Carl R. Rogers Dies; Leading Force in Field of Psychology
Carl R. Rogers, the psychologist and psychotherapist credited with revolutionizing the practice of psychotherapy in the United States and helping to father the human potential movement, has died here at the age of 85.
Viewed by followers, and many critics, as the most influential force in the field of psychology in the last 50 years, Rogers had been hospitalized for a broken hip, and on Sunday suffered cardiac arrest. After three days in a coma, he died late Wednesday.
“Carl Rogers was a tremendous innovator in the field of psychotherapy,” said Faith Tanney, chairman of the board of professional affairs of the American Psychological Assn. “His contribution was that of having the therapist or counselor be more of a human being.”
“He’s probably second only to Freud in many people’s impression in terms of his impact on the whole field of psychology and psychotherapy,” said David Malcolm, an associate of Rogers and professor of counselor education at California State University, San Diego. “He almost singlehandedly brought about the revolution in therapy in this country by not believing in making diagnoses.”
While psychotherapists have incorporated many of Rogers’ techniques of warmth and empathy into their practices, many have also faulted him for failing to address such troublesome questions as schizophrenia, sociopathy and the nature of evil.
“He felt somehow that the solutions to problems rested within the individual and that the therapist should bring them out,” behaviorist B. F. Skinner commented Thursday. “. . . But I felt people are really changed by changing the world they live in.”
Rogers is best known for developing the “client-centered” theory of psychotherapy, in which a person-to-person relationship replaces the traditional doctor-patient relationship and the client shapes the direction and length of treatment.
The approach arose out of Rogers’ belief that individuals are always capable of growth and hold within themselves the solution to any problem. The role of the counselor, he believed, is simply to create the type of environment in which those solutions can emerge.
Rogers’ numerous books included “On Becoming a Person,” “The Clinical Treatment of the Problem Child” and “Counseling and Psychotherapy.” He was president of the American Psychological Assn. in 1946-47 and the first recipient of its Distinguished Professional Contribution Award in 1956.
Born Jan. 8, 1902, in Oak Park, Ill., Rogers spent two years at Union Theological Seminary in New York City before receiving his doctorate from Columbia University Teachers College in 1931.
Moves to California
In 1964, he moved to California as a fellow at the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute in La Jolla. Five years later, he and about a dozen others co-founded The Center and began applying his approach to the emerging techniques of group therapy and encounter groups.
On his 80th birthday, Rogers is said to have announced to a group of friends that he intended to devote the rest of his life to working toward world peace. Toward that end, he traveled last year to the Soviet Union at the invitation of the Soviet government.
In recent years, Rogers continued to travel widely. But worsening eye problems made it increasingly difficult for him to read.
Rogers is survived by two brothers and a sister, two children, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. His wife, Helen Elliott Rogers, died in 1979.
A family spokesman said there will be a celebration of Rogers’ life on Feb. 21 in the Sherwood Auditorium at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art. Funeral services will be private.
