Fully functioning person
Like most therapy-oriented personologists, Rogers (1980) expressed certain ideas about specific personal characteristics ah, which define the "good life". Such perceptions were largely based on his experience of working with people who decide life problems in accordance with an organismic evaluative process, not with conditions of value.
Rogers begins to consider the good life with an appreciation of what it is not. Namely, the good life is not a fixed state of being (that is, not a state of virtue, contentment, happiness) and not a state in which a person feels adapted, perfected, or actualized. To use psychological terminology, it is not a state of reduced stress or homeostasis. A good life is not a destination, but the direction in which a person moves, following his true nature.
"Fully functioning" is a term used by Rogers to refer to people who use their abilities and talents, realize their potential and move towards full knowledge of themselves and the sphere of their experiences. Rogers identified five basic personality characteristics common to fully functioning people (Rogers, 1961). Below we list and briefly discuss them.
1. First and main characteristic a fully functioning person is openness to experience. Openness to experience is the polar opposite of defenselessness. People who are completely open to experience are able to listen to themselves, to feel the whole sphere of visceral, sensory, emotional and cognitive experiences in themselves, without feeling threatened. They are subtly aware of their deepest thoughts and feelings; they don't try to suppress them; often act in accordance with them; and even if they do not act in accordance with them, they are able to realize them. In fact, all experiences, whether internal or external, are accurately symbolized in their minds, without being distorted or denied.
For example, a fully functioning person may, while listening to a boring lecture, suddenly feel the urge to publicly rebuke the professor for being so boring. If he has even a drop common sense, he will suppress this desire in himself - such an outburst will disrupt classes and ultimately will not contribute to his tendency to actualize. But the fact is that this feeling will not pose a threat to him, since he does not have internal barriers or brakes that interfere with the conscious perception of their feelings. A fully functioning person is sensible enough to be aware of his feelings and act judiciously at any given time. If he feels something, this does not mean that he will act in accordance with this feeling. In the above example, the person is probably aware that he should not give in to his desire, since this will harm him and others (in particular, the professor, who, without knowing it, has become a "target"), and therefore will abandon this thought and switch your attention to something else. Therefore, for a fully functioning person, there is no inner experience or emotion that would threaten the feeling of being right - he really open for all possibilities.
2. The second characteristic of an optimally functioning person, noted by Rogers, is existential lifestyle. It is the tendency to live fully and richly in every moment of existence, so that each experience is experienced as fresh and unique, different from what has come before. Thus, according to Rogers (1961), what a person is or will be in the next moment results from this moment regardless of previous expectations. The existential way of life suggests that rather the “I” of a person and his personality stem from experience, and not the experience is transformed to correspond to some predetermined rigid I-structure. Hence, people who live a good life are flexible, adaptive, tolerant, and spontaneous. They discover the structure of their experience in the process of experiencing it.
3. Third hallmark fully functioning human being is what Rogers called organismic trust. This quality of the good life can best be illustrated in the context of decision making. Namely, in choosing the actions to be taken in a given situation, many people rely on social norms, laid down by some group or institution (such as a church), on the judgments of others (from a spouse and friend to a TV show host), or on how they behaved in similar situations before. In short, their ability to make decisions is strongly, if not completely, influenced by external forces. Conversely, fully functioning people depend on organismic experiences, which they regard as a reliable source of information to decide what should or should not be done. As Rogers wrote, "The inner feeling of 'I'm doing the right thing' has been proven to be a meaningful and trustworthy guide to truly good behavior" (Rogers, 1961, p. 190). Organic trust, therefore, means the ability of a person to take into account his inner feelings and consider them as the basis for choosing behavior.
4. The fourth characteristic of a fully functioning person noted by Rogers is empirical freedom. This aspect of the good life is that a person is free to live the way they want, without restrictions or prohibitions. Subjective freedom is a sense of personal power, the ability to make choices and lead oneself. At the same time, Rogers did not deny that human behavior is influenced by hereditary factors, social forces and past experience, which actually determine the choice made. Indeed, Rogers strictly adhered to the position that the concept of absolute freedom is not applicable to explaining the possibilities of human choice. At the same time, he believed that fully functioning people are able to do free choice, and whatever happens to them, it depends solely on themselves. Empirical freedom therefore refers to inner feeling: "The only one responsible for my own actions and their consequences is myself." Based on this sense of freedom and power, a fully functioning person has many choices in life and feels able to do just about anything they want to do!
5. The last, fifth, characteristic associated with optimal psychological maturity - creativity. For Rogers, the products of creativity (ideas, projects, actions) and creative image lives come from a person who lives a good life. Creative people strive to live constructively and adaptively in their culture, while at the same time satisfying their own deepest needs. They are able to adapt creatively and flexibly to changing environmental conditions. However, Rogers adds, such people are not necessarily fully culturally adapted and are almost certainly not conformists. Their connection with society can be expressed as follows: they are members of society and its products, but not its captives.
Rogers tried to combine these qualities a fully functioning person into the whole picture when he wrote:
“The good life includes a wider scope, a greater value than the limited way of life that most of us lead. To be part of this process is to immerse yourself in an often frightening and often satisfying experience of a more conscious image life with more range, more variety, more wealth.
I think it has become fairly obvious why for me such adjectives as happy, contented, blissful, pleasant, are not quite suitable for some general description a process that I have called the good life, although sometimes a person experiences these feelings. It seems to me that adjectives such as enriched, exciting, encouraged, interesting, meaningful are more suitable. The good life, I am sure, is not suitable for a faint-hearted person, it requires expansion and growth in the direction of revealing one's own potential. This requires courage. This means being in the flow of life” (Rogers, 1961, pp. 195–196).
Obviously, Rogers, like Maslow and, to some extent, Allport before him, wanted a person to look at what he is. may be. According to Rogers, this means living fully, fully consciously, fully experiencing the human being - in short, "functioning fully." Rogers was confident that fully functioning human beings of the future would bring to light and multiply the inherent goodness in human nature that is so essential to our survival.
Let us now turn our attention to the fundamental propositions about human nature that emphasize Rogers' positive and optimistic view of humanity.
From the book Consciousness: Explore, Experiment, Practice author Stephens JohnMan on the right, man on the left Someone is standing behind you on the right. Turn your head and look over your right shoulder, find out who it is, find out everything you can about him. (…) What is he wearing? (…) What does this person look like? (…) In what position is he standing, what is his facial expression? (…) What
From the book Illness as a way. The meaning and purpose of diseases the author Dalke Rudiger From the book Hare, become a tiger! author Vagin Igor OlegovichMAN IS A COMPUTER As Bertrand Barere once rightly remarked, “Language is given to man in order to hide his thoughts.” Words cannot be trusted. We know this. And we continue to believe! And then - we are surprised, indignant, angry, worried. But to be honest - sometimes we ourselves
From the book Self-Exploration - the Key to the Higher Self. Understanding yourself. author Pint Alexander AlexandrovichMan is it? - Today I would like to start with such a question. What is a person? What are these creatures that live on Earth and call themselves humans? For example, Maxim Gorky argued that "man - it sounds proud." Many believe that man is the highest being in the world.
