An analysis of the initial non-directive phase of person-centered therapy from the perspective of Emmanuel Levinas’s philosophy

ABSTRACT

The person-centered approach has been divided into five phases: non-directive, reflexive, experiential, collective or interhuman, and post-Rogerian, according to technical and epistemological criteria. We understand that each of these phases refers to a way to deal with alterity, or difference. This study aimed to analyze how difference may be explained in the non-directive phase of the person-centered approach. For a definition of alterity, we based our thinking on the work of Emmanuel Levinas. We found that denial of alterity was present in the objective search for regularities in the therapeutic relationship, emphasis on the technical, attempts at the social adaptation of clients, and the appreciation given to insight. We turned to the notion of ‘figures of alterity’: how a certain thought leads to a larger or smaller openness to experiencing a potential difference. We found that approaches to difference appeared through four figures of alterity: the Other of ignorance, the Other of the narrative, the Other of affect, and the Other of refraction.

KEYWORDS:

• Humanistic psychology
• person-centered approach
• Rogers, Carl Ramson, 1902-1987
• ethics
• Levinas, Emmanuel, 1906-1995

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. Andrea Máris Campos Guerra for reading a preliminary version of the text and Mairi McMenamin helping with English-language editing of the original manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Modernity, in this context, is understood as the historical period in which the relationship of humankind with the world, formerly mediated by faith, starts to be guided by reason, then instituted as the main tool to understand and control the world (Figueiredo, 1996).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) through a doctorate scholarship for the first author under Grant number 1955-2012; CAPES [23038.006566/2012-65].

Notes on contributors

Emanuel Meireles Vieira

Emanuel Meireles Vieira, PhD in Psychology from Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Professor at the undergraduate and graduate programs at Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC), Brazil. He is interested in the debate on ethics and the person-centered approach from the ethics of radical alterity by Emmanuel Levinas. He is member of Research and Interventions Group on Violence, Social Exclusion and Subjetivation (VIESES), at UFC.

Francisco Pablo Huascar Aragão Pinheiro

Francisco Pablo Huascar Aragão Pinheiro, Phd in Education from Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC). He is a professor of Psychology course and vice-coordinator Professional Postgraduate Program in Psychology and Public Policy at UFC - Sobral Campus. Currently, he participates in the Laboratory of Practices and Research in Psychology and Education (LAPPSIE), where he develops researches and extension actions in the field of teaching work, focusing on the health of teachers.

Jacqueline de Oliveira Moreira

Iago Cavalcante Araújo holds a master degree in Psycology from Federal University of Ceará (UFC), Brazil. Currently, he is a professor at Faculdade Pitágoras and Faculdade Princesa do Oesgte, in addition to teaching postgraduate courses and training programs in Humanistic Psychology and Person-Centered Approach in Brazil. He works mainly on the following topics: person-centered approach, ethics of radical alterity, social psychology, ethics and suicide.

Iago Cavalcante Araújo

Jacqueline de Oliveira Moreira, Phd in clinical psychology Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, with focus on studies on the problem of alterity in freudian theory. Currently, she is professor at Pontifical Catholical University of Minas Gerais (PUC Minas), Brazil, where she is a member of postgraduation program in Psychology. She works with researches that promote a dialogue between psychosocial problems and psychological theories, especially freudian theory, focusig on following themes: modes of subjectivation and postmodernity, psychosocial processes, the problem of alterity, violence and youth, and socio-educational measures. She is coordinator of Laboratory of Studies and Research in Psychoanalisis and Social Criticism (LAPCRIS) - PUC Minas. Currently, she is working o research and interventions with socio-educational measures system in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.