{"id":20597,"date":"2023-11-07T13:27:02","date_gmt":"2023-11-07T12:27:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/?p=20597"},"modified":"2026-05-22T15:20:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T14:20:25","slug":"understanding-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/en\/understanding-others\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Others"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 id=\"h-you-can-love-someone-deeply-and-still-completely-miss-what-they-need-assagioli-on-understanding-others-as-a-spiritual-practice-and-the-transformation-that-happens-when-someone-feels-truly-seen\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\">You can love someone deeply and still completely miss what they need. Assagioli on understanding others as a spiritual practice, and the transformation that happens when someone feels truly seen.<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Loving-Understanding.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1025\" height=\"578\" data-id=\"20598\" src=\"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Loving-Understanding.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20598\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Loving-Understanding.png 1025w, https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Loving-Understanding-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Loving-Understanding-768x433.png 768w, https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Loving-Understanding-400x226.png 400w, https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Loving-Understanding-419x236.png 419w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1025px) 100vw, 1025px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By <strong>Roberto Assagioli<\/strong><br>Doc. #24213, Assagioli Archive in Florence <a href=\"#_ftn6\" id=\"_ftnref6\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\">[i]<\/span><\/span><\/a><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"> <\/span><\/span><br>Original title: <em>Comprendere gli Altri<\/em><br>Translated and edited with notes by Jan Kuniholm<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Editorial Note<\/strong><br>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<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h4 id=\"h-abstract\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Abstract <\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this essay, Roberto Assagioli argues that the main cause of human friction is not wickedness but lack of understanding. He shows that even the most devoted love can harm without wisdom: blind love, however tender, produces what he calls &#8220;mutilated lives.&#8221; Each person is a unique, constantly changing constellation of elements, many hidden in the unconscious, and no stereotypical advice fits. The path forward is a spiritual psychology that recognises the soul behind every personality: through intuition, spiritual identification, and loving understanding, those who feel truly seen open up and are transformed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If we try to discover the causes of the frictions and struggles that so upset and cause individuals and groups to suffer, we find that one of the main ones is&nbsp;<em>lack of understanding<\/em>. Many harmful words and actions that are commonly attributed to wickedness, are instead due to lack of understanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We are by nature inclined to disparage and condemn what we do not understand, and prejudices, biases and antagonisms easily arise from this critical and negative attitude. This happens among individuals, among nations, among races and even among those who, claiming to be religious, should set an example of love and fraternity more than others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A typical example of this attitude is given to us by the Russian word&nbsp;<em>niemetz<\/em>, which designates the Germans. The original meaning of this word is \u201cmute,\u201d which shows that the ancient Russians regarded a foreign people who did not speak their language as \u201cdumb.\u201d To us this seems primitive; but don\u2019t we do something similar when we consider \u201cmeaningless\u201d anything that is not in agreement with&nbsp;<em>our&nbsp;<\/em>views, and when we do not know how to recognize a truth if it is expressed in terminology other than our own?&nbsp;<a id=\"_ftnref1\" href=\"#_ftn1\">[i]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lack of understanding is harmful, not only because it makes the one who does not understand hostile, but even more so in that it arouses a stronger hostility, a bitter resentment in the one or those who feel misunderstood. As Keyserling<a id=\"_ftnref2\" href=\"#_ftn2\">[ii]<\/a>&nbsp;says, \u201cnothing wounds more deeply than misunderstanding, for misunderstanding means denial of the identity of the other.\u201d Thus is created a long chain of mutual misunderstanding, animosity and strife, with all the suffering that comes with it.