Some Observations on the Organization of Personality by Carl Rogers - HTML preview

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Note in these statements the willingness to perceive herself as she is, to accept herself

"realistically," to perceive and accept her "bad" attitudes as well as "good" ones. This realism

seems to be accompanied by a sense of freedom and contentment. Miss Vib, whose attitudes

were quoted earlier, wrote out her own feelings about counseling some six weeks after the

interviews were over, and gave the statement to her counselor. She begins:

The happiest outcome of therapy has been a new feeling about myself. As I think

of it, it might be the only outcome. Certainly it is basic to all the changes in my

behavior that have resulted.

In discussing her experience in therapy she states:

I was coming to see myself as a whole. I began to realize that I am one person.

This was an important insight to me. I saw that the former good academic

achievement, job success, ease in social situations, and the present withdrawal,

dejection, apathy and failure were all adaptive behavior, performed by me. This

meant that I had to reorganize my feelings about myself, no longer holding to the

unrealistic notion that the very good adjustment was the expression of the real

"me" and this neurotic behavior was not. I came to feel that I am the same

person, sometimes functioning maturely, and sometimes assuming a neurotic

role in the face of what I had conceived as insurmountable problems. The

acceptance of myself as one person gave me strength in the process of

reorganization. Now I had a substratum, a core of unity on which to work

As she continues her discussion there are such statements as:

I am getting more happiness in being myself. I approve of myself more, and I

have so much less anxiety.

As in the previous example, the outstanding aspects appear to be the realization that all of her

behavior "belonged" to her, that she could accept both the good and bad features about herself

and that doing so gave her a release from anxiety and a feeling of solid happiness. In both

instances there is only incidental reference to the serious "problems" which had been initially

discussed.

Since Miss Mir is undoubtedly above average intelligence and Miss Vib is a person with some

psychological training, it may appear that such results are found only with the sophisticated

individual. To counteract this opinion a quotation may be given from a statement written by a

veteran of limited ability and education who had just completed counseling, and was asked to

write whatever reactions he had to the experience. He says:

As for the consoleing [sic] I have had I can say this, It really makes a man strip

his own mind bare, and when he does he knows then what he realy [sic] is and

what he can do. Or at least thinks he knows himself party well. As for myself, I

know that my ideas were a little too big for what I realy [sic] am, but now I realize

one must try start out at his own level.

Now after four visits, I have a much clearer picture of myself and my future. It

makes me feel a little depressed and disappointed, but on the other hand, it has

taken me out of the dark, the load seems a lot lighter now, that is I can see my

way now, I know what I want to do, I know about what I can do, so now that I can

see my goal, I will be able to work a whole lot easyer [sic], at my own level.

Although the expression is much simpler one notes again the same two elements -- the

acceptance of self as it is, and the feeling of easiness, of lightened burden, which accompanies

it.

As we examine many individual case records and case recordings, it appears to be possible to

bring together the findings in regard to successful therapy by stating another hypothesis in

regard to that portion of the perceptual field which we call the self. It would appear that when all

of the ways in which the individual perceives himself -- all perceptions of the qualities, abilities,

impulses, and attitudes of the person, and all perceptions of himself in relation to others -- are

accepted into the organized conscious concept of the self, then this achievement is

accompanied by feelings of comfort and freedom from tension which are experienced as

psychological adjustment.

This hypothesis would seem to account for the observed fact that the comfortable perception of

self which is achieved is sometimes more positive than before, sometimes more negative.

When the individual permits all his perceptions of himself to be organized into one pattern, the

picture is sometimes more flattering than he has held in the past, sometimes less flattering. It is

always more comfortable.

It may be pointed out also that this tentative hypothesis supplies an operational type of

definition, based on the client's internal frame of reference, for such hitherto vague terms as

"adjustment," "integration," and "acceptance of self." They are defined in terms of perception, in

a way which it should be possible to prove or disprove. When all of the organic perceptual

experiences -- the experiencing of attitudes, impulses, abilities and disabilities, the experiencing

of others and of "reality" -- when all of these perceptions are freely assimilated into an

organized and consistent system, available to consciousness, then psychological adjustment or

integration might be said to exist. The definition of adjustment is thus made an internal affair,

rather than dependent upon an external "reality."

