Approaches in Communication

As Carl Rogers stated, psychotherapy and communication go hand in hand. The reason
why a person is considered neurotic is because of his difficulty to communicate, causing his
relationship with others to be damaged. Rogers believes that as a psychotherapist, his job is to
help the person begin to form good communication skills that will allow him to communicate
within himself and others. However, Rogerss main objective is to present the impeding progress
of communication, and to present solutions in removing those obstacles.
Rogers starts his presentation by drawing out a hypothesis that the major barrier to reach
a mutual understanding is our tendency to judge and evaluate. Basically, people tend to
immediately evaluate things in their own perspective upon hearing another persons statements.
Rogers starts to introduce examples of how a situation like this would occur. He brings up how if
he were to say the Republicans have been behaving more good than bad these days, those who
disagree would immediately call him a conservative.
However, when an argument contains a lot of emotions and feelings, agreeing on
something is almost impossible. By supporting his hypothesis further, Rogers believes that the
stronger our feelings, the more likely it is that there will be no mutual element in the
communication (Rogers 458). This is common in most fights and arguments today between two
people.
Furthermore, Rogerss nonantogonistic or nonoppositional method is a rhetorical
strategy that seeks not to highlight differences but to find common ground (Wilbers). To achieve
this, Rogers presents a solution: to communicate empathically. It is important to listen and
understand the other persons views and feelings. Rogers further explains this approach letting
his readers know that it is not as simple as they may think. He addresses that through his research

in psychotherapy, empathic understanding with a person can be so powerful that it could alter the
individuals personality.
Even though Rogers tries prove to his skeptical readers who have supposedly tried this
approach but did not yield the same results by claiming that the way they listened to people
was the wrong way because it wasnt the same way he had done it, does come off a bit biased. To
show that his approach is in fact reliable, Rogers suggested experiments for people to try in order
to test the quality of [their] understanding (Rogers 459). He believes that if you are able to
summarize the opposing speakers thoughts and feelings really well, then you are able to fully
understand the situation a lot better.
As great as Rogerss approach is, he decides to mention why it is not more commonly
used. First, Rogers states that it could be dangerous when one becomes overly empathetic,
running the risk of being changed. In order to counter this, people choose to evaluate rather than
listen since they may not have the courage to hold on to their own beliefs and are easily
influenced. The second reason is when emotion plays a big part in attitude. Rogers states that
when this happens, it is best to acquire a neutral, third party, to clarify the views and thoughts
each person in the argument holds. The third party allows for mutual understanding, and the
statements that were once exaggerated and defensive are no more.
Although Rogers considers his approaches to be effective and an improvement in
communication, he realizes that his flaw is that these approaches only apply well to small
groups. He also admits that in order to confirm the validity of these test-tube solutions, he
would need more time and money. For now though, Rogers believes that his approaches would
still be able to help large groups, as the primary goal remains the same: to listen, understand, and
reach a common ground.

Finally, Rogers concludes his entire essay by summing up all the approaches he has
stated since the beginning, and reminds the readers once again that he has researched and
experienced these solutions in order to solve these major barriers in communication.

Works Cited
Rogers, Carl R. Communication: Its Blocking and Its Facilitation. Current Issues and
Enduring Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking and Argument with Readings. Ed.
Sylvan Barnet and Hugo Bedau. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 457-463. Print.
Wilbers, Stephen. Pick a Fighting Method: Rogerian Persuasion Seeks Common
Ground. Orange County Register: 0. Feb 05 1996. The Advocate (Stamford); Baltimore
Sun; Business Dateline; California, South Newsstand; Greenwich Time; Hartford
Courant; Los Angeles Times; Morning Call; Newsday; Orlando Sentinel; ProQuest
Newsstand; Sun Sentinel. Web. 7 Mar. 2013 .