Latest revision as of 13:59, 16 December 2025

Fully Functioning Person

A Fully Functioning Person is Carl Rogers’ term for an individual whose self-structure is sufficiently healed and integrated that they can remain open to experience, trust their inner signals (i.e., organismic valuing), live flexibly in the present, and act with increasing congruence between felt experience, awareness, and behaviour. IN LP terms they have entered Growth Mode

Concept Map

Carl Rogers Terms

Actualizing Tendency, Client-Centered Therapy, Congruence, Fully Functioning Person, Growth Hypothesis, Ideal Self, Self, Self-Structure, Tendency Towards Self-Actualization

Key Concepts

Human Development

Human Potential Terms

Notes

In Carl Rogers’ person-centered theory, a fully functioning person is not “perfect,” finished, or permanently “happy.” It’s an ongoing way of living in which a person is increasingly open to experience, trusts their organismic (whole-body) responses, and lives flexibly and responsively in the present, so their choices and actions become more congruent (aligned) with their real feelings, needs, and perceptions (their biological and spiritual selves). Rogers frames this as a process of becoming—“a direction, not a destination.

On the Lightning Path, a fully functioning person corresponds to a fully functioning Physical Unit operating primarily in Growth Mode—i.e., with Seven Essential Needs sufficiently met and life-energy freed for learning, creativity, healthy relationship, Alignment, and Connection.

A fully functioning person is not an “end state,” but a direction of growth. Common indicators include:

less defensiveness and distortion; greater openness to emotional reality
increased self-trust and internal guidance (inner signals)
present-centered, flexible responding (instead of rigid self-concepts)
creativity, autonomy, and relational authenticity

Quotes

Citation and Legal

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Footnotes

References

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-A '''Fully Functioning Person''' is Carl Rogers’ term for an individual whose self-structure is sufficiently healed and integrated that they can remain open to experience, trust their inner signals (i.e., organismic valuing), live flexibly in the present, and act with increasing '''congruence''' between felt experience, awareness, and behaviour. IN LP terms they have entered [[Growth Mode]]
+A '''Fully Functioning Person''' is [[Carl Rogers]]’ term for an individual whose self-structure is sufficiently healed and integrated that they can remain open to experience, trust their inner signals (i.e., organismic valuing), live flexibly in the present, and act with increasing '''congruence''' between felt experience, awareness, and behaviour. IN LP terms they have entered [[Growth Mode]]
 </blockquote>

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