Counseling and psychotherapy culture

Human Transcendence from Substantial to Phenomenal Transformation: A Non-Assimilative Functional Comparison of Mullā Ṣadrā and Carl Rogers

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Samaneh Shahi Senobari 1
Bahram Ali Ghanbarih Hashemabadi 1
Seyyed Mohammad Mohsen Jalali Tehrani 1
Seyyed mostafa mohaghegh damad 2

1 Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

2 Shahid Beheshti University

10.22054/qccpc.2026.93207.3666
Abstract
Objective: This article examines how human transformation is conceived in Mullā Ṣadrā’s theory of substantial motion and in Carl Rogers’s phenomenal psychology, asking at what explanatory level each answers the question of how a person changes. Method: The study is qualitative, conceptual, and text-based. After reconstructing both systems from their principal works and reliable secondary literature, seven axes (subject and depth, graded form, inward source, awareness, blockage, agency, and horizon) were compared by the role each concept plays in answering a shared question, without presupposing conceptual equivalence. Findings: Both traditions treat transformation as graded and inwardly directed and attribute failure to change to inner blockage; yet “depth” refers to the soul’s mode of being in Ṣadrā and to the organization of experience and self in Rogers. Moreover, the two traditions diverge in level or horizon on agency and on the end of transformation. Originality: The study distinguishes two levels of response and identifies where similarities are merely lexical. Conclusion: The relation is neither identity nor absolute incommensurability; distinguishing psychological, ethical, and existential levels is essential in counseling.

Keywords

Mullā Ṣadrā
Carl Rogers
human transcendence
substantial motion
phenomenal psychology
Subjects
Counseling and psychotherapy culture

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 24 October 2026

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