The Person Centered Journal, Volume 5, Issue 1, 1998
Printed in the U.S.A. All rights reserved.
The psychotherapy of Carl Rogers: Cases and commentary.
Farber, B. A., Brink, D. C., & Raskin, P. M. (Eds.).
New York: Guilford (1996).
A virtuous emperor was much affected to find his actions misconstrued. Addison
An exciting book for the person centered enthusiast or explorer. Farber, Brink and Raskin's edited work begins with an overview of Rogerian principles, including common misconstruals and Rogers' own remarks regarding them. The introduction is itself a useful recommended reading for counseling fundamentals or counseling theories students beginning to explore the meaning of person centered therapy. Chapter one presents Brink and Farber's scheme of Rogers' clinical responses, two of which are 1) speaking in first person, and 2) congruent self disclosures. This model of person centered therapy communications was introduced in discussion and through recommended reading to my master's level class in fundamentals of counseling. Several students chose to integrate Brink and Farber's response framework into their early practice. I believe that a number of students found the applications to be meaningful and useful in their practice of making contact, of understanding, of acceptance and of congruence with their "practice" clients.
Cases begin in chapter two. Chapters two through five are cases and commentary "from within." Individuals, many of them authors prior to this publication, offer thoughtful commentary and critique on the effectiveness, efficacy and purity of Rogers' approach in session. In Chapter two, Raskin remarks initially on several instances where Carl demonstrated a high level of congruency with the attitudes pronounced in his theory. Raskin also later states that Rogers failed in his ability to empathize with Loretta concerning her disappointments vis her relationship with her father. In chapter three, Zimring identifies instances where Rogers was not providing unconditional positive regard for his client, Gloria, and instead seemed to avoid recognizing negative aspects of her experience of self. In chapter four, "The Myth of Nondirectiveness: The Case of Jill," Bowen assesses patterns of Rogers responding. She identifies the conditions under which Rogers seems willing to offer interpretations, and remarks upon his possible use of paradoxical exaggeration as a technique. Bowen challenges the reader to consider that Rogers' total forgiveness of the client's "misbehavior" before she forgave herself may have limited his capacity to allow her to explore her own attitudes about her behavior. The final cases "within" presented in chapter five are of Mary and Louise, two women whom Carl encountered during a weekend expressive therapy training program – an atypical context for Rogers to have "an encounter." Natiello's commentary instructs along several domains, one of which concerns the directiveness that appeared unusual for Carl, but which he nevertheless became highly focused upon. In these moments his responses diverged significantly away from his more client directed stance. Natiello points out the possible directions, and unknown directions, that the women may have taken with a focus more committed to the clients own direction at specific "critical moments."
In chapters six through 10, "within" and "without" perspectives are shared. Reviewing a book this juicy requires time I will focus on a small taste from "within" first. Here, the likes of Bozarth, B. T. Brodley, Cain, Dingman, and Seeman make strong appearances. The insights they offer go beyond appearances, digging as with the first five chapters, to reveal the essence of Rogers' work and success with his clients. Brodley, for instance, identifies directivity by Rogers, in the "Anger and Hurt" client, that seemed inconsistent with her overall observations of Carl in session. She proceeds by analyzing nine additional transcribed interview sessions. Among other reported results, she observed that within the anger and hurt session, 22% of Rogers' responses
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could be classified as Carl focused, compared to only 4.2% self referred comments from his other nine sessions.
The "without" section, about 20% of the total text, includes a feminist theory response to Rogers' session with Sylvia. O'Hara (1996, p.284) begins her commentary by quoting Homey in 1926 (p.324), as saying, " Psychoanalysis is the creation of a male genius, and almost all those who have developed his ideas have been men. It is only right and reasonable that they should evolve more easily a masculine psychology and understand more the development of men than women." In her analysis, O'Hara (1996, p. 287) reports obvious approval of Rogers' less reflective; more instructive stance (invitation?) for Sylvia to "go further along the path to a new order of mind by saying more about herself as a learner." In the final chapter, Adele Hayes and Marvin Goldfried deliver a cognitive behavioral review of "The Case of Mark," contributing their own coding system to classify Rogers' responses. Their response class "Persons Involved," is separated into two parts: 1) client focused, and 2) other (acquaintances, strangers, others in general) focused. They observe Carl's focus on Mark to be present in 97% of his responses, while 73% of Carl's responses included a focus on others. Hayes and Goldfried explain that "Rogers had Mark explore what others thought of him and of the sociopolitical situation in South Africa, so that these views could be differentiated from his own." Seeman's person centered analysis likewise identifies how Rogers's entrance into Mark's world "in a phenomenological mode . . . as lived by the client," enhanced the clients' "internal communication with self," and moreover, revealed the "emergence of two closely related themes, one having to do with Mark's struggle to define his relationship with other people and with the political system of which he is a part, and the other theme related to Mark's struggle to define himself within this system."
This book is rich. The editor/authors and contributors are to be commended. Sir Francis Bacon once said: Some books are to be tasted, others swallowed, and some – too few – to be chewed and digested. This book is one of the latter.
Reviewed by
Jo Cohen, Ph.D.
David Ryback. (1998).
Woburn, MA: Butterworth Heinemann. (1998)
In an age of leadership crisis, what are the core qualities of a good leader? The management literature is controversial on this subject, but Ryback's Putting Emotional Intelligence to Work offers a path through the confusion. How are intelligence and emotion related to success in managing people? And why is the ability to delay gratification so crucial?
The traumas of downsizing, rightsizing, re engineering, outsourcing, etc. make up the sea of change that has rocked corporate America. It is refreshing, amid such chaos, to find a book that offers ways to "reinvent" oneself in relation to work and career. Based on the foundations set by Carl Rogers and Daniel Goleman, Ryback builds strategies for dealing with the new reality. The priority of feelings in communication, Ryback points out, can provide a breakthrough for managers aspiring to noteworthy success!
The author, an Atlanta consultant, translates well known studies of leadership into the new context of emotional intelligence. Instead of theorizing, he uses well blazed trails from extensive
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research and case literature. Some of these principles are found in the academic and business press if you dig for them, but the author makes them available as a buffet of practical tips.
A word of caution: Ryback uses the terms "emotional intelligence" and "executive intelligence" interchangeably. In Chapter 7, though, the equivalence is brought to full view. The book argues for balance between thinking and feeling, intellect and emotion, without denying the essential need for social skills.
A self assessment test, called the Ryback Emotional Quotient Executive Survey (REQuES), is offered in the appendix. That way, you can measure your own need for use of the book's principles.
Reviewed by
John H. Powell, Ph.D
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