Monday, March 02, 2009

Unconditional?

Eugene Gendlin tackles a perennial puzzle in the Rogerian theory of therapy:
...many people wonder: How can one be genuine and feel unconditional positive regard at the same time? There is often so much unlovely stuff in a client, which cannot genuinely be regarded positively. But I see no contradiction because, as I formulate it, unconditional positive regard is for the embattled person in there, not for the stuff.
I suppose this is a classic strategy for resolving an apparent contradiction - you draw a distinction. He has unconditional high regard for "the person in there," as opposed, I guess, to "the unlovely behavior out here."

He believes there's a hidden winner,
deep within.

It's sort of like loving the sinner,
but hating the sin.

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