Two Pasts

I have recaptured Gendlin's early research study (Gendlin et al., 1960) and theoretical consideration (Gendlin, 1962/1997) in terms of "two pasts" in his later work "Thinking Beyond Patterns" (Gendlin, 1991).

There are two pasts, two ways the word "was" can work: One is the retroactive past, made from the carrying-forward occurrence of what was implied. The other is the remembered past behind us on the linear track. (Gendlin, 1991, p. 65; bold added)

(Tanaka, 2022, Septemper)

(Tanaka, 2022, Septemper)

Because of the lack of precise terms, Rogers' emphasis on present experience has been widely misinterpreted to mean that a client need not deal with his past experience. In such a reading of his view, Rogers' reference to the present is taken to refer to conceptual content. Rogers is misunderstood to mean that a client need only deal with the content of his present life, not with his early experience. However, Rogers means that whatever the client deals with (past or present conceptual content), it is optimally dealt with only through present experiencing. (Gendlin, 1958, p. 13; 1962/1997, pp. 247-8; bold added)

I have combined his later and early Gendlin discussions above into one illustration.

(Tanaka, 2022, Septemper)

References

Cornell, A. W. (1993). The focusing guide's manual. 3rd edition. Focusing Resources.

Gendlin, E.T. (1958). The function of experiencing II. two issues: interpretation in therapy; focus on the present. Counseling Center Discussion Paper (University of Chicago), 4(3), 11-5.

Gendlin, E.T. (1962/1997). Experiencing and the creation of meaning: a philosophical and psychological approach to the subjective. Northwestern University Press.

Gendlin, E.T. (1991). Thinking beyond patterns: body, language and situations. In B. den Ouden, & M. Moen (Eds.), The Presence of Feeling in Thought (pp. 21-151). Peter Lang.

Gendlin, E.T., Jenney, R.H. & Shlien, J.M. (1960). Counselor ratings of process and outcome in client-centered therapy. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 16(2), 210-3.

Tanaka, H. (2022, Septemper). The Past in the "Here and Now". (The incentive award commemorative lecture, in Japanese). Presented at The 41st Conference of the Japanese Association for Humanistic Psychology.