Both Rogers and Jung emphasize the importance of the human
individual, but with Rogers the emphasis is on the "individual"
(autonomy, internal locus of evaluation, experience, growth,
maturity, etc.) whereas with Jung the emphasis is on the "human"
(human instincts, common archetypal structures, types of
personality, shared responses to situations, human patterns of
development, etc.)
The idea of a shared humanity runs all through Rogers's work,
and Jung emphasizes the intrinsic value of the individual.
Similarity between their means of psychotherapy is that both
recognize the individuality of the patient and his or her problems
and the need for a strong relationship between doctor/therapist and
patient/client.
The therapist has to be present, accessible and open at any
moment to whatever unique feeling or issues the client shares and
the therapist should experience all the feelings that his or her
client is communicating during the session.Like Rogers, Jung also
acknowledged the truth of all of this. He insists upon devotion to
the patient, and upon seeing him or her as an individual and unique
person.
Rogers speaks of incongruence between self and experience;a
discrepancy frequently develops between the self as perceived, and
the actual experience of the organism. In the course of therapy a
client often learns how much of his behavior, even how much of the
feeling he experiences, is not real, is not something which flows
from the genuine reactions of his organism, but is a facade, a
front, behind which he has been hiding. He discovers how much of
his life is guided by what he thinks he should be, not by what he
is.
This facade is close to what Jung calls the persona (both of
them have used the term "mask" in explaining the concept) The
persona is the individual's system of adaptation to, or the manner
he assumes in dealing with the world.
Rogers says of the "actualizing tendency", it is the inherent
tendency of the organism to develop all its capacities in ways
which serve to maintain or enhance the organism.It involves
development toward the differentiation of organs and of functions,
expansion in terms of growth, expansion of effectiveness. It is
development toward autonomy and away from heteronomy, or control by
external forces.
Jung uses similiar term of individuation,the process by which a
person becomes a psychological "individual," that is, a separate,
indivisible unity or "whole" which is similar to self
actualization.