If music be the food of love, play on; give me excess of it, that surfeiting, the appetite may sicken, and so die. There can no longer be any doubt that everything we call body shows a striving to become a whole. Individuals have within themselves vast resources for self-understanding and for altering their self-concepts, basic attitudes, and self-directed behaviour; these resources can be tapped if a definable climate of facilitative psychological attitudes can be provided. There are three conditions that must be present in order for a climate to be growth-promoting. These conditions apply whether we are speaking of the relationship between therapist and client, parent and child, leader and group, teacher and student, or administrator and staff. The conditions apply, in fact, in any situation in which the development of the person is a goal. The first element could be called genuineness, realness, or congruence. The more the therapist is oneself in the relationship, putting up on professional front or personal façade, the greater is the likelihood that the client will change and grow in a constructive manner. This means that the therapist is openly being the feelings and attitudes that are flowing within at the moment. #RandolphHarris 1 of 25
The term “transparent” catches the flavour of this condition: the therapist makes oneself transparent to the client; the client can see right through what the therapist is in the relationship; the client experiences no holding back on the part of the therapist. As for the therapist, what one is experiencing is available to awareness, can be lived in the relationship, and can be communicated, if appropriate. Thus, there is a close matching, or congruence, between what is being experienced at the gut level, what is present in awareness, and what is expressed to the client. The second attitude of importance in creating a climate for chance is acceptance, or caring, or prizing—what I have called “unconditional positive regard.” When the therapist is experiencing a positive, acceptant attitude toward whatever the client is at that moment, therapeutic movement or change is more likely to occur. The therapist is willing for the client to be whatever immediate feeling is going on—confusion, resentment, fear, anger, courage, love, or pride. Such caring on the part of the therapist is nonpossessive. The therapist prizes the client in a total rather than a conditional way. #RandolphHarris 2 of 25
The third facilitative aspect of the relationship is empathetic understanding. This means that the therapist senses accurately the feelings and personal meanings that the client is experiencing and communicates this understanding to the client. When functioning best, the therapist is so much inside the private World of the other that one can clarify not only the meaning of which the client is aware but even those just below the level of awareness. This kind of sensitive, active listening is exceedingly rare in our lives. We think we listen, but very rarely do we listen with real understanding, true empathy. Yet listening, of this very special kind, is one of the most potent forces for change that I know. How does this climate which I have just described bring about change? Briefly, as persons are accepted and prized, they tend to develop a more caring attitude toward themselves. As persons are empathically heard, it becomes possible for them to listen more accurately to the flow of inner experiencings. However, as a person understands and prizes self, the self becomes more congruent with the experiencings. The person this becomes more real, more genuine. #RandolphHarris 3 of 25
Along with the person becoming more authentic, these tendencies, the reciprocal of the therapist’s attitudes, enable the person to be a more effective growth-enhancer for oneself. There is greater freedom. There is a body of steadily mounting research evidence which by and large supports the view that when these facilitative conditions are present, changes in personality and behaviour do indeed occur. Such research has been carried on from 1940 to the present. Studied have been made of the benefits of the person-centered psychotherapy with troubled individuals and with schizophrenics; of the facilitation of learning in the schools; of the improvement in other interpersonal relationships. In ever organism, at whatever level, there is an underlying flow of movement toward constructive fulfilment of its inherent possibilities. In human beings, too, there is a natural tendency towards a more complex and complete development. The term that must often been used for this is the “actualizing tendency,” and it is present in all living organism. Whether we are speaking of a follower or an oak tree, of an earthworm of a beautiful cockatiel, of an ape or a person, we will do well, I believe, to recognize that life is an active process, not a passive one. #RandolphHarris 4 of 25
