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 definition 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 find wide acceptance amongst person-centred theorists. When it is discussed at all, writers are likely to take the view that there is a constant flow 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.
