From individual to person: Anthropology and further developments of the person-centered approach in psychotherapy

Abstract

While goal- and skill-oriented approaches m psychotherapy are en vogue mainly because of socio-political claims for efficiency, open and personal concepts and a relationship-oriented understanding become more important in various schools. Both traditional lines of understanding of the term “person” (the individualistic view of being a person which emphasizes autonomy, freedom and dignity, and the relationalistic view of becoming a person which stresses the inclination to relationship, encounter and dialogue) are discussed with regard to their significance for the images of man in psychotherapy. If both approaches are seen in a mutual fruitful relationship, person, ethically founded, can be conceptualized as response in a communication into which men and women are born, from where his or her respons-ability evolves. Here also an ethical foundation of psychotherapy is found.

In a radical paradigm change, not yet fully sounded out, person-centered psychotherapy focused on the human being as person half a century ago connecting both approaches in a unique way - in a tension which is to be endured (“Become who you are”). Thus, this approach commits itself to an image of man rooted in the European Jewish-Christian tradition the claim of which still has to be met in theory and practice in spite of tendencies towards eclectically watering down or underrating it.

Keywords
Anthropology, image of man, personhood, person-centered psychotherapy.