well as clear. I think that this has been clearly explained. If all
the information supplied by language, by tone of voice and gestures are unified due to the fact
that they derive from coherence and unity that exists in Smith, then it is much less likely that
these indications have a meaning ambiguous or unclear for Jones.
Therefore, the more clear is the communication of Smith, best Jones responds with clarity. This
simply means that, although Jones can be absolutely incongruous in their experience of the
matter, your response will be at least more clarity and coherence of the if it were considered
ambiguous communication of Smith.
The more Smith is consistent in relation to the matter that is in communication, less defenses
will create in this field, and will be more able to hear properly what Jones communicates in
response. In other words, Smith expressed that genuinely felt. It is, therefore, more free to listen
to. How much less present a facade to defend, the more it will be able to hear properly what
Jones is communicating.
In this phase, Jones feels understood empaticamente. He feels that, in so far as expressed
himself (either a defensive manner, whether it be in a way congruent), Smith understood it
almost as if you were seeing himself and in his own way of apprehending the problem under
discussion.
For Jones, feel understood is experiencing a positive consideration in relation to Smith. Feel
understood is to feel that if they have any importance in positive experience of another person,
in this case of Smith.
But to the extent that Jones: (a) experience Smith as congruent or integrated in the relationship;
(b) experience Smith as having in relation to him a positive consideration; e) experience that
Smith understood empaticamente; this same measure are laid down the conditions of the
therapeutic relationship.

I tried, in another article (2), describe the conditions that our experience as necessary
and sufficient to carry out the therapy, not repeating it here.
8. To the extent that Jones experience these characteristics of a therapeutic relationship, he finds
himself experiencing less barriers to communication. Thus tends to communicate himself as is.
more congruent. Little by little, reduce their defensive attitudes.
9. Jones, having communicated more freely, with less defensive attitudes, is now able to hear
properly, without need of a defensive distortion, the following communication of Smith. This is a
repeat of stage 4, but now in terms of Jones.
10. To the extent that Jones is able to hear, Smith begins to feel understood empaticamente (as in
stage 5 in relation to Jones); experience the positive consideration of Jones (parallel to the b
phase); and we discover the experience the relationship as therapy (in a similar way to what
was happening in phase 7). Loo,-,S * nith and Jones was taken to some extent, mutually
therapeutic one for the other.
11. This means, within certain limits, that the therapeutic process in both and that the results of this
therapy if surface in each one of them in the same measure; there is a change of personality in
the direction of greater unity and integration; reduce the conflicts and frees more usable energy
in a life effective; registers if a modification in behavior toward a greater maturity.
12. The restrictive element in this chain of events seems to be the introduction of material
threatening. Therefore, if Jones, in phase 3, includes in its reply more congruent new elements
that are outside the domain of the congruence of Smith, referring to an area in which Smith is
incongruous, in this case it may happen that Smith won't be able to listen to applica- tion, which
prevents you from hearing what Jones communicates, and respond with an ambiguous
communication, leading the entire process described by the previous phases to follow the
opposite direction.
What are the implications for the life? A provisional formulation of a general law
Considering everything that has been said before, it is possible to formulate a more
summarized a general principle. This is the attempt of formulation: Assuming (a) a minimum of
good will on the part of two people to establish contact; (b) a capacity and a minimum level of
goodwill on the part of each one of these people to receive the communication of the other; and
(c) assuming that the contact is maintained for a certain period of time, it can be accepted as
true for the following hypothetical: The greater the congruence of experience, awareness and
communication on the part of an individual, the more the relationship originated will entail: a
tendency for a reciprocal communication characterized by a growing congruence; a tendency
toward mutual understanding better the communication; an improvement of psychological
adaptation and the operation of both parties; Satisfaction of both parties in the relationship.
Conversely, the greater the inconsistency reported experience and conscience, more
relations thus originated involve: subsequent communications with the same characteristics;
disintegration of proper understanding; functioning and psychological adaptation less adapted in
both parties; dissatisfaction in reciprocal relationship.
With a more formal accuracy would be possible to formulate this general law in order to
show that the perception of the receiver of the communication is crucial. We could then make
the hypothetical law in the following terms, assuming the same prior conditions, such as the
goodwill in contact, etc.
The more Y feel the communication of X as congruence of experience, awareness and
communication, and the relationship that hence involve: (etc. , as indicated above).
The "law" as worded becomes a hypothesis susceptible to be put to the test,
since Moreover by Y the communication of X should not be difficult to measure.
The existential choice

I would like to indicate, although very quickly, another aspect of the matter, something
that is often very real in therapeutic relationship, as well as in other relationships, but which
nevertheless is perhaps less noticed.
In particular, both the client and the therapist often face the existential choice: "I would
have courage to communicate fully the degree of congruence that I feel? Dare to match my
experience, awareness of this experience and its communication? Have courage to inform me
as I am, or should my communication be more reduced or diferenteT importance of this
question lies in the possibility, often strongly perceived, threat or rejection. Communicate fully its
own awareness of relevant experience is a risk in interpersonal relations. It seems to me that is
the fact of whether or not this risk that determines when a relationship becomes increasingly
mutually therapeutic or when following a disruptive direction.
In other words, I cannot decide when is that my conscience will be congruent with my
experience. The answer to this question will be given by my need for defense and that I am not
aware. There is, however, an existential choice permanent, according to which my
communication will be congruent with the awareness that I am what I am experiencing. In this
option, each time in a relationship can settle the question of whether the relationship will in one
form or another in the directions indicated, in accordance with the law that we formulated as a
hypothesis.
References
1 . Rogers, - CARI R. - "The theory of therapy, personality and accurately relationships", in
Koch,
S. (Ed. ), Psvchologv: The Study of the Science, vol. III, New York, Mc Graw-Hill , 1959, pp.
184-256. 2 . Rogers, - CARI R. "The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic
personality change", 1 Consult. Psvchol., 2), pp. 95-103.
Chapter 19
For a theory of creativity
In December 1952, the University of the State of Ohio invited, for a symposium on
creativity, representatives of different branches of art, literature, visual arts, dance, másica, as
well as educators in these different fields. Were also invited other people interested in creative
process: /ulóso/to, psychiatrists and psychologists. The meeting was lively and enriching, during
which I wrote some notes on the creativity and the elements that develop. This chapter is a
more detailed analysis of these notes.
Delivery of the assertion that there is a social need desperate behavior creator on the
part of creative individuals. It is this need that justifies the attempt of a theory of creativity the
nature of act criativoas conditions under which this can occur and how it can be constructively
developed. Such a theory can servt of stimulus and guidance for research studies in this field.
The social need
The most serious criticism made to our culture and the directions that she follows can be
summarised as follows: lack of creativity. Let us briefly consider some aspects of this shortage:
In education, we tend to form individuals conformist, stereotyped, whose education is
"complete", instead of think- pain freely creative and original.
At our leisure, distractions passive and organized collectively overwhelmingly
predominate on the creative activities.

In the sciences, there are plenty of technicians, but the number of those who can actually
formulate hypotheses and theories fruitful is, on the contrary, reduced.
In industry, the creation of which is reserved for those who - the director, the designer, the
head of the research department -. while, for most individuals, the life is devoid of any effort or
original creator.
In family life and individual, today, we are faced with the same table. The clothes that we
wear, the food we eat, in the books that we read and the ideas that we have expressed, there is
a strong tendency to conformism, to the stereotype. Be original, be different, is considered to be
"dangerous".
But why do we have to worry about it? If, as a people, we prefer the conformism to
creativity, we cannot make this choice? In my opinion, a choice of these would be entirely
reasonable if there was not a shade that picks up the all. In an era in which knowledge,
constructive and destructive, advancing to giant steps for an atomic was fantastic, the
adaptation authentically creative seems to be the only possibility that man has to maintain the
level of mutations caleidoscópicas your world. Before the discoveries and inventions that grow
in geometric progression, a people passive and traditional cannot cope with the multitude of
issues and problems. The least that the individuals, groups, and nations are able to imagine, to
build and to review a form creative new ways to establish relationships with these complex
mutations, the shadows will continue growing. The least that the man can perform an adaptation
new and original to your environment, as soon as their science change this environment, our
culture is in danger of perishing. It is not only the personal about disorders or tensions of group
that will represent the price we will pay for this lack of creativity, but the annihilation of nations.
Therefore, it seems to me that the research on the process of creativity, on the conditions
under which this process occurs, on the ways in which it can be made easier, are of the utmost
importance.
It is with the hope to suggest a conceptual framework in which such investigations can
continue to offer the following reflections.
The creative process
There are several ways to define creativity. In order to clarify the meaning of what follows,
I will present the elements that, in my view, are part of the creative process, then attempt to
formulate a definition.
Firstly, as a scientist, I believe that there must be something observable, anything
produced by creation. Although my fantasies can be extremely original, cannot be defined as
creative, not be leading to a noticeable result - unless they are symbolized in words, written in a
poem, translated into a work of art or treated as an invention.
The results must be new construction. The novelty comes from the qualities extremely
personal of the individual in their interaction with the materials provided by the experience.
Creativity is always the mark of the individual on the product, but the product is not the
individual, nor their materials, but the result of their relationship.
Creativity is not in my view, restricted to a given content. I think that there is a
fundamental difference between the creative process, as it appears in the action of painting a
picture, composing a symphony, inventing new instruments to kill, to develop a scientific theory,
discover new ways to human relations or create new processes to develop the personality of an
individual as the psychotherapy (was, in fact, from my experience in this field, more than in any
of the arts, which arose my special interest for creativity and the elements that make it easier.
The intimate knowledge of how the individual recasts himself in therapeutic relationship, with
originality and with an effective dexterity, inspires in us a confidence in creative potential of all
individuals).

