On Becoming A Person

In the few years since it was first published, this study of personal growth and creativity by one of America’s most distinguished psychologists has established itself as a classic work, one that challenges many concepts and attitudes of traditional psychology, and poses such fundamental questions as: What is the meaning of personal growth? Under what conditions is growth possible? How can one person help another? What is creativity and how can it be fostered?

Contemporary psychology derives largely from the experimental laboratory or from Freudian theory. It is thus largely preoccupied with minute aspects of animal and human behaviour, or with the mentally ill. Dr. Rogers believes that psychology and psychiatry should set their sights higher, and be more concerned with growth and the potential in man.

It is to this end that Dr. Rogers’ famous “client-centred therapy” is directed. The focus of this therapy is not on methodology, but on the person as an individual, with all his various qualities and possibilities infinitely capable of development.

This philosophical and provocative book is a summing up of Dr. Rogers’ mature experience in psychotherapy. It is an indispensable introduction to the process of becoming, intended not only for psychologists and psychiatrists, but for all who are interested in human personality and growth.