Assagioli highlights how certain faculties, despite not being quantitatively deficient, remain at primitive stages, often leading to unconscious disruptions in personality.
By Dr. Roberto Assagioli (Doc. #24077 – Assagioli Archives – Florence)[i] LESSON IX – Lecture Course on Psychosynthesis (Unrevised notes from June 18, 1933). Translated and Edited With Notes by Jan Kuniholm[ii]
Abstract: This lecture explores the development of immature and higher psychological faculties. Assagioli highlights how certain faculties, despite not being quantitatively deficient, remain at primitive stages, often leading to unconscious disruptions in personality. He discusses how in men, aspects related to “Eros” tend to stay immature; while in women, those associated with “Logos” exhibit similar tendencies. This imbalance results in disharmony and emotional instability. Assagioli proposes methods for developing these faculties, including self-awareness, education of immature elements, and cooperation with deeper spiritual dimensions. He emphasizes the need to balance emotional and rational aspects, echoing Hermann Keyserling’s concepts of “Eros” and “Logos.” Assagioli’s insights offer a pathway towards spiritual psychosynthesis, fostering a harmonious and integrated personality capable of fulfilling its potential.
In addition to people’s constitutionally weak psychological elements and functions, there are others which, while they may not be “quantitatively” less than the others, have never undergone their normal evolution and maturation and have remained at a primitive, undifferentiated and chaotic stage. These are psychological faculties that generally remain more or less unconscious, which do not fit into the normal personality but can erupt into it in sudden and tumultuous ways.
Even without going into a detailed study of them, we may note that in men the faculties that are part of “Eros” more often and easily remain immature and dissociated; and in women the faculties of “Logos” [remain similarly immature and dissociated]. [iii]
That is, we find not infrequently that in modern men the intellectual, practical and active faculties are well developed and adapted to reality; while sensitivity, feeling and imagination have remained in a primitive state. Those aspects of the inner life are misunderstood, devalued and neglected by men, so that they remain in a primitive and almost infantile state. This produces a disharmony and almost a psychic mutilation in them that has the effect of habitual barrenness, interrupted by violent outbursts of elemental passions, or by disordered and unhealthy activity of the imagination. This “practical” men — while they can conduct themselves very well in their professional and social life — are often incapable of healthy, harmonious and elevated affective relations with the opposite sex and in their own families.
Conversely, in women, the emotional, affective and imaginative life is [often] well developed — indeed, often excessively so — while the intellectual and rational faculties do not have a corresponding and above all autonomous development, but are overwhelmed and enslaved to “Eros.” This is typically manifested in superstitions, preconceptions, fixed ideas and obstinacies that are not easily corrected by rational means.
This deficient development of certain fundamental faculties [in both men and women] prevents a full and harmonious psychosynthesis, and is the cause of many errors, failures and misunderstandings, and thus of unhappiness. It is therefore well worth taking serious care to eliminate them. This can be done if the appropriate and necessary methods are used.
These methods are:
- First of all, let us clearly understand what the characteristics of both well-developed and immature faculties are. That is, we need a good knowledge of human psychology — knowledge that should not remain the privilege of specialists, but should be made available to everyone and taught to young people as they enter life.
- This knowledge of psychology allows us to make a sincere and profound study of ourselves. In this way we can make a correct inner “balance sheet” and “inventory.” In this way we recognize what is good, well-formed and efficient in us, and what still needs to be educated and matured. This eliminates dangerous illusions and false or ridiculous presumptions, but without falling into the opposite error of excessive self-devaluation and an undue sense of inferiority.
- Then we actively educate the elements that we recognize as immature. It really is a matter of “educating them,” in the etymological sense of the word. That is, to “pull them out” from the depths of the unconscious and bring them into the clear light of consciousness. We eliminate the repressions, fears and devaluations that hinder them, and to let them manifest spontaneously, but under our careful vigilance. Jung — who has been particularly concerned with this problem with great acumen with an original viewpoint — proposes a somewhat unique method, but one that I think is good and effective: namely, that of talking directly with those psychological elements, which are really like “sub-personalities” within us, instructing and correcting them, “educating” them — in short, as one would do with a child or a student. (See C.G. Jung, Die Beziehungen zwischen dem Ich und dem Unbewussten). [iv]
Using these and other means indicated for the development of the constitutionally deficient faculties, practical men will be able to develop and refine their feelings, aesthetic sensitivity and imagination; and women will be able to revise and correct their mental attitudes appropriately, developing in themselves the ability to think more rationally, objectively and impersonally.
For the development of higher psychological or psychic faculties and the awakening of spiritual consciousness, however, the methods to be used are different. Here we are dealing with faculties that are generally in a rudimentary or even latent state in most people; these are subtle and delicate faculties that require special conditions for them to be expressed. The main condition is to suspend other ordinary psychological or psychic activities as completely as possible. In order for the intuition to enable us to catch a glimpse of what is in the other ethereal levels of our superconscious, in order for the subdued voice of our deep soul to reach our consciousness, it is necessary to pause the usual tumult of our emotions, the incessant workings of our restless mind, for at least a few moments. But it is necessary to remain vigilant, on the one hand mastering the ordinary personality with calm firmness, and on the other hand keeping the inner “eye” fixed upward.
