Review of Counseling and psychotherapy

Abstract

Reviews the book, Counseling and psychotherapy by Carl R. Rogers (1942). The point of view presented in this book is that helping the individual to solve his problems is more important than obtaining an accurate diagnostic picture of the individual. This book does not attempt to present all viewpoints in the field of psychotherapy. It deals primarily with explaining and illustrating the principles and techniques of non-directive therapy. Counseling is presented as a "knowable, predictable, understandable process, a process that can be learned, tested, refined, and improved." This book may well be of revolutionary significance in the clinical field. It should do much to make therapy a definitive process, and one that can be studied by standard research procedures. Despite Dr Rogers' contribution, adequate criteria of the well-adjusted individual and techniques for measuring adjustment remain barriers to any thorough research program in the field of therapy. In the opinion of the reviewer, this is the most important book to appear in the clinical field many years. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)