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The Association for the Development of the Person Centered Approach.

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By David Joseph Alpert

I was recently struck by the espoused capitalistic values of a member of the Association for the Development of the Person-Centered Approach. In a conversation, a discussion was initiated by be as to the essential incompatibility of the person-centered approach with the capitalistic enterprise.

The espouser of capitalism spoke of the initiative released by capitalism. And I spoke of the formative tendency of the universe, which is democratic and non-aggressive. The espouser of capitalism believed that any attempt by a community to control the behavior of one of its members was anathema.

As I see it, the person-centered approach does allow for control of others. For example, if I see a child about to errantly cross the road, I will restrain it. However, the type of control over others allowed and encouraged by capitalism seems to contradict the essence of the person-centered approach, which is that we not control the everyday actions of others, such as the speed at which tasks are completed and the manner in which tasks are accomplished.

In capitalism, certain persons (the capitalists) possess the capital (the money and the property) which allow them to direct the actions of others who seek either (or both) meaning or sustenance in performing activity (labor) (which serves to allow the capitalist to augment their capital). The capitalist is extremely interested (or through capitalism’s demands through competition is compelled) in maximizing the degree to which labor creates output in relation to the input of capital and time.

Capitalism thus demands of capitalists a cut-throat ethic. Products generated in this manner carry the imprint (holograph) of a dog-eat-dog mentality. And persons caught by circumstances in the role of laborers are forced to endure the alienation from the formative tendency of the universe that is generated by a system (capitalism) which has no interest in promoting a ‘way of being’ which prioritizes being over doing.

Sometimes a society is so defensively attached to an idea (e.g. "the earth is flat") that there is no willingness in the society for counterproposals. It seems to me that this is so here in the United States of America as the twentieth century is being completed in this common era when it comes to capitalism. It would seem that this defensive attachment to an idea needs to be challenged so that capitalism is brought down off the pedestal rightly deserved by the formative tendency of the universe.

In no way am I arguing here that the person-centered approach would be compatible with a top-down state socialism. It is rather my belief that all forms of action ought to be informed by consideration of the formative tendency of the universe. I do not believe that capitalism or top-down state socialism can incorporate a valuing of the formative tendency in the universe.

As I see it, a new economic philosophy is required for one’s economic actions to be consistent with the person-centered philosophy. This new economic philosophy would have at its foundation a basic tenet: that all economic relations honor and embrace the formative tendency of the universe.