This essay will compare and contrast the differences between the works of Sigmund Freud and Carl Rogers and their approaches to understand people and to help them. It will look at the factors of Client centred therapy. It will also argue that Rogers’ humanistic approach is more useful in a social care setting rather than the psychodynamic approach of Freud.
There are many differences between that of Carl Roger’s approach which is the humanistic approach and that of Sigmund Freud’s psychodynamic approaches to psychology. The main difference between these …show more content…
One similarity is that both Rogers and Freud use Client Centred Therapy. Client centred therapy is ’a form of therapy developed by Carl Rogers which emphasizes the responsibility of the individual. ’ Client centred therapy should involve the therapist having empathy towards the client as well as being non-judgemental. This type of therapy should be non-directive and that the client is the professional on his or her own feelings, not the therapist. It is very helpful to those who had a childhood trauma and is also used in family therapy. Although both approaches use this, the humanistic approach is where the client tells the psychologist what he or she can do for himself or herself. On the other hand, the psychodynamic approach is where the psychologist tells the client what steps to follow. Another similarity in approaches to psychology is that both Rogers and Freud had to study defence mechanisms in order to help clients. According to Freud, defence mechanisms are ‘techniques used by the ego to protect itself from anxiety and the treats which give rise to it.’ In psychodynamic and humanistic psychology, there are seven known types of defence mechanisms. These are: repression, denial, displacement, rationalisation, projection, regression and