{"id":14725,"date":"2020-10-20T11:36:55","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T10:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/?p=14725"},"modified":"2026-03-04T11:15:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T10:15:01","slug":"assagioli-in-debate-education-will","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/en\/assagioli-in-debate-education-will\/","title":{"rendered":"Assagioli in Debate: Education, Will, and Inner Authenticity"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

A Public Discussion Following a Lecture by Roberto Assagioli<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Debate following a lecture by <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Roberto Assagioli<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong>
With students and participants March <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>9, 1974 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
Original title: <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Dibattito \u2013 9 marzo 1974<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em>
Assagioli Archives \u2013 Florence <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
Translated from Italian by Gordon Symons<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n

Editorial note<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong>
This text is a transcript of a public debate held after a lecture by Roberto Assagioli on March 9, 1974. The exchange consists of questions and comments from participants and Assagioli’s responses on education, communication, freedom, responsibility, inner authenticity, and psychosynthesis. Roberto Assagioli is the principal respondent and teacher, but the text is a multi-voice discussion rather than a single-authored work. 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.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n

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

In this debate, following a lecture, Roberto Assagioli addresses ethical, educational, and psychological questions raised by students and participants. Topics include the right to privacy in adolescence, authority and communication within families, the fear of genuine dialogue, pain as a factor in human development, self-knowledge and authenticity, ambivalence, and the education of the will. Assagioli emphasizes psychosynthesis as a scientific psychology grounded in responsibility, freedom, and inner communication, while warning against coercion, conformism, and rigid models of self-expression. The discussion offers a vivid example of Assagioli’s dialogical teaching style and his insistence on balancing individual freedom with ethical awareness.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Q. – <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>In your opinion, Professor, does a father or mother have the right to read the private diary of a son or a 15-year-old daughter, if it’s against their will?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

R. – No.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Q. – <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>There was actually a case of a boy or girl who committed suicide, about two years ago, because his father had read his diary. It is a case similar to what he said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Privacy, Authority, and Psychological Violence<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\r\n

R. – Definitely not! If the son or daughter writes a secret diary, it means that the parents have not been able to communicate, so it is psychological violence. Done with the best of intentions and believing to do good, but it is a mistake, it is completely wrong. This error shows up again and again.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

D. – <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>So there is a “diritto alla privacy”.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

R. – Certainly there is a right in this sense, I don’t know how it can be better translated into Italian, as all our current civilization is against privacy, the press, the communists, brutally intervene in the intimacy of people and families. Now this is a thing which I would even call shameful. It’s as if […] and as such it should not enter families: the right to intimacy is the first right of a human being, of a person at any age.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

D. – <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>But are there families where abuses are carried out, abuses in the pedagogical sense, in the sense of education?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

R. \u2013 Such as?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

D. \u2013 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Such as violence against boys; abuse of authority and other such things<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em> .<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

R. – This is the norm. I have just mentioned that there have been few exceptions.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

D. – <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Yes, but if it is not possible to intervene within the family, then these children will be defenseless..<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\r\n

Education Without Coercion and the Law of Cause and Effect<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

R. – No, precisely, and the wisdom lies in balancing the two attitudes, always respecting the person. What one can do and I haven’t had time to say is this: talk serenely with your son and say: “Look, there is a law in the world of cause and effect, that is, if you create a debt, then you will have to repay it with interest. Let’s take an example: if you conduct yourself in this way, this and this will probably happen to you; if you conduct yourself in another way, this, this and this will probably happen. Think about it and do whichever you choose.” You see, it is the whole approach to children, to young people, who do not realize this life process, of this chain of influences, and so they act on impulse. So, making them think about the effects of what they do and say is already a lot. The moment will come when they react, but then they will think again.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

They realize it because life teaches them, confirmation comes from life. But not from authority. It automatically transpires through the law of cause and effect.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n