Counseling Therapies
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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Soka University Japan, Transcend Art and Peace
Created: October 30, 2001
Latest Update: October 30, 2001
jeannecurran@habermas.org

Gordon Allport

Personality Theories: Gordon Allport By Dr. C. George Boeree.

"One of Allport’s stories is always mentioned in his biographies: When he was 22, he traveled to Vienna. He had arranged to meet with the great Sigmund Freud! When he arrived in Freud’s office, Freud simply sat and waited for Gordon to begin. After a little bit, Gordon could no longer stand the silence, and he blurted out an observation he had made on his way to meet Freud. He mentioned that he had seen a little boy on the bus who was very upset at having to sit where a dirty old man had sat previously. Gordon thought this was likely something he had learned from his mother, a very neat and apparently rather domineering type. Freud, instead of taking it as a simple observation, took it to be an expression of some deep, unconscious process in Gordon’s mind, and said “And was that little boy you?”

This experience made him realize that depth psychology sometimes digs too deeply, in the same way that he had earlier realized that behaviorism often doesn’t dig deeply enough! "

Strange, isn't it? How easy it is for us to exaggerate the importance of our own focus, otherwise called "privileging our own subjectivity," and failing to listen in good faith. Even Freud could slip into it. And who can imagine going to Vienna at 22 to visit Freud!

Dr. Boeree notes further that:

"Allport didn’t believe in looking too much into a person’s past in order to understand his present. This belief is most strongly evident in the concept of functional autonomy: Your motives today are independent (autonomous) of their origins. It doesn’t matter, for example, why you wanted to become a doctor, or why you developed a taste for olives or for kinky sex, the fact is that this is the way you are now!"
About three-fourths of the way down the file.

Allport's functional autonomy reminds me of Wolpe's reality therapy. Nevermind about all the theories of how this might have happened, let's just deal with reality. You're afraid of the water. We've made sure the water is safe, so it's only your fear keeping you out. Wolpe says that you should play with the situation. (Remember George Herbert Mead and the importance of play.)

Each day do something that will get you a little closer to the water.
• Buy a swimsuit you like. That's it for the day.
• Put the swimsuit on. Admire it. Take it off. That's it for the day.
• Put the swimsuit on. Walk or drive to the beach. Admire the beach. That's it for the day.
• Put the swimsuit on. Walk or drive to the beach. Walk down to the water. Enjoy the warmth of the sand and the sun. That's it for the day.
• Put the swimsuit on, walk down to the water. Stick a toe in. That's it for the day.
• And so on, until you manage to approach the water without fear and accomplish whatever it is you wish to do in the water.

You get the idea. Wolpe's theory is that it won't help you do what you'd like to do in the water, even if you know how the phobia started. Simply confronting the fear, little by little, with your own goal in mind, will get you past the artificial limitations your fear has imposed upon you.

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Related References

Counseling Methods Survey: Theories/Theorists & Terminology One plausible collection of theorist and therapies. Christian orientation.