Psychosynthesis is a framework and approach to psychology developed by Italian psychiatrist Roberto Assagioli. It is "one of the prime forces in transpersonal psychology." It "stretches beyond the boundaries of personal psychology and individuality by postulating a deeper center of identity: the self, our essential Being. The self includes, but transcends, our personal day-to-day consciousness, leading to an enhanced sense of life direction and purpose." Along with the idea of a spiritual or transpersonal self, Psychosynthesis emphasizes "the value placed upon exploration of creative potential, and the hypothesis that each individual has a purpose in life.
Psychosynthesis considers the self an "ontological reality," a being, often referred to as the "higher self." It is a stable center or core of life. By contrast, the personal self, the self-conscious “I” that is our everyday sense of identity, is actually a reflection of the self in the normal person.Typed letter dated January 9, 1968 from Roberto Assagioli to Graham Taylor, M.D. And Martha Crampton, M.A. found in the Archives of the Association for the Advancement of Psychosynthesis. https://aap-psychosynthesis.org/. Psychosynthesis sees each individual as unique in terms of purpose in life, and places value on the exploration of human potential, combining spiritual development with psychological healing and including the life journey of an individual or their unique path to self-realization. Psychosynthesis is actively used in the efforts of individuals toward personal self-actualization and transpersonal self-realization, but is also used by professionals around the world in the contexts of life coaching and psychotherapy. It has also been used in other contexts, including medicine, education, environmental design, community and organizations.
The integrative framework of psychosynthesis began with Sigmund Freud's theory of the unconscious, which it expands and modifies as a method of investigation, while rejecting the specific theories of sexuality, etc. held by Freud. Psychosynthesis also has some similarities with existential psychology, analytical psychology and humanistic psychology.Assagioli, R. (1965). Psychosynthesis, p.3. Among other uses, psychosynthesis can be used to address psychological distress and intra-psychic and interpersonal conflicts. Psychosynthesis has a strong presence in the fields of coaching and especially psychotherapy, some of which can be referenced in the external links and training centers listed at the bottom of this page. For Assagioli, synthesis is “a trend that is the expression of a universal principle” whose manifestation can be found in all aspects of reality: from the world of inorganic matter to the organic vegetable and animals worlds, from the psychic world of emotions and ideas to the world of interpersonal and social relationships, to the spiritual worlds.
Development Psychosynthesis was developed by Italian psychiatrist, Roberto Assagioli, who was a colleague of Freud, Jung and Bleuler. He began to formulate his ideas as early as 1910, but did not collect his thinking into a whole until the presentation of his pamphlet A New Method of Healing: Psychosynthesis, which was published in 1927. He later compared psychosynthesis to the prevailing thinking of the day, contrasting psychosynthesis with existential psychology, but unlike the latter he considered loneliness not to be "either ultimate or essential". Assagioli asserted that "the direct experience of the self, of pure self-awareness — independent of any 'content' of the field of consciousness and of any situation in which the individual may find himself — is a true, 'phenomenal' experience, an inner reality which can be empirically verified." Spiritual goals of "self-realization" and the "interindividual psychosynthesis"—of "social integration...the harmonious integration of the individual into ever larger groups up to the 'one humanity'"Assaglioli, R. (1993). Psychosynthesis, p. 7 and p.5—were central to Assagioli's theory.
Psychosynthesis departed from the empirical foundations of behavioral psychology because it studied a person as a personality and a soul,A Psychology with a Soul: Psychosynthesis in Evolutionary Context by Jean Hardy, p.20-22. even though Assagioli continued to insist that it was scientific. He asserted that it is a mistake to consider fields of research “scientific” or not; rather it is the method of research that is scientific or not. He asserted that the scientific method means clear thinking and sound reasoning on well-established facts, which are not limited to what can be weighed or measured. He asserted that “It is undeniable that all subjectively lived psychological phenomena are facts, even if not susceptible to direct weighing and measuring procedures, and as such can be studied scientifically. The pragmatic principle must be accepted that everything has its reality which produces an effect that modifies a preexistent state."Assagioli, R. (1973b). “The New Dimensions of Psychology: The Third, Fourth, and Fifth Forces:A Talk presented in English at the Biennale de Futurologie in Crans sur Sierre in Switzerland on Aug. 30th, 1973. Available Online at https://kennethsorensen.dk/en/new-dimensions-psychology-third-fourth-fifth-forces-roberto-assagioli-m-d/. Scientific studies of internal states are often done by gathering testimony about inner experiences. This is an accepted approach to study of altered states of consciousness. Assagioli developed therapeutic methods beyond those in psychoanalysis. Although the unconscious is an important part of his theory, he was careful to maintain a balance with rational, conscious therapeutic work. Psychosynthesis was not intended to be a school of thought or an exclusive method.“It could be defined principally as a general attitude, a tendency toward, and a series of activities aiming at, integration and synthesis in every field.” However, many conferences and publications had it as a central theme, and psychosynthesis training centers were formed in Italy, the UK and the United States in the 1960s and are now found in many countries in Europe, North and South America, Asia, New Zealand and Australia. Today, psychosynthesis is recognized through its membership in the European Association of Psychotherapy.
