Amy Ward: Rogers

            Catherine had a strong personality marked by emotional health, decisiveness, confidence and a positive outlook.  Rogers’ theory of the development of personality could be used to describe how this came about in Catherine.

            Rogers claimed that a child who received love based solely on the child’s actions was getting what he called, “Conditional Positive Regard” (Engler, 374).  With Catherine we see that the affection given her depended not on her own actions, however desirable, but rather the moods and needs of those in control around her.

Catherine’s mother wanted only a son – since that might lead to his becoming heir to the principality of Anhalt-Zerbst and freeing Johanna from the dreary, grimy garrison town her husband had taken her to live.  The birth of Catherine was disappointing and when a son was born shortly after, all attention was diverted to the boy.  Catherine often received punishments from her mother that were rash and unjust (Erickson, 5).

Once betrothed to Peter, heir of Russia, she was the delight of the Empress Elizabeth, until it was apparent that Catherine was not becoming pregnant after their marriage.  Catherine then discovered that it mattered only that she produce an heir for the throne (Erickson, 90).

Given this strong influence of Conditional Positive Regard, Rogers’ would predict Catherine would develop unwieldy Conditions of Worth. These conditions specify when and how a child will be accepted (Engler, 374).  But Catherine wasn’t in control of the conditions that predicted how she would be accepted, so her own positive self-regard was left to develop free from those contingents.  For Rogers, this Positive Self-Regard was an important step towards good mental health.

Catherine stays the course by continuing to have Congruence in her experiences.  For Rogers, this means that she accepted the experiences she had into her consciousness and didn’t try to either deny or distort them into a more acceptable reality.  Catherine was very intelligent and aware.  Peter, her husband, would come to her seeking advice when Elizabeth grew unpredictable and their fates were uncertain (Erickson, 96).

This Congruence leads to “Self-Actualization” (Engler, 376).  Catherine accepted the truth that some wanted Peter to be alive and on the throne.  She also realized the limitations of her power (Erickson, 260).

Catherine wasn’t consumed with the guilt of the past and the unfortunate death of her husband (Erickson, 226).  Nor was she preoccupied with the fears of the future, even though her son, Paul, was a growing threat to her leadership (Erickson, 282-283).

She had bold plans and had drawn up an entirely new set of instructions for how the government should be run and the rights the people should be given with over “five hundred separate nuggets of political counsel” (Erickson, 271).   Her creativity was not limited to politics.  She was involved with theatrical plays and even composed one that was performed at the palace (Erickson, 360).

So, happily, Catherine ended up as a Self-Actualized person, with only a rough start.  It is happy to note that not all famous and influential people are psychopathically unstable.

References

Engler, B. (2003). Personality Theories: An Introduction. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Erickson, C. (1994). Great Catherine. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc.