7 - Cognitive Stages and Joy, Surprise

Summary

When the individual's negative feelings have been quite fully expressed they are followed by the faint and tentative expression of the positive impulses. There is nothing which gives more surprise to the student who is learning this type of therapy for the first time than to find that this positive expression is one of the most certain and predictable aspects of the whole process. The more violent and deep the negative expressions (provided they are accepted and recognized), the more certain are the positive expressions of love, of social impulses, of fundamental self-respect, of desire to be mature [italics added].

Carl Rogers (1942, p. 39)

This lengthy quotation is a succinct and eloquent description of Rogers's approach to his therapeutic work in the middle of his career. It can be read as instruction to the eager beginning therapist. It can be read as an introduction to Rogers's theory for the interested general reader. But it also reveals the man himself and his stance in relation to his work. This last reading is the one we are interested in – the man himself. In particular, we concentrate on how he and his work develop over time as a function of his emotional and cognitive growth.

The fact that Rogers is specific about some emotions and general about others, even when he is not explicitly thinking about emotion, is important. Note that the beginning therapist specifically will be “surprised.”