The fully functioning self-actualized person is fundamental to Carl Rogers' conception of Individuality. Individuality is the ideal human condition. It is represented by the fully functioning Individual who is open to experience, makes conscious choices fluently without being inhibited by restrictions, refuses to conform to the collective urge because he doesn't feel the need to fall into familiar patterns, and takes total responsibility for his actions.
The Individual is unique in the sense that he has a harmonious relationship with the collective and a genuine social responsibility, yet chooses not to wear a socially acceptable façade by refusing to accept the prevailing standards . He trusts his own inner urges and intuitions, daring to express his uniqueness. In other words, he is less prone to conform to the roles dictated by societal norms, if he feels that his choices do not reflect his own values and interests .
The fully functioning Individual fulfils his potentialities by making his own decisions with self-reliance, autonomy and courage, and persists in working towards the accomplishment of goals. The Individual's capacity for self-awareness makes him realize his innate potentials so that, on the way to Individuation, he regulates his own behavior, rather than seeking external authority. This ability to guide his own life in a manner that's both personally and socially constructive and face the consequences of his actions courageously, makes Rogers' Individual distinct from the collective.
Individuation is an ongoing process that is an end in itself. Rogers considers it the most profound truth about man. The Individual maximizes his potentials by accepting everything about himself. His autonomy in belief and action gives him an individual responsibility that makes him lead a sociable, cooperative, creative and a self-directed life. Further, the formed Individual avails of all the opportunities that life offers him and strives relentlessly to develop further. He lives wholly and freely in each moment, responds to life's challenges with confidence and psychological freedom, not getting influenced by the collective's conventionalities.
The Individual does not accept society's conventional attitudes, but he is neither selfish nor egoistic. The unitary actualizing tendency, as Rogers calls it, is not seen in the formed Individual though the society, especially the Western one, fosters an ego-centric behavior and culturally conditions people at large. Individualism or the unitary actualizing tendency is a result of differentiation that makes a person separate himself from the society. While Individuality fosters a social responsibility apart from individual responsibility, Individualism is overly concerned about meeting life with false fronts.
The Individual views himself and the society, objectively. This objectivity, Rogers says, permits the Individual to take his own decisions and makes him aware that his life is largely determined by the choices he makes.
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