Can you regard all humans positively? Carl Rogers was a humanist psychologist who believed so. He was one of the first ever researchers in psychotherapy since the emergence of the practice with the work of Freud, and this episode looks at the positive effects of his ideas, derived from pioneering experiments. He's one of the most influential psychotherapists in history, and Dan thinks he was a really nice guy. But nice is boring, and so we ask, what's the difference between humanist psychology and an average daytime TV presenter (specifically one who Dan has met, so he can vouch for her niceness).

But if Carl Rogers' ideas were so influential and successful, then it's time to open the Private Practice Podcast freezer and pull out the question we always have oven-ready for situations like this: why are we not all enlightened humans by now? Well, the practical application of his philosophy in the face of reality is the subject next week in Part 2.

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