Techniques in psychosynthesis
Assagioli’s books and papers outline a multitude of techniques for self-development and your latest book “Know, Love, Transform yourself” assembles a great many of these. How do you see these being used by practitioners nowadays?
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Techniques for self-development are certainly a very important aspect of Psychosynthesis. The idea of taking responsibility for one’s own life is a central and very current point of our model. But, to speak exclusively of techniques for self-development can be misleading. Firstly, because Psychosynthesis uses many that do not have self-development as a direct objective. And then because, by theoretical approach, any technique or method that is effective can be used, integrated into the psychosynthetic path.
So, the point is not so much the techniques, even though there are indeed many that are constitutive of Psychosynthesis: I am thinking of all those for working with the subpersonality model, the techniques of disidentification and self-identification, the meditative and imaginative ones, etc.. The point is rather the path, the process of systematic development outlined by the psychosynthetic model.
It is this path that I tried to illustrate in “Know, Love, Transform Yourself” (Psychosynthesis Books) and which Assagioli symbolically compared to Dante’s journey in The Divine Comedy:
- first the individual’s sense of identity is consolidated (which prepares for the next stage)
- the descent into the Underworld (the exploration of the lower unconscious)
- then there is the whole process of disidentification, self-identification and the work of personal psychosynthesis (the ascent of Mount Purgatory)
- finally, transpersonal psychosynthesis (the ascent into the various spheres of Paradise): the gradual integration of superconscious contents and, more importantly, the dialogue between the personal and transpersonal dimensions of the Self.
Of course, to each of these stages – which are also different possible levels of intervention – correspond specific techniques. And each field of application (be it self-training, therapy, education, coaching, etc.) will favour some over others. But it is very important that every psychosynthesist has a clear understanding of the whole picture, which is precisely what I have tried to portray in the book.