Description
The 1958 Valmy Conference with Roberto Assagioli
This e-book presents, for the first time in a complete and carefully edited form, the proceedings of the historic 1958 Valmy Conference, the first international gathering devoted to the development of psychosynthesis. Held in Greenville, Delaware, under the auspices of the Psychosynthesis Research Foundation, the conference marked a decisive moment when Roberto Assagioli’s work moved beyond individual teaching centers and began to take shape as an organized international movement.
The Valmy Conference brought together clinicians, educators, researchers, and students from Europe and the United States for three days of intensive dialogue, exploration, and practical experimentation. What emerges from these pages is psychosynthesis “in the making”: a living, evolving approach, not yet systematized into fixed doctrines, but openly explored through conversation, debate, and shared experience.
The book contains verbatim transcripts of the conference sessions, offering readers direct access to Assagioli’s voice as he clarifies foundational concepts such as disidentification, the “I,” the Self, the will, symbolism, imagination, education, and therapeutic practice. These discussions are interwoven with contributions from key collaborators and early pioneers of psychosynthesis in the United States, providing a rare glimpse into the collective process that shaped the field’s early direction.
Beyond theory, the Valmy proceedings reveal the practical and visionary concerns that animated the movement from its inception: how psychosynthesis could be applied in psychotherapy, education, research, and social life; how techniques should be taught responsibly; and how an international foundation might support individuals working in isolation while preserving openness, creativity, and scientific integrity.
Edited and introduced by Kenneth Sørensen, with archival material derived from the AAP Archive, this e-book is both a historical document and a source of inspiration. It will be of particular interest to psychotherapists, educators, students of psychosynthesis, and anyone interested in the early history of humanistic and transpersonal psychology.
The Valmy Conference stands as a moment when ideas, people, and purpose converged—when psychosynthesis began its journey as a shared, international endeavor.
