Person-centred philosophy | In search of soul

Person-centred philosophy and the soul

'People are just as wonderful as sunsets if you let them be. When I look at a sunset, I don't find myself saying, 'Soften
the orange a bit on the right hand corner.' I don't try
to control a sunset. I watch with awe as it unfolds.'

Carl Rogers

Person-centred philosophy offers us an image of the person that I find both hopeful and inspiring. It has its roots in humanistic psychology whose key founders were the 20th century American psychologists, Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers. The image of the person that they portrayed in their writings was radically different from others that were prominent at the time and for a time, it proved highly controversial.

Positive at the core

It is an image of the person that is profoundly optimistic. It strongly affirms our essential worth and dignity as human beings. It firmly rejects the idea that the core of our humanity is fundamentally flawed, destructive or evil and sees the essence of our nature as positive, forward-moving and trustworthy.

This is, however, an image of the person that is often misunderstood. It is not, as Rogers himself said, ‘a Pollyanna view’ of human nature. It accepts that human beings are imperfect. It does not deny that there is a darker side to human nature and that all of us have the capacity for destructive behaviour. It acknowledges our brokenness and woundedness and the often devastating impact this can have on our relationships with ourselves, others and our environment. What person-centred philosophy is saying, however, is that the innermost core of our being - what Rogers called our 'organismic nature' and what I call the soul - is positive, trustworthy and continually evolving .

Always in the process of becoming

Person-centred philosophy also sees us as always in the process of growing, developing or of ‘becoming’ as Rogers put it. In perhaps his best known book, 'On Becoming a Person’, he shared his deeply held conviction that all of us have the capacity to ‘become a person’, to realise our full potential as human beings and to embrace a revolutionary way of being which is profoundly growthful not only for ourselves, but also for those with whom we are in relationship. For Rogers, to become is to find our way to our true self. It is to embrace our full personhood. This is, he said, the key purpose of human life and the journey of a lifetime.

The journey of becoming is a little like the gradual opening out of a lotus flower bud. Protected by the sepal that encases it, the bud remains dormant for some weeks and when it finally begins, its opening out is a slow and steady process of unfolding. As each layer of petals unfurls, more of the flower's inner landscape becomes visible. The deep down beauty of it is revealed. It becomes. And so it is with us. The process of becoming is a long and infinitely slow unfolding of our inner being.

'This process of the good life is not, I am convinced, a life for the
faint-hearted. It involves the stretching and growing of becoming
more and more of one’s potentialities. It involves the courage
to be. It means launching oneself fully into the stream of life.'

Carl Rogers