Book Review: Re-visioning Person-Centred Therapy: Theory and Practice of a Radical Paradigm

Re-visioning Person-Centred Therapy: Theory and Practice of a Radical Paradigm

Manu Bazzano (ed.) (2018). London and New York: Routledge

Re-visioning Person-Centred Therapy: Theory and Practice of a Radical Paradigm is a bold title. It dares to whisper of the revolutionary potential found within the person-centred approach, the re-visioning of a radical paradigm. As a self-proclaimed person-centred radical and a fellow quiet revolutionary, the title of this book called out to me; like a moth drawn to the flame I was prepared to be consumed. Carl Rogers, the father of the person-centred approach, was a man whose ambition transcended the limitations of the therapeutic world; a man who dreamed of the possibility of world peace. What was once a philosophy bold enough to whisper about the possibility of a world unified by peace has since been reduced to a shadow of its former potential. The evidence-based practice revolution of neo-positivism appears to have crushed the person-centred revolution. This could be considered ironic as Rogers arguably played a pivotal role in the emergence of both of these revolutions.

As a quiet radical, I often wonder whether the person-centred approach has lost its revolutionary spark. I hope that this book may be a brave attempt at changing that, and it is worth noting I am evaluating this book from a frame of revolutionary potential.

With twenty-eight different contributors from across the globe writing twenty-four chapters over four separate parts, the scope of this book is ambitious and many different writing styles await discovery. It is a fierce blend of the deeply personal and the intellectually provoking, seasoned with a dash of creative writing, a splash of lateral thought and finished off with a fine dusting of condemnation. It is pleasingly beautiful in many ways, if not a touch bitter in others. It feels breathtakingly honest. Radical even.

The work is the final result of many contributors with different values and points of focus, together creating a rich tapestry of meaning. As a result, it holds value for any existential practitioner who has an interest in the person-centred approach. All the chapters feel unique and are presented in a creative way. There are many threads of meaning that can be extrapolated and which are each woven in unique ways with different and refreshing intellectual material. From a dialectic approach to intellectual discovery as discovered in Chapter Six, 'Dialectics of Person and Experiencing', to the creative presentation in Chapter Fifteen: 'Enter Centre Stage, The Case Study', then on to the deeply personal reflective journal entries of an anonymous writer found in Chapter Sixteen, 'Sheep of Tomorrow'; or the intellectual and critical approach taken in Chapter Four, 'Walking Backwards Towards the Future: Reclaiming the Radical Roots – and Future – of Person-centred Therapy'. This book will carry unique meaning and can be a catalyst for different thoughts for every reader. As the person-centred revolution carries meaning for me, it is the thread of radical potential that I have unwittingly followed.

It could be claimed that this book packs a punch, or in the words of editor Manu Bazzano, '…a battle must be fought to retrieve the soul of PCT, a battle of incompatible worldviews' (p 41). The word battle invokes emotion and passion for me because it is clear that this is what we must do. In a world that largely operates within a paradigm of authority and conformity, a philosophy that promotes personal empowerment and creative expression could be considered anarchic. In the land of law and order, must we not conform to the expectations of those in a position of authority? Is this not what is being subjected to the person-centred approach, a philosophy under pressure to conform to an authority which has no understanding of its potential, nor any desire to actually understand it?

Bazzano touches upon this point in his chapter 'Beauty and the Cyborg', where he identifies a tension in the person-centred approach. He notices how some individuals are impacted by what he terms the beautiful soul syndrome, a self-delusionary approach to believing in the superiority of the person-centred approach. This feels somewhat disconnected from the objective reality, which surrounds our modality if such a reality exists, that is. Others have become more cyborg-like in response to their desire to fit in with the powers that be, allowing themselves to internalize and become responsive to the conditions of worth imposed upon them by external sources of authority.

I found myself wondering, what about the beast? Is a philosophy that inspires personal empowerment and creativity not a threat to a social system that is largely dependent on authority and conformity? At the end of the chapter, Bazzano touches on beastly love (sharing an alternative ending to the fairy tale of the beauty and the beast as written by Angela Carter), perhaps subtly implying that the person-centred approach could be considered a threat to the status quo. However, I cannot tell whether that meaning resides in his words or whether it is a meaning I have imposed on the construct of beastly love. For me, the chapter was one of the few that provided a revolutionary war cry.

In 'Sheep of Tomorrow', an anonymous writer's personal journal, the beautiful soul syndrome is identified with a visceral and honest critical account of the experience of becoming person-centred. Through the writer's critical standpoint, a sense of revolutionary desire emerged within me as I turned the pages of this intriguing chapter. For me, these two chapters are the only ones that possess a revolutionary quality. Therefore, it feels appropriate to re-frame the term 'revolution'.

Rogers liked to think of himself as a quiet revolutionary. He believed a quiet revolution would take place as, what he termed, 'the person of tomorrow emerged throughout our collective society' (1995). Yet I would argue that revolutionary might be an inaccurate term. I see him more as a social evolutionist. The difference between a revolutionary and an evolutionist is subtle but significant, and best described in the words of Buckminster Fuller: 'You never change things by fighting against the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete' (cited in Johnson, 2007: p 101). Revolution is about fighting the old while evolution is about creating the new. For me, this is exactly what this book sets out to do - evolve the person-centred approach.