From the book Plasticity of the Brain [Stunning Facts About How Thoughts Can Change the Structure and Function of Our Brain] by Doidge Norman From the book For the Love of Life. Can a person prevail? author Fromm Erich SeligmannMan: who is he? Question: "Who is a man?" brings us straight to the heart of the problem. If man were an object, we might ask, "What is he?" and to define it as we define objects of nature or products of production. But a person is not an object and, therefore,
From the book Transactional Analysis - Eastern Version author Makarov Viktor ViktorovichAn open person and a player person People who strive to get results mainly through frankness and intimacy, and people who achieve their result mainly through games and intrigues, like many officials, politicians and leaders scientific environment- at
From the book Theory of Personality and personal growth author Frager RobertA Fully Functioning Personality Textbook writers usually classify Rogers as a self theorist (Hall & Lindzey, 1978; Krasner & Ullman, 1973). In reality, Rogers is more interested in perception, awareness, and experience than in a hypothetical self construct. Since we
From the book Differential Psychology of Professional Activity author Ilyin Evgeny PavlovichCHAPTER 9 Differential-psychological features of the personality and activity of workers of professions of the type "person - person" 9.1. Differential-psychological features of the personality and activities of teachers a large number of
From the book How to help a student? Develop memory, perseverance and attention author Kamarovskaya Elena Vitalievna From the book Criminal Man [Collection] author Lombroso Cesare From the book Crimes in Psychiatry [Victims of experiments and not only...] author Fadeeva Tatyana BorisovnaTerminator Man Scientists have never been bothered by the idea of the possibility of connecting a person with a machine. The first experiments in this area were carried out by the Americans, who discovered ways to influence various parts of the brain with the help of weak currents. For example, a rat was given an electrode in
From the book Order Your Dream, or the Reality Control Method author Novikov DmitryI. Man Man is the first part of the model, which in turn consists of two components. There are several names for these two components. Here are some of them: Conscious and subconscious, Brain and heart, Mind and soul, Logical thinking and sensations, Mind and
From the book FORMATION OF PERSONALITY. LOOK AT PSYCHOTHERAPY by Rogers Carl R.THE GOOD LIFE WITH THE GAS OF THE PSYCHOTHERAPIST A Fully Functioning Human About 1952 or 1953, when I was escaping a winter in warm countries, I wrote an article entitled "The Concept of a Fully Functioning Human." It was an attempt to describe such
From the book Illusion "I", or Games that the brain plays with us by Hood BruceThe Man in the Mirror When Derek Zoolander looked into a puddle and saw an incredibly attractive face there, he immediately recognized who was looking at him in the reflection. However, this seemingly trivial ability to recognize oneself is not available to everyone. As we
From book Men's style author Meneghetti AntonioNoogenesis Man B didactic materials according to ontopsychology, there is the concept of measurement biological cycle and prospects for achieving the mental cycle. The concept of the biological cycle is familiar to everyone to some extent. Achieving the completeness of the biological cycle
Fully functioning personality
Textbook authors generally classify Rogers as a self theorist (Hall & Lindzey, 1978; Krasner & Ullman, 1973). In reality, Rogers is more interested in perception, awareness, and experience than in a hypothetical self construct. Since we have already described Rogers' definition of "I", we can turn to the definition fully functioning person: a person who is fully aware of his current "I".
“A fully functioning personality is synonymous with optimal psychological fitness, optimal psychological maturity, full fit and openness to experience ... Since some of these concepts sound static, as if such a personality “has just appeared”, it should be noted that they all characterize process the development of such a person. A fully functioning personality is possible only as a process, as a constantly changing person” (Rogers, 1959, p. 235).
A fully functioning personality is characterized by several parameters, the first of which is openness to experiences. Premature anxiety that limits perception is of little or no benefit to the individual. A person is constantly moving from defensive reactions to more open experiences. "He's more open to sensations own fear, timidity and pain. He is also more open to feelings of boldness, tenderness, and reverence… He is better equipped to listen to the experiences of his own organism, rather than deny their awareness” (Rogers 1961, p. 188).
“The second trait of a fully functioning personality is accommodation in this moment time to be fully aware of every moment. Such a continuous, direct connection with reality allows the "I" and the whole personality to come out of experiences, and not translate them into the plane of a predetermined structure of the "I" or distort them in accordance with it ”(1961, pp. 188-189). A person is able to restructure his own reactions as new possibilities are revealed or presented to him through experience.
The final characteristic of a fully functioning personality is belief in one's own inner motives and intuition, ever-growing confidence in their own ability to make decisions. It is most likely that a person who can correctly perceive and use the information that comes to him will correctly assess his own ability to summarize this information and his ability to respond to it. This activity affects not only the intellect, but the whole personality as a whole. Rogers believes that in a fully functioning person, the mistakes that he makes are the result of incorrect information, and not the way it has been processed.
This trust in one's "I" is akin to the reaction of a cat thrown down from high altitude. The cat does not take into account the wind speed, the angle at which it flies, acceleration free fall, however, some of these factors are still taken into account - this follows from the successful reaction of the animal. The cat does not reflect on who could throw her from such a height, is not interested in his motives and what may happen to her in the future. The cat reacts to the immediate situation and the most pressing problem. The animal flips in the air and lands on all fours, instantly adjusting its posture and preparing for the next event.
“In today's crazy world that can be destroyed in an instant, the most promising person is the one who is fully aware of his inner experiences in the moment” (Rogers in Kirshenbaum & Henderson, 1989, p. 189). Thus, a fully functioning person is fully responsive and fully aware of his reaction to the situation. It represents the essence of the concept of what Rogers called live a good life. Such people constantly expand their self-actualization (1959).
“The good life is a process, not a state of affairs. This direction is not final goal” (Rogers, 1961, p. 186).
Personal Centered Therapy
For most of his professional career, Rogers worked as a practicing psychotherapist. His theory of personality is based on experience and integrated from his therapeutic methods and ideas. Rogers' theory has gone through several stages of development, and its focus has repeatedly shifted from one subject to another, but several fundamental principles, first formulated by Rogers in 1940, have remained in force thirty years later. His approach was based on the human desire for growth, health and fitness. Therapy served as one of the ways to free the personality and restore its normal development. Therapy relies more on the senses than on the intellect and deals mainly with the immediate life situation, and not the past. At the end of his life, Rogers viewed the relationship between therapist and patient as an experience of personal growth (1970).
Rogers originally used the word customer, and later the word Human, instead of the traditional term patient. It is believed that the patient is a sick person who needs the help of trained professionals, while the client is required to provide a service that he cannot provide himself. Clients, despite the fact that they may have problems, are seen as potentially able to understand their own situation. Relationship equality implies a person-centered model, which is absent in the doctor-patient relationship.
Therapy helps a person to understand their own problems with a minimum of outside interference. Rogers defined psychotherapy as "the release of an already existing ability in a potentially competent person, and not the manipulation of an expert with a more or less passive person" (1959, p. 221). This therapy is called personality-centered because it requires Active participation a person moving in a certain direction. Rogers believed that any "expert intervention" is extremely detrimental to personal growth.
