New Zealand Listener - May 26, 2018

MAY 26 2018 LISTENER 39

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T

ake a moment to think about who you are.

Then take a moment to think about the type

of person you wish you were. What sort of

feelings does this produce? Or maybe think

about the person you think you “ought” to be, and

the feelings that go along with this.

A clinical psychologist (I am not one) is someone

who has not only completed a degree in clinical

psychology and a postgraduate research degree, but

is also registered with the New Zealand Psycholo-

gists Board in the relevant area – known as a scope

• of practice. If you don’t meet these criteria, don’t

call yourself a clinical psychologist. Or any kind of

psychologist, in fact.

My first exposure to clinical psychology as an

undergraduate was in my third year of study, in a

paper entitled “Personality and Abnormal Psychol-

ogy”. We learnt about psychological disorder in a

variety of forms, and we watched footage of famous

therapists in action. Working with the same client,

named Gloria, each of these therapists was model-

ling a different approach to psychotherapy.

Generations of psychology students have

seen the film Three Approaches to Psychotherapy,

and the undertaking has been repeated, using

different approaches, over the years. The 1965

edition presents Carl Rogers, Albert Ellis and

Fritz Perls, illustrating their particular approaches

(respectively client-centred, rational-emotive

and Gestalt). You can find these on YouTube.

I think they’re worth a watch, if only to see

Perls in action: his therapy seems a bit wacky,

but it appears to resonate with Gloria.

Rogers died in 1987, a year after the third in

the series, which featured therapists Aaron Beck,

Hans Strupp and Donald Meichenbaum, but his

client-centred model continues to be used, more

commonly by counsellors than clinical psycholo-

gists. It adopts a traditional focus, helping clients to

work out their own way of shifting how they feel

about themselves in the present moment closer to

When ought self

met real self

There is freedom to be

found in not living up to

others’ expectations.

how they would ideally like to feel

and it is effective for many of the

people who experience it.

The same year Rogers died, Edward

Tory Higgins, a professor at Colum-

bia University, proposed what he

called “self-discrepancy theory”. It

took Rogers’ simple notion – that

we experience psychological distress

when the way we think of ourselves

isn’t how we want ourselves to be –

one step further. Higgins suggested

that the type of psychological distress

is a function of the type of person we

think we should be.

H

iggins argued that if

your self-concept

(the person you

think of yourself as, here

and now) is out of step

with your ideal self (the

person you wish you

were), you will feel unhappy and

dejected about yourself: in short,

you’ll be vulnerable to depression.

But, if your actual self is discrepant

with your “ought” self – the person

others think you should be – then

you’ll feel worried and fearful and

more vulnerable to anxiety.

When I first came across this idea,

it made good sense. Just thinking

about the feeling of not living up

to others’ expectations is enough to

generate anxiety in me.

If Higgins is right, how can we use

this? Just as Rogers invited people to

work out how to bring their selves

into line, a post-Rogerian therapist

might focus on asking if your ought

self is really a reasonable reflection of

what other people think about you

(do you know for sure they think you

should get an A+, or a promotion, or

become Prime Minister?).

Alternatively, is your ideal

self really attainable or

reasonable (do you actu-

ally want to be Prime

Minister? Could you

achieve the things you

want to, and not be

Prime Minister?)?

Just for the record,

I have no interest in

becoming PM. l

by Marc Wilson

PSYCHOLOGY

Edward Higgins: self-

discrepancy theorist.

Psychological distress

is a function of the

type of person we

think we should be.