A Psychology with a Soul

Defining Psychosynthesis, is not at all simple. Psychosynthesis can be many things: a psychotherapeutic approach for the treatment of psychic and psychosomatic disorders, a method for personal development and psycho-spiritual realization, an educational approach, a vision of the human being and the world, a natural and spontaneous psychic process, an organic and versatile set of techniques (free drawing, dream analysis, role-playing, guided visualizations, meditation, body techniques, etc.) that gently lead to self-knowledge and to the liberation of one’s own authenticity.

The term “psychosynthesis”, already used by Freud, Jung and others, is taken up and developed systematically by the psychiatrist Roberto Assagioli (1888-1974). Assagioli was one of the very first Italian scholars to take an interest in psychoanalysis, anticipating those evolutions that would lead to the birth of humanistic-existential psychology and transpersonal psychology.

In the first half of the twentieth century, he proposed a new and more encompassing image of the human being, which included all aspects: from the most archaic and painful manifestations to the infinite potential for health, wholeness and development. For Psychosynthesis, human beings are not only their neurosis, their shadows, their basic needs, wounds, and impulses; but also their talents, potential, inspirations, creativity and inner illuminations: all this at the same time. This is why Psychosynthesis is not only suitable for those experiencing psychological distress, but also for those individuals and groups who are interested in their own harmonization and personal and / or transpersonal growth.

  1. Sensation
  2. Emotion-feeling
  3. Impulse-desire
  4. Imagination
  5. Thought
  6. Intuition
  7. Will
  8. “I” or personal self

Psychosynthesis is therefore above all a systemic, complex and integrated conception of the human being aimed at human realization in all its dimensions: bodily, emotional, mental, relational and spiritual.

Its motto can be summarized as follows:

Know, Master, Transform yourself

  1. Lower unconscious
  2. Middle unconscious
  3. Higher unconscious
  4. Field of consciousness
  5. Conscious I (or personal self)
  6. Transpersonal Self
  7. Collective unconscious
  8. Biopsychic membrane (individual boundaries)