“A person has an internal, at least latent ability to be aware of those factors in his life that caused him pain or were the cause of misfortune. He can rearrange himself to overcome them” (Rogers, 1952b).
Client-centered or person-centered therapist
The keys to recovery are with the client, but still the therapist, in addition to professional skills, must have a number of personal qualities that will help the client learn how to use these keys. “These forces will be effective if the therapist can establish with the client enough warm relationship acceptance and understanding” (Rogers, 1952b, p. 66). By understanding, Rogers meant “the desire and ability to understand thoughts, feelings, and internal contradictions client from his point of view; it is the ability to look at everything through the eyes of the client, taking into account his experience” (1950, p. 443). In order to work with clients, the therapist must be authentic and sincere. The therapist must avoid playing a role - especially the role of a therapist - when he is talking to a client.
“[It] implies a desire to behave or verbalize various feelings and the relationships that exist in me. This means that I need to be aware of my own feelings, as far as possible, rather than presenting their façade, actually feeling quite different” (1961, p. 33).
In training, therapists often ask: “How should I behave if I don’t like the patient, I feel bored or angry?”, “Are these feelings not indicative of the feelings that the person is experiencing in response to his annoying behavior?”
A client-centered answer to these questions involves several levels of understanding. On one level, the therapist serves as a model for sincere perception. It offers a relationship in which the client can test their sense of reality. If the client is sure that he will receive an honest answer, he can be convinced of the justification of his own premonitions and fears. Clients begin to realize that they can get a sincere, undistorted, and undiluted response to their inner quest. Such verification of the reality of sensations is of great importance if the client's perception is devoid of distortion and his experience is direct.
On the next level The client-centered therapist is useful when he accepts and is able to maintain unconditional positive attitude to the client. Rogers defines it as “caring, but not possessive, not bringing personal gain. This is the kind of setting that just says 'I'll take care of you' rather than 'I'll take care of you if you act like this and that'" (1961, p. 283). For the therapist, this attitude consists of "feeling a positive, nonjudgmental, approving attitude" (1986a, p. 198). This attitude does not mean positive assessment, since evaluation is a form of moral judgment. Evaluation tends to limit behavior by rewarding some things and punishing others; an unconditional positive attitude enables a person to be what he really is, regardless of his character.
This point of view is close to the concept Taoist love proposed by Abraham Maslow. This love does not condemn, does not limit, does not define. She promises to accept the person just as he or she really is. (This concept is similar to the concept of Christian love, denoted Greek word agape; see Corinthians 13 and John 4:7–12, 18–21.)
In order to demonstrate an unconditional positive attitude, the client-centered therapist must constantly keep the client's self-actualization in focus while striving to ignore their destructive, hurtful, or hurtful behavior. The therapist who is able to focus on the positive nature of the person can respond constructively, avoiding boredom, irritation, and anger at those moments when his client is the least attractive. The client-centered therapist maintains confidence that the client can become aware of his inner and possibly undeveloped self. Rogerian therapists acknowledge, however, that they are often unable to maintain this quality of understanding in their work.
“When relationships in therapy are equal, when everyone in them is responsible for himself, then independent (and mutual) growth occurs much faster” (Rogers, 1978, p. 287).
For reflection. client centered therapist
This is a challenging exercise that includes a client-centered approach. It is not meant to make you imagine a person-centered therapy, but only hints at the complexity of the requirements that Rogers considered necessary for effective counseling or therapy.
As a therapist, you do your best to understand what is being said to you. Listen so that you can repeat the story. Repeat to the client what you hear. You want to understand exactly what is said to you. As a Rogersian therapist, don't focus on right or wrong behavior, offer advice, don't criticize. Continue to see the client as just another human being, no matter what he or she tells you.
This is a difficult exercise. Capture the moment when you feel the urge to comment, when you feel the urge to judge, feel sorry, or when your client's story disturbs you. Notice how difficult it is to be aware of your own experience, remain empathic, and maintain a positive attitude at the same time. Try to understand own feelings. You will probably find it easy to play sincere behavior, but in such a situation it is much more difficult to have real empathy and a positive attitude.
Change roles. Now the therapist is a client. Follow the same procedure. As a client, try to understand what it means to be listened to and not judged.
sincere understanding
Approval of the client implies not only tolerance and a static posture, which may or may not reflect real understanding, simple patience in this case is inadequate. An unconditional positive attitude also consists of an empathic understanding ... to experience the world of the client's personality as if it were your own experience, without losing the "as if" state (Rogers, 1961, p. 284). This attitude provides customers with much more freedom in expressing your feelings. Clients are convinced that the therapist does not just approve of them; the therapist is actively trying to feel what clients are feeling.
“When I do my best as a therapist and facilitator in a group, I get closer to my inner intuitive self… When I am in a slightly altered state of consciousness, then all my actions seem to be healing” (Rogers, 1984) .
The last criterion of a good therapist is the ability to communicate to the client the fullness of his understanding. The client must know that the therapist is authentic, he really cares about the client, really listens and understands him. The therapist must maintain an empathic attitude, even in the face of the client's selective perceptual distortions, defensive reactions, and harmful effects his lost self-respect. Once a connection has been established between the client and the therapist, the client can begin serious work on himself.
The proposed description may appear static and even mechanical, as if the therapist is trying to climb a mountain plateau, reaching it, and then engaging in therapy limited to that plateau; the process, however, is a continuous dynamic and is constantly renewed. The therapist, like the client, is constantly striving for maximum compliance.
AT early work Rogers Counseling and Psychotherapy(“Counseling and Psychotherapy” (1942, pp. 30-44) he divided the process of psychological help into the following steps:
“The client asks for help.
The situation is determined.
Free expression of feelings is encouraged.
The consultant approves and explains.
Gradually positive feelings find expression.
Positive impulses become recognizable.
Insight is being developed.
The choice is explained.
Positive action is being taken.
Insight deepens.
Increasing independence.
The need for help is decreasing.”
This supposed sequence of events expresses Rogers' belief that clients determine their own path of development, with the help and approval of the therapist.
For reflection. Listen and understand
This exercise is an adaptation of one of the exercises given to his students by Rogers (1952a). It should help you gauge how well you understand the other person.
The next time you start arguing with a roommate, close friend, or small group of friends, stop the discussion for a second. Install next rule: anyone can voice his objection only after he accurately retells the thoughts and feelings of the one who spoke before. You must really understand thoughts and feelings before you can state your point of view. opposite side and sum them up.
When you try this exercise, you may find it difficult at first. But as soon as you can take the other person's point of view, your own ideas will change a lot. Differences are removed in the process of understanding. Any remaining differences will become more apparent to each of you.
Necessary and sufficient conditions
Some aspects of Rogersian therapy are easy enough to grasp and are actually used by many psychotherapists. But it is much more difficult to acquire the personal characteristics necessary for the effectiveness of such therapy. The ability to truly be present next to another person - to understand the suffering of a person and maintain his confidence in his growth - this is a rather difficult requirement for the personality of a psychotherapist.