Therefore, my definition of the creative process is that it's the emergency action in a new
product that relational pro comes the unique nature of the individual on the one hand, and of the
materials, acontecimos, people or circumstances of his life, on the other.
I have to add some negative comments to this definition. It does not make a distinction
between "good" and "bad" creativity. A man can find a way to alleviate the pain, while
another invents new forms and more subtle of torturing political prisoners. Both actions seem to
me creative, although their social value is very different. I will comment on later these valuations
about social, which I avoided include in my definition for being too floating. Galileo and
Copemico made discoveries that creative, in his time, were considered evil and immoral, but
that in our days are taken as fundamental and constructive. I would not fill the definition with
terms that depend on subjectivity.
Another way to focus on this problem is pointed out that, in order to be historically
considered as representative of creativity, the product should be acceptable for a particular
group at a given time. This fact does not help us in our definition, because both the valuations
about floating already mentioned, as many products, have never been socially recognized and
disappeared without ever having been assessed. This is the reason why it fails, in our definition,
this acceptance by a group.
In addition, it should be noted that our definition does not distinctions in relation to the
degree of creativity, because this is a value judgment extremely variable. The action of a child
who invents a new game with your comrades, Einstein in formulating a theory of relativity, a
housewife who invents a new recipe for kitchen, a young author who writes his first novel - all
these forms are, according to the terms of our definition, creative and not attempt to classify
them according to their degree of creativity.
The motivation for creativity
The main cause of creativity seems to be the same trend that we have discovered a
profound level as the curative power of psychotherapy the tendency of man to be held to be
their potential. With this I would like to indicate the trend guideline, evident in all organic life and
human, to expand, to extend, to develop and grow - the tendency to express and to put into
action all the capabilities of the body or of the ego. This trend may be deeply buried under
layers of psychological defensive; can hide behind facades elaborated that deny their existence;
I believe, however, based on my experience, that this trend exists in all individuals and is just
waiting for the right conditions to express and manifest. IS this trend a primary motivation of
creativity when the body form new relationships with the environment in an effort to be more
fully himself.
Let us now directly the difficult question of the social value of the creative act. I imagine that few
of us would be interested in facilitating a creativity that is socially destructive. We are not
consciously employ our efforts to develop individuals whose creative genius was always in
search of new and more sophisticated ways to steal, exploit, torture, kill other individuals; or to
develop forms of political organization or forms of art that scream humanity to a self-destruction
physically or psychologically. However, how can we make the necessary discrimination and
encourage a constructive creativity, and non-destructive? The distinction cannot be made
through the analysis of the product. The very essence of creation is its novelty, and hence we
have no standard to judge it. In fact, history shows that the more original the product is, the
more easily your contemporaries judge bad. The authentic creating significant, whether it is an
idea, a work of art or a scientific discovery, is more easily considered the principle as false, bad
or crazy. Later, you may consider as evidence that not rcsita demonstration. Only much later
receives its assessment latest as creative contribution. It is clear that no contemporary can
appreciate satisfactorily a product of creation at the time when it was formed, and this is all the
more true as higher is the novelty of the creation.

Nor does it examine the objectives of the individual who participates in the creative
process. A large number, perhaps the majority, of creations and discoveries that have proved to
be of great social value were motivated by goals that are related more to the personal interest
than with the social value, while, on the other hand, history shows the failure of many creations
(the different utopias, the Dry Law, etc. ) that had as explicit purpose the achievement of a
social good. No: we have to face the fact that the individual creates primarily because it
satisfies, because this behavior is felt as-realization, and this does not allow us to distinguish
the "good" and "bad" goals in the creative process.
Should We abandon the attempt to discriminate the creativity that is potentially
constructive creativity that is potentially destructive? Don't think that it justifies this conclusion
pessimistic. Recent discoveries in the field of psychotherapy lead us to hope. It has been found
that, when the individual is "open" to all his experience ( statement which will be defined more
completely), its behavior will be creative and you can have confidence in their creativity as
essentially constructive.
The differentiation can be expressed very briefly as follows: to the extent that the
individual denies his conscience (or presentation, if you prefer that term) vast areas of their
experience, in which case the creative formations can be pathological, or socially bad, or both.
In so far as the individual is open to all aspects of your experience and acutely aware of the
various sensations and perceptions that register on the inside of your body, then the new
product of its interaction with the environment will tend to be constructive, both for themselves
and for others. To give an example: a person with paranoid tendencies can produce creatively
one of the most new theories about the relationship between itself and the environment, and
sees it as evident in all kinds of small indices. His theory has a social value reduced, perhaps
because there is a huge field of experience that this individual may not allow it to reach its
conscience. Socrates, on the contrary, considered by his contemporaries as "crazy", has
developed new ideas that proved socially constructive. It is very possible that this is due to the
fact that it is remarkably non-defensive and completely open to your experience.
The above reasoning might become more explicit in the following sections of this chapter.
It is based fundamentally on the discovery made in psychotherapy that, when the individual
becomes more open, more aware of all the aspects of their experience, their ability to act in a
way that we classify of socialized. If the individual is able to become aware of his hostile
impulses, as his desire for friendship and acceptance, if it is able to be aware of what society
expects from him, but also of their personal goals, if it is able to take aware of their selfish
desires, but also their concern sensitive by others - then, in that case, your behavior will be
harmonious, integrated, constructive. The more it is open to your experience, the more your
behavior shows that the nature of the human species is tilted in a direction of life socially
constructive.
Internal Conditions of constructive creativity
What are the interior conditions to the individual most closely associated with the
constructive potential of the creative act'? Meeting the following possibilities:
A. Openness to experience: extensionalidade (extensionality). This as a condition is opposed to
psychological defense, when, to protect the organization from i, certain experiments are
prevented from reaching the conscience not be a distorted form. A person open to experience
each stimulus is freely transmitted for the nervous system, without being distorted by any
process of defense. Whether the origin of the stimulus is locate on the surrounding environment,
the impact of the shape, the color or the sound in sensory nerves, whether origine viscera, or as
trace of memory in the central nervous system, this stimulus is accessible to consciousness.
This means that the individual, instead of capturing the reality through predetermined categories
( "trees are green", "university education is good", "modern art is an idiot" ), is aware of this
existential moment as it is, open so many experiences that are beyond the scope of the usual

categories (this tree is lavender; the educaçào this university worth nothing; this modern
sculpture impresses me very much).
This suggests another way to describe the openness to the experience. This openness
implies a loss of stiffness and a permeability greater in concepts, opinions, perceptions and
assumptions. Implies a tolerance to ambiguity when ambiguity exists. Implies a capacity to
receive much contradictory information without close to the experience of the situation. Means
what in general semantics is called the "extensional orientation".
The total opening of the conscience áquilo that exists at a given time is, I believe, an
important condition for constructive creativity. An equally intense, but more limited, is
undoubtedly present in all creativity. The artist deeply inappropriate, that it is not able to
recognize or realize, within himself, the origins of unhappiness, it may nevertheless have a keen
awareness and sensitive of form and color in their experience. The tyrant (in small or largescale) that is not able to admit their own weaknesses, may, however, be fully aware of the
weaknesses in the armor of those with whom he lives with. Due to the fact that opening up to
one of the phases of the experiment, it is possible to creativity; but because the opening
is only in relation to a phase of the experience , the result of this creativity can be potentially
destructive of social values. The more the individual is aware of all the stages of their
experience, more secure may be that your creativity will be personal and socially constructive.
B. An interior center of evaluation. It is possible that the most fundamental of creativity is that this
source or place of value judgments is interior, The value of your product is, for the individual
creative, established, not from the appreciation or criticism of others, but to himself. I created
something that satisfies me ? This is a part of me - my feelings or my way of thinking, my
disgust or my ecstasy? These are the only issues that really concern the individual creative or
any person in a moment of creation.
This is not to say that if you forget or who refuses to realize the judgments of others, but
simply that the basis of assessment lies within himself, in his own organísmica reaction in
relation to the work produced. If the person has the "feeling" of being "i in action", to be a
realization of their potential which until then did not exist and that now emerge in existence, in
this case there is satisfaction and creation and no assessment pool can change this
fundamental fact.
C. The ability to deal with elements and concepts. Although this condition is likely to be less
important than A or B, seems to be a condition of creativity. Associated with the opening and
with the absence of rigidity described in A, this capability can be defined as the dexterity to play
spontaneously with ideas, colors, fonnas, relations - forcing the elements to impossible
juxtapositions, formulating hypotheses inverossímeis, taking problematic given, expressing the
ridiculous, translating a form another, transforming into improváveievalencias. It is from this
spontaneous play and that holding that springs from the spark, the creative vision of life, new
and significant. It is as if the vast waste of thousands of possibilities abundant one or two forms
of evolution with the qualities that give them a more permanent.
The creative act and its concomitant
When these three conditions are met, you can arise a constructive creativity. We cannot,
however, expect an adequate description of the creative act, because it is, by its nature,
indescribable. It is the unknown that we must accept as unknowable until it occurs. It is unlikely
that becomes probable. Only in a very general manner if you can say that the creative act is the
natural behavior of a body that tends to expand when it is open to the entire field of their
experience, be it inside or outside, and when it is free to look for in a flexible manner all types of
relationships. This multitude of possibilities semiformadas, or ganísmo as one big computer,
select one that is an effective response to an inner necessity, or a more effective relationship
with the environment, or to invent a order simpler and more satisfactory in the way of capturing
life.

There is, however, a characteristic of the creative act that cannot be described. In almost
all products of creation we noticed a selectivity, or emphasis, a discipline expresses, an attempt
to capture the essence. The artist painted surfaces or screens in stylised forms, ignoring
variations in detail that there are in fact, The scientist formulates a fundamental law of relations,
bypassing all events or circumstances that could hide his simplicity. The writer chooses words
and phrases that give unity to its expression. We can say that it is the influence of a specific
person, the "i" ( " 1 " ). Is There really a multiplicity of facts confused, but "i" ( " 1" ) I am simply
giving a structure to my relationship with the reality; I have "my" way of apprehending reality,
and this is (unconsciously?) selectivity or abstraction disciplined staff that gives the creative
work to its aesthetic quality.
Although I am not able to go further in the description of aspects of the creative act, there
are some concurrent individual that we can mention. The first could designate itself as the
feeling of Eureca - "is this same! ", "I discovered! ", "this is what I was looking for express! ".
You should quote the anguish of being isolated. Do not believe that there is a large
number of significant products of the creative act that have been formed without the feeling that
"I am only. Nobody has done this before. Frontage a territory never before debauched. Maybe I
am crazy, or wrong, or lost: perhaps is abnormal".
Yet another experience that normally accompanies the creativity is the desire to
communicate. I doubt very much that a person can create without wanting to show their
creation. It is the only way to soothe the anguish from the insulation and ensure himself that
belongs to the group. The individual can entrust their theories only to your daily special. Can
translate their discoveries in a secret code. You can hide your poems in a drawer closed. You
can save your tables in a cupboard. However, you want to communicate with a group that
understands, even if it is forced to imagine such a group. The individual does not create with the
purpose of communicating, but, once the creative act, seeks to share with others this new
aspect of self-as-with-the-environment.
Conditions for the development of constructive creativity
Until now oçwei describe the nature of creativity, indicate the quality of individual
experience that extends the capability of constructive creativity, establish the conditions of the
creative act and some of its concomitant. But, in order to make progress in the direction of the
social need with that initially we encounter, we have to see if it is possible to develop
the constructive creativity and, if so, in what way.
Due to the very nature of interior conditions of creativity, it is clear that you cannot force,
but enable them to the emergency. The husbandman cannot give birth to plant the seed; it can
only give you the supply conditions that allow the seed germinate and develop all their potential.
The same is true with the creativity. How can we establish the external conditions that will
germinate and develop the internal conditions described above? My experience in
psychotherapy makes me believe that the psychological conditions of security and freedom that
makes the highest degree the emergence of constructive creativity. I would like to focus a little
on these conditions, designating them by X and Y.
X. Psychological Security
This can be achieved through three processes associated with:
1. Acceptance of the individual as an unconditional value. Whenever a teacher, a father, a
therapist or any other person with a role to facilitate the growth feels that the individual is
a specific value and original, whatever its condition present or his behavior, is
encouraging creativity. Probably, this attitude may be authentic only when the teacher,
the father, etc. , realize the potential of the individual and is, therefore, able to have a
blind faith in him, without import with your present status.