Metaphor aside, this is a matter of giving another direction and focus to our inner faculties. The mind — instead of the usual processing of the elements supplied to it by sensory experience, or carrying out its rational activity — must remain completely calm and collected; it must become like a clear mirror in which images from the higher inner levels can be reflected without distortion. The faculty of feeling leaves its usual objects, and must be transformed into fervent aspiration, into a surge of love toward the Spirit. The personal will must, at least for the time being, give up asserting itself and pushing for action. It must become freely obedient, willingly dedicated to the higher will of the “Spiritual I or Self.”
The manifestation of unconscious forces in us can occur in two different ways. Sometimes they surface gradually and almost insensibly: it is like the slow spread of a vague dawn light on a foggy morning, in which the indecisive outlines of unknown forms are barely outlined. Other times, however, there are rapid flashes that illuminate a vast landscape for an instant, dazzling us, and then fade away. Or else they are sudden influxes of energy that hit us and we hardly know how to sustain them, and then they recede. Thus begin alternations of light and shadow — a whole complex interplay of actions and reactions between personality and Spirit, an alternation of moments of calm and periods of trouble and struggle. But these are not to be blamed on the Spirit, but rather on the opposition, resistance and reluctance of the various parts of our personality, both conscious and unconscious . Therefore, in order to reach the goal sooner and more easily, we must eliminate those resistances due to misunderstanding, habit and ill-will, and let the Spirit work freely in us.
Let us obey It;[v] indeed, let us consciously, intelligently and actively cooperate with It, and It will be able to perform Its purifying, uplifting and unifying action more and more, and better. Let us remember that once the relations between the personality and the Spirit are established, once the work of unification has begun, it can no longer stop, even if we try to rebel openly, because spiritual energies are more powerful than purely psychological forces.
Therefore, let us resolutely proceed in that cooperation with our highest and truest “I” or Self, which will lead us to spiritual psychosynthesis, that is, to the formation of a richer and higher, more harmonious and stronger personality, capable of fully and fruitfully expressing all its faculties in life.
EDITOR’S APPENDIX:
Hermann Keyserling’s Use of the terms “Eros” and “Logos”
Primarily developed in his books,
Creative Understanding and The Recovery of Truth
In Keyserling’s philosophy, “Eros” and “Logos” represent two fundamental aspects of human existence and consciousness:
Eros: Keyserling often associates “Eros” with the emotional, intuitive, and subjective aspects of human experience. It represents the realm of feelings, desires, passions, and creativity. Eros is the force that drives individuals towards fulfillment, connection, and self-expression. It is associated with the feminine principle and is often contrasted with the more rational and objective aspect of human nature represented by “Logos.”
Logos: “Logos,” on the other hand, symbolizes reason, logic, intellect, and the objective understanding of the world. It is the rational aspect of human consciousness that seeks to categorize, analyze, and understand reality through concepts, language, and rational thought. “Logos” is associated with the masculine principle and represents the rational order and structure underlying the universe.
In his writings, Keyserling often explores the interplay between “Eros” and “Logos,” emphasizing the importance of balancing these two aspects of human existence. He suggests that a harmonious integration of “Eros” and “Logos” is essential for achieving a holistic understanding of the world and for realizing one’s full potential as a human being.
Overall, Keyserling’s usage of the terms “Eros” and “Logos” reflects his broader philosophical framework, which seeks to reconcile the intuitive and emotional dimensions of human experience with the rational and intellectual aspects of consciousness.
[i] The original archive document is a typed manuscript carrying the heading of the Istituto de Psicisintesi and is a transcript made some time after 1965. This version is taken from the transcription at www.psicoenergetica.com. A portion of this essay in different form became Chapter 13 in Assagioli’s book, Per L’armonia della vita,translated in 2022 as Creating Harmony in Life: A Psychosynthesis Approach—Ed.
[ii] Editor’s interpolations are shown in [brackets]. —Ed.
[iii] Roberto Assagioli uses the terms “Eros” and “Logos” in a manner that is generally taken from the writings of Count Hermann Keyserling, who uses these terms to represent two fundamental aspects of human existence and consciousness. Assagioli was sensitive to the apparent conflict that is often apparent between these two forces. See the Editor’s Appendix at the end of this essay for a brief summary of Keyserling’s use of these terms, which Assagioli has more or less adopted. —Ed.
[iv] “The Relations Between the Ego and the Unconscious,” by C.G. Jung, originally published in 1928, provides a clear and comprehensive introduction to Jungian analysis, analytical psychology, and Jung’s theory of the unconscious. This essay is in Volume 7 of Jung’s Collected works. —Author’s Note with added info. by Ed.
[v] The word “It” is used here for Spirit, in the sense of being inclusively beyond gender rather than being without gender. —Ed.
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