Rogers later formulated what he called necessary and sufficient conditions successful therapy. His hypothesis, expressed in the form of an if/then algorithm, was as follows:
1. The client experiences mental distress or dissatisfaction.
2. Contacts with a psychotherapist.
3. Therapist saves conformity in relationships.
4. The therapist maintains an unconditional positive attitude towards the client.
5. The therapist empathically understands the client's experience and communicates this understanding to the client.
6. The client perceives at least some degree of unconditional positive regard and empathic understanding.
There are positive therapeutic changes" (Rogers, 1957).
Many researchers support the data basic conditions effective therapy (Mitchell, Bozarth, & Krauft, 1977; Rogers, 1967; Traux & Mitchell, 1971). Rachman and Wilson (1980), a strict behaviorist, analyzed the activities of the major schools of psychotherapy and concluded that previous research had failed to define and measure the therapist relevance variable, but additional developments(Farber, Brink, & Raskin, 1996; Paterson, 1984; Raskin, 1986) continue to demonstrate a direct relationship between the therapist-client empathic relationship and positive changes in the client's personality.
While there is debate among researchers, Rogers's fundamental requirements for psychotherapists are already included in most counseling and training programs, in particular, they are included in programs organized for telephone operators working on hotlines or in local crisis centers; they are taken into account in their programs by the clergy; social workers; family and child counseling therapists; psychologists in various fields.
Rogers' own research led him away from the "method" propaganda. He concluded that therapy is not a science, perhaps not even an art; is a relationship that depends in part on mental health therapist that enable him to plant and nurture the seeds of that health in the client (Rogers, 1977).
From book General psychology author Pervushina Olga NikolaevnaPERSONALITY THE CONCEPT OF PERSONALITY There are many definitions of personality in psychology. task this course is only an introduction to this most difficult and richest problematic. A detailed study of the topic will be considered in the course "Theory of Personality." In psychology
From the book Awakening: Overcoming Obstacles to Realizing Human Potential author Tart CharlesPERSONALITY The study of personality is one of the most important areas in modern psychology- I specialized in this direction during my studies at the university - and this topic captivates almost everyone. Is my personality good or bad? Is there a way to improve my
From the book Steps to the Divine author Lazarev Sergey Nikolaevich From book Psychological safety: tutorial author Solomin Valery PavlovichPERSONALITY
From the book Let's Start Over, or How to See Your Tomorrow author Kozlov Nikolay IvanovichAm I a person? Personality - what is it? When the police establish your identity, more precisely, “face”, they are interested in your full name, registration and the absence of violations before the law. And if you said to yourself: “Of course, I am a person, I have a passport!” - you calmed down. And there are no development tasks
From the book Theory of Personality author Khjell LarryThe Fully Functioning Person Like most therapy-oriented personologists, Rogers (1980) expressed certain ideas about specific personality traits that define the "good life." These ideas were mostly based
From the book Motivation and Personality author Maslow Abraham HaroldPersonality The concept of a well-adapted personality, or well-adapted personality, serves as a kind of "low ceiling" for development and growth opportunities. A cow, a slave, a robot can also be well adapted. The child's superego is usually understood as an introjection of fear, punishment,
From the book Humanistic Psychoanalysis author Fromm Erich Seligmann From the book Games played by "We". Fundamentals of Behavioral Psychology: Theory and Typology author Kalinauskas Igor NikolaevichI am a Personality A person necessarily enters into social relations, but does it indirectly - through his suchness, i.e. through his social mask, which most often hides the true content inner peace person. If you learn to separate for yourself
From the book 7 STEPS TO SUCCESS. A GUIDE FOR SMART MEN by May AlexSTEP 1 PERSONALITY This step will help you get rid of the absurdity invented in society and lead you to the discovery of WHO YOU REALLY ARE and WHAT YOU WANT in life. In this chapter, you will create a solid foundation for your success in relationships and many other areas of life. look around
From the book How to help a student? Develop memory, perseverance and attention author Kamarovskaya Elena Vitalievna From the book Man for himself author Fromm Erich Seligmann From the book Intelligence: instructions for use author Sheremetiev KonstantinPersonality By the age of 16-18, the brain is fully developed and ready to work. At this moment, a person realizes himself as an independently acting subject, which is called “I”. The very concept of “I” appears earlier, but before the final formation of the frontal lobes, a person does not understand that
From the book Intelligence. How does your brain work author Sheremetiev KonstantinPersonality Great personalities were not created by nature, but made themselves what they were; they became what they wanted to be, and remained true to this desire of theirs until the end of their lives. Hegel At the age of 16, the frontal lobes of the brain are fully formed. From now on teenager
From the book Who's in sheepskin? [How to recognize a manipulator] by Simon GeorgePersonality A person can consider himself as an animal among animals living today, he can consider himself both as a family member and as a member of society, a people living for centuries, maybe, and even must (because his mind irresistibly attracts to this)
From the author's bookneurotic personality and personality with character disorders There are two more important opposite types. A person who is overly insecure about his ability to cope and overly anxious when trying to secure his basic
Fully functioning person
Like most therapy-oriented personologists, Rogers (Rogers, 1980) expressed certain ideas about specific personality characteristics that define the "good life". Such notions were largely based on his experience of working with people who solve life's problems according to an organismic evaluative process rather than according to conditions of value.
Rogers begins to consider the good life with an appreciation of what it is not. Namely, the good life is not a fixed state of being (that is, not a state of virtue, contentment, happiness) and not a state in which a person feels adapted, perfected, or actualized. To use psychological terminology, it is not a state of reduced stress or homeostasis. The good life is not a destination, but the direction in which a person moves, following his true nature.
"Fully functioning" is a term used by Rogers to refer to people who use their abilities and talents, realize their potential and move towards full knowledge of themselves and the sphere of their experiences. Rogers identified five basic personality characteristics common to fully functioning people (Rogers, 1961). Below we list and briefly discuss them.
1. The first and foremost characteristic of a fully functioning person is openness to experience. Openness to experience is the polar opposite of defenselessness. People who are completely open to experience are able to listen to themselves, to feel the whole sphere of visceral, sensory, emotional and cognitive experiences in themselves, without feeling threatened. They are subtly aware of their deepest thoughts and feelings; they don't try to suppress them; often act in accordance with them; and even if they do not act in accordance with them, they are able to realize them. In fact, all experiences, whether internal or external, are accurately symbolized in their minds, without being distorted or denied.
For example, a fully functioning person may, while listening to a boring lecture, suddenly feel the urge to publicly rebuke the professor for being so boring. If he has even a shred of common sense, he will suppress this desire in himself - such an outburst will disrupt his studies and ultimately will not contribute to his actualization tendency. But the fact is that this feeling will not pose a threat to him, since he does not have internal barriers or brakes that interfere with the conscious perception of his feelings. A fully functioning person is sensible enough to be aware of his feelings and act judiciously at any given time. If he feels something, this does not mean that he will act in accordance with this feeling. In the above example, the person is probably aware that he should not give in to his desire, since this will harm him and others (in particular, the professor, who, without knowing it, has become a "target"), and therefore will abandon this thought and switch your attention to something else. Therefore, for a fully functioning person, there is no inner experience or emotion that would threaten the feeling of being right - he really open for all possibilities.