Whether the stimulus arises from within or without, whether the environment is favourable or unfavourable, the behaviours of an organism can be counted on to be in the direction of maintaining, enhancing, and reproducing itself. This is the very nature of the process we call life. This tendency is operative at all times. Indeed, only the presence or absence of this total directional process enables us to tell whether a given organism is alive of dead. The actualizing tendency can, of course, be thwarted or warped, but it cannot be destroyed without destroying the organism. I remember that in my boyhood, the bin in which we stored our Winter’s supply of potatoes was in the basement, several feet below a small window. The conditions were unfavourable, but the potatoes would begin to sprout—pale white sprouts, so unlike the healthy green shoots they sent up when planted in the soil in the spring. However, these sad, spindly sprouts would grow 2 or 3 feet in length as they reached toward the distant light of the window. The sprouts were in their bizarre, futile growth, a sort of desperate expression of the directional tendency I have been describing. #RandolphHarris 5 of 25
They would never become plants, never mature, never fulfill their real potential. However, under the most adverse circumstances, they were striving to become. Life would not give up, even if it could not flourish. In dealing with clients whose lives have been terribly warped, in working with men and women on the back of wards of state hospitals, I often think of those potato sprouts. So unfavourable have been the conditions in which these people have developed that their lives often seem abnormal, twisted, scarcely human. Yet, the directional tendency in them can be trusted. The clue to understanding their behaviour is that they are striving, in the only ways that they perceive as available to them, to move toward growth, toward becoming. To healthy persons, the result may seem bizarre and futile, but they are life’s desperate attempt to become itself. This potent constructive tendency is an underlying basis of the person-centered approach. Custom, then, is a great guide of human life. It is that principle alone, which renders our experience useful to us, and makes us expect, for the future, a similar train of evens with those which have appeared in the past. Without the influence of custom, we should be entirely ignorant of every matter of fact, beyond what is immediately present to the memory and sense. #RandolphHarris 6 of 25
If we did not have customs, we should never know how to adjust means to end, or to employ our natural powers in the production of any effect. There would be an end at once to all action, as well as of the chief part of speculation. However, here it ay be proper to remark, that though conclusions from experience carry us beyond our memory and senses, and assure us of matters of fact, which happened in the most distant places and most remote ages; yet some fact must always be present to the sense or memory, from which we may first proceed in drawing these conclusions. A person, who should find in a desert country the remains of pompous buildings, would conclude, that the country had, in ancient times, been cultivated by civilized inhabitants; but did nothing of this nature occur to one, one could never form such inference. We learn the events of former ages from history; but then we must peruse the volumes, in which this instruction is contained, and thence carry up our inferences from one testimony to another, till we arrive at the eye-witnesses and spectators of these distant evens. In a word, if we proceed not upon some fact, present to the memory or senses, our reasonings would be merely hypothetical. #RandolphHarris 7 of 25
And, however, the particular links might be connected with each other, the whole chain of inferences would have nothing to support it, nor could we ever, by its means, arrive at the knowledge of any real existence. If I ask, why you believe any particular matter of fact, which you relate, you must tell me some reason; and this reason will be some other fact, connected with it. However, as you cannot proceed after this manner, in infinitum, you must at last terminate in some fact, which is present to your memory or senses; or must allow that your belief is entirely without foundation. When then is the conclusion of the whole matter? A simple one; though, it must be confessed, pretty remote from the common theories of philosophy. All belief of matter of fact or real existence is derived merely from some object, present to the memory or senses, and a customary conjunction between that and some other object. Or in other words; having found, in many instances, that any two kinds of objects, flame and heat, snow and cold, have always been conjoined together; if flame or snow be presented anew to the senses, the mind is carried by custom to expect heat or cold, and to believe, that such a quality does exist, and will discover itself upon a nearer approach. This belief is the necessary result of placing the mind in such circumstances. #RandolphHarris 8 of 25
It is an operation of the soul, when we are so situated, as unavoidable as to feel the passion of love, when we receive benefits; or hatred, when we meet with injuries. All these operations are a species of natural instincts, which no reasoning or process of the thought and understanding is able, either to produce, or to prevent. At this point, it would be very allowable for us to stop our philosophical researches. In most questions, we can never make a single step farther; and in all question, we must terminate here at last, after our most restless and curious enquires. However, still our curiosity will be pardonable, perhaps commendable, if it carry us on to still farther researches, and makes us examine more accurately the nature of this belief, and of the customary conjunction, whence it is derived. By this means we may meet with some explications and analogies, that will give satisfaction; at least to such as love the abstract sciences, and can be entertained with speculations, which, however accurate, may still retain a degree of doubt and uncertainty. Humans are the only mammal who are large-scale killers and sadist. Animals display intraspecific aggression (fighting against their own species), but they fight in a “nondisruptive,” nondestructive way. #RandolphHarris 9 of 25
The data on the life of mammals in general and the prehuman primates in particular do not suggest the presence of an innate “destructiveness” which humans are supposed to have inherited from them. Indeed, if the human species had approximately the same degree of “innate” aggressiveness as that of chimpanzees living in their natural habitat, we would live in a rather peaceful World. In studying aggression among animals and especially among the primates, it is important to begin with a distinction between their behaviour in while living their own habit and their behaviour in captivity, that is, essentially, in zoos. Observations show that primates in the wild show little aggression, while primates in the zoo can show an excessive amount of destructiveness. This distinction is of fundamental importance for the understanding of human aggression because humans thus far in their history have hardly ever lived in their “natural habitat,” with the exception of the hunters and food gatherers and the first agriculturalists down to the fifth millennium Before Christ. “Civilized” humans have always lived in the “Zoo”—id est, in various degrees of captivity and unfreedom—and this still true, even in the most advanced societies. #RandolphHarris 10 of 25
The hamadryas baboons at the London Zoo in Regents Park (“Monkey Hill”) were studied in 1929-1930. Their area, 100 feet long and 60 feet wide, was large by zoo standards, but extremely small compared with the natural range of their habitat. There was a great deal of tension and aggression observed among animals. The stronger ones brutally and ruthlessly kept the weaker ones down, and even mothers would take food away from the hands of their babies. With the principal victims further studies suggest that there are at least two different elements in crowding which must be kept apart. One is the reduction of space; the other is e destruction of the social structure. The importance of the second factor is clearly born out of observation, mentioned earlier, that the introduction of a strange animal usually creates even more aggression than crowding. Of course, often both factors are present, and it is difficult to determine which of the two is responsible for the aggressive behaviour. Whatever the specific blend of these factors is in animal crowding, each of them can generate aggression. The narrowing down of space deprives the animal of important vital functions of movement, play, and the exercise of its faculties which can develop only when it has to search for its own food. #RandolphHarris 11 of 25
Hence the “space-deprived” animal may feel threatened by this reduction of its vital functions and react with aggression. The breakdown of the social structure of an animal group is even more of a threat. Every animal species lives within a social structure characteristic for this species. Whether hierarchical or not, it is the frame of reference to which the animal’s behaviour is adapted. A tolerable social equilibrium is a necessary condition for its existence. Its destruction through crowding constitutes a massive threat to the animal’s existence, and intense aggression is the result one would expect, given he defensive role of aggression, especially when flight is impossible. Crowding can occur under the conditions of existence in a zoo. However, more often the animals in a zoo are not crowded but suffer from restriction of space. Captive animals, although they are well fed and protected have “nothing to do.” If one believes that satisfaction of all physiological needs is enough to provide for a feeling of well-being in an animal (and in humans), their zoo existence should make them very content. However, this parasitic existence deprives them of stimuli that would permit an active expression of their physical and mental faculties; hence they often become bored, dull, and apathetic. #RandolphHarris 12 of 25
Unlike zoo chimpanzees, which generally look increasingly dull and vacant with the years, the older chimpanzees among those living in the wild seemed to be more lively, more interested in everything, and more human. The dull stimulus World provided by zoo cages results in boredom. An example is a silver-haired old chimpanzee who remained the leader of the group even though he was physically far inferior to younger apes; apparently life in freedom, with all its many stimulations had developed a kind of wisdom in him which qualified him as a leader. If crowding is an important condition for animal aggression, the question suggests itself whether it is also an important source of human aggression. There is no other remedy for rebellion, violence, and neuroses than to establish the balance of numbers in human societies and quickly to find effective means of controlling them at the optimum level. This popular identification of crowding with population density has created much confusion. Many people ignore the fact that the problem of contemporary crowding has two aspects: he destruction of viable social structure (particularly in the industrialized parts of the World), and the disproportion between the size of population and the economic and social basis for its existence, mainly in the non-industrialized parts of the World. #RandolphHarris 13 of 25
Humans need a social system in which one has one’s place and in which one’s relations to others are relatively stable and supported by generally accepted values and ideas. What has happened in modern industrial society is that traditions, and common values, and genuine social personal ties with others have largely disappeared. The modern mass human is isolated and lonely, even though they are part of a crowd; they have no convictions which they could share with others, only slogans and ideologies one gets from the communications media. One have become an a-tom (the Greek equivalent of “in-dividual” = indivisible), held together only by common, though often simultaneously antagonistic interests, and by the cash nexus. This phenomenon is called “anomie” and found that it was the main cause of suicide which had been increasing with the growth of industrialization. Anomie is the destruction of all traditional social bonds, due to the fact that all truly collective organization have become secondary to the state and all genuine social life have been annihilated. People living in the modern political state are a disorganized dust of individuals. In the traditional community (Gemeinschaf) and modern society (Gesellschaf) all genuine social bonds have disappeared. #RandolphHarris 14 of 25
Population density as such, lack of social structure, genuine common bonds and interest in life are the causes of human aggression and can be show by many examples. One of the most striking are the kibbutzim in Israel, which are very crowded, with little space for the individual and little privacy (this was even more the case years ago when the kibbutzim were poor). Yet there was an extraordinary lack of aggressiveness among their members. The same holds true for other international communities all over the World. Another example are countries like Belgium and Holland, two of the most densely populated parts of the World, whose population is nevertheless not characterized by special aggressiveness. There could hardly be more crowding then there was at the Woodstock or the Isle of Wight youth festivals, and yet both were remarkably free from aggressiveness. To take another example, Manhattan Island was one of the most densely populated places in the World eighty years ago, but it was no then, as it is today, characterized by excessive violence. Anyone who has lived in a big apartment building where several hundred families live together knows that there are few places where a person has as much privacy and is as little intruded upon by the presence of next-door neighbours as in such a densely populated building. #RandolphHarris 15 of 25
In those high-rise apartment buildings, some of the people are more aware of each other, watch and gossip each other’s private lives, and are constantly in each other’s field of vision; the same holds true, although to a much lesser degree, for suburban society. These examples tend to show that it is not crowding as such, but the social, psychological, cultural, and economic conditions under which it occurs that are responsible for aggression. It is obvious that overpopulation, id est, population density under conditions of poverty, causes stress and aggression; the big cities India, as well as the slums in American cities, are an example of this. Overpopulation and the resulting population density are malignant, when, due to the lack of decent housing, people lack the most elementary conditions for protection from immediate and constant intrusion by others. Overpopulation means that the number of people in a given society surpasses the economic basis for providing them with adequate food, housing, and meaningful leisure. There is no doubt that overpopulation has evil consequences and that the numbers must be reduced to a level which is commensurate with the economic basis. However, in a society which has the economic basis to support a dense population, the density itself does not deprive the citizen of one’s privacy, and it does no expose one to constant intrusions of others. #RandolphHarris 16 of 25
An adequate standard of living, however, takes care only of the lack of privacy and constant exposure to others. It does not solve the problem of anomie, of the lack of Gemeinschaft, of the individual’s need to live in a World that has human proportions, whose members know each other as persons. The anomie of industrial society can only be removed if the whole social and spiritual structure is changed radically: if the individual is not only adequately fed and houses, but the interests of society become identical with the interests of each individual; when the relationship to one’s fellow human and the expression of one’s powers, rather than the consumption of things and antagonism to one’s fellow humans, become the principles which govern social and individual life. This is possible under the condition of high population density, but it requires radical rethinking of all our premises and radical social change. It follows from these considerations that all analogies from animal to human crowding are of limited value. The animal has an instinctive “knowledge” of the space and the social organization it needs. It reacts instinctively with aggression in order to remedy a disturbance of its space and social structure. #RandolphHarris 17 of 25
