This article is an excerpt from my book: The Soul of Psychosynthesis, by Kenneth Sørensen
“Maslow has presented an enlightening proposal for a progressive evolutionary development in five stages.” (Assagioli)
In the last chapter I quoted Assagioli as saying that the oval diagram: “omitted the dynamic aspect which is the most important and essential of the whole matter.”
The dynamic aspect is of course the theory of development, and in his first book Psychosynthesis, he only gives a sketchy overview of the broad lines of his theory of development, but in his later book The Psychology of Will he gives much more detail. When we talk about developmental psychology, it is about describing the journey of the self from unconscious, self-conscious to soul-conscious and transcendent being. I will only describe the broad overview, as the theory is too extensive to be described in detail in a single chapter.
Assagioli was clearly inspired by the Italian poet and writer Dante Alighieri ( 1265-1321 ), whom he considered a great enlightened person. He therefore relates psychosynthesis to Dante’s Divine Comedy, which he calls “a wonderful picture of a complete psychosynthesis.” ( 1975 , p. 211) Dante’s tale is an epic poem about a journey through hell , purgatory , and paradise . Assagioli says:
“The first part – the pilgrimage through hell – indicates the analytical investigation of the lower unconscious. The second part – the ascent of the mountain of purgatory – indicates the process of moral purification and the gradual raising of the level of consciousness by the use of active techniques. The third part – the visit to Paradise or Heaven – denotes in an unsurpassed manner the various states of superconscious realization up to the final vision of the universal Spirit, of God himself, where love and will are fused.” (1975, p.211)
In this quote he clearly states that he is based on a stage model, where we develop from the bottom of the oval diagram and up through the levels towards self-realization. In my master’s thesis Integral Psychosynthesis (Sørensen, 2008), I provide many other relevant sources for this view. The stage model is of course a rough sketch, because as we will see in this chapter, he adds many nuances.
Assagioli continuously developed new ideas around his personality model, incorporating theories from colleagues as they emerged. One of these was the American psychologist Abraham Maslow, who wrote a number of influential books in the 1950s and 1960s. He was an important figure in the development of humanistic and transpersonal psychology. He was particularly known for developing his hierarchy of needs, which became an important developmental psychology theory.
Assagioli mentions Maslow in several places as an important pioneer and encourages his students to study his books thoroughly. (Undated 2) In The Psychology of Will , which was published in 1973 shortly before his death in 1974, Assagioli takes the step fully and integrates Maslow’s pyramid of needs into his oval diagram. (2005, chaps. 8-10) Maslow is quoted no less than 25 times in this book, so there is no doubt about the close relationship that existed between Assagioli’s and Maslow’s developmental theories.
This is a particularly important step, because he complements his personality model with a relatively detailed developmental psychological understanding, based on Maslow’s discoveries and his own findings. He thus also places psychosynthesis within a stage model, where the self develops through a series of natural developmental stages, from the bottom of the oval up towards the soul. These are universally applicable to all people.
There is clearly a great deal of confusion about this matter in the psychosynthesis community, as the two influential psychosynthetics, John Firman and Ann Gila in particular, have proposed major and decisive changes to Assagioli’s original presentation of psychosynthesis in their books. There are two different developmental theories within transpersonal psychology, which are quite different, and Assagioli belongs to the same school as Maslow and the contemporary American thinker Ken Wilber. This is discussed in detail in my master’s thesis, and I will therefore not go into it in more detail here. The Dutch thinker Frank Visser has written an excellent article about the two competing developmental psychologies. (Visser, 1998)
Development through the three unconscious areas
Let us now describe the development of the self from the bottom of the diagram up through all the levels based on Assagioli’s description and Maslow’s discoveries. The central core of Maslow’s developmental psychology is the discovery of the needs that drive the self’s motivation throughout life from the basic need satisfaction of hunger to the most transcendent needs for meaning and enlightenment. Maslow discovered the mechanism that the satisfaction of a type of need at a given level will at some point lead to the awakening of a higher need, which will then drive the self to the next level. He outlined this discovery in his pyramid of needs, which is here inserted in the oval diagram, based on Assagioli’s own statements. (2005, pp. 89, 93, 99)
We will only touch on the stages briefly, but thus explain
The oval diagram and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Assagioli it:
“Maslow has clearly described the “hierarchy of needs” in Motivation and Personality . He first mentions the basic psychological needs, then the personal needs such as belonging, love, self-esteem and self-actualization, and finally a third group: the transpersonal needs or meta-needs. When the first two groups of needs are fulfilled, paradoxically, it gives rise to a feeling of boredom, boredom, emptiness and meaninglessness. This leads to a more or less blind search for “something else” and something more.” (2005, p. 93)
Here Assagioli explains how Maslow’s needs fit into the oval diagram:
“We can look at the diagram of the human psychological constitution (the oval diagram). The basic and normal personal needs are about the lower and middle psychological life, both conscious and unconscious. However, there is also a third and higher level, the realm of the superconscious, culminating in the Transpersonal Self.” (2005, p. 99)
We can conclude from these quotes that the basic needs in Maslow’s pyramid: physiological needs and safety needs belong to the lower unconscious, while belonging, self-esteem and self-actualization belong to the middle unconscious. The need for meaning and transcendence belongs to the superconscious.
