{"id":13893,"date":"2020-03-07T15:56:52","date_gmt":"2020-03-07T14:56:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/?p=13893"},"modified":"2026-03-04T11:53:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T10:53:16","slug":"problems-not-solved-they-are-forgotten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/en\/problems-not-solved-they-are-forgotten\/","title":{"rendered":"Problems Are Not Solved \u2013 They Are Forgotten"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Reflections on Core Teachings of Roberto Assagioli<\/h2>\r\n
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Reflective address by Piero Ferrucci<\/strong> and Diana Whitmore<\/strong>
Based on the teachings and sayings of Roberto Assagioli<\/strong>
Assagioli Archives \u2013 Florence<\/p>\r\n

Editorial note<\/strong>
This text is a reflective memorandum drawing on remembered teachings, sayings, and attitudes of Roberto Assagioli, presented by Piero Ferrucci and Diana Whitmore. It is not a verbatim transcript of a single lecture or interview, but a pedagogical and experiential reflection on Assagioli\u2019s core ideas as lived and transmitted in training contexts. The title, abstract, and cross-sections in this online edition have been added by the editor, Kenneth S\u00f8rensen, to support readability, navigation, and archival consistency. The original wording has not been altered.<\/p>\r\n

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Abstract<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\r\n

This reflective memorandum explores a series of concise statements and attitudes repeatedly expressed by Roberto Assagioli, including \u201cProblems are not solved \u2013 they are forgotten,\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s never either\/or but both\/and,\u201d and \u201cThe universe is evolving and imperfect.\u201d Through personal recollections, clinical examples, and teaching anecdotes, Piero Ferrucci and Diana Whitmore examine the deeper psychological and spiritual meaning of these formulations. Central themes include the role of will, harmlessness, imperfection, attention, spiritual maturation, and the limits of problem-solving approaches in psychotherapy. The text highlights psychosynthesis as a coherent system oriented toward wholeness, freedom, and service, rather than idealized perfection or endless therapeutic repair.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n

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DIANA<\/span><\/strong> : Assagioli often made very simple – classic statements – about humanity, about life and about evolution, that carried a depth and a potency that we sometimes miss. If we look more closely at these Zen-like statements we find out how deeply meaningful they really are and how they can provide us with a continuity of revelation.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

What a wise person says and repeats again and again is not by accident, yet they may sound like Reader’s Digest phrases. These classic Assagiolian phrases were a point of arrival for Assagioli. They were the culmination or if you want the sublimation of a lifetime of work. We will revisit some of them so we can bring them alive again. This is not to glorify Assagioli. When I was studying with Assagioli, he said very clearly to me <\/span><\/span>“In your enthusiasm, do not give me prominence. Do not promote me – please have restraint”. Then he went on to say that: “You know it all. What I have to tell people is not particularly wise. You know it all and the only thing I do is perhaps to add some maturity to it by hammering the nail once again – and by reminding people of what they have forgotten”.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Service, Identity, and the Purpose of Psychosynthesis<\/h3>\r\n

Assagioli created Psychosynthesis to serve humanity, and he dedicated Psychosynthesis to the redemption of pain and the evocation of potential. Sometimes I think we forgot the true purpose of Psychosynthesis. I think we forgot that our purpose is to serve humanity. Assagioli believed that Transpersonal Psychology was indeed the psychology of the future.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

After several years at the Esalen Institute in training and working in Gestalt therapy, I too had come to sincerely believe that the only hope there was for people to be truly healed was the inclusion of the Transpersonal. Assagioli presented Psychosynthesis as an innovative, bold, revolutionary psychology. In those days, one of the superiorities of Psychosynthesis was that it was faster, it was simpler, it was more efficient, it was short term and it evoked less dependency from the clients.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n

The Danger of Losing the Core Vision<\/h3>\r\n

Sometimes I wonder if little by little or step by step we have become like the establishment that Assagioli was challenging. Sometimes in England it seems that we are teenagers who want to be part of the gang. Who wants peer acceptance, who wants to be approved of by our peers. I think it’s important that we do that, that we communicate as part of a larger community. And yet, we run the risk of losing our peculiarity – of losing our basic truths – of losing our very identity – and most importantly of losing our purpose to serve.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I was recently involved in writing a chapter for a book entitled In Search of a Therapist. Six different therapists from psychoanalysis to psychosynthesis were each given a transcript of an initial interview of the same client. We had to write a chapter on how we would work with that client. None of us met this person of course. I decided I was going to write a pure classic psychosynthesis chapter. I wasn’t going to embellish it with object relations and all the neat things I have learned. It was going to be just pure psychosynthesis.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n