The effect on the individual that apprehends this attitude is to take you to make you feel
like you are in a climate of security. He gradually learns that can truly be what is, without mask
or facade, since it is known as value, whatever you do. Do You Feel less need for rigidity, you
can discover what it means to be himself, can try to fulfill himself in new ways volunteer. In other
words, is at the creativity.
2. Establish a climate in which the external evaluation is missing. When we make
judgments about another person from our own assessment center, we are favoring the
creativity. It is an extraordinary release to the individual find himself in an atmosphere
that is not judged or measured according to a standard pool. The evaluation is always a
threat, always creates a need for defense, always means that a certain part of the
experience must be denied to awareness. If the work produced is judged as good second
external criteria, it is very difficult I can admit that I do not like it. If what I'm doing is bad
according to a standard pool, then I must not be aware of the fact that this seems to me
to be a part of myself. If the judgments based on external criteria are not, however,
remarks, I can be more open to my own experience, I can recognize my own preferences
and dislikes, the nature of the materials and my reaction to them from a broader
perspective and refined. I am able to begin to see the center of assessments within
myself. Once again, I am forwarding to creativity.
To remove any doubts or fears on the part of the player, I must observe that fail to
evaluate the other is not obliged to react. In fact, it is even possible that this attitude release
reactions: "I do not like your idea" (or painting, invention, Article); this is not a judgment, it is a
reaction. AND this reaction is of a subtle difference, but profound, in relation to the following
judgment: "what you are doing is bad (or good) and this quality is assigned to you from a point
outside." The first statement allows the individual keep its own center of avaliaão. 'la does not
exclude the possibility that it is I who cannot appreciate something that is really very good. The
second statement, either praise or condemn, tends to put the person at the mercy of external
forces. He says to her that he cannot ask simply if the work is a valid expression of itself; the
individual must worry about what other people think. Is thus being away from creativity.
3. An empathetic understanding. It is this understanding that, associated with the two
previous conditions, provides full psychological security. If it relates to an individual that
the "accepted" without knowing nothing about it, it is an acceptance empty, and he
understands that I can change my mind if you come to know him. But if the understand
empaticamente, seeing it, and assuming your own point of view to understand their
feelings and their acts, entering your private world to see him as he sees himself - and
even so accepting it -, then the individual feels safe. In this climate, it can allow your i-real
emerge and which is expressed in new and varied ways in its relations with the world.
This favors deeply to creativity.
Y. Psychological Freedom
When a teacher, a father or a mother. a therapist or any other person whose role is to
facilitate the growth allows the individual a full freedom of symbolic expression, is encouraging
creativity. This freedom allows the individual a vast horizon for thinking, feeling, being what it is
in your world more intimate. This freedom favors the opening and the spontaneous play of
associate perceptions, concepts and meanings, which is a part of creativity.
Note that this is a complete freedom of symbolic expression that described here. Not in all
circumstances is liberating the fact of expressing themselves in behavior all feelings, impulses
and forms. The behavior may be limited in certain circumstances by society, and so it should be.
But the symbolic expression does not need to be limited. Therefore, it is liberating destroy a
hated object (either the mother herself, either a edificio rococo) through the destruction of its
symbolic representation. Attack it can in fact lead to a feeling of guilt and restrict the

psychological freedom ( I am not very sure of this paragraph, but it is, at this moment, the best
formulation that i found to frame my experience).
The permissiveness that described here is not a weakness, indulgence or
encouragement. IT IS permission to be free, but it also means that it is responsible. The
individual is free to fear a new experience, as is free to covet it eagerly; free to bear the
consequences of their mistakes and their positive efforts. AND this type of responsible freedom,
allowing an individual be he same, which favors the development of a secure center of
evaluation within the individual and establishing interior conditions of constructive creativity.
Conclusion
I have tried to present methodically some reflections on the creative process, so that
some of the ideas exposed were susceptible to a rigorous demonstration and objective. The
justification for this meeting to formulate this theory and my reasons to trust that this research
can be undertaken reside in the current development of physical sciences, that strictly require of
us, as individuals and as a culture, a creative behavior, an adaptation to our new world, if we
want to survive.

Part seven
The science of behavior and the person
I am a strong fear that the development of the sciences of behavior can be used to
control the individual or to alienó it of his personality. However, it is my belief that these
sciences could be used to highlight the value of the person.
Chapter 20
The growing power of behavioral sciences
At the end of 1955, Professor B. AND Skinne, of Harvard, invited me to participate in a
friendly debate with him in the convention of the American Psychological Association in the
autumn of 1956. He knew that I sustained very divergent opinions regarding the use of scientific
knowledge to shape or control human behavior, and suggested that a debate would be useful to
clarify the issue. Your own point of view basic had been expressed by him to regret the
reluctance of psychologists in jitzerem use of his power "At the moment the psychologists are
curiously hesitant to take control where this is available, or, in the absence of this, to develop it.
In most offices the emphasis is still on psychometrics, and this is due in part to a lack of
willingness to take on the responsibility for control ... In a curious way, we feel compelled to
leave the contr1and active in human behavior to those who jealously even for the purpose of
selfish nature ".
I disagreed with him in the sense that this discussion would serve a useful purpose to
instigate interest around unia important issue. We conducted the debate in September 1956 .
This attracted a large audience and attentive, and as occurs in debates, the majority of the
members without doubt started having confirmed the views that sutentava to join The text of
debate jàipub/jcado in Science, 956, 124, -1066 pp.l057
The meditara about this experience later, my only dissatisfaction resided nojâto that if
this was a debate. Although both Skinner and I had in esjàrçado to avoid discussing only by
discutj, tone, however, was of a nature or this-or what. I felt that the issue was too important to
be taken as a discussion between two people or a simple question black against the white. In
this way, during the following year, I wrote a more extensive, and, I believe, with less propensity

to discussions, my own perceptions of the elements of the problem is made up, and that one
day will be considered as a decision profundanie,j will be for society. The exposure seemed to
unfold naturally into two parts, and these are the two chapters that follow.
Not had a particular plan in mind for the use of these documents when I wrote. I have
made use of them, however, as the basis for lectures in a course on "Contemporary Trends "at
the University of Wisconsin, and, in the last year, I used them as the basis for a presentation of
seminar for faculty and students at the Institute of Technology in California.
The sciences of behavior are in their inffincia. It is, generally, that this aglo.merado of
scientific disciplines including psychology, psychiatry, sociology, social psychology, anthropology
and biology, although sometimes the other social sciences such as economics and political
science are included, as well as mathematics and statistics, which are very much involved as
instrumental disciplines. Even though they are all working to try to understand the behavior of
man and animals, and although the research in these areas is building the great strides, is still
an area in which there are no doubt more confusion than solid knowledge. Careful Scholars in
these areas tend to emphasize the enormity of our scientific ignorance with respect to behavior,
and the scarcity of general laws already discovered. They tend to compare the state of this area
of scholarly commitment to that of physicist, and to observe the relative accuracy of
measurements, the accuracy of predictions, and the elegance and simplicity of laws discovered
in this last area, show-if lived- mind aware of recentidade, of childhood and the immaturity of the
field of behavioral science.
Without in any way denying the veracity of this framework, I believe that sometimes it is
emphasized to the point of making it impossible for the general public will take into account the
other side of the coin. The behavioral science, even though they are in their inffincia, gave
powerful steps toward becoming a science "if-then". This means that has made remarkable
progress in discernment and discovery of relations legitimate so that if certain conditions
exist, then certain behaviors will follow predictably. I believe that very few people are aware of
the extent of the breadth and depth of the advances that have been made in recent decades in
science involves- mental. Fewer still seem to be aware of the profound social problems,
educational, political, economic, ethical and philosophical posed by these advances.
I would like, in this lecture and subsequent, performing multiple purposes. First, I would
like to rehearse, a way impressionist, a framework for increasing capacity of behavioral
sciences to understand, predict and control behavior. Then, to highlight the issues and problems
that such achievements pose for us as individuals and as a society. I would then like to suggest
the attempt of experimental resolution of these problems that have meaning for me.
The "know-how" of behavioral sciences
Try to get an impression of the importance of knowledge in behavioral sciences dipping
here and there to take a look at specific studies and their meanings. I tried choosing illustrations
that would indicate something of the range of jobs that are being carried out. I am limited by the
length of my own knowledge, and I do not pretend that these illustrations represent a sampling
truly random of behavioral sciences. I am sure that the fact of being a psychologist means
having to remove a disproportionate share of examples of that area. I have been prone to select
illustrations that emphasize the prediction and control of potential behavior, instead of those
whose central significance is simply broaden our understanding of qprnportamento. I am quite
aware that the long pro these last studies can provide even more deeply with the prediction and
control, but its relevance to the problems that we are dealing with is not so immediately
obvious.
To provide these samples of our scientific knowledge, seek expressálas in simple terms,
without the various elements qualifiers that are important for a strict accuracy. Each general
statement you make is substantiated by research reasonably adequate, although as all scientific

findings, each statement is an expression of a given degree dc probability, not from some
absolute truth. In addition, each statement is open to modification and correction or even
rebuttal through studies more accurate or more imaginative in the future. Prediction of behavior
Having these factors and selective qualifications in mind, let us examine first some of the
gains in behavioral sciences where the element of prediction is prominent. The default for each
one of these can be generalized as follows: "If an individual has measurable characteristics a,
b, and then we can predict that there is a high probability that displays behavior x, y and z".
In this way, we know how predict, with a considerable accuracy, which students will be
college students well-sticedidos, executives successful, insurance agents successful, and so
on. Do not seek document this assertion, simply due to the fact that the documentation be so
extensive. The whole area of aptitude tests, career tests, personnel selection is involved.
Although the experts in these areas are properly concerned with the degree of inaccuracy in
their predictions, the fact is that we are talking about a large area in which the work of sciences
behavior is accepted by multitudes of industries, universities and other organizations
realistas.Viemos to accept the fact that from an unknown group the behavioral scientist can
select ( with a certain margin of error) those persons who will be datilógrafos, teachers,
archivists or physicist successful.
This area is expanding continuously. Efforts are being made to determine the
characteristics of creative chemical, for example, in contrast to chemical merely successful, and,
although without a remarkable success, efforts were and are being made to determine the
characteristics that identify the psychiatrist and clinical psychologist successful. The science is
advancing strongly in their ability to say that the individual has or not the measurable
characteristics that are associated with a particular type of occupational activity.
We know how predict the success in schools for candidates the military officer and in
performance of combat. To select a study in this field, Williams and Leavitt (31) have found that
they can make predictions satisfactory with respect to the likely success of a sailor in OCS and
in subsequent performance in combat getting notes of their "companions". Also noted that, in
this case, the companions of the soldier were better psychological instruments of which the
objective tests that used. Here we see illustrated not only the use of certain measures to predict
the behavior, but a willingness to use those measures, be they conventional or nonconventional, that show close a predictive power.
We cannot predict how radical or conservative to orient an executive will be. Whyte (30) ,
in his last book, cites this as one of many examples of tests that are in regular use in
companies. Thus, in a group of young executives candidates for promotion, administration can
select those which display (within a margin of error) whatever the degree dç oservadorismo or
radicalism to calculate be beneficial to the company. They may also be based on your selection
in knowledge as to the extent to which each man has a latent hostility in relation to society, or
latent homosexuality, or psychotic tendencies. The tests that confer (or intend to make) such
measures are in use in many companies for the purpose of detailed assessment for selection of
new administration personnel, as also for the purposes of assessment of men who already
occupy administrative positions, in order to choose those to whom shall be delegated more
responsibility.
We know how predict which members of an organization will be unruly and/or criminals. A
young psychologist promising (10) had prepared a short test, simple, pencil and paper, which
had shown a high degree of accuracy in predicting which of the employees hired by a
department store will be unreliable, dishonest or otherwise difficult. He says that it is well
quartering method should be used where applicable identify, with considerable accuracy, the
rioters in potential in any organized group. This ability to identify those who cau will expire
problems is with respect to technical issues, simply an extension of the knowledge that we have
of the prediction in other fields. From a scientific point of view, this is no different to predict who
will be a good composer.