In the quote below, Assagioli explains how the needs in the middle unconscious awaken the self’s will to satisfy these needs, thus placing the needs in direct connection with the development of the will:
“All needs arouse corresponding driving forces towards their satisfaction. The drives that concern the basic and elementary needs are more or less blind, instinctive and unconscious. But when we speak of the more personal needs, the drives gradually lead to conscious, volitional actions, aimed at their satisfaction. Therefore, every need will sooner or later arouse a corresponding will.” (2005, p. 99)
The development of the middle unconscious culminates in what Assagioli calls personal psychosynthesis. It is the harmonious integration of all the resources of the lower and middle unconscious around the self, as a center of pure self-awareness and will. He compares this stage of development with Maslow’s self-actualization. (2005, p.108) This stage characterizes the goal-oriented and self-aware person, who is liberated in his personal life and manages to live out his personal needs and dreams.
Self-actualization is not primarily driven by a need for recognition (self-esteem), but more a need to explore one’s creative scope. How much can I accomplish in life when I gather all my resources around a few selected areas? That is the question one asks. It is in this phase of life, mature adulthood, that the will really begins to come through. Of course, this only happens if one is developmentally able to activate these potentials and not get stuck in the earlier stages, as impenetrable comfort zones of security. It is in this phase that we begin to draw on the first holistic energies. We integrate, so to speak, all the forces of the personality to achieve some overall goals. Therefore, one could also call this stage the integral, but without necessarily having any spiritual or humanitarian motivation present.
The self-actualized person can still be selfish, so the stage does not necessarily open up to any higher humanitarian motivation, but can be about the drive towards success and showcasing one’s personal strengths and power.
The process of self-realization begins when the self opens up to the energies of the superconscious, often against the background of a preceding existential crisis. Assagioli previously described: “When the first two groups of needs are met, paradoxically it gives rise to a feeling of boredom, boredom, emptiness and meaninglessness.” As the Self moves through this crisis of values, it becomes decisive as to whether it is the needs of the personality or the soul that will determine the continued course of life. Basically, it is about finding a new motivation for living and developing; a motivation that stems from the values of the superconscious.
The seven stages of development
Assagioli already defined his overall developmental model in 1934, where he distinguished between personal and transpersonal psychosynthesis. (1975, p.30) Here he explains that it is the transpersonal development that leads to Self-Realization, and Assagioli defines it very specifically as the union between the self’s self-awareness and that of the soul. (1975, p.202)
But it is not until The Psychology of the Will that he, with the help of Maslow’s discoveries, describes all the stages of the oval diagram. Assagioli writes: “Maslow has presented an enlightening proposal for a progressive evolutionary development in five stages.” (2005, p. 107) These five stages describe different types of people and what motivates them. He defines them as follows:
The first two types and stages of human beings are governed by the needs of the lower unconscious and the middle unconscious. The next two types and stages relate to the self-actualization phase, and thus the energies in the upper part of the middle unconscious. There are two types of self-actualization, a more selfish self-actualization phase and a higher stage of development, where self-actualization is oriented towards transcendent values. Then there is the fifth type and stage, which is the self-realization phase, where life is aimed at the creative unfolding of the energies of the superconscious and the direct identification with the soul.
Assagioli divides the fifth stage of self-realization into three well-defined processes, so that we achieve a total of seven stages on the path to full self-realization. The three transpersonal stages are:
- The activation and unfolding of the potentials of the superconscious, and he exemplifies this stage through some of history’s prominent geniuses. Leonardo da Vinci and Goethe belong to this stage.
- The direct identification with the soul’s self-awareness, where self and soul merge. Gandhi, Florence Nightingale, Martin Luther King and Albert Schweitzer belong to this level.
