HBR at 100

— 1952 —

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Barriers and Gateways to Communication

by Carl R. Rogers and F. J. Roethlisberger

Part I: Carl R. Rogers

It may seem curious that someone like me, a psychotherapist, should be interested in problems of communication. But, in fact, the whole task of psychotherapy is to deal with a failure in communication. In emotionally maladjusted people, communication within themselves has broken down, and as a result, their communication with others has been damaged. To put it another way, their unconscious, repressed, or denied desires have created distortions in the way they communicate with others. Thus they suffer both within themselves and in their interpersonal relationships.

The goal of psychotherapy is to help an individual ...