The principles in the book 'On Becoming a Person' are good for anyone who loves all ideas on the Free Individual. Scientists who like theories of Personality must know this book.

I found this book a lot more enjoyable than most other psychotherapy books I've read and made getting through my psychotherapy class a lot easier

This is Carl Rogers' classic and a must-read for everyone interested in getting real with themselves. The critic who edited this version indicates very successfully that there are important parallels between Carl Rogers and Ralph Waldo Emerson. This makes Rogers' philosophy and psychotherapeutic approach a truly American one, one that places the individual in the supreme seat of ultimate authority over his/her own experience and existence. The main message that Rogers develops from many different angles is this one: there is no beast in man, and therefore there is also no need to fear one's innermost thoughts, feelings, longings and desires. "There is only man in man." This was surely a revolutionary message at the time, and remains to be revolutionary to this day, as so many modern-day religionists cling to the idea of man's "innate badness." Rogers most certainly debunks that destructive religious heritage in his work. This book is a pleasure to read. It is written in very simple, yet precise language and goes down "like honey."

I first read this book as an undergraduate in 1988. I occasionally read it today, as I sometimes see myself within it. As I think of the changes I have gone through and look at the person that I have become (and becoming) I can't help but think that everyone who reads it will gain enormous insight into themselves.

It's a must read for every body.

I was given this book in 1973 when I was a senior in college and wished to attend graduate school in clinical psychology. The book transformed me. I went from page to page recognizing that Roger's spoke directly to me and the way I experienced my relationship with my inner self and soul. This book review is written with the purpose of encouraging others to read this masterpiece of psychological theory. ALL psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, and social workers should be intimately familiar with Rogers and his concepts.

Of all the personality theorists and practitioners of psychotherapy such as Jung, Freud, Fritz Perls, Albert Ellis, Karen Horney, Harry Stack Sullivan, Eric Fromme, and Rollo May; Carl Rogers is the one infused with optimism and a belief in the goodness of mankind. He sees human beings as capable of vast growth and creativity; able to achieve ethical and loving relationships and encounters; and achieving a healed and healthy soul that directs us toward others and the world.

Do not confuse his discription of the state of psychological health with that of William James, Clark Hull, or James B Watson. These theorists see man's natural state as homeostatic, neither alert nor asleep, neither happy nor sad. Rogers on the other hand would assert that the Buddha-like state of homeostasis is not full psychological health. Full psychological health is involvment, attachement, love, relationship, creativity, fulfillment, achievement, and goodness.

Once the reader buys into Roger's Self Theory, which posits that we are self healing, self directed, and instinctively know psychological health from psychological disease; then he posits his therapeutic model by which the therapist facilitates the process whereby a client moves toward this wholeness. This method, client-centered psychotherapy, transformed the world of psychotherapy, education, medicine, and social services.

The book gives a very thorough and insightful look at how Roger's developed his theory. There are connections between his self theory and Christianity, but these are implicit rather than explicit. Then, further into the book, Roger's explains the method he developed that seeks to facilitate personal growth. The method is not intrusive but faciliates the natural growth process of the client rather than takes on the world-view or paradigm of the therapist. The method is ethical and has minimal opportunity for destructive practices by the therapist,if practiced as Rogers describes.

When you read this book you will understand why Carl Rogers is the most beloved of all the personality theorists. The phenomenologists who have examined Rogers believe that Rogers creates reality by facilitating the loving, healthy self in the soul of his clients. Well, if Rogers has created such a loving and affirming conception of mankind, then my hat is off to him for creating such a profound reality. I believe the existential-phenomenological concept that reality is a social construct but I must honor that Roger's has in fact created a beautiful, internally consistent reality with his theory of the self.

You will not be disappointed by this life changing book.