the phenomenal self. In a sense, then, self-esteem
becomes the fountainhead of behavior.
Problems in adjustment arise when the phe-
nomenal self is threatened. However, what is a
threat for one person is not necessarily a threat for
another. In essence, a person will experience threat
whenever he or she perceives that the phenomenal
self is in danger. Thus, Ricardo, a man who per-
ceives himself as being very attractive to women
may become anxious if he is rejected by a woman
because this represents a threat to his self-concept.
Faced with such a threat, Ricardo may adopt a
variety of defensive postures. For example, Ricardo
may rationalize his failure, or he may narrow his
perceptual field. The truly adjusted person is one
who can integrate all experiences into the phenom-
enal field, not just the experiences that are immedi-
ately consistent with the self-concept. For example,
a well-adjusted student who fails an exam will not
claim unfairness or physical illness (assuming that
these claims are unjustified). Rather, the student
will integrate this experience by perhaps revising
the self-concept. For example,“Maybe I am not
as good in biochemistry as I thought. But then
again, I do quite well in other areas, and I have
good social skills. So clearly, this doesn’t diminish
me as a person.”Or “I did fail, but with more
effort I think I can do it. But if not, I will try
other things that will bring a sense of fulfillment or
contribution.”
Theoretical Propositions
Early on, Rogers (1951) formulated a series of
propositions that set the tone for a client-centered
view of personality. He stated that individuals exist
in a world of experience of which they are the
center. This experience can only be known by
the person. Therefore, the person is the best source
of information about the self. These views have led
members of the client-centered movement to rely
heavily on verbal self-reports, rather than on infer-
ences from test data or related observations, as the
primary source of information. Because people
react to the perceptual field as it is experienced
and perceived, their perceptual field is reality.
Therefore, objective knowledge about stimuli is
not enough to predict behavior. The clinician
must know something about the person’s awareness
of those stimuli. The psychology of objectivity is
rejected in favor of the inner world of experience
as reported by the person.
The basic human tendency is toward maintain-
ing and enhancing the experiencing self, orself-
actualization. This is what produces the forward
movement of life—a force upon which the thera-
pist will rely heavily in therapeutic contacts with
the client. But this forward movement can occur
only when the choices of life are clearly perceived
and adequately symbolized.
Behavior is fundamentally a set of goal-directed
attempts by the organism to satisfy experienced
needs. All needs can ultimately be subsumed under
the single urge of enhancement of the phenomenal
self. All of this would seem to imply a kind of learn-
ing theory, but it is difficult to find any learning
concepts in Rogers’theoretical expositions.
A crucial concept is theself, the awareness of
one’s being and functioning. The structure of the
self is formed out of interactions with the environ-
ment and in particular out of evaluations of the
person by others. The self is an organized, fluid,
and yet consistent pattern of perceptions of the
characteristics and relationships of the I or the Me,
along with the values attached to them. During the
life of the individual, a variety of experiences occur.
Following an experience, three possibilities present
themselves: (a) The experience can be symbolized
or organized into some relationship with the self;
(b) the experience can be ignored because its rele-
vance to the self is not perceived; or (c) the experi-
ence can be denied symbolization or distorted
because it is inconsistent with the structure of the
self.
Under certain conditions, experiences that are
inconsistent with the self may be examined and
perceived, and the structure of the self revised to
assimilate them. The principal condition is a com-
plete absence of threat to the self. This in effect
states the rationale for the warm, accepting, permis-
sive, and nonjudgmental atmosphere that is the car-
dinal condition in client-centered therapy.