- The direct contact and union between the soul and the Universal Self (God, Brahman, the Oneness). The highest mystics of all times belong here. Buddha and Christ and many more.
In other words, self-realization is primarily a process that goes through the superconscious, towards the soul and the Universal Self. However, there is an extended purification phase, which is the part of the self-realization process where we refine the energies of the personality so that they can express the universal love-wisdom that flows down from the superconscious. Assagioli described this phase in connection with the stages of Dante’s Divine Comedy.
It is the aspiration and will of the personal self, combined with the call of the Transpersonal Self, that leads the self to transcend the limitations of “normal” consciousness. But spiritual development does not manifest itself only as a psychospiritual journey of discovery. There are other types of transcendence that look completely different and relate to different types of people. Assagioli mentions the following:
- Transcendence through transpersonal laws . Here, the human being develops through expressing some of the higher forms of love: altruistic, self-sacrificing and devotion to nature, people and the Divine. One could call it the path of love to the soul. 2. Transcendence through transpersonal action . Here, the human being develops through creating charitable concrete activities that make a difference in the world. These are types of humanitarian social activism that are often associated with personal sacrifice and risk because it requires giving everything to the cause. One could call it the path of action to the soul.
- Transcendence through beauty . This is the path of aesthetics, and it is well known that artists are willing to undergo incredible suffering in order to realize the beauty with which they are in intuitive contact. 4. Transcendence through self-realization . This is the path of enlightenment and relates to those people who consciously seek to realize the potentials that exist in the superconscious and that have their origin in the soul.
These types of transcendence can also be expressed in terms of will, the fundamental will to transcend the limitations of personality through union with someone or something greater and higher. More precisely, we find a union of will and love in all of them. (2005, p. 103)
Development is not linear
Assagioli was well aware that people do not develop in a one-track and linear way, which the pyramid of needs might indicate. Some people have developed transpersonal qualities in their personality, while at the same time they are not integrated at all in the personal sphere. They are idealists, but do not have much strength to live it out. (2005, p. 107)
This does not mean, however, that the overall journey does not go through a series of universal stages. It is simply not a staircase that one moves up one step at a time. It is more of a process that involves two steps forward and one step back if the process is to be healthy. That is, integrative and transformative. Each time the self conquers a new and higher stage, it must go back and integrate the previous stages based on the new values and needs that the new stage entails.
The spiral development of the oval diagram
Every step forward will always involve a conflict with the needs of the previous stages until they are integrated and cooperate with the new stage. As we begin to awaken to the deep spiritual levels of the superconscious, we are faced with the requirement to be able to reflect this consciousness in our physical behavior. In other words, we must begin a process where the body and all the subconscious parts must be developed so that they can live up to the new reality.
It is a deeply transformative process to make our emotional life respond with embracing love and wisdom in all situations. Anyone who practices a spiritually oriented lifestyle knows this. It is a completely natural order in the evolutionary process that we must alternate between ascension and descent. In this perspective, a conscious collaboration gradually arises between the self, the soul and all the subconscious forces we contain.
I have attempted to illustrate this process of development in the following diagram. I have inserted the three basic aspects of personality into the diagram and the stage of the integrated personality. When development is healthy, there is a continuous exchange and development between the energies at the top and bottom of the oval, developing our sexuality, relationships with money and power, as our values and perspectives on life change.
When the basic energies are not continuously included in the spiritual development process, many dark sides arise that play out destructively in life. This is often seen in many transcendence-oriented, spiritual environments.
It is important to remember that the superconscious must be manifested through the lower unconscious before we can bring it through the body and into life in service to humanity. Therefore, it is not enough to transcend personal needs; we must include sexuality, aggression, and the energies of assertiveness in the process, but bring these energies under the domain of the deeper love that the soul represents.
Assagioli emphasized again and again that the whole purpose of seeking enlightenment is service to humanity, and that the mystical, ecstatic heights, as well as contact with the soul, must be used for that purpose. (1975, pp. 207, 210, 2006, pp. 251, 270) It is the synthesis of humanity and, in the ultimate sense, a cosmic synthesis, which is the ultimate goal of all evolution. (Undated 7.)
This is also the purpose of evolutionary panentheism. The transcendental movement up towards higher consciousness is balanced by the movement out towards humanity. So in a sense we go up the mountain (towards the superconscious and transcendent) in order to go down the mountain and share our inspiration, love and will because we have recognized that humanity, the planet and the cosmos are a coherent divine unity.
