fei75766_ch10_309-344.indd 321  02/06/20 12:29 PM
Chapter 10    Rogers: Person-Centered Theory 321
Defensiveness
Inorder toprevent thisinconsistency between ourorganismic experience andour
perceived self,wereact inadefensive manner. Defensiveness istheprotection of
theself-concept against anxiety andthreat bythedenial ordistortion ofexperiences 
inconsistent withit(Rogers, 1959). Because theself-concept consists ofmany self-
descriptive statements, itisamany-faceted phenomenon. When oneofourexperi -
ences isinconsistent withonepartofourself-concept, wewillbehave inadefensive 
manner inorder toprotect thecurrent structure ofourself-concept.
Thetwochief defenses aredistortion anddenial. With distortion, wemisinter -
pretanexperience inorder tofititintosome aspect ofourself-concept. Weperceive 
theexperience inawareness, butwefailtounderstand itstruemeaning. With denial, 
werefuse toperceive anexperience inawareness, oratleastwekeepsome aspect of
itfrom reaching symbolization. Denial isnotascommon asdistortion because most 
experiences canbetwisted orreshaped tofitthecurrent self-concept. According to
Rogers (1959), bothdistortion anddenial serve thesame purpose—they keepourper-
ception ofourorganismic experiences consistent withourself-concept—which allows 
ustoignore orblock outexperiences thatotherwise would cause unpleasant anxiety 
orthreat.
Disorganization
Most people engage indefensive behavior, butsometimes defenses failandbehavior 
becomes disorganized orpsychotic. Butwhywould defenses failtofunction?
Toanswer thisquestion, wemust trace thecourse ofdisorganized behavior, 
which hasthesame origins asnormal defensive behavior, namely adiscrepancy 
between people’s organismic experience andtheirviewofself.Denial anddistortion 
areadequate tokeepnormal people from recognizing thisdiscrepancy, butwhen the
incongruence between people’s 
perceived selfandtheirorganis -
micexperience iseither tooobvi-
ousoroccurs toosuddenly tobe
denied ordistorted, theirbehav -
iorbecomes disorganized. Disor -
ganization canoccur suddenly, or
itcantakeplace gradually over
alongperiod oftime. Ironically, 
people areparticularly vulnerable 
todisorganization during therapy, 
especially ifatherapist accurately 
interprets theiractions andalso
insists thattheyfacetheexperi -
enceprematurely (Rogers, 1959).
Inastateofdisorganiza -
tion,people sometimes behave 
consistently withtheirorganis -
micexperience andsometimes in
accordance withtheirshattered Behavior canbecome disorganized orevenpsychotic 
when one’s defenses failtooperate properly. Krisztian 
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