Psychology and Carl Rogers Essay

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Psychology is a scientific study that is just as varied and complex as the human mind. Carl Ransom Rogers was a boy with a curiosity for science into a man who wished to look deeper into the human spirit with the science of the mind. Transpersonal Psychology was his selected field, a type of psychology that deals with observing spirituality to pursue optimal mental health and self-transcendence (Davis). Carl Rogers did not originate the concept of transpersonal psychology, but he pioneered it and made it the ultimate accomplishment of his professional life. When we look back into the history of Carl Rogers we see that psychology was not always his passion. Born in Oak Park, Illinois in the winter of 1902, Rogers pursued academic interests and kept to himself. In 1914, when Rogers was twelve years old, his family moved to a farm where he developed a love for science and studying nature. This love of the living world sent him to the University of Wisconsin to seek out a degree in agriculture. Growing up in a fundamentalist Protestant home lead Rogers to a youth ministry trip in China, Japan and Korea during his junior year, where he experienced personal growth and a change in beliefs (Sofia University ). Seeing the impact of divergent religious beliefs and the stigmas generated by WWI caused Rogers to separate himself from his parents’ doctrine in pursuit of a different truth. When he returned home from his undergraduate studies he married Helen Elliot on August 28, 1924 (Rogers). Carl Rogers did study to become a minister for some time before deciding it wasn’t the right long term decision. It was then that he turned to a degree in clinical psychology. During an internship at Columbia University, Rogers was exposed to Freudian practices, which was a stark contrast to his clinical training. Seeing these different pieces of the psychology puzzle is what sparked an interest in Rogers to find his own path toward humanistic psychology, the missing piece. After the birth of his son, David Elliot Rogers, Carl Rogers received his MA from Columbia University and began working at the Rochester Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, or the RSPCC. That same year his second child, Natalie Rogers was born. It was during his early studies at the children’s center when he discovered that clinician directed treatment which was widely in use at the time, was ineffective. This observation became the topic of his first book, written in 1939 entitled The Clinical Treatment of the Problem Child (Rogers). He was soon appointed director of the Child Study Department and went on to accept a full professorship from Ohio University. Rogers published another book called Counseling and Psychotherapy and subsequently went to work at the University of Chicago in his own clinic, where he could focus on counseling theories that he had developed in his years of practice. These theories had evolved into client-centered therapy, a concept in which the person seeking treatment chooses their own path toward healing. Carl Rogers’ style of psychotherapeutic treatment highlights personal choice and involvement in personal interests and goals. Being a professor as well as a therapist, Rogers put the same emphasis on learning and doing what you love in his station as an educator. He believed that rigid institutionalized learning was casting a dark shadow over the more creative side of education. This may have been what led him to leave his position as a professor in 1963, to work at the Western Behavioral Science Institute. He took part in founding the Center for Studies of the Person in 1968; the center highlighted the importance of personal growth, democracy, community and individual discovery of self. Even though Rogers went on to travel around the world and setup other transpersonal communities, he was always actively involved with the Center he helped to found in 1968. Carl Rogers established different groups and published books
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