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Topics and basic concepts of Person Centered Communication
Developmental tendency in the PCA:
If the three core conditions (see below): congruence, acceptance and empathic understanding can be perceived at least to a minimal degree:
“The other individual in the relationship:
will experience and understand aspects of himself which previously he has repressed;
will find himself becoming better integrated, more able to function effectively;
will become more similar to the person he would like to be;
will be more self-directing and self-confident;
will become more of a person, more unique and more self-expressive;
will be more understanding, more acceptant of others;
will be able to cope with the problems of life more adequately and more comfortably.”
Trust in human nature:
„It will be evident that another implication of the view I have been presenting is that the basic nature of the human being, when functioning freely, is constructive and trustworthy. For me this is an inescapable conclusion from a quarter-century of experience in psychotherapy. When we are able to free the individual from defensiveness, so that he is open to the wide range of his own needs, as well as the wide range of environmental and social demands, his reactions may be trusted to be positive, forward-moving, constructive. We do not need to ask who will socialize him, for one of his own deepest needs is for affiliation and communication with others. As he becomes more fully himself, he will become more realistically socialized. We do not need to ask who will control his aggressive impulses; for as he becomes more open to all his impulses, his need to be liked by others and his tendency to give affection will be as strong as his impulses to strike out or to seize for himself. He will be aggressive in situations in which aggression is realistically appropriate, but there will be no runaway need for aggression. His total behaviour, in these and other areas, as he moves toward being open to all his experience, will be more balanced and realistic, behaviour which is appropriate to the survival and enhancement of a highly social animal.”
Actualizing Tendency:
"This is the inherent tendency of the organism to develop all its capacities in ways which serve to maintain or enhance the organism. It involves not only the tendency to meet what Maslow terms "deficiency needs" for air, food, water, and the like, but also more generalized activities. It involves development towards the differentiation of organs and functions, expansion in terms of growth, expansion of effectiveness through the use of tools, expansion and enhancement through reproduction. It is development toward autonomy, and away from heteronomy, or control by external forces. Angyal's statement could be used as a synonym for this term: "Life is an autonomous event which takes place between the organism and the environment. Life processes do not merely tend to preserve life but to transcend the momentary status quo of the organism, expanding itself continually and imposing its autonomous determination upon an ever increasing realm of events.
It should be noted that this basic actualising tendency is the only motive which is postulated in this theoretical system. It should also be noted that this is the organism as a whole, and only the organism as a whole, which exhibits this tendency. There are no other homunculi, no other sources of energy or action in the system. […]
It might also be mentioned that such concepts of motivation as are termed need-reduction, tension-reduction, are included in this concept. It also includes, however, the growth motivations which appear to go beyond these terms: the seeking of pleasurable tensions, the tendency to be creative, the tendency to learn painfully to walk when crawling would meet the same needs more comfortably."
Tendency toward self-actualization. "Following the development of the self-structure, this general tendency toward actualisation expresses itself also in the actualisation of that portion of the experience of the organism which is symbolized in the self. If the self and the total experience of the organism are relatively congruent, then the actualising tendency remains relatively unified. If self and experience are incongruent, then the general tendency to actualise the organism may work at cross purposes with the subsystem of that motive, the tendency to actualise the self. […] It is given here because it is a sub-aspect of motivation."
Rogers C., R.: A Theory of Therapy, Personality, and Interpersonal Relationships, as Developed in the Client-centered Framework; in S. Koch (ed.): Psychology: A Study of a Science; Vol. 3, Mc. Graw Hill, 1959.
Angyal A.: Foundations of a Science of Personality; New York: Commonwealth Fund, 1941.
Three core conditions:
Congruence, realness, transparency.
"I have found that the more that I can be genuine in the relationship, the more helpful it will be. […] Being genuine also involves the willingness to be and to express, in my words and my behavior, the various feelings and attitudes, which exist in me. […] It is only by providing the genuine reality which is in me, that the other person can successfully seek for the reality in him." (Rogers, 1961, S.33)
Acceptance, positive regard.
"I find that the more acceptance and liking I feel toward this individual, the more I will be creating a relationship which he can use. By acceptance I mean a warm regard for him as a person of unconditional self-worth, of value no matter what his condition, his behavior, his feelings. It means a respect and liking for him as a separate person, a willingness for him to possess his own feelings in his own way." (Rogers, 1961, S. 34)
Understanding, empathy.
"[…] I feel a continuing desire to understand - a sensitive empathy which each of the client's feelings and communications as they seem to him at that moment. Acceptance does not mean much until it involves understanding. It is only that I understand the feelings and thoughts which seem so horrible to you, or so weak […] - it is only as I see them as you see them and accept them and you, that you feel really free to explore […] your inner and often buried experience. […] There is implied here a freedom to explore oneself at both conscious and unconscious levels." (Rogers, 1961, S. 35)
More on congruence by G. Barrett-Lennard
Notes on Congruence, Godfrey Barrett-Lennard
We may experience another person as either easily an comfortably themselves in relation to us (terms like authentic, real, up front or open, and genuineness come to mind) or as presenting a contrived quality, being guarded, controlled, not spontaneous at all. It´s hard to be open and freely expressive of oneself with someone else who is guarded, or who gives us the impression of having a hidden agenda, or who seems to be performing rather than responding all of one piece from their immediate presence. We are, of course, seeing the other through our own eyes in perceiving them in any of these ways, and our view is not only indicative of the other. It´s also influenced by how we spark each other off, the context at the time and by any prior association with the other person.
Relationships are not merely exchanges or a passing process, between two fixed entities. They develop their own life an emergent qualities, which are not just a mirror of either individual. If qualities of another person do tend to hold across many differing situations this can feed into our perception of them. However, I think that most behavioural and feeling qualities are more or less situational – that context plays a big part. (If context were not important would a vulnerable, guarded client ever open up to a therapist – or to an unusually perceptive friend they somehow feel safe with?)
I suspect that most of us, in some situations, try hard to be a certain way. We mask some reactions and accentuate others, and may give the impression of being artificial. If we are holding part of our experience at bay, subtle signs may ´leak out´ that we are anxious, worried or uncertain or maybe impatient or angry. Denied or unnoticed feelings seem to be commonplace. Which of us hasn´t hat reactions that we became aware of afterwards? Such experiences fit the idea of incongruence.
Characteristics of well-functioning relationships (Barrett-Lennard, 1998)
- There is an openness to communication in the relationship, a free flow of information, and an expressiveness and general clarity of meaning in communicative interchanges.
- A climate or attitude of trust tends to pervade the relationship. The participants are not in fear and guarded; their individual identity is not at issue and they behave in ways expressive of mutual acceptance and felt safety.
- The participants provide openings and make way for each other, less as a matter of deference or polite consideration, more as an expression of mutual interest and positive expectation of one another, and of a sense of their “we“ as having resources additional to the “I“ or “you“.
- Self-trust on the parts of the members fosters interdependence in the relationship rather than promoting a “self-contained“ stance. Each one finds meaning in their own experience, looks for it in what the other expresses, and draws on both jointly and separately discovered meanings.
- In other words, the relationship is a living, open, adaptive system, self-regulating and growthful in quality, aware of itself through the consciousness of participants and in dynamic motion through feedback both from within and from persons and systems outside of itself.
- The substantial presence of well-functioning relationships within the same larger community, organization or other encompassing system, interactively contributes to and benefits from the health of that larger system.
Letzte Änderung: 05.05.2011, 16:40 | 1600 Worte