ABSTRACT
While the possibility of an `unconscious' faculty to the human mind is not denied in person-centred theory, classically, whether or not it exists is seen as largely irrelevant to the process of therapy. This is because person-centred therapy is phenomenological, concerned only with the client's current experiencing. Anything of which a client is unconscious or unaware is by de®nition unknown and therefore unknowable to the therapist. Any view as to the `unconscious' processes of the client or interpretation of them could only come from the frame of reference of the therapist. This is at odds with person-centred practice. Also, the notion of a particular structure to the mind (for example, id, ego, superconscious) does not ®nd wide acceptance amongst person-centred theorists. When it is discussed at all, writers are likely to take the view that there is a constant ¯ow between the `conscious' and the `unconscious' and to suggest a process model for the human mind (see, for example, Coulson 1995, Ellingham 1997 and Wilkins 1997a). In reality, it is only with respect to `transference' that the unconscious causes much of a stir in person-centred theory.