In 'Beauty and the Cyborg', Bazzano describes the person-centred approach as stuck in its focus and in need of theoretical development when he says '…on the vague notion of person, hence oblivious to new emergent phenomena that renew existence and re-establish exhilarating complexities with a dynamic world of becoming outside the narrow confines of personhood' (p 29). In Chapter Seven, Salvador Moreno-Lopez argues that the context of a person's life is just as significant to therapeutic work as the person, widening the scope of the actualizing tendency. Keith Tudor takes a similar position by suggesting '…that person-centred therapy can have a radical future if it dares to move beyond a focus on the self (Self) and even the person to one that embodies an eco-psychotherapy that, even when working with individuals, encompasses a wider vision of rationality and sustainability' (p 56). A theme that person-centred therapy needs to evolve beyond the limitations of personhood has emerges, a theme with exciting implications.

In Chapter Eight, Pavlos Zarogiannis acknowledges that individuals are best understood as open systems rather than individualized containers. To define individuals as open systems is to state that we are individual nodes to a much larger and more complex experiential system; experiential chaos theory in action it would seem, where one small change can have large, and often unpredictable, implications for the larger system. Think of social movements, for example. They all started as a spark in the mind of a few and went on to evolve and have massive repercussions on the social systems surrounding us. So perhaps for person-centred theory to reclaim its radical potential, its theorists need to start using the formative tendency as an axiom for their work, fully acknowledging the complex interrelatedness of our co-created reality. This may lead towards an 'us' way of relating, transcending the I-Thou form of encounter. I am not sure of the accuracy of this depiction, but I found myself wondering whether this is what Peter Schmid means when he identifies a need for sociotherapy in Chapter Fourteen.

The thread of evolutionary consideration is thought-provoking, inspiring even, and perhaps the person-centred revolution is not dead. Then I come to the words '…there is no need to bring about a revolution. This is not an anti-institutional battle [… ] This is an inner revolution' (p 235). It takes me back to the reality that there are person-centred theorists and practitioners who do not understand the revolutionary potential of the philosophy that they represent. As a result, this book not only identifies a need for the person-centred approach to evolve or risk facing entropic decay, it also acknowledges the resistance to such an evolutionary process. The resistance is represented in research methods, institutional preservation, societal expectations and what I would consider a naive and/or conformist presence within the person-centred family, as identified by Bazzano and the anonymous writer.

I admit that Chapter Nine, 'Ethics of Client Centred Therapy', evoked a sense of anger in me as it rejects the construct of the actualizing tendency, which although a radical perspective, feels to me as a way of denying the very soul of the person-centred approach.

The book identifies the need for a theoretical drumbeat to be developed before a call for action can be issued. If, like me, you are hoping to read a book that draws up battle plans and sends out a call for action to reignite the person-centred revolution, you may find yourself disappointed. Maybe I also placed too much hope upon those words re-visioning and radical, projecting my own sense of purpose upon those words rather than extrapolate the meaning of what they represent.

The book may not be a revolutionary war cry of proportions, but it is still a valuable addition to the bookshelf of the creative and critical thinkers of the psychotherapeutic world. It may not provide a drumbeat for a quiet revolution, but it still dares to whisper of a radical potential. Perhaps it signals a need for drum builders of tomorrow rather than the sheep of today, the product that the current educational processes are churning out. Maybe this book will inspire the next creative thinker to evolve person-centred theory back to its former revolutionary glory. Just as Rogers stated in 1959, 'if theory could be seen for what it is – a fallible, changing attempt to construct a network of gossamer threads which will contain the solid facts – then a theory would serve as it should, as a stimulus to further creative thinking' (1959: p 191).

I am aware that I may be criticized for my focus on the revolutionary potential found in this book rather than taking a more holistic and descriptive stance that attempts to explore all the threads of meaning awaiting discovery. However, for me, the person-centred revolution is what carries meaning within me, so why would I write about anything else?

It revises what it means to be person-centred and asks the reader to envision a more radical future, searching for a spark that will inspire a radical change. If you hope to build a theoretical drum that you could bang so the person-centred revolutionaries could march to the same beat, then this book provides some tools you may find useful. I would go as far to say that if you care about the person-centred approach and its future, then this book could be considered essential reading. Revolutionary? Not quite. Radical? Yes. In a nutshell it is an evolutionary tale of revolutionary proportions, therefore for many, a must read.

Sam Driscoll

References

Johnson, S. (2007). Two ways to emerge, and how to tell the difference between them. In Ratcliffe, M. and Lebrowsky, J. (eds.), Extreme Democracy. Published Online: Extreme Democracy.

Rogers, C.R. (1959). A theory of therapy, personality and interpersonal relationships as developed in the client centred framework. In Sigmund Koch Psychology: A Study of a Science. Study 1, Volume 3. London: McGraw-Hill. 184-256.

Rogers, C.R. (1995). A Way of Being. 9th edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.