2. The second characteristic of an optimally functioning person, noted by Rogers, is existential lifestyle. It is the tendency to live fully and richly in every moment of existence, so that each experience is experienced as fresh and unique, different from what has come before. Thus, according to Rogers (1961), what a person is or will be in the next moment arises from this moment, regardless of previous expectations. The existential way of life suggests that rather the “I” of a person and his personality stem from experience, and not the experience is transformed to correspond to some predetermined rigid I-structure. Hence, people who live a good life are flexible, adaptive, tolerant, and spontaneous. They discover the structure of their experience in the process of experiencing it.
3. The third hallmark of a fully functioning person is what Rogers called organismic trust. This quality of the good life can best be illustrated in the context of decision making. Namely, in choosing the actions to take in a situation, many people rely on social norms laid down by some group or institution (for example, the church), on the judgments of others (from a spouse and friend to a TV show host), or on the fact that how they behaved in similar situations before. In short, their ability to make decisions is strongly, if not completely, influenced by outside forces. Conversely, fully functioning people depend on organismic experiences, which they regard as a reliable source of information to decide what should or should not be done. As Rogers wrote, "The inner feeling of 'I'm doing the right thing' has been proven to be a meaningful and trustworthy guide to truly good behavior" (Rogers, 1961, p. 190). Organismic trust, therefore, means the ability of a person to take into account his internal sensations and consider them as the basis for choosing behavior.
4. The fourth characteristic of a fully functioning person noted by Rogers is empirical freedom. This aspect of the good life is that a person is free to live the way they want, without restrictions or prohibitions. Subjective freedom is a sense of personal power, the ability to make choices and lead oneself. At the same time, Rogers did not deny that human behavior is influenced by hereditary factors, social forces and past experience, which actually determine the choice made. Indeed, Rogers strictly adhered to the position that the concept of absolute freedom is not applicable to explaining the possibilities of human choice. At the same time, he believed that fully functioning people are able to make free choice, and whatever happens to them depends solely on themselves. Experiential freedom, therefore, refers to the inner feeling: "The only one responsible for my own actions and their consequences is myself." Based on this sense of freedom and power, a fully functioning person has many choices in life and feels able to do just about anything they want to do!
5. The last, fifth, characteristic associated with optimal psychological maturity - creativity. For Rogers, the products of creativity (ideas, projects, actions) and a creative lifestyle come from a person who lives a good life. Creative people strive to live constructively and adaptively in their culture, while at the same time satisfying their own deepest needs. They are able to adapt creatively and flexibly to changing environmental conditions. However, Rogers adds, such people are not necessarily fully culturally adapted and are almost certainly not conformists. Their connection with society can be expressed as follows: they are members of society and its products, but not its captives.
Rogers tried to combine these qualities a fully functioning person into the whole picture when he wrote:
“The good life includes a wider scope, a greater value than the limited way of life that most of us lead. To be part of this process is to dive into an often frightening and often satisfying experience of a more conscious lifestyle with more range, more variety, more richness.
I think it has become fairly obvious why, to me, adjectives such as happy, contented, blissful, pleasant are not quite suitable for some general description of the process that I called the good life, although sometimes a person experiences these feelings. It seems to me that adjectives such as enriched, exciting, encouraged, interesting, meaningful are more suitable. The good life, I am sure, is not suitable for a faint-hearted person, it requires expansion and growth in the direction of revealing one's own potential. This requires courage. This means being in the flow of life” (Rogers, 1961, pp. 195–196).
Obviously, Rogers, like Maslow and, to some extent, Allport before him, wanted a person to look at what he is. may be. According to Rogers, this means living fully, fully consciously, fully experiencing the human being - in short, "functioning fully." Rogers was confident that fully functioning human beings of the future would bring to light and multiply the inherent goodness in human nature that is so essential to our survival.
Let us now turn our attention to the fundamental propositions about human nature that emphasize Rogers' positive and optimistic view of humanity.
A FULLY FUNCTIONING HUMAN
From the book: The Formation of Man. A look at psychotherapy / Per. from English. - M.: Progress, 1994. S.234-247
Basically, my views on the meaning of the concept of "good life" are based on experience working with people in very close, intimate relationships called psychotherapy. Thus, my views are based on experience or feelings, as opposed to, for example, a scientific or philosophical basis. Observing people with disorders and problems who yearn to achieve a good life, I got an idea of what they mean by this.
I should have made it clear from the outset that my experience is due to the vantage point of a particular trend in psychotherapy that has developed over many years. It is possible that all types of psychotherapy are basically similar, but since I am less certain of this now than I used to be, I would like to make it clear to you that my psychotherapeutic experience has developed in the direction that seems to me the most efficient. This is "client-centered" psychotherapy.
Let me try to briefly describe what this psychotherapy would look like if it were optimal in every way. I feel that I learned the most about the good life from the experience of psychotherapy, during which many changes took place. If psychotherapy were optimal in all respects (both intensive and extensive), the therapist would be able to enter into intense subjective personal relationships with the client, treating him not as a scientist to an object of study, not as a doctor to a patient, but as a person to a person. Then the therapist would feel that his client is certainly a person with various virtues, possessing high value regardless of his position, behavior or feelings. It would also mean that the therapist is sincere, does not hide behind a façade of defenses, and greets the client by expressing the feelings he is experiencing on an organic level. This would mean that the therapist can allow himself to understand the client; that no internal barriers prevent him from feeling what the client feels at every moment of their relationship; and that he can express to the client some part of his empathic understanding. This means that it would be convenient for the therapist to enter fully into this relationship without knowing cognitively where it leads; and that he is pleased that he has created an atmosphere that enables the client with the greatest freedom to become himself.
For the client, optimal psychotherapy would mean exploring increasingly unfamiliar, strange, and dangerous feelings in itself; research, which is possible only because the client gradually begins to understand that he is accepted without any conditions. Therefore, he gets acquainted with such elements of his experience, the awareness of which was denied in the past, as they were too threatening and destroying the structure of his "I".
In these relationships, he finds that he experiences these feelings in their entirety, to the end, so that at the moment he is his fear or anger, tenderness or strength. And when he lives with these different intensity and varied feelings, he finds that he feels his "I", that he is all these feelings. He sees that his behavior is constructively changing in accordance with his new felt "I". He comes to the realization that he no longer needs to be afraid of what the experience may contain, and he can freely welcome it as part of the changing and evolving Self.
This is a small sketch of what client-centered psychotherapy comes close to, if it is optimal. I present it here simply as the context in which my ideas of the good life were formed.
Observation with a negative conclusion
As I tried to live by understanding the experiences of my clients, I gradually came to one negative conclusion about the good life. It seems to me that the good life is not a frozen state. In my opinion, it is not a state of virtue, contentment, nirvana or happiness. These are not the conditions to which a person adapts, in which he is realized or actualized. Using psychological terms, it can be said that this is not a state of decreased desire, reduced tension, and not homeostasis.
