Psychosynthesis

In its most basic sense, psychosynthesis is simply a name for the process of personal growth: the natural tendency in each of us to harmonize or synthesize our various aspects at ever higher levels of organization. In human beings, this evolutionary drive towards a higher level of being becomes conscious, which makes it possible to cooperate with and facilitate this natural process. Cooperating with evolution in this purposeful way requires a conceptual understanding, a framework, and a wide range of practical techniques. Psychosynthesis integrates the best available concepts and methods into an inclusive and flexible framework, so as to assist and facilitate the natural human striving toward development and integration.

Psychosynthesis believes that each human being has a vast potential that generally goes largely unrecognized and unused. It also believes that we each have within ourselves the power to access that potential. Psychosynthesis is often seen as an unfolding process where the person actually possesses an inner wisdom or knowledge of what is needed for that process at any given time. The guide's role is helping identify these inner resources, support the process, and be attentive to what is happening.

The Superconscious  

Psychosynthesis was first formulated in 1910 by the Italian psychiatrist, Roberto Assagioli (1888-1974), a pioneer of the psychoanalytic movement in Italy, and a contemporary of both Freud and Jung. Early in his work he observed that repression of higher, superconscious impulses (later known as "repression of the sublime") could be just as damaging to the psyche as repression of material from the lower unconscious. Traditional psychoanalysis recognizes a primitive, or "lower" unconscious - the source of our atavistic and biological drives. But there is also a higher unconscious, a superconscious - an autonomous realm from which originate our more highly evolved impulses: altruistic love and will, humanitarian action, artistic and scientific inspiration, philosophic and spiritual insight, and the drive toward purpose and meaning in life. Psychosynthesis is concerned with integrating material from the lower unconscious and with realizing and actualizing the content of the superconscious. To this end, it uses a wide range of techniques for contacting the superconscious and establishing a bridge with that part of our being where true wisdom is to be found. The superconscious is thereby accessible, in varying degrees, to each one of us, and can provide a great source of energy, inspiration, and direction. Psychosynthesis helps us in attempting to manifest this part of ourselves as fully as possible in everyday living.

 The Self

The self is an entity independent of and sovereign to the various aspects of the personality, such as body, feelings, and mind. This concept is found in the major world religions and in more and more branches of Western psychology and philosophy. Freeing the concept from any doctrinal background and examining it empirically, we find first of all a centre of awareness and will. This is the "personal self," the "I," or centre of personal identity, from which the various aspects of the personality can be recognized, reorganized, and integrated. The personal self, however, is distinct from the "Transpersonal Self," which is the focal point of the superconscious realm. It is a deeper and all-inclusive centre of identity and being, where individuality and universality blend.