Assagioli recognized that humans are at different evolutionary stages and advocated that teaching should attempt to determine a child’s evolutionary level. (1960) He is also aware that this is an attitude that arouses resistance, for example he says:
“Another reason or pseudo-reason for the reluctance … is a mistaken view of the equality of all men, as well as the democratic ideal. … It seems almost an insult to admit that there are men of higher psychological as well as spiritual stature.” (Besmer, 1973)
The oval diagram and holarchies
All people are of course of equal value essentially, but their perspectives and views are not equally valid or valuable from an evolutionary perspective. Gender equality, for example, is a better perspective than a male chauvinist perspective because it includes the welfare of more people. There is more love in the equality perspective, therefore it is better. People who have this perspective therefore have a higher awareness in this area.
Before we move on to the next topic, I would like to show another exciting way to illustrate the different levels. It is through holarchies (wholenesses within wholenesses, see diagram), where the body (1) is surrounded by emotions (2), which are surrounded by thoughts (3), which are surrounded by personality (4), which are surrounded by the soul (5) in the outermost oval. The superconscious in this context is part of the soul’s radiance, and the universal Self (God) is the entire background, the universal being. Spirit can be experienced as universal being (a field) and a universal Self (core), respectively.
Developmental lines in psychosynthesis
What we have mainly described above are the stages of development of the self, illuminated through the governing needs with which the self identifies at any given time. However, psychosynthesis also has a much more nuanced developmental perspective, which deals with how the seven psychological functions develop – the functions through which the self experiences and expresses itself.
The Swiss psychiatrist CG Jung worked with four functions: feeling, thinking, sensing and intuition. Roberto Assagioli used seven, and we will take them as a starting point. Assagioli shows his star diagram and the psychological functions in his book The Psychology of Will. (2005, p. 17) The psychological functions are the abilities that the self uses on its journey through life. In the diagram we see the functions inserted into Assagioli’s star diagram. In the center we have the self with the will, and from that center emanate the other psychological functions that receive and convey the energies from the self.
The star chart
Psychosynthesis works with:
Will (7)
Intuition (6)
Thinking (5)
Imagination (4)
Passion (3)
Feeling (2)
Sensation (1)
The numbers relate to their position in the star chart.
These functions are possessed by all people. They are important to know because it is through the development of the abilities they contain that we learn to master the different energies, and thus our lives. The psychological functions are the self’s tools when it is to manifest itself in the world, as well as when it is to seek insight into the inner worlds. In the center of the star we find the self, as an immobile wakefulness and being. Assagioli calls the self, in the words of Aristotle, the immobile mover. He does so because from this quiet center, active forces flow through the psychological functions. They unfold the consciousness and intention that the self is an expression of at any given level of development.
The will is the agency within us that gives direction to energy through purpose, choice and decision. The will is the underlying motivation that sets everything else in motion, but it is often so subtle that we often do not notice it. Will requires self-awareness before it is true will and not just unconscious desire. Through the will we make decisions and show what we choose to identify with at any given time through the choice of our actions.
Feeling is our sensitivity, which registers and senses the quality of the psychological atmosphere we find ourselves in at any given time. It tells us whether something feels pleasant or unpleasant. It puts us in sensitive contact with the outside world, so that we notice what is happening inside and outside ourselves.
Thought tells us what something is, it collects knowledge, systematizes it and names it, and provides a mental overall assessment of all the other impressions that come in from the other functions. It interprets our reality based on the knowledge that exists at any given time. It also gives us the opportunity to communicate our reality to the environment through language.
Imagination . It is the playful and imaginative ability to create images that are strongly imbued with emotion. We use imagination when we visualize and imagine reality as it could be. These ideas, no matter how “unreal” they are, have a strong impact on our emotional and mental life, and in that sense they work – are real.
Passion, Assagioli called the function desire, and it includes all the instincts, drives, wishes, desires, and needs that are experienced as attraction and repulsion. Passion is what moves us. It is the power factor that makes things happen. There are many levels of passion, from the survival instinct to the burning love of God.
Sensation is the body with its five senses and the self’s ability to act in the physical world. The body anchors the energies of all the other functions in an external impression of action, but also provides information about what is happening in the external world and how it affects the body. Sensation and the body provide energy and life force that keep us healthy.