It seems to me that when these terms were used, it was implied that when one or more of these states is achieved, then the goal of life is also achieved. Of course, for many people, happiness or fitness are synonymous with a good life. Even social scientists have often said that the purpose of the life process is to reduce tension, achieve homeostasis, or balance.
Therefore, I realized with surprise and with some anxiety that my personal experience does not confirm any of these statements. If I focus on the experiences of some individuals who have achieved the highest degree advances during the psychotherapeutic relationship and in subsequent years seem to show real progress towards a good life, then, in my opinion, their condition cannot be accurately described by any of the above terms referring to the static existence. I think they would consider themselves offended if they were to be described by such a word as "adapted"; and they would find it wrong to describe themselves as "happy", "satisfied" or even "actualized". Knowing them well, I would consider it incorrect to say that they have reduced impulse tension or that they are in a state of homeostasis. So I have to ask myself if it is possible to generalize their cases, if there is any definition of the good life that fits the facts of life that I have observed. I believe that it is not at all easy to give an answer, and my further statements are very hypothetical.
Observation with a positive conclusion
If I try to summarize the description of this concept, I believe it will come down to something like this:
The good life is a process, not a state of being
This is a direction, not a destination. This direction is chosen by the whole organism with psychological freedom to move anywhere.
This organically chosen direction has certain general qualities, appearing in a large number different and unique people.
Thus, I can combine these statements into a definition that can at least serve as a basis for consideration and discussion. The good life in my experience is the process of moving along the path chosen human body when he is internally free to develop in any direction, and the qualities of this direction have a certain universality.
Process characteristics
Let me identify the characteristic qualities of this process of movement, the qualities that emerge in psychotherapy in each client.
Increasing openness to experience
First, this process is associated with an increasing openness to experience. This phrase is everything to me more sense. Openness is diametrically opposed to protection. The defense reaction that I have described in the past is the body's response to an experience that is perceived or will be perceived as threatening, as inconsistent with the individual's idea of himself or himself in relation to the world. This threatening experience temporarily ceases to be such, since it is either distorted upon awareness, or denied, or not allowed into consciousness. It can be said that I actually cannot correctly understand all my experiences, feelings and reactions, which are significantly at odds with my ideas about myself. During psychotherapy, the client finds all the time that he experiences such feelings and relationships that he was not able to realize before, which he was not able to "own" as part of his "I".
However, if a person could be completely open to his experience, every stimulus coming from the organism or from outside world, would be transmitted freely through the nervous system, without the slightest distortion by any defense mechanism. There would be no need for a "subconscious" mechanism by which the organism is warned in advance of any experience that threatens the personality. On the contrary, regardless of whether the stimulus of the surrounding world affected the sensory nerves with its shape, shape, color or sound, or whether it is a trace of the memory of past experience, or - a visceral sensation of fear, pleasure or disgust - a person will "live" this experience, which will be fully comprehensible.
So it turns out that one aspect of the process that I call "the good life" is the movement from the pole of defensive reactions to the pole of openness to one's experience. A person is increasingly becoming able to hear himself, to experience what is happening in him. He is more open to his feelings of fear, discouragement, pain. He is also more open to his feelings of courage, tenderness, and reverence. He is free to live his subjective feelings as they exist in him, and he is also free to be aware of these feelings. He is able to live the experience of his body to a greater extent, and not close it from awareness.
Increasing desire to live in the present
The second quality of the process that I see as the good life has to do with the growing desire to live life to its fullest in every moment. This idea is easily misunderstood; it is still unclear to me. However, let me try to explain what I mean.
I think if a person were completely open to new experiences and had no defensive reactions, every moment of his life would be new. The complex combination of internal and external stimuli that exists at this very moment has never existed before in this form. Therefore, this person would think: "What I will be in the next moment, and what I will do, grows out of this moment and cannot be predicted in advance either by me or others." We have often met clients expressing just such feelings.
To express the fluidity inherent in this life, it can be said that the self and personality emerge from experience rather than the experience being interpreted and distorted to conform to the preconceived structure of the self. This means that you are more of a participant and observer of the ongoing processes of organismic experience than someone who exercises control over them.
Living in the present moment means not being still, not rigorously organized, not imposing structure on experience. Instead, there is a maximum of adaptation, a discovery of structure in experience, a flowing, changing organization of the self and personality.
It is this drive to live in the moment that seems to me to be evident in people involved in the process of living a good life. It is almost certain that this is her most essential quality. It is connected with the discovery of the structure of experience in the process of living in this experience. On the other hand, most of us almost always bring pre-formed structure and evaluation into our experience and, without noticing it, twist and frame the experience to fit preconceived ideas. At the same time, they are annoyed that the fluidity of experience makes fitting it to our carefully constructed frameworks completely unmanageable. When I see clients approach a good, mature life, for me one of its qualities is that their mind is open to that. what is happening now, and in this present process they discover any structure that turns out to be inherent in it.
Increasing confidence in your body
Another characteristic of a person living in the process of a good life is an ever-increasing trust in his body as a means of achieving best behavior in every situation in the present.
When deciding what to do in a situation, many people rely on principles, on the rules of conduct established by some group or institution, on the judgments of others (from wife and friends to Emilia Post, or on how they behaved in similar situation in the past.However, when I observe clients whose life experience taught me so much, I find that they can trust their whole organismic response to new situations more. This is because, by being open to their experience, they are increasingly discovering that doing what "feels right" is a reliable guide to behavior that brings them true satisfaction.
When I tried to understand the reason for this, I found myself reasoning as follows. A person who is completely open to his experience would have access to all the factors at his disposal in a given situation: social demands, his own complex and probably conflicting needs: memories of similar situations in the past, perceptions of the unique qualities of a given situation, etc. e. Based on all this, he would build his behavior. Of course, this information would be very complex. But he could let his whole organism with the participation of consciousness to consider each stimulus, need and requirement, its relative intensity and importance. From this complex weighing and balancing, he could deduce those actions that in nai more satisfy all his needs in this situation. Such a person can be compared by analogy with a giant electronic computer. Since he is open to his experience, all the data of sensory impressions, memory, previous communication, the state of visceral and internal organs are entered into the machine. The machine takes in all of these many stress and force data and quickly figures out how to proceed so that the most economical vector to meet the needs in that particular situation is the result. This is the behavior of our hypothetical person.
Most of us have flaws that lead to errors in this process. They consist in the inclusion of information that does not belong to this particular situation, or in the exclusion of information that does. Mistakes arise when memories and prior knowledge are introduced into calculations as if they were this reality, and not just memories and knowledge. Error can also occur when certain frightening experiences are not allowed into consciousness, therefore, they are not included in the calculations or are entered into the machine in a distorted form. But our hypothetical person would consider his organism quite trustworthy, because all the available data would be used and presented in a correct rather than distorted form. Hence, his behavior would perhaps be closer to satisfying his needs to increase opportunities, establish connections with others, etc.