It has no other way to respond to threats to its vital interests in these respects. However, humans have many other ways. They can change the social structure, they can develop bonds of solidarity an of common values beyond what is instinctually given. The animal’s solution to crowding is a biological instinctive one; human’s solution is social and political. “And again, I, Alma, having been commanded of God that I should take Amulek and go forth and preach again unto this people, or the people who were in the city of Ammonihah, it came to pass as I began to preach unto them, they began to contend with me, saying: Who art thou? Suppose ye that we shall believe the testimony of one human, although one should preach unto us that the Earth should pass away? Now they understood not the words which they spake; for they knew not that the Earth should pass away. And they said also: We will not believe thy words if thou shouldst prophesy that this great city should be destroyed in one day. Now they knew not that God could do such marvelous works, for they were a hard-hearted and a stiffnecked people. And they said: Who is God, that sendeh no more authority than one human among this people, to declare unto them the truth of such great and marvelous things? And they stood forth to lay their hands on me; but behold, they did not. #RandolphHarris 18 of 25
“And I stood with boldness to declare unto them, yea, I did boldly testify unto them, saying: Behold, O ye wicked and perverse generation, how have ye forgotten the tradition of your fathers; yea, how soon ye have forgotten the commandments of God. Do ye not remember that our father, Lehi, was brought out of Jerusalem by the hand of God? Do ye not remember that they were all led by him through the wilderness? And have ye forgotten so soon how many times he delivered our fathers out of the hands of their enemies, and preserved them from being destroyed, even by the hands of their own brethren? Yea, and if it had no been for his matchless power, and his mercy, and his long-suffering towards us, we should unavoidably have been cut off from the face of the Earth long before this period of time, and perhaps been consigned to a state of endless misery and woe. Behold, now I say unto you that he commandeth you to repent; and except ye repent, ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God. However, behold, this is not all—he has commanded you to repent, or he will utterly destroy you from off the face of the Earth; yea, he will visit you in his anger, and in his fierce anger he will not turn away. Behold, do ye not remember the words which he spake unto Lehi, saying that: Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper in the land? #RandolphHarris 19 of 25
“And again it is said that: Inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord. Now I would that ye should remember that ye should remember, that inasmuch as the Lamanites have not kept the commandments of God, they have been cut off from the presence of the Lord. Now we see that the word of the Lord has been verified in this thing, and the Lamanites have been cut off from his presence, from the beginning of their transgressions in the land. Nevertheless I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable for them in the day of judgment than for you, if ye remain in your sins, yea, and even more tolerable for them in this life than for you, except ye repent. For there are many promises which are extended to the Lamanites; for it is because of the traditions of their fathers that caused them to remain in their state of ignorance; therefore the Lord will be merciful unto them and prolong their existence in the land. An at some period of time they will be brought to believe in his word, and to know of the incorrectness of the traditions of their fathers; and many of them will be saved, for the Lord will be merciful unto all who call on his name. #RandolphHarris 20 of 25
However, behold, I say unto you that if ye persist in your wickedness that your days shall not be prolonged in the land, for the Lamanites shall be sent upon you; and if ye repent not they shall come in a time when you know not, and ye shall be visited with utter destruction; and it shall be according to the fierce anger of the Lord. For he will not suffer you that ye shall live in your iniquities, to destroy his people. I say unto you, Nay; he would rather suffer that the Lamanites might destroy all his people who are called the people of Nephi, if it were possible that they could fall into sins and transgressions, after having had so much light and so much knowledge given unto them of the Lord their God; yea, after having been such a highly favoured people of the Lord; yea, after having been favoured above every other nation, kindred, tongue, or people; after having had all things made known unto them, according to their desires, and their faith, and prayers, of that which has been and which is, and which is to come; having been visited by the Spirit of God; having converse with angels, and having been spoken unto by the voice of the Lord; and having the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and also many gifts, the gift of speaking with tongues, and the gift of preaching, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the gift of temptation; #RandolphHarris 21 of 25