<\/p>\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nrWlW6cU7-0\" width=\"100%\" height=\"400\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But lack of understanding is not always associated with antagonism or lack of sympathy; on the contrary, it can coexist with intense and passionate love \u2014 or what is generally called such. The most common example of this fact is offered by the relationships between parents (and particularly between mothers) and their children. There are fathers and mothers who tenderly love their children, who work tirelessly and make great sacrifices for them, and yet at the same time do not realize what is going on in the souls of their loved ones, do not understand at all what their truest and most vital needs are. This blind love not infrequently has harmful and sometimes disastrous consequences, and if those who unconsciously are the cause of it could realize this, they would be appalled: we are dealing with mutilated lives. This must be sincerely and courageously looked at in the face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We must resolve to abandon the old sentimental idea that love alone is sufficient; we must recognize that there are various species of love, and that a blind love, however well-intentioned and ready for sacrifice, does not prevent us from making mistakes and harming our loved ones. We must realize that love must be a seer \u2014 must be imbued with wisdom \u2014 in order to really fulfill its mission to help and satisfy those who are its object.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Without understanding, therefore, one cannot avoid doing harm. But we must not be too harsh with those who don\u2019t understand; rather, we must understand them too! Complete understanding of another human being is far from easy: in fact it is often very difficult. Each individual is a complicated interweaving of innumerable dissimilar elements that have very different origins, that exist at various psychic levels, and that act and react to each other, forming a new and unique combination in each person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Moreover, not all the psychological elements that constitute the individuals we seek to understand are visible \u201con the surface,\u201d so to speak. Many of them are deeply hidden in the unconscious and we can infer their existence only from indirect and occasional expressions. But that is not enough; that combination of elements is not static: new elements continually enter into it, while others break away from it, and still others are transformed by their own organic process of development and transmutation. Thus the human being we attempt to understand is constantly changing in protean fashion right before our amazed gaze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since each individual represents a new and unique problem, the solution to the problem must also be new and unique. Thus each individual must be treated differently. To use a mathematical analogy, the \u201cindividual psycho-algebraic formula\u201d requires a new integration in each case. It is therefore clear that the stereotypical advice that many people are always ready to give, whether requested or not, is very often inappropriate and, even if offered with the best intentions, can be confusing and misleading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Against the insidious tendency to advise there is an effective remedy: careful reading \u2014 followed by sincere examination of conscience \u2014 of the pages in which Manzoni<a id=\"_ftnref3\" href=\"#_ftn3\">[iii]<\/a>&nbsp;sketches the type of Donna Prassede,<a id=\"_ftnref4\" href=\"#_ftn4\">[iv]<\/a>&nbsp;that are full of the richest humor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The difficulty of rightly understanding and effectively helping others becomes even greater in cases where the person with whom we are dealing is in a state of crisis or inner darkness. Under such conditions psychic elements may arise from the lower unconscious. Actually it is not a bad thing that this surfacing occurs, since those elements can thus be better known, mastered and transmuted (indeed they are purposely provoked in neuropsychic patients by special methods in psychotherapy). But those periods of crisis are very distressing for those going through them, and give rise to wrong and unfair impressions in those who observe only their external manifestations. We must therefore learn to recognize such cases and refrain more than ever from judging and condemning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Everything we have said about others is, to a great extent, also true about ourselves; here, too, deep understanding is necessary, and it often presents no less difficulty. When dealing with ourselves we do indeed have more elements and more data at our disposal; but we are also more easily likely to judge in a way that is not dispassionate and impartial. While we are inclined to judge others too unfavorably, we tend instead to be very lenient toward ourselves, toward our own shortcomings and faults, for which we find all sorts of justifications and excuses! There is, however, a minority (not a small one) who err in the opposite direction: people tormented by an excessive sense of inferiority, guilt and self-devaluation, that oppresses and paralyzes them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">* * *<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let us see in what ways we can develop and cultivate loving understanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We can be greatly helped by psychology, and especially by the&nbsp;<em>new spiritual psychology&nbsp;<\/em>that is being developed. Psychological science is going through a crisis, but it is a constructive crisis: a struggle to overcome its limitations. The existence of parapsychological faculties, of spiritual powers, and of a higher Self or Soul, are beginning to be recognized by a growing number of open-minded scientists, by many thinkers and scholars. It is beginning to be admitted that intuition is a direct and genuine means of knowledge; and that spiritual illumination and inspiration come from a higher level of the unconscious: the superconscious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We can therefore trust that the existence of the spiritual Self, of the soul, as a permanent and independent Reality, will be admitted as a well-demonstrated fact [in psychology], although \u2014 certainly \u2014 not one that is directly experienced by everyone. This recognition may have incalculable consequences, completely changing our attitude toward ourselves and others.