Anxiety and Defense (Rogers)

Synonyms

Defense mechanisms; Incongruence

Definition

Carl Rogers, a main proponent of humanistic psychology, believed that anxiety arose from an incongruity between one’s real self and his or her ideal self. According to Rogers, an individual will resort to defenses, similar to Freud’s defense mechanisms, in order to reduce this anxiety and maintain the congruity of the self. Rogers’s defenses are split into two main categories: distortion of experience and denial of threats.

Introduction

Carl Rogers, an American psychologist and one of the founders of humanistic psychology, proposed that humans will respond to anxiety within the self with certain defenses in attempt to reduce such anxiety (1961). This proposition arose from his theory of the self, one of the core principles of the humanistic approach. Rogers believed that humans have one basic motive: the tendency to strive for self-actualization, a state in which one has fully fulfilled or realized his or her potential (1959)....