Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2017

Publication Title

Counseling Today

Volume

59

Issue

7

Pages

40-45

Abstract

[Introduction] Near the end of Carl Rogers' life, he wrote a scathing article noting that his conceptualization of empathy had little to do with the popularized notion of empathy that had become known as "reflection of feelings." He may have been particularly angry because there were some apocryphal stories circulating about Rogers' work with clients. One of them goes something like this:

Rogers is seeing a client in his office on the 10th floor of a building. The client tells Rogers that he is really depressed, and Rogers says, "Sounds like you're really depressed." The client goes on to say that he is thinking of killing himself, and Rogers responds, "You're so depressed that you're even thinking you might take your life." This "reflection" goes on and on for quite a while until the client eventually declares, "I'm so depressed I'm thinking I might jump out of that window." Rogers again reflects back, almost verbatim, what the client just said, at which point the client goes over to the window, opens it up and says, "I'm so depressed, I'm going to jump out of this window." Rogers says, "You're so depressed you might jump out of that window." Exasperated, the client stands on the ledge, and the last thing out of his mouth as he jumps is, "Ahhhhhh!" Rogers, left in the office alone, repeats, "Ahhhhhh."

Rights

© 2017 American Counseling Association.

Included with the kind written permission of the copyright holder.

Original Publication Citation

Neukrug, E. (2017). Creative and novel approaches to empathy. Counseling Today, 59(7), 40-45. 

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