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For if we consider ourselves and others as we really are, i.e., as \u201csouls\u201d seeking to manifest themselves through more or less imperfect, blind and rebellious personalities; if we recognize that this is the immediate purpose of our earthly existence; if, moreover, we realize that souls are not separate and isolated entities, but are united with each other and with the universal Spirit; then everything is transformed in us and around us. Then we perceive or sense that behind every human being there is an imprisoned soul, and our love naturally goes toward it. Then we realize how criticism, contempt, jealousy and antagonism are fundamentally wrong, and how the only right, good and reasonable thing is to cooperate with another\u2019s soul by giving it our love and trying to understand its problems and struggles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, the essential unity of all souls does not exclude the fact that there are differences in&nbsp;<em>quality&nbsp;<\/em>between them, and that they belong to different groups and types, each of which reflects and expresses one or another of the attributes and qualities of Divine Life. Added to this diversity between souls are the great differences in psychological and biological constitution existing between individual human beings, and also those differences that are due to the sex, nation and race to which each person belongs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All these differences are the cause of innumerable misunderstandings and conflicts. It is therefore necessary to study those differences serenely and impartially, so as to realize their nature, origin and value, and thus come to understand and appreciate every human quality, every psychological&nbsp;<em>type<\/em>, individual and collective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\">Such study forms the object of various branches of psychology: individual and \u201cdifferential\u201d psychology, also called \u201ccharacterology;\u201d <\/span><\/span><a id=\"_ftnref5\" href=\"#_ftn5\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\">[v]<\/span><\/span><\/a><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"> &nbsp;the psychology of the sexes; and ethnic psychology. These are sciences that are still in the making but can already offer useful data.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\">But to deeply understand others &#8220;from within,&#8221; so to speak, a purely objective and analytical study is not enough; one must use&nbsp; <\/span><\/span><em><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\">intuition&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/em><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"> and spiritual \u201cidentification.\u201d With this, one comes at some time to truly experience another person&#8217;s life, to make it one&#8217;s own, and thus to feel and understand it in a full, loving, brotherly way.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\">This spiritual identification is quite different from the emotional identification that is often produced between people who love each other passionately; the latter is blind, absorbing, exclusive and demanding; the former, on the other hand, is clairvoyant, free of attachment and disinterested.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\">* * *<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\">The effects of loving understanding are supremely beneficial. It is&nbsp; <\/span><\/span><em><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\">creative<\/span><\/span><\/em><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"> ; like a vivid, warm ray of sunshine, it produces inner development and fosters the expression of those towards whom it is directed and whom it penetrates with its subtle and powerful influence. It directly evokes their truest and best part, their soul.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\">Those who feel&nbsp; <\/span><\/span><em><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\">understood in this way&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/em><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"> open up, blossom, and sometimes are almost magically transformed. Their tense and contracted inner attitude of &#8220;defensiveness&#8221; melts away; their deeper life naturally comes to the surface, and thus the individual realizes \u2014 at one and the same time \u2014 as much of his own unsuspected possibilities as of the meanness and emptiness of certain personal &#8220;gifts&#8221; he often takes pleasure in.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\">Thus it happens not infrequently that a person, finding himself with someone by whom he feels himself \u201clovingly\u201d understood, makes a spontaneous confession of his own deficiencies and \u201csins,\u201d and makes judgments about himself of which he would have been bitterly offended if they had been made by others in a critical and admonishing tone.