Intuition exists on many levels, but Assagioli primarily refers to it as a transpersonal function. It gives us direct insight into the whole and how we, a situation, or a thing fits into a larger pattern. Intuition is the direct access to truth and our ability to experience how everything in the universe is connected in an interconnected network.
It is these psychological functions that psychosynthesis uses methods to develop. One of the fundamental features of psychosynthesis is “the development of those aspects of the personality which are either inadequate or deficient”. (1975, p.29) Assagioli is very aware of the “unbalanced development” that many people go through and has developed many active techniques to develop the weak psychological functions. (1975, p. 57)
In The Psychology of the Will he argues for the hierarchical nature [1] of all psychological functions, that is, that they can be weakly or highly developed. Maslow organized the needs in a hierarchy, where the highest needs in the pyramid are more complex than the basic ones, and therefore express a higher development. Assagioli does the same with the psychological functions: “The existence of different planes of existence, having different values, is an obvious and undeniable manifestation of the magnificent law of evolution, which develops from simple and crude to increasingly refined and highly organized stages.” (2005, p. 88) Seen in relation to love, it can be egoistic or empathetic or, in Assagioli’s words: “a love that is dominant, possessive, jealous and blind is at a lower level than that which is gentle and attentive to the beloved as a person, seeking the welfare of this person…”. (2005, p. 88) He also draws this parallel to all the other psychological functions, so that they become lines of development that can be unfolded from the bottom of the oval to the level of the soul. The higher a level the psychological function is developed to, the more inclusive it becomes, that is, universal in its function. Assagioli is aware of the resistance to hierarchies and quotes CG Jung as follows: “Jung rightly deplores this pseudo-humanitarian conception and wrong understanding of democracy: ‘The desire to bring all people to the same level and reduce them to the same status as obtained by suppressing the natural aristocratic and hierarchical structure (please note: in the psycho-spiritual sense) inevitably leads sooner or later to a catastrophe.’ (1967b)
Oval chart with development lines
When we include the self’s own development, we arrive at eight basic lines of development. In the diagram of lines of development, the 8 lines are not equally developed, and this illustrates the complexity that characterizes human development.
Ken Wilber has done a great job of spreading awareness of the different lines of development, and I highly recommend his book Integral Psychology if the reader wants a detailed study of these stages and lines.
The conclusion is that we can be very highly cognitively developed, but at the same time very unconscious about our emotional life or have difficulty putting our thoughts into practice. The eight lines of development are the primary lines that relate to the development of the self. However, we can easily find many other lines of development that arise from a combination of one or more functions. Our values, sexuality, aesthetics and many other areas each have their own stage of development, but it would be too extensive to go into here.
In the diagram of the development lines, we see a person whose self-line (5) is developed to the rational self-conscious level. However, this person has a very high degree of empathy and compassion (2), and idealism (7). If his self-line crossed the border into the superconscious, his experience of separateness from other people would dissolve. In other words, we can easily have a highly developed idealism, by working for the welfare of animals, for example, but without our self-identity having been expanded to the universal.
Let me briefly describe the lines of development of the self and three of the primary functions, based on my own understanding of them.
The self’s developmental line (5) is an expression of the breadth and height of our consciousness; in short: at which level of consciousness in the oval diagram do we have our center of gravity. From body consciousness to the unity consciousness of Spirit, the development of the self is about how much we can observe or be present with and include from egocentric to cosmocentric consciousness. The self awakens to the enormous inner landscapes of energies when we meditate, for example, therefore presence meditation, which involves disidentification, is one of the primary methods for that development.
The development of the will begins when we begin to make conscious, reflective choices. Before then, we are more guided by drives, security, and adaptation to our surroundings. At the level of the personality, the will is oriented towards gaining power over our lives and achieving success. When the will is motivated by the good will of the superconscious, we gain the ability to create harmony, community, and synthesis in the world. That is, to bring people, organizations, and nations together around charitable purposes and humanistic values that unite the world.
The development of emotions concerns the development of our sensitivity, and how much we can emotionally empathize with – how many people and living beings we can accommodate. It is the development of empathic understanding, but not only in a horizontal sense, as larger and larger social circles. It also involves lifting emotions into the superconscious world, so that they can express the impersonal, universal and unconditional love. Spaciousness is also about being able to “carry” the destructive and heavy emotions and the pain they cause.
The development of thought is about how much we understand, how large and diverse our perspectives are on our reality. It is both an understanding of the external social contexts we are part of from family to world society, but also an understanding of the internal cultural values that we are embedded in in terms of consciousness. “Vertically” it is about expanding our perspectives to also be able to understand our place in the cosmological context and the entire energy universe that we are a part of. The development of thought is about the quality of our interpretations of reality, how integral we are, how many perspectives we can draw on when we need to understand an aspect of reality.