Something of what is meant by this acceptance and assimilation of perceptions about the self

may be illustrated from the case of Miss Nam, a student. Like many other clients she gives

evidence of having experienced attitudes and feelings which are defensively denied because

they are not consistent with the concept or picture she holds of herself. The way in which they

are first fully admitted into consciousness, and then organized into a unified system may be

shown by excerpts from the recorded interviews. She has spoken of the difficulty she has had

in bringing herself to write papers for her university courses.

I just thought of something else which perhaps hinders me, and that is that again

it's two different feelings. When I have to sit down and do (a paper), though I

have a lot of ideas, underneath I think I always have the feeling that I just can't

do it.... I have this feeling of being terrifically confident that I can do something,

without being willing to put the work into it. At other times I'm practically afraid of

what I have to do....

Note that the conscious self has been organized as "having a lot of ideas," being "terrifically

confident" but that "underneath," in other words not freely admitted into consciousness, has

been the experience of feeling "I just can't do it." She continues:

I'm trying to work through this funny relationship between this terrific confidence

and then this almost fear of doing anything.... and I think the kind of feeling that I

can really do things is part of an illusion I have about myself of being, in my

imagination, sure that it will be something good and very good and all that, but

whenever I get down to the actual task of getting started, it's a terrible feeling of

-- well, incapacity, that I won't get it done either the way I want to do it, or even

not being sure how I want to do it.

Again the picture of herself which is present in consciousness is that of a person who is "very

good," but this picture is entirely out of line with the actual organic experience in the situation.

Later in the same interview she expresses very well the fact that her perceptions are not all

organized into one consistent conscious self.

I'm not sure about what kind of a person I am -- well, I realize that all of these are

a part of me, but I'm not quite sure of how to make all of these things fall in line.

In the next interview we have an excellent opportunity to observe the organization of both of

these conflicting perceptions into one pattern, with the resultant sense of freedom from tension

which has been described above,

It's very funny, even as I sit here I realize that I have more confidence in myself,

in the sense that when I used to approach new situations I would have two very

funny things operating at the same time. I had a fantasy that I could do anything,

which was a fantasy which covered over all these other feelings that I really

couldn't do it, or couldn't do it as well as I wanted to, and it's as if now those two

things have merged together, and it is more real, that a situation isn't either

testing myself or proving something to myself or anyone else. It's just in terms of

doing it. And 1 think I have done away both with that fantasy and that fear.... So I

think I can go ahead and approach things -- well, just sensibly.

No longer is it necessary for this client to "cover over" experiences. Instead the picture of

herself as very able, and the experienced feeling of complete inability, have now been brought

together into one integrated pattern of self as a person with real, but imperfect abilities. Once

the self is thus accepted the inner energies making for self-actualization are released and she

attacks her life problems more efficiently.

Observing this type of material frequently in counseling experience would lead to a tentative

hypothesis of maladjustment, which like the other hypothesis suggested, focuses on the

perception of self. It might be proposed that the tensions called psychological maladjustment

exist when the organized concept of self (conscious or available to conscious awareness) is not

in accord with the perceptions actually experienced.

This discrepancy between the concept of self and the actual perceptions seems to be

explicable only in terms of the fact that the self concept resists assimilating into itself any

percept which is inconsistent with its present organization. The feeling that she may not have

the ability to do a paper is inconsistent with Miss Nam's conscious picture of herself as a very

able and confident person, and hence, though fleetingly perceived, is denied organization as a

part of her self, until this comes about in therapy.

The Conditions of Change of Self Perception

If the way in which the self is perceived has as close and significant a relationship to behavior

as has been suggested, then the manner in which this perception may be altered becomes a

question of importance. If a reorganization of self-perceptions brings a change in behavior; if

adjustment  and maladjustment  depend on the congruence between perceptions as

experienced and the self as perceived, then the factors which permit a reorganization of the

perception of self are significant.

Our observations of psychotherapeutic experience would seem to indicate that absence of any

threat to the self-concept is an important item in the problem. Normally the self resists

incorporating into itself those experiences which are inconsistent with the functioning of self.

But a point overlooked by Lecky and others is that when the self is free from any threat of

attack or likelihood of attack, then it is possible for the self to consider these hitherto rejected

perceptions, to make new differentiations, and to reintegrate the self in such a way as to

include them.

An illustration from the case of Miss Vib may serve to clarify this point. In her statement written

six weeks after the conclusion of counseling Miss Vib thus descr