http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf2f59n977 No online items Guide to the Carl R. Rogers Collection, 1902-1990 Project archivist: David C. Gartrell; student assistants: Krnee Deemark, Joyce Jiang, Mike Steiner; machine-readable finding aid created by David C. Gartrell Department of Special Collections Davidson Library University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA 93106 Phone: (805) 893-3062 Fax: (805) 893-5749 Email: [email protected] URL: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/speccoll/speccoll.html © 1999 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Guide to the Carl R. Rogers HPA Mss 32 1 Collection, 1902-1990 Guide to the Carl R. Rogers Collection, 1902-1990 Collection number: HPA Mss 32 Department of Special Collections Donald C. Davidson Library Department of Special Collections University of California, Santa Barbara Contact Information: Department of Special Collections Davidson Library University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA 93106 Phone: (805) 893-3062 Fax: (805) 893-5749 Email: [email protected] URL: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/speccoll/speccoll.html Project Archivist: David C. Gartrell Student Assistants: Krnee Deemark, Joyce Jiang, Mike Steiner Date Completed: Last revised: 20 December 1999 Encoded by: David C. Gartrell © 1999 the Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Descriptive Summary Title: Carl R. Rogers Collection, Date (inclusive): 1902-1990 Collection number: HPA Mss 32 Creator: Rogers, Carl R. Center for the Studies of the Person Forms part of: The Humanistic Psychology Archives Extent: 52 manuscript boxes, two oversize boxes, approximately 350 audiovisual items; approximately 35 linear feet Repository: University of California, Santa Barbara. Library. Dept. of Special Collections Santa Barbara, CA 93106 Shelf location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the library's online catalog. Language: English. Provenance The Carl R. Rogers Collection is comprised of Rogers's own papers, donated by him to the Humanistic Psychology Archives in 1986 and by his daughter Natalie after his death in 1987; and material related to Rogers and his associates donated by the Center for the Studies of the Person between 1993 and 1996. Restrictions All materials in the Diaries Series are restricted from use. Publication Rights Copyright resides with donor. Guide to the Carl R. Rogers HPA Mss 32 2 Collection, 1902-1990 Preferred Citation [Identification of item], Carl R. Rogers Collection, HPA Mss 32, Department of Special Collections, University Libraries, University of California, Santa Barbara. Access Points Rogers, Carl R. (Carl Ransom), 1902- Humanistic psychology Client-centered psychotherapy Center for Studies of the Person (La Jolla, Calif.). Biography Carl Ransom Rogers (1902-1987) was a psychologist and psychotherapist who initiated what Abraham Maslow later called the "third force" of psychology, following the behaviorism of Pavlov (and later B. F. Skinner) and Freudian psychoanalysis. This "third force" of humanistic psychology has been so closely identified with Rogers that it is often called Rogerian, a term its namesake objected to. His innovation was to treat clients as if they were essentially healthy, and he felt that growth would occur when a non-judgmental, non-directive (later, "client-centered") therapist created a warm, accepting environment to nurture the client and allow self-knowledge and self-acceptance to occur. Rogers is considered by many to be the most influential psychologist after Freud. Rogers was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in Oak Park and on a farm in the city's outskirts. His early life was a blend of staunch Christianity, a heavy emphasis on education, and a scientifically-oriented interest in farming. In college at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, he changed his major from agriculture to history with an intent to enter the ministry after an influential trip to China with the World Student Christian Federation, a trip which, ironically, also led Rogers to question mainstream Christianity. After graduation, he married Helen Elliott, following an engagement of nearly two years. The two moved to New York, where Rogers enrolled in the liberal, intellectually-focused Union Theological Seminary. After being introduced to work in clinical psychology here, however, he changed his career path once again and entered Columbia University's Teachers College. While completing his Ph.D. at Columbia and for several years thereafter, Rogers worked at the Rochester Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (RSPCC) as a child psychologist. It was during this time that he wrote his first monograph, The Clinical Treatment of the