“Yea, an after having been delivered of God out of the land of Jerusalem, by the hand of the Lord; having been saved from famine, and from sickness, and all manner of diseases of every kind; and they having waxed strong in battle, that they might not be destroyed; having been brought out of bondage time after time, and having been kept and preserved until now; and they have been prospered until they are rich in all manner of things—and now behold I say unto you, that if this people, who have received so many blessings from the hand of the Lord, should transgress contrary to the light and knowledge which they do have, I say unto you that if this be the case, that if they should fall into transgression, it would be far more tolerable for the Lamanites than for them. For behold, the promises of the Lord are extended to the Lamanites, but they are not unto you if ye transgress; for has not the Lord expressly promised and firmly decreed, that if ye will rebel against him that ye shall utterly be destroyed from off the face of the Earth? And now for this cause, that ye may not be destroyed, the Lord has sent his angel to visit many of his people, declaring unto them that they must go forth and cry mightily unto this people, saying: Repent ye, for the kingdom in Heaven is nigh at hand. #RandolphHarris 22 of 25
“And not many days hence the Son of God shall come in his glory; and his glory shall be the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of his grace, equity, and truth, full of patience, mercy, and long-suffering, quick to hear the cries of his people and to answer their prayers. And behold, he cometh to redeem those who will be baptized unto repentance, through faith on his name. Therefore, prepare ye the way of the Lord, for the time is at hand that all humans shall reap a reward of their works, according to that which they have been—if they have been righteous they shall reap the salvation of their souls, according to the power and deliverance of Jesus Christ; and if they have been evil they shall reap the damnation of their souls, according to the power and captivation of the devil. Now behold, his is the voice of the angel crying, unto the people. And now, my beloved brethren, for ye are my brethren, and ye ought to be beloved, and ye ought to bring forth works which are meet for repentance, seeing that your hearts have been grossly hardened against the word of God, and seeing that ye are a lost and fallen people. Now it came to pass that when I, Alma, had spoken these words, behold, the people were wroth with me because I said unto them that they were a hard-hearted and stiffnecked people. #RandolphHarris 23 of 25
“And also because I said unto them that they were a lost and a fallen people they were angry with me, and sought to lay their hands upon me, that they might cast me into prison. However, it came to pass that the Lord did not suffer them that they should take me at that time and cast me into prison. And it came to pass that Amulek went and stood forth, and began to preach unto them also. And now the words of Amulek are not all written, nevertheless a part of his words are written in this book,” reports Alma 9.1-34. O Thou Most High, Creator of the ends of the Earth, Governor of the Universe, Judge of all humans, Head of the Church, Saviour of sinner; Thy greatness is unsearchable, Thy goodness infinite, Thy compassions unfailing, Thy providence boundless, Thy mercies ever new. We bless Thee for the words of salvation. How important, suitable, encouraging are the doctrines, promises, and invitations of the gospel of peace! We are lost: but in it Thou hast presented to us a full, free and eternal salvation; weak: but here we learn that help is found in one that is mighty, poor: but in him we discover unsearchable riches, blind: but we find He has treasures of wisdom and knowledge. We thank Thee for Thy unspeakable gift. #RandolphHarris 24 of 25
Thy Son is our only refuge, foundation, hope, confidence; we depend upon His death, rest in his righteousness, desire to bear his image; may His glory fill our minds, His love reign in our affections, His cross inflame us with ardour. Let us Christians fill our various situations in life, escape he snares to which they expose us, discharge the duties that arise from our circumstances, enjoy with moderation their advantages, improve with diligence their usefulness, and may every place and company we are in be benefited by us. O Most merciful God, incline Thy loving ears to my prayers, and illuminate my heart with the grace of the Holy Spirit, that I may be enabled worthily to minister to Thy Mysteries, and to love Thee with an everlasting love, and to attain everlasting joys, through Jesus Christ our Lord. We give Thee thanks, O Lord God of hosts, Who hast counted us worthy even now to stand at Thy holy Altar, and to entreat Thy compassion for our sins and for the errors of Thy people. Accept, O Lord, our supplication; make us worthy to offer unto Thee supplications and prayers and bloodless sacrifices for all Thy people; and enable us, whom Thou hast places in this ministry, by the power of Thy Holy Spirit, without condemnation and without offence, and keeping the witness of our conscience pure, to call upon Thee in every time and place. #RandolphHarris 25 of 25
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Thank you for the ears of Your dutiful concern for prayer, O merciful God, I bow down to you will, please grant my request, and allow the grace of the Holy Spirit, to illuminate our hearts, my heart; my I be worthy to serve at Thy mysteries. I know, that thou are the love of eternal love, and the joys of the age. During this time may I be worthy to receive your bountiful grace through Jesus Christ. Amen,
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