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Abstract

The person-centered approach began as a strictly personal/psychological/ private approach, only belatedly applied to politics. Nonetheless, that political turn is an expression of intrinsic tendencies within Rogers's approach. Criticisms of the person-centered way of being as inherently individualistic and apolitical, therefore, are not well founded. Exploring the challenge of the values-based, communityorganizing approach, it appears that the Rogerian framework can absorb without strain many lessons from this political theory and practice. However, the Rogerian outlook also has much to offer the world of political organizing. Despite the contrasting emphases of the Rogerian search for new values and the neopopulist search for roots in tradition, this article offers avenues for fruitful dialogue, if not for reconciliation between the two positions. The article also presents latent ideas about the individual within the communitycentered approach and latent notions about community within the person-centered approach. As these implicit ideas are developed, a picture emerges of complex relations between person, community, economy, and polity that might enrich the Rogerian and the neopopulist approach.

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Carl Rogers-Values,Persons,and Politics

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