Before going into how we can become fully functioning people, and what a fully functioning person is, let us examine the basic assumptions of the humanistic perspective.
In humanism, theories of personality are identified by three characteristics. The first explains, that humanists use a phenomenological approach to the study of personality, which means that reality consists of events as they are perceived or understood by the consciousness of an individual. This basically means that the significance of an event is determined by how the individual sees it. The second characteristic that identifies personality is that mind and body are seen as one and the same thing. Personality does not reside only in the mind, and it certainly does not exclude the body. Humanists insist that personality is viewed as a whole. We are whole persons, and if we get sick, we are neither ill in our minds nor ill in our bodies, but we are ill as a whole ‘person’. The last characteristic with which our personality is approached with is that humans have a free will. When we make choices and decisions, explain humanists, our self freely makes all choices and refers to the future. In other words, we chose amongst things that lie ahead, not behind. The main point with this is that our personality is future and goal orientated.
Carl Rogers was primarily a therapist. He ‘invented’ a therapy, centered specifically on the clients, commonly known as Rogerian therapy. Rogers created some key terms which create a handbook with which every mental sickness can be cured. The created a term called, ‘fully functioning’ and made the state in which the humans fully functioning personality can be expressed. I will take several aspects that Rogers mentions, are needed in order to reach this ‘fully functioning’ state, and attempt to apply them to my own personal life.
One thing Rogers states is, “People – all people – want to be genuine.” This means that every person is in search of authenticity and integrity. In therapy, Rogers would tell the individual to lay down all facades they carry. He would tell the patient to move away from the ‘false self’- the self that one is not, and come in congruence with your true self. For me personally that would mean several things. At first, I would have to identify my facades. I would observe weather I do certain things to gain attention or recognition by anyone, or if I do them because it is really me. After having done some self-reflection, I realize that I use facades quite frequently. And mostly in cases where they benefit me. For example, when I want to
A second aspect throughout these therapeutic stages would be the banishing of ‘oughts’. This means that we stop doing things because we think that in another person’s opinion what we are doing is correct. To stop doing something simply because it seems right. One should quit adapting the standards of other people into ones own life, and by that, stop fulfilling other people’s values. For me personally this implies many things. Right now I am acting the way my teacher wants me to act. He wants me to write an essay, and therefore I am writing it. Perhaps I believe that having an in class test would have been better. Yet, I am still writing this essay now. Therefore I am doing it because I ‘ought’ to do it. For therapeutic purposes, what Rogers would advise me to do, would be to quit right now, and start acting according to my own perceptions of what is right and wrong!
A fully functioning person is a person with a mind of their own. If this was to be seen in an orthodox Rogerian manner, we would have to become a nonconformist in order to become a fully functioning person. We would need to move away from all cultural expectations and peruse only our own goals. This means for me, that I would need to break any rule that I don’t find justified. If I don’t think that offensive language is to be forbidden in classrooms, I would go around swearing. I would become a non-conformist.
One last aspect that will relate to my life, which is part of the Rogerian therapy is ‘Pleasing Yourself’. In the process of finding my true self and fulfilling only my own needs we move away from pleasing others. Instead of trying harder and harder to please others, I let people accept me the way I am, or not accept me at all. This does not so much imply that a fully functioning person is supposed to selfish. It means much more that, in order to be a functioning individual we need to live in an individual way, and not shape ourselves in relation to other people. This is all a long process of finding who you are.
After having looked a several aspects of Rogerian therapy, let me analyze some of the therapeutic steps. The first thing we looked at was losing your false facades. This I find is a very plausible argument by Rogers, and I am certain that the more act the way you really feel, the more fulfilled you may become. One criticism I have, is however that it is often difficult to realize what parts of ones self are facades, and which parts are actually real. Often, one may think that a part of them is just a ‘mask’; where in fact it is actually a whole part of the persons ‘self’. In that case the individual would do more damage removing this façade, than he would gain benefit from it. The next issue discussed was to drop the ‘oughts’. Before evaluation this, it is important to note that in humanism, it is assumed that the human being is innately a ‘good’ being. If this is a true assumption then dropping ‘oughts’ in ones live is not a problem. If however we find that this is a false assumption, it puts that to risk since we wouldn’t know weather what we want to do is ‘good’ or ‘bad’. The last criticism I would like to state is one concerning the last therapeutic process mention. Where you ignore expectations of other people… Personally I believe that, even though humanists argue this does not lead us to becoming selfish people, this therapeutic step creates a form of egocentrism, weather one wants it or not. Simply due to the fact that throughout the whole time you are very self centered and don’t pay much attention to your surroundings.