Assagioli was not the first to use the term "psychosynthesis". The earliest use was by James Jackson Putnam, who used it as the name of his electroconvulsive therapy. The term was also used by C. G. Jung and A. R. Orage, who were both more aligned with Assagioli's use of the term than Putnam's use. C. G. Jung, in comparing his goals to those of Sigmund Freud, wrote, "If there is a 'psychoanalysis' there must also be a 'psychosynthesis which creates future events according to the same laws'."Jung quoted in J. Kerr, A Dangerous Method (2012) pp. 214-5. A. R. Orage, who was the publisher of the influential journal, The New Age, used the term as well, but hyphenated it (psycho-synthesis). Orage formed an early psychology study group (which included Maurice Nicoll who later studied with Carl Jung) and concluded that what humanity needed was not psychoanalysis, but psycho-synthesis.A. R. Orage: On Love/Psychological Exercises: With Some Aphorisms & Other Essays, p.126 The term was also used by Bezzoli.Roberto Assagioli - his life and work A biography from Kentaur Institute in Denmark Freud, however, was opposed to what he saw as the directive element in Jung's approach to psychosynthesis,J. Kerr, A Dangerous Method (2012) p. 489. and Freud argued for a spontaneous synthesis on the patient's part: "[During psychoanalysis] the great unity which we call his ego fits into itself all the instinctual impulses which before had been split off and held apart from it. The psycho-synthesis is thus achieved in analytic treatment without our intervention, automatically and inevitably."Sigmund Freud, "Lines of Advance in Psycho-Analytic Therapy" in Neville Symington, Narcissism: A New Theory (London 2003) p. 110.
Origins
In 1909, C.G. Jung wrote to Sigmund Freud of "a very pleasant and perhaps valuable acquaintance, our first Italian, a Dr. Assagioli from the psychiatric clinic in Florence".McGuire, William, ed. (1974). The Freud/Jung Letters. Vol. XCIV, Bollingen Series. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. p. 241 Later however, this same Roberto Assagioli (1888 – 1974) wrote a doctoral dissertation, "La Psicoanalisi," in which he began to move away from Freud's psychoanalysis toward what he called psychosynthesis:
A beginning of my conception of psychosynthesis was contained in my doctoral thesis on Psychoanalysis (1910), in which I pointed out what I considered to be some of the limitations of Freud's views.Assagioli, R. (1965). Psychosynthesis, p.280
In developing psychosynthesis, Assagioli agreed with Freud that healing childhood trauma and developing a healthy ego were necessary aims of psychotherapy, but Assagioli believed that human growth could not be limited to this alone. A student of philosophical and spiritual traditions of both East and West, Assagioli sought to address human growth as it proceeded beyond the norm of the well-functioning ego; he wished to support the fruition of human potential—what Abraham Maslow later termed self-actualization—into the spiritual or transpersonal dimensions of human experience as well.Maslow, Abraham. (1962). Toward a Psychology of Being. Princeton, N.J.: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc.
Assagioli envisioned an approach to the human being that could address both the process of personal growth—of personality integration and self-actualization—as well as transpersonal development. The transpersonal dimension is glimpsed for example during peak experiences (Maslow) of inspired creativity, spiritual insight, and unitive states of consciousness. Psychosynthesis recognizes the process of self-realization, of contact and response with one's deepest callings and directions in life, which can involve either or both personal and transpersonal development.
Psychosynthesis is therefore one of the earliest forerunners of both humanistic psychology and transpersonal psychology, even preceding Jung's break with Freud by several years. Assagioli's conception has an affinity with existential-humanistic psychology and other approaches that attempt to understand the nature of the healthy personality, personal responsibility, and choice, and the actualization of the personal self. Similarly, his conception is related to the field of transpersonal psychology with its focus on higher states of consciousness, spirituality, and human experience beyond the individual self. Assagioli served on the board of editors for both the Journal of Humanistic Psychology and the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology.
Assagioli presents two major theoretical models in his seminal book, Psychosynthesis,Assagioli, R. (1965). Psychosynthesis. New York: The Viking Press. models that have remained fundamental to psychosynthesis theory and practice:
A diagram and description using a model of the constitution of the human person A stage theory of the process of psychosynthesis
Aims In Psychosomatic Medicine and Bio-psychosynthesis, Assagioli states that the principal aims and tasks of psychosynthesis are:
the elimination of the conflicts and obstacles, conscious and unconscious, that block [the complete and harmonious development of the human personality] the use of active techniques to stimulate the psychic functions still weak and immature.
In his book, Psychosynthesis: A Collection of Basic Writings (1965), Assagioli writes of three aims of psychosynthesis: