As neuroscience allows us to look deeper into the functioning of our organisms, it can be used as a means to investigate, confirm, explain, or differentiate psychological theories. In this presentation we aim to view Carl Rogers’s theory of personality and behavior in light of Antonio Damasio’s theories and hypotheses regarding emotions, feelings and conscious thought. The results indicate a tight correspondence of basic concepts and hypotheses such as the actualizing tendency, the vital role of feelings in thought, and the superiority of fluent processes versus strained states in our integrated functioning. Yet, the use of different terminology for basic concepts such as emotions adds complexity to the search for correspondences and has to be handled with utmost care. Within the last decade, Antonio Damasio has suggested a theory on the role of emotions and feelings in human functioning (Damasio, 1994; 2000; 2000 et al.; 2003). While his theory is based in cognitive neuroscience, it also takes into account aspects of related disciplines such as anthropology, psychology, philosophy and the social sciences, and also considers a phenomenological component based on personal experience. Interestingly, Damasio’s findings appear to match and thus to confirm the visionary theories of personality and behavior of Carl Rogers. Reciprocally, Rogers’s theory complements Damasio’s in supplying the psychological and interpersonal conditions that are necessary and sufficient for the development and maintenance of a trustworthy self as the base for the organization of feelings and meanings.

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