{"id":20426,"date":"2023-11-08T11:34:36","date_gmt":"2023-11-08T10:34:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/?p=20426"},"modified":"2026-05-21T12:15:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T11:15:40","slug":"bio-psychodynamic-and-psychotherapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/en\/bio-psychodynamic-and-psychotherapy\/","title":{"rendered":"Bio-Psychodynamics and Psychotherapy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Assagioli’s history of the methods of psychotherapy and their importance for the healing of psychological conflicts, ending in the four-stage psychosynthesis he offers as the synthesis of them all.<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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By Dr. Roberto Assagioli<\/strong>
Published in RADIESTESIA<\/em>, July\u2013September 1950.
Doc. #23111, Assagioli Archive, Florence.
Original title: Bio-psicodinamica e Psicoterapia<\/em>
Translated and edited with notes by Jan Kuniholm<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editorial Note<\/strong>
The abstract and contextual subtitle 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>\n\n\n\n

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Abstract <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In this essay, Roberto Assagioli surveys the methods of psychotherapy that had developed across the previous half-century, framing the article as preparation for his fuller exposition of “bio-psychodynamics.” He traces catharsis from Aristotle through Janet, Breuer, and Freud; hypnosis through Mesmer, Bernheim, and Charcot; the rise of suggestion and Cou\u00e9’s autosuggestion (refined scientifically by Baudouin); Dubois’s persuasion method, which addresses the conscious rational mind; the splits between Freud, Jung, and Adler; and Watson’s behaviorism. He closes with psychosynthesis as his proposed synthesis, organised in four clinical stages: knowledge of the personality, disidentification, self-realisation through an “ideal model,” and personality reconstruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our valued collaborator Dr. Roberto Assagioli has for some years been developing the concepts and applications of a new science, <\/span><\/span><\/em> bio-psychodynamics <\/span><\/span>, in which the principles, laws and techniques of energetics and physical dynamics, especially electrical dynamics, are extended to biological, psychological and spiritual life.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such a science does not have to be created <\/span><\/span><\/em> ex novo ( <\/span><\/span>from scratch). There are already a number of contributions by various authors (such as Janet, Freud, Jung, A. Bailey, De Sanctis and Assagioli himself) on certain aspects of psychodynamics, such as \u201cpsychic potential,\u201d mental level oscillations, psychological polarity, transformations and sublimations of psychic energies, etc.; <\/span><\/span><\/em>[i]<\/span><\/span><\/sup><\/a>  but the coordination and systematization of these contributions into an organic science is lacking so far.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Assagioli has promised to give our journal an article in which the first <\/span><\/span><\/em> lines of a bio-psychodynamics  <\/span><\/span>will be seen forth. But \u2014 since a good part of the facts on which he bases this study are drawn from the direct experience of his psychotherapeutic activity with patients, as well as that of other psychotherapists \u2014 he considers it appropriate, for the better understanding of what he will expound, to have that study preceded by the following article, in which a clear \u201cpanorama\u201d of the methods used by modern scientific psychotherapy is offered. \u2014 Editor, <\/span><\/span><\/em> Dowsing <\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psychological methods of treatment \u2014 while they constitute effective, and in many cases irreplaceable, weapons against numerous diseases \u2014 in their rapid and varied development also reflect the profound changes that have taken place in the field of culture since the last decades of the last century. So their knowledge may be of interest to anyone who wants to discern “the signs of the times,” even apart from the practical value of those methods.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The basis on which psychotherapy is founded consists in the growing recognition of the very strong influence of moral life on physical life. This influence had always been more or less admitted, but its extent and depth had not hitherto been discovered, and it had not been used methodically and scientifically for healing purposes. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n