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\">This immense power for good of loving understanding should arouse a strong resolve to acquire it, and to that end \u2014 as with other spiritual achievements \u2014 to do two things: to cultivate it directly, and to remove the obstacles that prevent or make its expression difficult. Therefore we must strive to develop, on the one hand, intuition, sympathy and spiritual vision; and on the other hand, disinterestedness, self-forgetfulness and emotional detachment.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\">Then we will know how to understand and love our &#8220;brothers and sisters in humanity&#8221; with a wise love, a generous love, a love that leaves the giver and the receiver spiritually free.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a id=\"_ftn1\" href=\"#_ftnref1\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\">[i]<\/span><\/span><\/a><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"> &nbsp;This sentence may be a reference to 20 <\/span><\/span><sup><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\">th<\/span><\/span><\/sup><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"> &nbsp;century \u201clogical positivist\u201d philosophers such as AJAyer, B. Russell and L. Wittgenstein, and others, who asserted that metaphysical and other statements that did not conform to their own definitions of science, verification, and logic were \u201cmeaningless.\u201d Such assertions were also used by &#8220;positivist&#8221; psychologists who rejected psychosynthesis and other transpersonal approaches to understanding human beings.&nbsp; <\/span><\/span><em><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\">-Oath.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a id=\"_ftn2\" href=\"#_ftnref2\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\">[ii]<\/span><\/span><\/a><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"> &nbsp;Hermann von Keyserling (1880-1946), Baltic German philosopher and author, founder of the School of Wisdom in Darmstadt, Germany, from whose writings Assagioli quoted liberally throughout his career. Source of this quotation is unknown.&nbsp; <\/span><\/span><em><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\">-Oath.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a id=\"_ftn3\" href=\"#_ftnref3\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\">[iii]<\/span><\/span><\/a><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"> &nbsp;Allessandro Manzoni (1785-1873) was an Italian poet, novelist and philosopher.&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a id=\"_ftn4\" href=\"#_ftnref4\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\">[iv]<\/span><\/span><\/a><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"> &nbsp;In Manzoni&#8217;s 1842 novel,&nbsp; <\/span><\/span><em><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\">I promessi sposi (The Betrothed),&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/em><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"> which is considered a masterpiece of world literature, Don Ferrante is a phony intellectual and erudite scholar who believes the plague is caused by astrological forces. Donna Prassede, Don Ferrante&#8217;s wife, is an opinionated busybody.&nbsp; <\/span><\/span><em><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\">-Oath.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a id=\"_ftn5\" href=\"#_ftnref5\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\">[v]<\/span><\/span><\/a><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"> &nbsp;In English this would probably be called \u201cpsychology of personality.\u201d&nbsp; <\/span><\/span><em><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\">-Oath.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a id=\"_ftn6\" href=\"#_ftnref6\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\">[i]<\/span><\/span><\/a><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"> &nbsp;This essay has been taken from a typed manuscript in the Assagioli Archives. Other versions with slightly different wordings are also to be found in the Archives in doc.s #23146, 23147, 23149 and 24265. <\/span><\/span><em><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><span dir=\"auto\" style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\">\u2014Ed.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You can love someone deeply and still completely miss what they need. Assagioli on understanding others as a spiritual practice, and the transformation that happens when someone feels truly seen. By Roberto AssagioliDoc. #24213, Assagioli Archive in Florence [i] Original title: Comprendere gli AltriTranslated and edited with notes by Jan Kuniholm Editorial NoteThe abstract and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":875,"featured_media":20598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","tve_updated_post":"","tve_custom_css":"","tve_user_custom_css":"","tve_globals":{},"tcb2_ready":0,"tcb_editor_enabled":0,"tve_landing_page":"","_tve_header":"","_tve_footer":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-psychosynthesis-and-education","entry","override","gs-1","gs-odd","gs-even","gs-featured-content-entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.0 (Yoast SEO v28.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Understanding Others: Assagioli on Loving Wisely<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Understanding others means seeing the soul behind the personality. 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