Theory of Counseling

NATURE OF MANn In order to understand how theories came about, it is necessary to understand the thinking of the theorists who studied the different accounts of other theorists and studied from observations and empirical evidence.

Man is born with hereditary biological and emotional predispositions and a collective unconscious. (Jung)
Each person has a unique predisposition to certain physiological illnesses and emtional disturbances. When the human organism is exposed to a critical point of tolerance, that predisposition causes the organism to weaken and become subject to a breakdown, either cellular or emotional. This accounts for the difference in tolerance by each person for similar events. The collective unconscious is inherited knowledge which never reaches consciousness, but which is interpreted as instinct, insight, genius, deja-fu, extrasensory perception, clairvoyance, and unexplainable pre=cognitive phenomena. Man is also conditioned by his interactions with his environment.

Early childhood experiences, either positively or negatively, condition his behavior. Trust, security, autonomy, sense of self, and self-esteem will cause a child to react to a situation differently from a child who is neglected or pampered, insecure or overprotected. Therefore, the same traumatic experience will have different effects on different people, causing different responses in later life.

Man is born with biological needs for survival of himself and his species, and sociological needs for survival of himself and his civilization. Biological needs are hunger, thirst, and sex. Sociological needs are feelings of security, belongingness, identification, love and acceptance.

Man represses feelings he cannot deal with into his subconscious, but he has the capacity to overcome negative behavior as a result of his repression, by using his cognitive powers to recall and relive those feelings and to reason.