The evolutionary journey of the self towards the soul
Jean Hardy, in his book A Psychology with a Soul, offers an alternative developmental model that is also hierarchical. In it (see illustration), we see how the self develops through the stages of body, emotions, and thoughts towards the soul.
In light of the above, it is probably clear how multifaceted the developmental theory of psychosynthesis is. There is one final element we have not yet touched upon, and that is the development in relation to the collective unconscious. The area outside the oval diagram that we share with the rest of humanity and creation.
The collective unconscious
The different unconscious levels have not arisen as a result of repression, but are ontological levels of reality, different frequencies of energy that humans share with the rest of creation.
The individual may well have repressed conscious access to some of these areas. But this is not how these areas were created, from this perspective. Assagioli bases his psychology on what Huston Smith (1976) has called “the Great Chain of Being,” which are the planes of consciousness that, in Assagioli’s words, “are an essential part of psychosynthesis.” (Undate 2)
The hierarchical structure of existence is a universal view found in most spiritual traditions (Smith, 1976). Ken Wilber has also included in his books a large number of modern researchers who come to the same conclusion.
The diagram below shows how the vast majority of world religions agree that the physical world is not the only one, but that a number of parallel inner worlds exist:
The great chain of being arose in connection with the creation of the world (The Big Bang), where not only a material world was created, but also a series of inner worlds through the involution of the spirit. This involution was mentioned at the beginning of Chapter I, and Assagioli describes these worlds as follows: (2006, pp.87-88)
“The third group of symbols, which is often seen, involves elevation, ascension or conquest of the “inner space” as an ascending process. There are a number of inner worlds, each with its own special characteristics, and they consist of both higher levels and lower levels. The first is the world of passion and emotion, where there is a great distance and a marked difference in level between blind passion and the higher emotions. Then comes the world of intelligence or mind. Here there are also different levels, for example the level of the concrete, analytical mind, and the level of the higher philosophical reason (nous). Furthermore, there is the world of imagination with a lower and a higher area, the world of intuition, the world of the will and then the even higher and indescribable worlds, which can only be referred to as “transcendent worlds”.
In the diagram below I have prepared a basic outline of the different inner worlds. In the article Psychosynthesis and Panentheism (Sørensen, 2015) , I have collected all the relevant quotes that Assagioli mentions. The model shows a group of hierarchies or holarchies, where the higher worlds transcend, and at the same time include the previous ones. In other words, it is a model of the collective unconscious, to use the Jungian concept. Assagioli says the following: “The collective unconscious is an enormous world, which extends from the biological to the spiritual level, which is why a distinction must be made between origin, nature, quality and value.” (1967b)
The diagram shows that the self, together with the rest of humanity, must make the journey through the different worlds to unite with its spiritual source. Initially with the transpersonal self or soul and later with the universal self, which I have chosen to call Spirit-in-action, to use a term from Ken Wilber. The world of imagination is a synthetic function and can be on several levels simultaneously, from the imagination of sound impressions to intuitive imaginations. (1975: 143)
“The Great Chain of Being”
These were the concluding comments on the developmental theory of psychosynthesis. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to provide a detailed description of all the many stages, but I hope that the reader will study the source references provided along the way.
We are now ready to address each of the seven central core concepts of psychosynthesis, starting with disidentification. Let us conclude with a quote from Assagioli that emphasizes what is the fundamental motif of psychosynthesis:
“I make a heartfelt appeal to all therapists, psychologists and educators to actively engage in the necessary work of research, experimentation and their application. Let us feel and follow the great need to cure the serious diseases that currently plague humanity. Let us understand the contribution that we can make to the formation of a new civilization characterized by harmonious integration and cooperation – and imbued with the spirit of synthesis.” (Assagioli, 1975, p.9).
[1] Assagioli is in line with Maslow and Wilber in perceiving reality as hierarchically structured. His use of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is the clearest example. He endorses hierarchies in several places in his writings: 2006, pp.180, 199, 201, 222, Keen 1975.
How to move forward
Also read the article Psychosynthesis Theory of Personality
Here you can receive seven free meditations where you develop different aspects of yourself.
Also read the article Psychosynthesis an Integral Psychology and the biography of Roberto Assagioli
Read the introductory article about integral meditation