We know that a competent official, using a combination of notes, test and actuarial
tables, can provide us with a framework better predictive the personality and behavior of a
person, an experienced clinician. Paul Meehl (18) showed that we are sufficiently advanced in
our development of personality tests, and in information accumulated through these test, for
which the intuitive ability and the knowledge, experience and training large show a little
unnecessary in the production of descriptions of personality accurate. Showed that in many
situations in which they are being made diagnoses of personality - clinical mental hygiene
hospitals, veterans, psychiatric hospitals and so on, it is a waste of time to make use of
professional staff well trained to perform diagnostics of personality by means of application of
tests, interviews and so on. Showed that an employee can do so better, with only a minimum of
impersonal contact with the patient. First a number of tests must be administered and
evaluated. Then the profile of the notes must be compared with tables amariais prepared on the
basis of a hundred cases, and a description and accurate predictor of personality would arise, it
shall be incumbent upon the employee simply note the combination of characteristics that had
been found to be statistically correlated to this configuration of notes.
Meehl is here simply outdo the next logical step in the development of current
psychological instruments for the measurement, assessment and evaluation of human
characteristics, and the prediction of certain patterns of behavior based on those measures. In
fact, there is no reason for which the employee of Meehl is also eliminated. With the coded
instructions correctly there is no reason why a computer cannot evaluate the tests, analyze the
profiles and to propose a framework even more accurate of the person and their predicted
behavior, than a human employee.
We can select those people who are easily persuaded, that youngster to the pressures of
the group, or those who do not surrender. Two separate studies however compatible (15,16)
have shown that individuals who exhibit certain themes of dependency in their responses to the
pictures of the Test of Moreover Theme, or that, in another test, show evidence of feelings of
social inadequacy, inhibition of aggression and depressive tendencies, will be easily persuaded,
or surrender to the pressure of the group. These small studies are not dc any way definitive, but
there is every reason to suppose that its basic assumption is correct and that these and other
measures will be refined a accurate prediction of States dçm group that will be easily
persuaded, and those where not succumb even the pressures of groups very strong.
We can predict from the way individuals perceive the movement of a point of light in a
dark room, if they tend to be biased or not. There has been much study on the ctnocentrismo, a
trend toward a distinction disseminated and rigid between groups who share the same traits and
those that do not, and there is a hostility to outside groups and a submissiva attitude with
respect to personal groups, as well as belief in the integrity of same. One of the theories that
has developed is that the more ethnicity a person is, the more will be unable to tolerate
ambiguity and uncertainty in a situation. Working on this theory, Block and Block (5) asked the
patients were asked about the degree of movement that they perceived in a faint point of light in
a room completely dark. (In fact, no movement occurs, but almost all individuals perceive
movement in this situation). Also applied in these patients a test of ethnocentrism. It was found,
as expected, that those who, in successive tests, quickly established a standard for the amount
of movement that realized, tended to be more ethnocentric than those whose estimates of
movement continued to show variety.
This study was repeated, with slight variations, in Australia (28), and the findings were
reiterated and expanded. It was found that the individuals more ethnocentric were less able to
tolerate ambiguity, and saw less movement than the non-biased. Also were more dependent on
others and to log their estimates in the company of another person, tended to conform himself
to the judgment on this.
In this way, it would not be too much to say that looking at the way in which individuals
perceive the movement of a dim light in a dark room, we are well aware of how this is a rigid
one, prejudiced and ethnocentric.

This patchwork of illustrations of the capacity of behavioral sciences to predict behavior,
and, thus, of select individuals that display certain behaviors can be considered simply as the
application germinante of a growing field of science. However, what these illustrations suggest
may cause a certain shiver of apprehension. The thoughtful person cannot fail to take account
of the developments that I have described are only at its beginning. You cannot fail to see that if
instruments more highly developed are in the hands of an individual or group, together with the
power to use them, the social implications and philosophical are breathtaking. You can begin to
see why a scientist as von Bertanfly warns: "In addition to the threat of technology physicist the
dangers of supporting psychological are frequently ignored" (3).
Conditions followed by specific behaviors in groups
However, before we stretched out in this social problem, let's go to another area of
behavioral sciences, and again take a sampling of studies illustrative.
This time, let us consider some researches that show potential to control groups. In this
area we are interested in research whose findings belong to this standard: "If the conditions
a, b and c exist or are established in a group, then there is a high probability that these
conditions are followed by behavior x, y and z."
We know how to deliver conditions in a group of work, whether in industry or in
education, which will be followed by a productivity, originality and moral ever higher. Studies of
Coch and French (7), of Nagle (19) and Katz, Macoby and Morse (17) show in general that
when the workers of the industry involved in the planning and decision-making, when
supervisors are sensitive to attitudes of the same, and when supervision is not suspect or
authoritarian, the production and the morale boost. Conversely, we know how to deliver the
conditions that lead ba productivity and low morale, since the inverse conditions produce an
opposite effect.
We know how to establish, in any group, the conditions of leadership that will be safety
comings of personality development in members of a group, as well as an increase in
productivity, originality and greater team spirit. In groups as diverse as a brief i'orkshop in a
university or a facility that performs distribution of functions, Gordon (9) and Richard (22)
showed that where the leader or leaders sustains attitudes that are customarily taken as
therapeutics, the results are good. In other words, if the leader is electron transfer, both of the
feelings of the members of this group in terms of their own feelings; if it is comprehensive, with
each other in a way substantially empathetic; if allows and encourages free discussion; if
delegates responsibility to the group, then there is evidence of growth of personality on the
group members and the group works more effectively, with greater creativity and better spirit.
We know how to establish conditions that will result in a psychological inflexibility
increasing in members of a group.
Beier (2), in a careful study, took two groups combined students and measured various
aspects of its capacities, particularly abstract reasoning. Every one of the students of a group
was then given an analysis of his personality based on Rorschach test. Next to this, both groups
were reassessed as to its capabilities. The group that had received an assessment of their
abilities showed a decrease in flexibility and a significant reduction in the capacity to continue to
have an abstract reasoning. Became more rigid, anxious and disorganized in his thinking, in
contrast to the control group.
It would be tempting it should be noted that this evaluation - experienced by the group as
somewhat threatening looks very similar to many assessments performed in our schools and
universities under the guise of education. What concerns us at the moment is that we know how
to establish the conditions that contribute to the operation less effective in intellectual tasks
complex.
We know well how to establish conditions that will influence the responses of consumers
and/or public opinion. I believe that this does not need to be documented with studies of

research. It is only the reader refer to advertisements on any magazine, the deception of TV
programs and their classifications TrendX, firms of experts in public relations, and the upward
trend in sales of any company that has a series of advertisements as well planned.
We know how to influence the buyer behavior of individuals to establish conditions that
provide satisfaction of needs of which they are not aware, but we have been able to
determine. It has been demonstrated that some women who don't buy instant coffee grounds
not "thrill of its flavor", in truth not appreciate at a subconscious level by this be associated with
the fact that they are poor housewives - lazy and wasteful (11). This type of study, based on the
use of projective techniques and interviews "depth", led the sales campaigns that are based on
appeals to unconscious motives of the individual - their sexual desires, aggressive or
dependency unknown, or, as in this case, the desire for approval. These illustrative studies
indicate something of our potential ability to influence and control the behavior of groups. If we
have the power or authority to establish the necessary conditions, the behavior referred to
follow. There is no doubt that both the studies and the methods are, at the present moment,
crus, but other more refined certainly will develop.

Conditions followed by especjficos behaviors in individuals
Perhaps even more impressive that our knowledge of grup s knowledge that has been
accumulated in behavioral sciences regarding the conditions to be followed by types of behavior
specific to the individual. AND the possibility of scientific prediction and control of individual
behavior that most closely matches the interests of each one of us. Again let us look at some
scattered portions of this type of knowledge. We know how to establish the conditions under
which many individuals declare as true, trials that are contrary to the evidence of their
senses. Refer, for example, that the Figure covers a larger area than the Figure B, when the
evidence of their senses indicates clearly that the reverse is true. Experiments by Asch (1),
subsequently refined and perfected by Crutchfield (8) shows that when a person is brought to
believe that everyone in the group see as greater than B, then it presents a strong tendency to
agree with this trial, and in many cases the causes a true belief in this false report.
Not only can we predict that a certain percentage of individuals will thus succumb and be
wary of your own senses, such as Crutchfield has determined the attributes of personality of
those that do, and, by means of procedures for selection, it would be able to choose a group
that surrender almost uniformly to these pressures for conformity.
We know how to change the opinions of an individual in a selected direction, without
which it would never be for account of the stimuli that they have changed their opinion. A static
picture, inexpressive of a man, was designed in a screen for Smith, Spence and Klein (27).
They asked the subjects to observe as the expression of the table is modified. Then it was
designed intermittently the word "angry" on the screen, in exposures so brief that individuals
consciously did not take the less knowledge that they had seen the word. They tended,
however, to see the face becoming more angry. When the word "happy" was projected on the
screen in a similar way, the viewers tended to see appearance if taking more happy. In this way,
they were clearly influenced by stimuli recorded on a subliminal level, these stimuli which the
individual had not and could not be aware.
We know how to influence the psychological moods, attitudes and behavior by means of
drugs. For this illustration, we crossed the borderline area in franco development between the
chemistry and psychology. Since the drugs to stay awake when driving or studying, the socalled "serum of truth" that reduces the psychological defenses of the individual, the
chemotherapy currently practiced in psychiatric wards, the range and complexity of growing
knowledge in this area is amazing. More and more efforts are expended to find drugs with more