In this weighing, balancing, and calculating, his organism would by no means be infallible. Based on the available data, he would always give the best possible answer, but sometimes the data would be missing. However, due to openness to experience, any mistakes, any unsatisfactory behavior, would soon be corrected. Calculations would always be in the process of being adjusted because they would be constantly tested in behavior.
You may not like my computer analogy. Let me turn again to the experience of those clients that I knew. As they become more open to their experience, they find that they can trust their reactions more. If they feel like they want to express their anger, they do so and find that it is not so scary at all, because they are equally aware and other desires - to express affection, connection and attitude towards other people. They are surprised that they can intuitively decide how to behave in difficult and hectic situations. human relations. And only after that they realize how reliable their internal reactions were, which led to the correct behavior.
The process of fuller functioning
I would like to present a more coherent picture of the good life by bringing together the three threads that describe this process. It turns out that mentally free man more and more perfectly fulfills its purpose. He becomes more and more capable of a full-blooded life in each of all his feelings and reactions. He increasingly uses all his organic mechanisms in order to feel the specific situation inside and outside it as correctly as possible. He uses all the information in his mind that can supply him nervous system, while realizing that his whole whole organism can be - and often is - wiser than his consciousness. He is more able to give his entire free, complexly functioning organism the opportunity to choose from the many possible options for behavior that will really satisfy him at the moment. He is more able to trust his organism in its functioning, not because he is infallible, but because he can be completely open to the consequences of his actions and will be able to correct them if they do not satisfy him.
He will be more able to experience all his feelings, less afraid of any of them, he will be able to sift through the facts himself, being more open to information from all sources. He is fully involved in the process of being and "becoming himself" and therefore finds himself really and truly socialized. He lives more fully in the present moment and learns that this is the most The right way existence. He becomes a more fully functioning organism and a more perfectly functioning person because he is fully aware of himself, and this awareness permeates his experience from beginning to end.
Some issues involved
Any idea of what constitutes a good life has many implications. My point of view presented here is no exception. I hope that the consequences hidden in it will serve as food for thought. There are two or three issues that I would like to discuss.
A New Perspective on the Correlation between Freedom and Necessity
The connection with the first latent consequence may not be immediately evident. It concerns old problem"free will". Let me try to show how this problem appears to me in a new light.
For some time I have been perplexed by the paradox that exists in psychotherapy between freedom and determinism. Some of the client's most powerful subjective experiences in the psychotherapeutic relationship are those in which he feels in control. open choice. He is free to become himself or hide behind a façade, to move forward or backward, to behave as a pernicious destroyer of himself and others, or to make himself and others stronger - in literally words he is free to live or die, in both - psychological and physiological - meanings of these words. However, as soon as I enter the field of psychotherapy with objective research methods, I, like many other scientists, commit myself to complete determinism. From this point of view, every feeling and action of the client is determined by what preceded it. There is no such thing as freedom. This dilemma, which I am trying to describe, exists in other areas as well - it's just that I have outlined it more clearly, and this does not make it any less insoluble.
However, this dilemma can be seen in a new perspective when viewed within the framework of my definition of a fully functioning person. It can be said that in the most favorable conditions of psychotherapy, a person rightfully experiences the most complete and absolute freedom. He desires or chooses the course of action that is the most economical vector in relation to all internal and external stimuli, because this is precisely the behavior that will most deeply satisfy him. But this is the same course of action, about which one can say that, from another convenient point of view, it is determined by all the factors of the present situation. Let's contrast this picture of human action with defensive reactions. He wants or chooses a certain course of action, but finds that he cannot behave according to his choice. He is determined by the factors of a particular situation, but these factors include his defensive reactions, his denial or distortion of significant data. Therefore, he is sure that his behavior will not fully satisfy him. His behavior is determined, but he is not free to do effective choice. On the other hand, a fully functioning person not only experiences, but also uses absolute freedom, when he spontaneously, freely and voluntarily chooses and desires that which is absolutely determined.
I am not so naive as to suggest that this completely solves the problem of the subjective and the objective, freedom and necessity. However, it matters to me because more people lives a good life, the more he feels the freedom of choice and the more his choices are effectively embodied in his behavior.
Creativity as an element of a good life
It seems to me quite clear that the person involved in the guiding process that I have called "the good life" is creative person. With his receptive openness to the world, with his faith in his ability to form new relationships with others, he will be the kind of person who will have products of creativity and creative life. He will not necessarily be "adapted" to his culture, but he will almost certainly not be a conformist. But at any time and in any culture, he will live creatively, in harmony with his culture, which is necessary for the balanced satisfaction of his needs. Sometimes, in certain situations, he could be very unhappy, but still he would continue to move towards becoming himself, and behave in a way that satisfies his deepest needs as much as possible.
I think that evolutionary scientists would say about such a person that he would be more likely to adapt and survive under changing environmental conditions. He would be able to adapt well and creatively to both new and existing conditions. He would represent a suitable vanguard of human evolution.
Fundamental trust in human nature
It will become clear later that another implication relevant to the point of view I have presented is that, in general, the nature of freely functioning man is constructive and trustworthy. For me, this is an inevitable conclusion from my twenty-five years of experience in psychotherapy. If we are able to free the individual from defensive reactions, to open his perception as for a wide range for his own needs, as well as for the demands of his environment and society, it can be trusted that his subsequent actions will be positive, creative, moving him forward. There is no need to say who will socialize him, since one of his own very deep needs is the need for relationships with others, for communication. As he becomes more and more himself, he will be socialized to a greater extent - in accordance with reality. There is no need to talk about who should check his aggressive impulses, for as he is open to all his impulses, his needs for receiving and giving love will be as strong as his impulse to hit or grab for himself. He will be aggressive in situations where aggression really needs to be used, but he will not have an irresistibly growing need for aggression. If he moves towards openness to all his experience, his overall behavior in this and other areas will be more realistic and balanced, suitable for the survival and further development of a highly socialized animal.
I share little of the almost prevailing notion that man is fundamentally irrational and, if his impulses are not controlled, will end up destroying himself and others. Human behavior is rational to the point of refinement when it is strictly planned difficult way moves towards the goals that his body seeks to achieve. The tragedy is that our defensive reactions do not give us the opportunity to realize this rationality, so that consciously we move in one direction, while organismically - in another. But in our person, in the process of a good life, the number of such barriers decreases, and he is increasingly involved in rational action of your body. The only one necessary control over impulses that exists in such a person is a natural internal balancing of one need with another and the discovery of behavioral options aimed at the most complete satisfaction all needs. The experience of extreme satisfaction of one need (for aggression, sex, etc.) at the expense of satisfaction of other needs (for companionship, affectionate relations, etc.), which is more inherent in a person with defensive reactions, would be greatly reduced. A person would participate in a very complex activity of the organism for self-regulation - its mental and physiological control- in such a way as to live in ever-increasing harmony with oneself and others.
A more fulfilling life
The last thing I would like to mention is that the process of a good life is associated with a wider range of life, with its greater brightness compared to the "narrowed" existence that most of us lead. To be part of this process is to be involved in the often frightening or satisfying experiences of a more receptive life that has more wide range and more variety. It seems to me that clients who have advanced significantly in psychotherapy have a more subtle sense of pain, but they also have a more intense sense of ecstasy; they feel their anger more clearly, but the same can be said about love; they feel their fear more deeply, but so does courage. And the reason that they are thus able to live more fully, with a greater range of feelings, is that they are deeply confident in themselves as reliable tools in meeting life.
