Carl Rogers and Contemporary Humanism

Carl Rogers (1902-1987) was an outstanding American psychologist, the creator of nondirective psychotherapy, which has gained worldwide recognition, and one of the founders of humanist psychology. Thanks to Rogers's works (Rogers, 1951, 1970, 1977, 1980, 1983), a new conception of man and human nature was formulated in scientific psychology. This new conception differed radically from the psychoanalytic and behaviorist notions that had predominated; according to them, human nature was essentially evil and imperfect from the outset. Traditionally, the opponents of such notions, which go back to the postulates, deeply rooted in Western culture, of socialized (ecclesiastical) Christianity about the sinfulness of human nature, have been philosophers. Until the middle of the 20th century, humanist opposition to this view remained philosophical, although it had become increasingly psychological (from the philosophy of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, through German classical philosophy and the materialism of Feuerbach and the early Marx, to personalism and existentialism). Psychologists and psychotherapists (A. Maslow, R. May, K. Mestakes, and C. Rogers) joined ranks with it only in the second half of the 20th century. The distinctly psychological nature of contemporary humanism is justified and understandable: the humanization of the world is impossible without the humanization of its very core, man.