On Becoming a Person

On Becoming a Person: A Therapist's View of Psychotherapy

60 pages2-hour read

Nonfiction

Reference/Text Book

Adult

Published in 1961

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Background

Humanistic Psychology and the “Third Force”

In the middle of the 20th century, American psychology was largely influenced by two dominant traditional approaches, psychoanalysis and behaviorism. Psychoanalysis, a set of theories and processes founded by Sigmund Freud in the late-19th century, emphasized unconscious conflict and formative early experiences as drivers for the individual (“About Psychoanalysis.” American Psychoanalytic Association, 2026). Behaviorism, in contrast, asserted that all human behavior is a response to environmental stimuli, emphasizing observable behavior, learning, reinforcement, and environmental conditioning (“Behaviorism.” Simply Psychology, 2026). In the midcentury, most psychologists belonged firmly to one school or the other.

Humanistic psychology emerged in the mid-20th century as a “third force” that rejected the premise that people could be primarily understood either as bundles of subconscious symptoms or conditioned physical responses. As one of its key proponents, Rogers argued that people have an actualizing tendency: an inner movement toward growth that becomes visible when the right relational conditions are present. On Becoming a Person represents this larger cultural and methodological argument in the field for a new approach, centered more experimentally on a patient-led approach grounded in lived experience, personal meaning, freedom, without giving up clinical disciplined observation.

Philosophical Context: Existential and Dialogical Philosophy

Rogers’s argument is influenced by existing philosophical traditions and terminologies at the time, especially by existential and dialogical approaches. Rooted in the 19th and 20th-century works of philosophers like Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, and Jean-Paul Sartre, existential philosophy asserts that humans create meaning through their own perceptions in order to navigate an inherently meaningless, chaotic world (“Existential therapy.” BACP, 2026). Rogers is heavily influenced by existentialism’s focus on meaning achieved through subjective lived experience, and draws on existentialism explicitly, for instance when he references Kierkegaard’s language about willing to be one’s “true self,” citing this existential concern around authenticity to describe his book’s aim of personal growth.

On Becoming a Person extends this focus on the individual into a moral demand through the use of dialogical ethics, arguing that a helping relationship must honor the other person’s agency and inwardness. Dialogic ethics promote the importance of relationships for personal growth, promoting each individual’s suspension of “self-interest in favor of experiencing the views, beliefs, and convictions of the other” (“Dialogic Ethics.” University of New Hampshire Pressbooks, 2022). Rogers also draws on Martin Buber’s “I-Thou” relation, which describes a meeting in which the other person is treated as a full subject, not as an object to be analyzed, managed, or used (“Martin Buber.” Internet Encyclopedia of Psychology, 2026). Rogers’s emphasis on genuineness, empathic understanding, and unconditional positive regard translates this philosophical language into therapeutic practice.