I think you will understand why such expressions as "happy", "pleasant", "bliss", "pleasurable" do not seem to me fully suitable to describe the process that I called "the good life", although a person is in the process good life in certain time and experiencing similar feelings. More appropriate adjectives are "enriching", "exciting", "rewarding", "challenging", "meaningful". I am convinced that the process of a good life is not for the faint-hearted. It is associated with the expansion and growth of its capabilities. It takes courage to descend completely into the stream of life. But what is most captivating in a person is that, being free, he chooses the process of becoming as a good life.
Notes
- Homeostasis - mobile equilibrium state of any system, preserved by its opposition to disturbing this balance of external or internal factors, - Note. ed.
- Emilia Post - at that time a well-known American author of a book about good manners in good society. - Note. transl.
Like most therapy-oriented personologists, Rogers (1980) expressed certain ideas about specific personality characteristics that define the "good life." Such notions were largely based on his experience of working with people who solve life's problems according to an organismic evaluative process rather than according to conditions of value.
Rogers begins to consider the good life with an appreciation of what it is not. Namely, the good life is not a fixed state of being (that is, not a state of virtue, contentment, happiness) and not a state in which a person feels adapted, perfected, or actualized. To use the terminology, it is not a state of reduced stress or homeostasis. The good life is not a destination, but the direction in which a person moves, following his true nature.
"Fully functioning" is a term used by Rogers to refer to people who use their abilities and talents, realize their potential, and move towards full knowledge of themselves and their sphere of experience. Rogers identified five basic personality characteristics common to fully functioning people (Rogers, 1961). Below we list and briefly discuss them.
1. The first and foremost characteristic of a fully functioning person is openness to experience. Openness to experience is the polar opposite of defenselessness. People who are completely open to experience are able to listen to themselves, to feel the whole sphere of visceral, sensory, emotional and cognitive experiences in themselves, without feeling threatened. They are subtly aware of their deepest thoughts and feelings; they don't try to suppress them; often act in accordance with them; and even if they do not act in accordance with them, they are able to realize them. In fact, all experiences, whether internal or external, are accurately symbolized in their minds, without being distorted or denied.
For example, a fully functioning person may, while listening to a boring lecture, suddenly feel the urge to publicly rebuke the professor for being so boring. If he has even a shred of common sense, he will suppress this desire in himself - such an outburst will disrupt his studies and ultimately will not contribute to his actualization tendency. But the fact is that this feeling will not pose a threat to him, since he does not have internal barriers or brakes that interfere with the conscious perception of his feelings. A fully functioning person is sensible enough to be aware of his feelings and act judiciously at any given time. If he feels something, this does not mean that he will act in accordance with this feeling. In the example above, the person is probably aware that he should not give in to his desire, since this will harm him and others (in particular, the professor, who, without knowing it, became a "target"), and therefore will abandon this thought and switch your attention to something else. Therefore, for a fully functioning person, there is no inner experience or emotion that would threaten the feeling of being right - he really open for all possibilities.
2. The second characteristic of an optimally functioning person, noted by Rogers, is existential lifestyle. It is the tendency to live fully and richly in every moment of existence, so that each experience is experienced as fresh and unique, different from what has come before. Thus, according to Rogers (1961), what a person is or will be in the next moment arises from this moment, regardless of previous expectations. The existential way of life suggests that rather the "I" of a person and his personality stem from experience, and not experience is transformed to correspond to some predetermined rigid I-structure. Hence, people who live a good life are flexible, adaptive, tolerant, and spontaneous. They discover the structure of their experience in the process of experiencing it.
3. The third hallmark of a fully functioning person is what Rogers called organismic trust. This quality of the good life can best be illustrated in the context of decision making. Specifically, many people rely on social norms laid down by some group or institution (such as a church), the judgment of others (from a spouse and friend to a TV show host), or the how they behaved in similar situations before. In short, their ability to make decisions is strongly, if not completely, influenced by outside forces. Conversely, fully functioning people depend on organismic experiences, which they regard as a reliable source of information to decide what should or should not be done. As Rogers wrote: "It has been proven that an internal feeling like 'I'm doing the right thing' is a meaningful and trustworthy guide to truly good behavior" (Rogers, 1961, p. 190). Organismic trust, therefore, means the ability of a person to take into account his internal sensations and consider them as the basis for choosing behavior.
4. The fourth characteristic of a fully functioning person noted by Rogers is empirical freedom. This aspect of the good life is that a person is free to live the way they want, without restrictions or prohibitions. Subjective freedom is a sense of personal power, the ability to make choices and lead oneself. At the same time, Rogers did not deny that human behavior is influenced by hereditary factors, social forces and past experience, which actually determine the choice made. Indeed, Rogers strictly adhered to the position that the concept of absolute freedom is not applicable to explaining the possibilities of human choice. At the same time, he believed that fully functioning people are able to make free choice, and whatever happens to them depends solely on themselves. Experiential freedom, therefore, refers to the inner feeling: "The only one responsible for my own actions and their consequences is myself." Based on this sense of freedom and power, a fully functioning person has many choices in life and feels able to do just about anything they want to do!
5. The last, fifth, characteristic associated with optimal maturity is creativity. For Rogers, the products of creativity (ideas, projects, actions) and a creative lifestyle come from a person who lives a good life. Creative people strive to live constructively and adaptively in their culture, while at the same time satisfying their own deepest needs. They are able to adapt creatively and flexibly to changing environmental conditions. However, Rogers adds, such people are not necessarily fully culturally adapted and are almost certainly not conformists. Their connection with society can be expressed as follows: they are members of society and its products, but not its captives.
Rogers tried to combine these qualities a fully functioning person into the whole picture when he wrote:
“The good life includes a wider scope, more value than the limited lifestyle that most of us lead. To be part of this process is to plunge into the often frightening and often satisfying experience of a more conscious lifestyle with more range, more variety, more richness. .
I think it has become fairly obvious why, to me, adjectives such as happy, contented, blissful, pleasant are not quite appropriate for some general description of the process that I called the good life, although sometimes a person experiences these feelings. It seems to me that adjectives such as enriched, exciting, encouraged, interesting, meaningful are more suitable. The good life, I am sure, is not suitable for a faint-hearted person, it requires expansion and growth in the direction of revealing one's own potential. This requires courage. It means to be in the flow of life" (Rogers, 1961, p. 195-196).
Obviously, Rogers, like Maslow and, to some extent, Allport before him, wanted a person to look at what he is. may be. According to Rogers, this means to live fully, fully consciously, to fully experience the human being - in short, "to fully function." Rogers was confident that fully functioning human beings of the future would bring to light and multiply the inherent goodness in human nature that is so essential to our survival.
Let us now turn our attention to the fundamental propositions about human nature that emphasize Rogers' positive and optimistic view of humanity.
