Understanding Emotions Through Rogers, Ellis, and Perls

The thesis of The Hidden Genius of Emotion is that “… affect is the central organizing force in individual personality and the integrative link between domains of psychological functioning” (p. xi). Emotion is presented as the key element drawing other disparate areas of psychological development and personality together. Carol Magai and Jeannette Haviland-Jones draw on newer epistemological systems as well as standard psychological theories in order to present the argument that affect is as important, or perhaps even more central, than cognition in understanding human personality and developmental change.

The authors utilize a fascinating approach – combining theoretical analysis with psychohistorical case study. Specifically, they use the lives of three psychologists as case applications. The lives of Carl Rogers, Fritz Perls, and Albert Ellis are examined using biographical, autobiographical, academic, and video materials. The choice of these three theorists/analysts is interesting, given their historical importance within psychology. Indeed, the selection of these three makes the book of particular interest to any students of psychology who have seen the video of the three clinicians each in session with the same client (Gloria) and have compared and contrasted the therapeutic approaches of these three men. This video, Three Approaches to Psychotherapy (1966), was a standard in psychology classes at one time.

Carol Magai and Jeannette Haviland-Jones have taken a lifespan approach to personality development, using affect, attachment, and cognition as the fundamental forces. They examine the personal lives of Roger, Perls, and Ellis to trace their patterns of affect and attachment and link those patterns to their later work in psychology. Positioning Rogers, Perls, and Ellis within their personal and historical frameworks in order to examine their theoretical standpoints fits well with a postmodern mode of analysis. Interestingly, the authors have used classic theoreticians as their subjects, and often rely on other classic psychological theories for their core content, yet they have used very current epistemological techniques to construct their argument. Along the same lines, they critique the absence of a focus on the individual within psychology, and expose the myth of depersonalized objectivity as an attainable and desirable goal within the field. This too is consistent with more current feminist and postmodern critiques of traditional epistemological systems within the field of psychology.

In academic psychology as a whole, emotion has not been at the center of theories of personality and development; cognition has more often been the focus. Further, traditional assumptions about empirical methodology take emotion out of the equation, so to speak. The affective reactions of the psychologist are traditionally kept out of the processes most often used to search for information, for “truth,” in psychology. In addition, the waves within psychology that focus on cognition and neuroscience have flooded the field in recent years. Therefore, it is a radical approach in academic psychology to put emotion at the center of development and to acknowledge the emotional behavior of the psychologist as an important factor in a therapist/client interaction, as these authors have done.

Professors Magai and Haviland-Jones interrogate the affective aspects of the therapeutic context through an examination of the behavioral, verbal, and nonverbal posturing of both the therapist and the client in a dynamic reciprocal “dance.” The analysis of the interaction between the therapist and client is key insight here – extending the authors’ theoretical arguments about affect into the practice arena. For example, they focus in the later part of the book on the video of Rogers, Perls, and Ellis with Gloria, and they look at the affective pattern

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that Gloria brings into the sessions along with the power dynamics inherent in the situation. The authors describe how Gloria’s affective pattern interacts uniquely with each of the individual affective patterns of the therapists. This interaction shapes the sessions. Although there is some consistency in how Gloria presents herself with each therapist, ultimately each session is shaped by the therapist’s prior goals, interests, and interactional pattern.

The primary audiences for The Hidden Genius of Emotion would be clinical psychologists and other practitioners of psychotherapy, personality psychologists, developmental psychologists, and psychohistorians. One of the interesting aspects of this book is the triangulation of methods and materials used by the authors. Their study of individual lives (cases) may not fit with notions of strict traditional, empirical research in psychology – and thus will be unconvincing to some psychologists; however, they have used multiple types of materials and qualitative methods. Magai and Haviland-Jones present the pros and cons of qualitative research in an interesting discussion of narrative analysis as a form of research. This section of the book would be valuable to use in teaching research methodology. In fact, the book would be appropriate for classroom use in a variety of ways, as described below.

There is a good deal of material on the history of psychology in The Hidden Genius of Emotion. Although some interpretations by the authors may be open to debate, there is considerable reference to the historical development of the discipline. In addition, the biographical materials on Rogers, Ellis, and Perls – and the authors’ interpretations of that material – are interesting in and of themselves. An example of one such section is the descriptions of Rogers’ upbringing and his resultant discomfort with hostility, which profoundly impacted not only the content of this therapeutic approach (e.g., unconditional positive regard) but also his reaction to hostility by his clients. The text would be quite useful in teaching the history of psychology by providing material that illustrates the relationship between the personal history of individual psychologists and the academic theories and practice techniques that each uses.

In addition, the authors are instructive in the text – explaining the various theoretical systems and concepts they use as if to a naïve (albeit educated) audience. They are also redundant as the book proceeds, including introductory sections and summaries in the chapters that restate the core concepts. This writing pattern also makes the book appropriate for classroom use. For example, students in an advanced undergraduate or graduate course studying Client-Centered Therapy by Rogers, Rational Emotive Therapy by Ellis, or Perls’ Gestalt methods would find the book illuminating and provocative. In this book the face and human history of the systems of therapy are personalized.

One downside to the authors’ analyses in a few places is that they are highly speculative at times, analyzing events for which there is no real evidence. Indeed, the authors themselves refer to some of these events as possibly apocryphal. While the existence of the “lore” of these events may be telling, it is dangerous to analyze what may not even have happened.

The most interesting – and maybe most valid – parts of the book lie in the contrasts made between the three therapists. I found the individual stories and analyses fascinating, but the book came alive for me in the comparisons. I felt that I could see the individual pictures and lives best when presented in contrast to the others. I could see the authors’ argument that emotions and emotional patterns organize experience and thought, thus altering the value and the processing of lived events, as the three famous therapists were contrasted. The emotions that are presented as key to understanding each therapist differ, and include hostility, fear, and shame. These emotions are presented as having not only shaped the therapists’ personalities, but as having provided the foundations for each person’s mental and physical life. By the authors’ interpretations, such emotions and affective patterns can be identified in how each individual reacts, thinks, writes, theorizes, and practices. The confluence of biography, affective pattern, and cognitive processes – as presented in The Hidden Genius of Emotion – is most thought-provoking.

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