Problem Child, a work that brought him enough notice to be offered a full professorship at Ohio State University. While at Ohio, Rogers published Counseling and Psychotherapy, the book that summarized his own clinical experience while providing the foundation for nondirective therapy, and established the first supervised counseling practicum within an academic psychology department. In addition, it was during this time that he became the first therapist to record sessions with clients and offer them for study. All of this early work led to an offer by the University of Chicago for Rogers to establish a counseling center there. Rogers spent twelve years at the University of Chicago, during which he developed the counseling center, served as president of the American Psychologists Association, and published Client-Centered Therapy, wherein he solidified his particular approach to therapy while shifting farther away from the traditional patient-therapist dichotomy. In Rogers's approach, the therapist frees the client from whatever impediments are keeping him or her from normal psychological growth, rather than curing the client of a previously-diagnosed neurosis or psychosis. From 1957 to 1963, Rogers held a joint appointment as professor in both psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin, with an initial idea to integrate research and training within psychology , psychiatry, and social work. He later referred to this period as "the most painful and anguished episode in my whole professional life." Rogers found the effort frustrating, and ultimately resigned from the psychology department. This period did, however, see the publication of On Becoming a Person, Rogers's popular breakthrough. But after seven years in Wisconsin, Rogers had grown disillusioned with university life, and at sixty-two he and Helen moved to Southern California to join staff of the Western Behavioral Studies Institute in La Jolla, which had been founded by Richard Farson, a former student of Rogers's at Wisconsin. The WBSI was a loosely-structured research and training organization under which staff members formed their own programs and generated their own revenues. In its success, however, the looseness eventually became formalized and rigid, a direction with which Rogers felt uncomfortable. In 1968, along with several colleagues and literally overnight, Rogers left WBSI to form the Center for the Studies of the Person along the original lines of WBSI, but with a commitment to maintaining the democracy and informailty that they felt had been lost. Indeed, the CSP was dubbed a "nonorganization," run by a "non-director." Under the umbrella of the CSP, Rogers worked with "encounter groups" of individuals as well as larger organizations such as companies and schools. He published Carl Rogers on Encounter Groupsin 1970, and Carl Rogers on Personal Powerin 1977. Rogers spent the last several years of his life traveling extensively to promote his Person-Centered Approach in workshops as far-reaching as "The Central America Challenge," an international meeting of sixty-five leaders from seventeen countries. Guide to the Carl R. Rogers HPA Mss 32 3 Collection, 1902-1990 Rogers died on Wednesday, February 4, 1987, of cardiac arrest following hospitalization for a broken hip, after having been a widower for nearly eight years. Sources DeCarvalho, Roy José. The Founders of Humanistic Psychology. New York: Praeger, 1991. Kirschenbaum, Howard. "Carl Rogers." In Positive Regard: Carl Rogers and Other Notables He Influenced, ed. Melvin M. Suhd, 1-102. Palo Alto, California: Science and Behavior Books, 1995. Kirschenbaum, Howard. On Becoming Carl Rogers. New York: Delacorte Press, 1979. Carl R. Rogers Collection, HPA Mss 32, Department of Special Collections, University Libraries, University of California, Santa Barbara. 8 Jan 1902 Born in Chicago, Illinois 1919 Enters agriculture program at University of Wisconsin-Madison Feb - Aug Trip to the Far East 1922 22 Oct 1922Becomes engaged to Helen Elliott 23 Jun 1924 Receives BA in History from University of Wisconsin-Madison 28 Aug Marries Helen Elliott 1924 1924 Enrolls in liberal Union Theological Seminary, New York City Summer Serves as visiting pastor in Dorset, Vermont 1925 1926 Leaves Union for Columbia University Teachers College 17 Mar David Elliott Rogers born 1926 1 Jun 1927 Recieves MA from Columbia University Teachers College 1928 Joins Rochester Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (RSPCC) as child psychologist 9 Oct 1928 Natalie Rogers born 1929 Made director of the Child Study Department, RSPCC 20 Mar Receives doctorate from Columbia University Teachers College 1931 1939 The Clinical Treatment of the Problem Childis published 1940 Accepts position at Ohio State University as clinical psychologist