ABSTRACT
Of late, person-centred theorists have returned to the centrality of relationship to the nature of human beings. This is at the heart of what has become known as a dialogical approach, a primary advocate of this way of being in a therapeutic relationship is Peter Schmid (see Point 31). Schmid (2003: 110) emphasises the ‘fundamental We’ as a basic characteristic of the person-centred approach. He states that each of us only exists as part of a ‘We’ and (p. 111) ‘we are unavoidably part of the world’ and that:
He (pp. 111-112) goes on to say that to ignore this We has dreadful implications including the growth and spread of totalitarianism and terrorism. So, in person-centred terms, the organism is relational and what it relates to is We where We is the whole of which it is part. To thwart or distort this relationship results in personal and social distress. For me (after Wilkins 2006: 12):
• The We implies a connectedness, an inter-relatedness that goes beyond the organism.