specific effects - a drug that will energize the individual depressive, another that calming the
excited, and so on. Drugs, as you know, has been administered to soldiers before dc a battle to
eliminate the fear. Brands of drugs tranquilizers as Miltownjá infiltrated in our language, even in
our cartoons. Although much is still unknown in this area, Dr. Skiimer, of Harvard, says that: "In
the not-too-distant future, the conditions motivational and emotional of normal life will probably
maintained in any desirable status through the use of drugs" (26). Although this seems to be a
vision of somewhat exaggerated, the prognosis can be partially justified.
We know how to deliver the psychological conditions that produce hallucinations
experienced and other abnormal reactions in individual perfectly normal in state of
wakefulness. This knowledge has emerged as a by-product of research at McGill University (4).
It has been found that if all channels of sensory stimulation were shut down or muggy, abnormal
reactions follow. If healthy individuals had lain down buildings, to reduce the stimuli kinaesthetic
stimuli because they are present, with the eyes protected by ócus translucent which does not
allow the perception, with the hearing in large part smothered by dc pillows foam, as well as by
being a cubicle silent, and with the tactile sensations reduced by handcuffs in the hands, then
hallucinations and bizarre ideações with some similarity with the psychotic patients occur within
forty-eight hours in the majority of individuals. What would be the results if the sensory overkill
continued for a longer time, it is not known, because the experience seemed to be so potentially
dangerous that the researchers were reluctant to continue it.
We know how to use the words of the people to uncover areas entirely undisturbed in
their experience. Cameron (6) and their associated extracted from therapeutic interviews
recorded with a patient brief statements of the same that appeared to be significantly related to
the underlying dynamics of the case. This brief statement is then placed in a continuous tape to
be played repeatedly. When the patient hears their own significant words repeated continuously,
the effect is very powerful. Around the 20th or 30th time that the statement is repeated , the
patient frequently begs to be interrupted. It seems clear that this penetrates the defenses of the
individual, and reveals the whole psychic area related to the statement. For example, a woman
who feels very inadequate, and that is having marital difficulties, spoke about his mother in an
interview, saying this, among other things: "This is what I do not understand - that someone
could beat in a small child." This sentence recorded was played repeatedly for it. This made her
very anxious and scared. It also revealed all his feelings about his mother. Helped him to see
that "not being able to trust that my mother didn't bruise me made me become distrustful of all
people". This is a very simple example of the power of the method, which can not only be
useful as dangerously confusing moment that penetrate the defenses too deeply or too quickly.
We know the attitudes that, if provided by a coach or a therapist, expected to be followed
by certain changes in personality and behavior in constructive customer. The studies that have
been completed in recent years in the area of psychotherapy (23, 24, 25, 29) justify this
assertion. The findings of these studies can be briefly summarized as follows: If the therapist
provide a relationship in which he is (a) genuine, internally consistent; (b) electron transfer, and
the client as a person of value; (c) empaticamente understanding with respect to the private
world of feelings and attitudes of the customer; then certain changes occur in the latter. Some of
these changes are: the customer takes (a) more realistic in their autopercepções; (b) more
confident and autodiretivo; (c) more positively valued by him; (d) less prone to suppress
elements of their experience; (e) more mature, socialised and adaptive behavior; (The less
disturbed by stress and faster to recover him; (g) more similar to healthy person, integrated,
functioning in their personality structure. These changes do not occur in a control group, and
they seem to be definitely associated with the fact that the customer is in a therapeutic
relationship.
We know how disintegrate the structure of personality of a man, by dissolving their selfconfidence, by destroying the concept that has of himself and making it dependent on one
another. A study very carefully done by Mortality and Wolff(13) methods of communist
interrogation of prisoners, particularly in Communist China, provided us with a framework

reasonably accurate process popularly titled "brain-washing". Their study showed that no magic
method not essentially new was used, but in great part a combination of practices developed by
empirical method. What is involved is in large part a reversal in some way ss' 6brosa conditions
of psychotherapy briefly mentioned above. If the individual under suspicion is rejected and
isolated for a long period of time, then your need for a human relationship is greatly intensified,
The interrogator exploits this to build a relationship in which shows mainly non-acceptance,
doing everything it can to raise the guilt, conflict and anxiety. It is cozy with relation to stud only
when this "works", willing to see the events through the eyes of the interrogator. He rejects
completely the table-internal reference of the prisoner, or their perception of personal events.
Gradually, due to their need for greater acceptance, the stud comes to accept half-truths as
being true, until little by little he abandons all his own vision of himself and of his behavior,
having accepted the point of view of his interrogator. He is totally demoralised and disintegrated
as a person, making it as much a puppet of the interrogator. He is so willing to "confess" that is
an enemy of the State, and that has made all types of betrayals that committed or not or that, in
fact, had a different significance.
In a certain sense it is misleading describe these methods as a product of behavioral
sciences. They were developed by Russian police and Japanese, and not by scientists. Even so
i included, as it is quite clear that these cruel methods could become decidedly more effective
through the scientific knowledge that we have today. In summary, our knowledge of how the
personality and behavior can be modified can be used constructively or Using resonance non,
to build or to destroy people.
Conditions that produce effects especjficos in animals
You may have already provided ample evidence of significant power and often frightening
this recent field of science. Before we return to the implications of all of this, I would like to
extend the matter a step further and mention small portions of the broad sample of knowledge
that has accumulated in respect of the behavior of animals. Here my own familiarity with the
subject is even more limited, but I would like to mention three suggestive studies and their
findings.
We know how to establish the conditions that will cause ducks young people to develop a
permanent devotion to, for example, an old shoe. Hess (12) conducted studies on the
phenomenon of "recording in memory", first investigated in Europe. He showed that in wild
ducks, for example, there are a few crucial hours - from 1 3 to 1 7 hour after incubation
- When the duck becomes bound to any object to which it is exposed. The more effort exercise
to follow this object, the more intense is the bond. Normally, this is, of course, results in a bond
with the mother-pata, but ojovem duck can with the same ease develop an indelible devotion to
any object-goal - a duck false, a human being, or, as I mentioned, an old shoe. There is a
similar trend in human baby? We can only have speculation.
We know how to delete a specific fear intense in a mouse by means of shock
eletroconvulsivo. Hunt and Brady ( ' 14) first trained rats with headquarters to obtain water by
pressing a lever, which were freely and with frequency as if they were in an experimental unit.
When this habit was well fixed, a fear conditioning was established to ensure that a flag hearing
for a time before that an electrical shock moderately painful was administered. After a time, the
rats responded with reactions of intense fear and cessation of all the pressing lever whenever
the flag hearing, even if this was not accompanied by any painful stimulus. This reaction of fear
conditioning was now almost completely eliminated or a series of shocks administered
eletroconvulsivos s animals. Then this series of shock treatments animals showed no fear, and
have lobbied freely the lever, even when the flag was sounding. The authors interpret their
results very cautiously, but the general similarity to the shock therapy administered to human
beings is obvious.
We know how to train pigeons so that they can direct a missile explosive to a
predetermined target. The exposure fun of Skinner (26a) with respect to this development in the

period of war is only one of many cases impressive possibilities for called operant conditioning.
He took pigeons and "shaped" his behavior of mediatedsuch rewarding them whenever they
approached to bicar toward an object that was previously selected, or the object itself. In this
way, he could get a map of a foreign city, and gradually train the pigeons the bicar only that
portion which contained some vital industry - a plant of aircraft, for example. Or could train them
the bicar only in representations of certain types of ships at sea. It was then only a technical
issue, although certainly a problem quite complex, transform their mediatedsuch monitoring for
a missile. By placing two or three pigeons in simulated nose of a missile, was able to show that,
regardless of the fact this power forward of course, pigeons the bring back "the target" through
their mediatedsuch.
In response to that certainly you should be asking yourself, I have to say: "No, it has
never been used in the industry of war, due to the development unexpectedly rapid electronic
devices." But there seems to be no doubt that it would have worked.
Skinner was able to train pigeons playing ping-pong. for example, and he and his fellow
researchers were able to develop many complex behavior in animals that appear to be
"intelligent" and "deliberate". The principle is the same in all cases. IS given positive
reinforcement to the animal - some small reward - for any behavior that is situated in the
direction of the purpose selected by the investigator. First, it might be only the behaviors very
gross that in general are in the desired direction. However, increasingly the behavior is
"modeled" for a set refined, accurate and specific actions of pre-selected. The vast behavioral
repertoire of an organism, those behaviors that serve the exact purpose of the investigator are
reinforced with a refinement ever higher.
Experiments with human beings are a little less well delineated, but it was demonstrated
that through that operant conditioning (as a nod of researcher) can produce an increase in the
number of nouns plural, or statements of personal opinion, expressed by the individual, without
which this is aware of the reason for this change in their behavior. In the opinion of Skinner,
much of our behavior is the result of this operant conditioning, often unconscious on the part of
both participants. He wishes to take it conscious and deliberate, and, in this way, the controller
behavior.
We know how to give animals an experience very satisfactory consisting entirely
electrical stimulation. Olds (20) found that can deploy tiny electrodes in the area of cerebral
septum of laboratory rats. When a animals presses a bar in its cage, this causes a small current
to pass by these electrodes. This seems to be an experience so rewarding that the animal
continues in this orgy of pressing bar, often to the point of exhaustion. Regardless of the nature
of subjective experience, seems to be so satisfactory that the animal would prefer this to any
other activity. Not especularei if this procedure could be applied to human beings, or, in this
case, what would be the consequences.
The general framework and its implications
I hope that these numerous illustrations specific have given a concrete meaning to the
statement that the behavioral sciences are moving rapidly toward the understanding, prediction
and control of behavior. In some important ways we know how to select the individuals who will
display certain behaviors; establish conditions in groups that will lead to different types of
behavior of group predictable; establish conditions which, in an individual, will lead to results
specific behavioral; and in animals our ability to understand, predict and control goes even
further, possibly foretelling future steps in relation to man.
If your reaction is the same as mine, then you will have noticed that this table view,
contains aspects deeply scary. With all the immaturity of this new science, and its vast
ignorance, even your current state of knowledge contains amazing possibilities. Suppose that
some individual or group has both the available knowledge and the power to use that
knowledge to any order. You could select individuals to be leaders and others to be followers.

People could be developed, enhanced and facilitated, or could be weakened and broken.
Troublemakers could be discovered, and could be treated before thus become, The moral could
be increased or lowered. The behavior could be influenced through appeals to reasons which
individuals would not conscience. It would be a nightmare of manipulation. Of course, this is
pure fantasy, but it is not impossible. Perhaps make clear the reason why Robert Oppenheimer,
one of the most gifted of our natural scientists, look beyond their own field of physics, and from
the experiences in the field, give a warning. He says that there are some similarities between
physics and psychology, and one of these similarities is the point to which our progress will
create profound problems of decision in the public domain. The physicist has done much
fanfare about their contributions in the last decade. You can get a time - when the psychology
acquire a solid body and objective knowledge about the behavior and human feeling - in which
the powers of control, thus made available, make problems much more serious than any that
the physicist have placed" (21).
Some of you may feel that in some way I have made the problem more serious than it is.
You can emphasize that only a small portion of scientific findings that I mentioned were in fact
placed in use in a manner that affects significantly the society, and that, in most of them, these
studies are important for the behavioral scientist, but contain little practical impact on our
culture.
I also partly agree with this last point. The behavioral sciences at the current moment are
at the same stage that the physical sciences for several generations. As an example quite
recent of what I say, take the discussion that occurred around 1900 as to the fact of whether it is
possible that a machine heavier than air flies off. The science of aeronautics was not well
developed or needs, so that although there were findings give an affirmative answer, other
studies could swell on the negative side. Most important of all: the public did not believe that this
science possessed any validity, or that never affect the culture in a meaningful way. Preferred to
use their common sense, which showed them that the man could not possibly fly in a gadget
that was heavier than air.
Contrastemos public attitudes with regard to the aircraft at that time with the attitude
today. They told us a few years ago, that the science prognosticara that lançaríamos a satellite
in space, a esquep&start up. fantastic. But the public has shown a faith so deep in the natural
sciences that no voice is raised into disrepute. The only question that the public had "When? ".
We have every reason to believe that the same sequence of events will occur with
respect to behavioral sciences. First the public ignores or sees with disbelief; then to the extent
that discovers that the findings of science are more reliable than the common sense , start to
use them; the use spread the knowledge of a science creates a huge demand, so that men,
money, and effort are invested in science; finally the development of science describes an
upward spiral in a speed constantly growing. It seems highly likely that this sequence will be
observed in behavioral sciences. Consequently, even if the findings of these sciences are not
widely used today, there is every likelihood that they will be widely used tomorrow.
We have made, to make it a science of importance enormous potential, an instrumentality
whose social power will make the atomic energy weak in comparison. AND there is no doubt
that the issues raised by this development will be issues of vital importance for this generation
and for those to come. Let us turn our attention to some of these issues.
How do we use the power of this new science? What happens to the individual person in
this brave new world?
Who apropriará the power to use this new knowledge cement?
Toward that end, or purpose, or value, this type of knowledge will be used? I will submit a
preamble in my next lecture where I will take these issues into account.
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B.
F.
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sensitivity', PersonnelPsychol., 1954, 7, pp. 2 19-234.
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Olds, J. "The physiological study of reward". In McClelland, D. C. (ed. ). Studies in
Motivation. New York, there had been an interest by Appleton-Century -Crofts, 19SS,pp. 134143.
21.
Oppenheimer, R. 'Analogy' in science", Amer. Psychol., 1956, ))l,pp. 127-135. The
science of behavior and the person
22.
Richard, James, in Group-Centered Leadership, Thomas Gordon, caps. 12 And 13.
Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co. , 1955.
23.
Rogers, - CARI R. Client-Centered Therapy. Boston, Houghton MifflinCo., 1951.
24.
Rogers, - CARI R. and Rosalind F. Dymond (eds. ). Psychotherapv and Exper'
Change. University of Chicago Press, 1954.
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Seeman told Fides about Julius, and Nathaniel J. Raskin. "Research perspectives in
client-centered therapy", in O. H. Mowrer (ed. ), Redefinida: Theoiy and Research, ch. 9. New
York, Ronald Press, 1953.

26.
Skinner, B. F. "The control ofhuman behavior". Transactions New YorkAcad.
Science. Serires II. Vol. 17, n? 7, May 1955, 547-551. 26A. "Pigeons in the Pelican", Arner.
Psvchol., 1960 ,
15, PP. 28-3 7.
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stimuli", Jour. Abn. & Soc. Psychol., 1959, 59, pp. 167-176.
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Chapter 21
The place of the individual in the new world of behavioral sciences
In the preceding article, I have tried to indicate, in a somewhat schematic, advances in
behavioral sciences in their ability to predict and control the behavior. I have tried to give an idea
of the new world for which we will take the steps increasingly rapidly. Today I would like to
consider the question of how we, as individuals, groups, a culture - live, react, adapt to this
brave new world. That position will get these new developments?
I shall outline the following two of the responses given to this question, and then I will
present some considerations that may lead to a third response.
Deny and ignore
One of the things that we can adopt is near that these scientific advances are occurring,
and simplesrTiente embrace the idea that there cannot be a study of human behavior really
scientific. We can argue that it is impossible for the human animal has an objective attitude
toward you, and that, therefore, there can be no real science of behavior. We can say that the
man is always a free agent, a sense that the scientific study of their behavior something
impossible. Not long ago, at a conference on the social sciences, I have listened, curiously, an
economist to express this point of view. AND one of theologians more remarkable this country
wrote: "Be that as it may, no scientific research of past behavior can take the basis for
predictions about the future behavior" (3, p. 47).
The attitude of the general public is similar. Without necessarily deny the possibility of a
behavioral science, the common man simply ignores the ongoing developments. Will surely be
excited for some time to get to know that the communists managed to change the captured
soldiers by means of "brain-washing". Could demonstrate a mild reaction of discomfort ahead
of the revelations of a book as the White (13) that shows that intensity, and with that half
manipulative, findings of behavioral sciences are used by industrial corporations modern. But, in
general, does not see it as nothing to worry about, as well as when it learned of the first
theoretical formulations about the possibility of the splitting of the atom.
We can, if we wish, to join him in this ignorance. We can go further, such as the old
intellectuals that I quoted, and, looking to the behavioral sciences, declare: "there is this
animal". But, as these reactions do not seem particularly clever, I will leave aside to describe a
point of view much more sophisticated and predominant.

The formulation of human life in scientific terms
Among the scientists who specialize in behavioral sciences, seems to be understood that
its findings will be used in the prediction and control of human behavior. On the other hand,
psychologists and other scientists have not thought much about what this means. An exception
to this general trend is Dr. B. AND Skinner, of Harvard, which is quite explicit to call on the
psychologists to use the powers of control at their disposal to create a better world. In an
attempt to show what I wanted to say, Dr. Skinner wrote, a few years ago, a book called Walden
Two (12) , in which he makes a fictional description of what it considers a utopian community in
which the teaching of the sciences of behavior are fully used in all aspects of life - marriage,
education of children, ethical conduct, work, leisure and artistic projects. I will quote your text
several times in this Article.
There are also other authors of fiction that they realized the importance of the growing
influence of behavioral sciences. Aldous Huxley. in their brave new world (1) made a horrible
portrait of artificial happiness in a world scientifically constructed, against which the men finally
rebelled. George Orwell, in 1984 (5), imagined the world created by a dictatorial power, in
which the behavioral sciences are used as an instrument of absolute control over the individuals
in such a way that not only the behaviors as well as the thoughts are controlled.
The writers of science fiction also played a role in view of the possible developments in a
world where the behavior and personality are themes of science as much as the chemical
components or electrical impulses.
I would like to try to present the best possible way, a simplified framework of cultural
pattern that emerges if we try to shape human life in terms of behavioral sciences.
Firstly, there is the recognition, almost the postulated, that scientific knowledge is the
power to manipulate. Dr. Skinner says: "We have to accept the fact that some kind of control of
human affairs is inevitable. We can only use the good sense in human affairs if anyone were to
devote themselves to the planning and construction of environmental conditions that affect the
behavior of men. Environmental Changes always were the conditions for the improvement of
cultural standards, and it would be very difficult to use the most efficient methods of science
without making changes on a large scale ... The science already initiated processes and
hazardous materials before. Use the facts and techniques of a science of man in all its
extension without committing any error monstrous will be difficult and, of course, risky. There is
no more time for self-delusion, the emotional indulgence or the assumption of attitudes that are
no longer useful" (10, pp. 56-57).
The next assumption is that this power of control should be used. Skinner sees it being
used so well-intentioned. while recognizing the danger of its misuse. Huxley sees it being used
with good intentions, but, in fact, creating a nightmare. Orwell describes the consequences of
evil use of this power, in icfnento the degree of control exercised by a dictatorial government.
Steps of the process
Let us consider some of the elements involved in the concept of control of human
behavior such as this is designed by behavioral sciences. What would be the steps in the
process by which a society should be organized in such a way as to make the human life in
terms of the science of man?
First, would the selection of objectives. In a recent article, Dr. Skinner suggests that one
of the possible objectives of behavioral technology would be: "to Allow the man to be happy,
informed, skilled, well-educated and productive" (10, p. 47). In his book Walden Two, where
uses fiction to express their opinions, it was more expansive. Your hero says: "well! That tells
me the planning of personalities? It would be helpful to you? AND the control of the character?
Give me the specs and I'll give you the man! I would say the control of motivation, building the
interests that take men more productive and more successful? It looks fantastic? Because some
of the technologies that are already available, and others are likely to be produced

experimentally. Think of the possibilidades! ... Adamant the lives of our children and see what
we can make of them" (12, p. 243).
What Skinner says here essentially is that the current knowledge of behavioral sciences,
added to that the future will bring, we will specify a degree which today seem unbelievable, the
type of results that we want to see on the behavior and personality. This of course is both an
opportunity and a arduous task.
The second element of this process is quite familiar to any scientist who has worked in
the field of applied science. Given a goal, a goal, we have, by scientific method - through
controlled experiments -, the discovery of the means to achieve these ends. If, for example, our
knowledge of the conditions that make the productive man is limited, further investigations and
experiments certainly we would new knowledge in this field. AND work even more advanced
would give us the knowledge of means even more effective. The scientific method is selfcorrecting and, therefore, is means ever more efficient to achieve the purpose chosen.
The third element in the control of human behavior through the behavioral sciences
involves the issue of power. TO THE extent that conditions or methods for achieving our goal
are discovered, some people or groups they have the power to establish such conditions or
employ these methods. Little has been said about the problem that this involves. Trust in the
power that the behavioral sciences make available is exercised by the scientists, or by a group
well-intentioned, it seems to me a hope that the recent history and the former does not confirm.
Everything leads us to believe that the scientists of the behavior, while maintaining its current
attitude, will find themselves in the same situation of the German scientists who specialize in
missiles. First they worked with devotion to Hitier destroy Russia and the United States. Now,
depending on who the captured, they work with devotion to Russia with the aim of destroying
the United States or to the United States in order to destroy Russia. If the behavioral scientists
are concerned only with the progress of your science, it is certain that they will be at the service
of the goals of the individual or groups who are in power.
But, in a sense, this is a digression. The key point is the fact that any person or group will
have and will use the power to implement the methods discovered to achieve the desired goal.
The fourth step of the process by which a society could formula itself life in terms of the
sciences holds- mental is the exposure of individuals to methods and conditions mentioned
above. When individuals are exposed to conditions prescribed, this leads, very probably, the
behavior desired. The men become, then, productive, if this is the objective, or submissive, or
what if decided to become.
To give you an idea of this aspect of the process, in the words of one of his supporters, I
will mention again the hero of Walden Two. "Now, that we know as the positive reinforcement
works, and why the negative does not work," he says, commenting on the method that is
defending, "we can be more cautious and, therefore, more successful in our intentions at the
cultural level. We can achieve a type of control through which individuals controlled, although
subject to a code much more essential than in the old system, to feel free . They are doing what
they want to do, not what they are forced to do. This is the source of the tremendous power of
positive reinforcement - there is no coercion or revolt. With careful planning, we do not the final
behavior, but the inclination to behave - the motives, desires, anxieties. The strange thing about
it all is that, in this case, the issue of freedom never arises" (l2,p. 218).
The framework and its implications
Let me try to briefly summarize the framework of the impact of behavioral sciences on the
individual and on society, as this impact is explicitly seen by Dr. Skinner, and is implicit in the
attitudes and work of many, perhaps the majority, of behavioral scientists. The behavioral
science progresses clearly; the growing power of control that it provides will be in the hands of
someone or some group; this individual or group will certainly choose the goals to be achieved;
and most dc we will be increasingly controlled by means so subtle that neither the
resultsobtained as means of control. Thus, if a council of psychologists wise (if this is not a

contradiction in terms) or a Stalin, or a Big Brother holds the power, and whether your goal is
the happiness, the productivity, the resolution of the Oedipus complex, the submission, or the
love of Big Brother, we are inevitably moving toward the achievement of this goal and probably
thinking that we do want. If this reasoning is correct, everything indicates that a form of
company fully controlled - a Walden Two or a 1984 - is yet to come. The fact that it was little by
little and not once does not fundamentally change things. The man and his behavior would be a
product planned a scientific society.
You might ask: "But, and individual freedom? AND the democratic concepts of individual
rights?" once again Dr. Skinner is quite clear. He says bluntly: "The hypothesis that man is not
free it is essential for the application of the scientific method to the study of human behavior.
The man internally free, considered responsible for the behavior of biological body external is
only a substitute pre-scientific for the type of causes that discover as it progresses the scientific
analysis. All of these other causes are external to the individual" (11, p. 1). 447).
In another text, he explains it in a way a little further: "As increases the employment of
science, we are forced to accept the theoretical structure with that science represents its facts.
The difficulty is that this structure contrasts clearly with the democratic conception of traditional
man. Each discovery of a event that participates in the conformation of human behavior seems
to reduce what can be credited to himself; and, to the extent that these explanations become
increasingly comprehensive, the contribution that the man alone could claim as their own
approaches zero. The fostering some formidable creative capacities of man, its realizçs
originals in the field of arts, science and morals, their ability to choose and our right to consider
him responsible for the consequences of your choice - nothing is conspicuous in this new selfportrait. I believed that the man was free to express themselves in art, literature and music, to
inquire about the nature, to seek salvation in their own way. Could initiate an action and change
its course of spontaneous manner and according to his will. Under the worst coações remained
to him some kind of choice. Could resist any effort to control it, even if it cost him his life. But the
science insists that the action is initiated by forces that are necessary to the individual, and that
the will is just a name for a behavior whose cause has not yet discovered" (10, pp. 52-53).
The democratic philosophy of human nature and politics is by Skinner as having served a
useful purpose in a certain moment. "To call on men against the tyranny it was necessary for the
individual to sustain, that tell you that had rights and which could autogovernar. Give the
common man a new design of your world, of his dignity and his power to save, today and
tomorrow, was often the only feature the revolutionary" (10, p. 53). Considers this philosophy
outdated and, in truth, an obstacle "if it prevent us from applying to human affairs science of
man" (p. 54).
A personal objection
I have tried up to now present a framework objective dc some developments in the
behavioral sciences, and a framework purpose of the kind of society that could emerge from
these developments. Levanto, however, strong personal objections to the kind of world that I
have been describing, a world that Skinner explicitly (and many other scientists
implicitly) desires and hopes for the future. For me, this type of world destroys the human
person, as I know it in moments more deep of psychotherapy. In these moments, I have been in
relationship with a person who is spontaneous, it is responsibly free, conscious of their freedom
to choose who will be, and also aware of the consequences of your choice. Believing, as
Skiriner, that all this is an illusion, and that spontaneity, freedom, responsibility and the choice
does not have real existence, it would be impossible for me.
I believe that I have been doing as much as I can, my role in the progress of the sciences
of behavior; but, if the result of my efforts and those of other people is that the man is
transformed into a robot, created and controlled by a science he has drawn up, then, I am very
unhappy. If the "good life" of the future consist of individuals so conditioned by control of your
environment and the control of rewards that will receive, they will inexorably productive, well-

educated, happy or whatever it may be, in this case, I don't want none of this. For me, it is a
pseudoforma of "the good life" which includes everything, except what makes it good.
I wonder if there is a flaw in the logic of this development, if there is any alternative idea
for what the behavioral sciences could mean for the individual and for society. I think I have
found this failure and I think I can imagine an alternative idea. I would like to present them.
Aims and values in relation to science
I believe that the perspective submitted by me is based on a wrong perception of the
relationship between the objectives and values and the scientific spirit. The importance of the
purposes of a scientific endeavor is, in my view, underestimated. The thesis that convey the
following contains two statements which seem to me deserve careful consideration. Later,
expand the meaning that should be given to these statements.
1. In any scientific endeavor whether science "pure" or applied-there is a personal choice and
subjective prior the purpose oualor the service which this scientific work must be carried out.
2. This choice dc subjective value, which gives rise to the scientific effort, must always remain
outside of this effort and can never be part of the science in question. Let me illustrate the first
point from the writings of Dr. Skinner. When he suggests that the function of behavioral sciences
is to make man "productive", "well-educated", etc. , he is clearly making a choice. I could
choose to make him submissive, dependent and gregarious, for example. On the other hand,
says, in another context, that the "choice" of man, his freedom to select a line of conduct and to
undertake actions are attributes that do not exist in scientific image of man. That is, I think, a
profound contradiction or paradox. I will try to detail this contradiction in the best way possible.
The science, without doubt, rests on the assumption that the behavior is caused - that a
specific event is followed by an event as a result. Since everything is determined, nothing is
free, the choice is impossible. But let us remember that the science itself, and each scientific
effort specific, each change of course in scientific research, each interpretation of the meaning
of a scientific discovery and each decision regarding the application of this discovery, support a
personal choice subjective. Therefore, the science in general is in the same paradoxical
situation that Dr. Skinner. A personal choice subjective man made triggers the operations of
science, which, in turn, declares that there is nothing that looks like a personal choice
subjective. Later I will make a few comments about this constant paradox.
I pointed out the fact that each one of these choices that give beginning or are advancing
the scientific adventure is a value choice. The scientist investigates this and not what, because
he feels that the first research has more value to it. Choose a particular method for your study in
preference to another, because it assigns a higher value. Interprets his findings in one way and
not another, because it is believed that the first interpretation is more close to the truth, or is
more valid in other words, it is closer to a criterion that he appreciates. However, these choices
of value never are part of the very scientific adventure. The choices of value linked to a specific
scientific endeavor remain always and necessarily outside him.
I am not saying that the values may not be the subject of scientific research. I wish to
understand as well. It is not true that science deals only with certain classes of "facts" and that
these classes do not include values. It is a little more complex than that, and a simple illustration
or two can clarify it.
If I assign as a goal of education the fact of knowing how to read, write and count,
scientific methods can provide me information increasingly accurate on how to achieve this
goal. If the goal of education is the ability to solve problems, the scientific method can I provide
a help of the same order.
But, if you want to determine if the ability to solve problems is "better" than knowing how
to read, write and count, also in this case the scientific method can study these two values,
but only - and this is very important - in terms of some other value that I have chosen

subjectively. I can, for example, enhance school success. I can then determine if the ability to
solve problems or know how to read, write and count is more closely associated with that value.
Could enhance the personal integration or the success vocational or responsible citizenship.
Could determine whether the ability to solve problems or know how to read, write and count is
"better" to achieve any one of these values. But the value or purpose that gives meaning to a
particular scientific effort must stay sçmpre outside him.
Although nosa concern in this article is mainly with the applied science, what I said also
applies to the so-called pure science. In this, the prior choice of subjective value is the most
common search for truth. But this is a subjective choice, and science can never say that this is
the best, except in the light of some other value. The geneticists in Russia, for example, had to
make a choice as subjective to pursue truth or discover facts that sustain their dogmas
governmental. Which choice is "best"? We could do a scientific research on these two
alternatives, but only in the light of some other subjective value- chosen. If, for example, we
value the survival of culture, we should begin to investigate with the scientific methods the issue
of whether it is the search for truth or the sustaining of governmental dogma that is more closely
associated with the cultural survival.
My opinion, therefore, that any scholarly commitment, pure or applied, is performed with
the hope of achieving a purpose or value subjectively chosen by people. It is impor t that this
choice is made explicit, since the particular value sought can never be tested or evaluated,
confirmed or contradicted by scientific effort which gives origin and meaning. The purpose or
initial value is always and necessarily outside the scope of the scientific effort that he puts in
progress. This means, among other things, that if we chose a particular goal or series of goals
for the human beings, and then we put in the field to monitor, on a large scale, the human
behavior in order to achieve these goals, we are stuck to the rigidity of our initial choice,
because such scientific endeavor can never transcend himself and choose new goals.
Only people. in its subjectivity, can do this. Thus, if we choose to target the happiness of human
beings (a goal deservedly ridiculed by Aldous Huxley in brave new world), and if we involve the
whole society in a scientific program bemsucedido through which people become happy, we
would be stuck with a colossal rigidity in which no one would be free to question this goal
because our scientific operations could not transcend themselves to questioning their guiding
purposes. AND, without me going at this point, I would just like to point out that a colossal
stiffness, is among the dinosaurs or in dictatorships, have few records of evolutionary survival.
If, however, a part of our scheme assumes leave some "planners" you don't have to be
happy, that are not controlled, and which, therefore, are free to choose other values, we would
have several implications. This means that the purpose that we have chosen as a goal is not
sufficient and satisfactory for human beings, but it needs to be supplemented. It also means that
if it is necessary to establish uni elite group that is free, this shows quite clearly that the vast
majority is composed of slaves - no matter what the name great that you give them those who
selected the targets. However, you may assume that a scientific effort continuous implies the
evolution of their own goals; that the initial findings shall amend the directions and that
subsequent discoveries the amend once more and that, in some way, the science develops its
own purposes. This seems to be an idea implicitly sustained by many scientists. AND, without
doubt, a reasoning makes sense, but it is one aspect of this ongoing development: the
intervention of personal choice subjective in each change of direction. The discoveries of
science, the results of an experiment, we are not told and never tell us what the next objective
scientific to be reached. Even in the pure sciences, the scientist needs to decide what the
findings mean, and choose subjectively which the next step that will be more useful in the
search of his purpose. AND, if we are talking about the application of conhecimeni oetífico, is
disturbingly clear that the growing scientific knowledge about the structure of the atom does not
brings with it the necessary choice of which the use that it will be given. This is a personal
choice subjective that must be made by multiple individuals.

Return, therefore, will be affirmation with which I began this series of comments and that
now I repeat with other words. The sense of science consists in the search for objective a goal
that was subjectively chosen by one or several persons. This purpose or value can never be
investigated by experiment or scientific research individuals to whom he gave origin and gave
meaning. Therefore, any discussion of the control of human beings by behavioral sciences must
first worry about deeply with the purposes subjectively chosen that this application of science
intends to implement.
Another set of values
If my reasoning is valid, new doors are opening for us. If you look frankly the fact that the
science part of a set of values subjectively chosen, then we have the freedom to select the
values that we wish to achieve. We are not limited to goals such ridiculous how to produce a
controlled state of happiness, productivity and stuff. I would like to suggest an alternative
radically different.
If we work on a set of goals, values, purposes quite different from those that we think up
to now; and if we were to do so openly, presenting them as a possible choice of values
susceptible to be accepted or rejected; if selecionássemos a set of values that focus on
elements of fluids process instead of fixing in their static attributes; in this case, valorizaríamos:
man as a process of transformation; as a process designed to achieve value and dignity by the
development of their potential; The human individual as a process of self-realization, advancing
continuously in the direction of experience more challenging and rewarding; The process
through which the individual adapts creatively to a world ever new and ever-changing; The
Process by which the knowledge transcends himself, as, for example, the theory of relativity he
transcended the Newtonian physics, for in the future be transcended by a new design.
If selecting such values, return-we will for our science and technology of behavior with a
set of quite different issues. We will want to know things such as: Can science help us to
discover new ways of life more rich and rewarding? Modes of interpersonal relationships more
meaningful and satisfactory?
Can science tell us how the human race can become an agent more intelligent of their
own evolution physical, psychological and social?
Can science tell us about how to free the creative capacity of individuals, release that
seem so necessary if we want to survive in this era atomic full expansion? The Dr.
Oppenheimer observed (4) that the knowledge, that duplicated formerly over millennia or
centuries, doubles currently a generation or decade. It seems, therefore, that we must find the
largest possible number of elements in the field of the liberation of creativity if we want to be
able to adapt effectively.
In short, can science discover the methods by which man can more easily take a process
in continuous development, transcending himself in his behavior, his thoughts and his
action? Can science provide a freedom essentially "unpredictable" and forward to it?
One of the virtues of science as a method is to be able to make progress and achieve
objectives of this type, as well as being at the service of static values as being well informed, be
happy, obedient. We can even provide a proof of this.
A small example
I ask that you will forgive me if I'll get the documentation on some of the possibilities that
exist in this track in the area that I know best, the psychotherapy.
The psychotherapy, as Merloo (2) and other researchers have noted, can be one of the
instruments more subtle for the control of one person by another. The therapist can subtly
shape the individuals in his own image. You can lead an individual to be submissive, as a given
model. When some therapeutic principles are used up to its final consequences, this is called

brain-washing - example of the disintegration of the personality and the recasting of the person
in the direction desired by the individual that the controls. In this way, the principles of treatment
can be used as a very effective means of control outside of the human personality and its
behavior. Can psychotherapy be anything else?
Meeting on advances in psychotherapy focused on the customer (8) a fascinating
indication of a science of behavior can perform to achieve the values that I have mentioned. In
addition to these developments represent, to some extent, a new direction in psychotherapy,
has important consequences as regards the dc a science of behavior with the control of human
behavior.
I will describe the aspects of our experience in so far as it relates to the problems under
discussion: the therapy focused on the customer, we are deeply committed to the prediction of
the behavior and the influence that it is possible to exercise. As therapists, we have certain
conditions of attitude, and the customer is not called upon to give its opinion on the
establishment of these conditions. A very briefly, we established that the therapist has the
maximum effectiveness:
a) If you are sincere, integrated, transparently real on its relationship with the customer.
b) If the accept as independent person and different and if also accept all
Its aspects passengers as they are finding a way to express themselves.
c) If express empathy in total understanding that has it, or will be, if you are experiencing
The world with the eyes of your customer.
Our research helps to predict that, if these conditions of attitudes are met or established,
will follow certain consequences on behavior. The present things under this aspect, it seems
that we are repeating the same litany and saying once more that we are able to predict the
behavior and, therefore, to control it. But it is precisely here that there is a difference as well
marked.
The conditions that we have decided to establish anticipate consequences in behavior
such as the following: the customer tomase more autonomous in their behavior, less rigid, more
open to the testimony of the senses, the more well-organized and more integrated, more similar
to the ideal which he chose for himself. In other words, we have, through a control pool,
conditions that, according to our forecasts, will be accompanied by a control inside the individual
on itself in its efforts to achieve the goals that inwardly chose. We have established the
conditions that provide for various species of behavior; behavior of waterline, sensitivity to the
realities interior and exterior, ability to adapt with malleability behaviors that are, by their very
nature, unpredictable in its specificity. These conditions established by us provide a behavior
that is essentially "free". Our recent investigations (9) indicate that our predictions are, in a
significant degree, corroborated and our confidence in the scientific method af7-in believing that
if they can make the most effective means to achieve these objectives.
The research conducted in other areas - industry, teaching, dinâmic, derupo - seems to
confirm our own discoveries. I think we can safely say, without haste, that there was no scientific
progress in the identification of these conditions in an interpersonal relationship, so that, if they
are present in B, are followed in The greater maturity in behavior, reduced dependence on
others, a progress in the ability to express themselves as a person, in variability, flexibility, ability
to adapt, to assume their responsibilities and to orient himself.
We are, therefore, fully in accordance with the statement of John Dewey: "The science
has progressed by releasing and not suppressing, the elements of change, of invention,
innovation and new creations in individuals" (7, p. 359). It is our firm conviction that the progress
in personal life and in the life of group cannot be the same way, freeing the variation, the
creativity, the freedom.
The science of behavior and the person a design as possible to the control of human behavior

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

It is absolutely clear that the point of view that I expressed presents a stark contrast with
the current design - and previously mentioned the relationship that exists between the science
of behavior and the control of human behavior. In order to make this contrast even more clear,
I'll say this possibility in the form of a parallel to our enumerations precedents.
We have the opportunity to appreciate the man as a process of becoming that realizes himself;
to enhance the creativity and the process in which the knowledge is transcending.
We can continue to discover, by scientific methods, the above conditions necessarily these
processes and, through new experiences, seek means more refined to achieve those
objectives.
The individuals or groups have the opportunity to fulfill these conditions with a minimum of
power or control. According to the current knowledge, the only authority is necessary to
establish certain qualities of interpersonal relations.
Current knowledge suggests that the individuals subjected to such conditions if they take more
self-responsible, make progress in self-realization, there is more malleable, more "unique" and
varied, more able to adapt to an original way.
Therefore, an initial choice of this kind would inaugurate the first steps of a social system, or
subsystem, in that the values, knowledge, the faculties of adaptation and even the scientific
concepts that would transform permanently, transcending themselves. The emphasis rests on
man as a process of becoming.
I think that it is clear that the point of view that I have just described does not lead to any
utopia as well defined. It would be impossible to predict your point of arrival. He holds a
development in successive stages, based on a continuous choice and subjective intentions are
implemented las behavioral sciences. My conception goes in sen- had an "open society" as
defined Popper (6), where individuals bear responsibility for their decisions. This concept is
diametrically opposed to that of a closed society that Walden Two would be an example.
I believe that it is also clear that the overall emphasis falls on the process and not on the
final condition of being. I suggest that it is to decide to make certain qualitative elements of the
process of the future that we can find the path that leads to an open society have contributed to
the clarification of the range of choices that will face us and our children, as far as the science of
behavior. We can choose to - mended our growing knowledge to enslave the attitu- in a way
never before dreamed, relation, procedures are standardized, depersonalizing- and controlling
them by means so thoroughly chosen that might never realize that lost their dignida- of people.
We can choose to use our know scientific to take men necessarily happy, well educated and
productive, as suggested by the Dr. Skinner. We can, if we want to, choose to make the men
submissive, conforming to a given model, docile. Or, at the other end of the range of options, we
can choose to serve in the science of behavior in a way that will release and does not control,
that will lead to a constructive variability, not compliance, which will develop the creativity, not
the satisfaction; that will help each one of the persons in your unattended process of popu- that
will help individuals and groups and even the science, to transcend itself in new ways to adapt
and to cope with life and its problems. It is up to us to choose, and the human race as it is,
probably we will run aground, doing sometimes choices almost disastrous for values, and cm
other moments choices highly constructive.
If you chose to use our scientific knowledge to release the men, we have to live openly
and frankly the great paradox of behavioral sciences. We recognize that the behavior, when
analyzed scientifically, is safe- better understood in a deterministic perspective. This is the great
characteristic of science. But the opação personal and responsible, which is the essential
element in the fact of being a person, who is the supreme experience in psychotherapy, finally,
that there is a way prior to every scientific research, it is also an extremely important thing in our
lives. We will have to live with the awareness that deny the reality of the experience of personal
choice responsible is so ridí Esper bond, so obtuse as denying the possibility of a science of
behavior. The fact that dc these two important elements of our experience seem in contradiction
is perhaps the same meaning that the contradiction between the wave theory and corpuscular

theory of light; it is possible to demonstrate the truth of each of the theories and they do not
cease to be so incompatible. Not if profits nothing in denying our life sub- jetiva, as it cannot be
denied that objective description of this life. In conclusion, therefore, my view is that science
cannot exist without a personal choice of values that we want to achieve. AND the values that
we chose implement always remain outside the science that implements; the targets that we
chose, the purposes that we wish to follow, always comes out of science that takes place. This
is for me the meaning stimulating that the human person, with their ability to choose subjective,
can exist and there will always independently and before any scientific endeavor. Unless, as
individuals and groups, choose renounce our ability to choose subjective, always continue being
free people and not simply become pawns of a science of behavior created by itself.
References
1. Huxley, A. - Brave New World, New York and London, Harper and Bros. , 1946.
2. Merloo, J. A. M. "Medications into submission: the danger oftherapeuticcoercion" ,J. The Nerv.
Ment. Dis., 1955, l22,pp. 353-360.
3 Niebuhr, R. The Self and the Dramas of History, New York, Scribner, 1955.
4.
Oppenheimer, R. - "Science and our times", Chicago, Roosevelt Universiiy
OccasionalPapers, 1956,2.
5.
Orwell, G. - 1984, New York, Harcourt, Brace, 1949; New American Library, 1953.
6.
Popper, K. R. - The Open Society and Its Enemies, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul,
1945.
7.
Ratner, J. (org.) - Bi in the Modern World: John Dewey'sphilosophy, New York, Modern
Library, 1939.
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Rogers, C. R. - Client-Centered Therapy, Boston, Houghton MifflinCo., 1951.
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Rogers, C. R. and Rosalind Dymond (orgs.) - Psychoterapy and Personality
Change, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1954.
10.
Skinner, B. F. - "Freedom and the control of men", THE mcc. Scholar, winter 19551956, 25, pp. 47-65.
11.
Skinner, 8. F. Science and Human Behavior, New York, Macmillan, 1953. Quoted with the
permission of The Macmillan Co.
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Skinner, B. F. Walden Two, New York, Macmillan, 1948. Cited with permission to
Macmillan Co.
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Whyte, W. H. The Organization Man, New York, Simon & Schuster, 1956.