![\"Goals](\"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Self-transformation.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nBy Roberto Assagioli<\/strong> Editorial Note:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The abstract, contextual subtitle, and cross-sections have been added for clarity and navigation. The original wording, sequence, and structure of the text have been preserved. No conceptual edits have been made to the author’s original writing.<\/p>\n In this undated but post-1966 lecture manuscript, Roberto Assagioli presents a systematic account of the distinguishing principles of psychosynthetic therapy and the therapeutic outcomes he observed in his clinical work. The text is structured in two parts. The first articulates seven foundational criteria of psychosynthetic therapy \u2014 including the integration of the body (bio-psychosynthesis<\/a>), the constructive use of all psychic energies, the awakening of superconscious and transpersonal forces, self-realization and identification with the Self, the therapeutic relationship, the patient’s active cooperation, and the harmonization of social and interpersonal life. The second part describes the existential and clinical results of this integral approach, ranging from the resolution of psychosomatic disorders and phobias to profound shifts in a patient’s orientation toward life, meaning, and consciousness. Together, the two sections offer a concise but comprehensive statement of psychosynthesis<\/a> as both a therapeutic and developmental system \u2014 one that encompasses personal integration, transpersonal awakening, and a vision of human flourishing that extends into education and social life.<\/span><\/p>\n PRINCIPLES<\/b><\/p>\n The criteria that characterize psychosynthetic therapy and distinguish it, in a certain way, from other psychological and psychotherapeutic concepts are implicit in the previous general exposition and can be easily recognized. They also stand out clearly from the comparison between psychosynthetic therapy and Jungian therapy presented in the lectures on Jung and Psychosynthesis<\/a>. (see the first three lectures of the 1966 Course) [2] <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Therefore, I will limit myself to highlighting the following points:<\/span><\/p>\n 1\u00b0 – <\/span>Inclusion of the body <\/span><\/i>in the integration of personality. (Bio-psychosynthesis<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n Psychosomatic medicine has provided and continues to provide increasingly ample evidence of the constant interaction between biological and psychological conditions and factors. Therefore, a synthetic therapy must include the use of a number of psycho-physical techniques, such as:<\/span><\/p>\n 2\u00b0 – <\/span>Utilization of all the energies of the individual<\/span><\/i>, both those already active and those that are gradually released during the course of treatment. Their constructive use can be achieved through direct expression, but more often it is necessary to transform and sublimate them. In psychosynthetic therapy, specific techniques are used for this purpose.<\/span><\/p>\n 3\u00b0 – Encouraging and promoting, through appropriate procedures, the awakening or assimilation of transpersonal superconscious energies<\/a> (\u201cpeak experiences\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n 4\u00b0 – <\/span>Self-realization<\/span><\/i>, or, more precisely, realization of the Self, understood as the individual center that lives and wills, and of its relationship with the trans-individual and universal Self. This can be considered as development along a new dimension of awareness or being. Psychosynthesis has exercises that have proven to be very effective for this purpose. (Disidentification and Self-Identification Exercise<\/a>, Rose Exercise, etc.).<\/span><\/p>\n 5\u00b0 – <\/span>Interpersonal relationships between therapist and patient<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n In psychosynthetic therapy, these are not limited to transference (in the strict sense) and its elimination, but include:<\/span><\/p>\n 6\u00b0 – Maximum cooperation of the patient with the caregiver, through the use of various techniques and active exercises. In many cases, this allows the patient to complete the treatment on their own, with gradually decreasing control by the therapist, until the therapist is no longer needed.<\/span><\/p>\n 7\u00b0 – <\/span>Helping the patient to harmonize and extend their social and interpersonal relationships<\/span><\/i>, and to integrate into the various groups and communities that form the organism of humanity. This is a necessary but very difficult task, due to the current chaotic and unhealthy condition of humanity. Now, simply conforming to a defined social life is impossible and involves the repression of some of the individual\u2019s most genuine needs and tendencies. Psychosynthetic therapy takes this conflict between the individual and society into account and sets itself the goal of establishing the best possible relationship, given the current circumstances.<\/span><\/p>\n These same criteria that characterize the psychosynthetic therapeutic process can be and are applied in psychosynthesis<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n a) <\/span>In education<\/span><\/i>, promoting the development of every potential of the individual, not only in childhood and early youth, but also throughout their life, adding to the positive qualities of each successive stage those of the following stage (psychosynthesis of the ages).<\/span><\/p>\n Psychosynthesis<\/a> also emphasizes the value, indeed <\/span>the duty<\/span><\/i>, of identifying and educating gifted and talented children and young people. Some of its techniques are particularly suited to this purpose.<\/span><\/p>\n b) <\/span>In the social life of the community<\/span><\/i>, promoting, by appropriate means, the formation and development of new and better ways of human living (Maslow’s <\/span>The Good Society<\/span><\/i>), new forms of civilization and culture.<\/span><\/p>\n RESULTS<\/b><\/p>\n It is not surprising that psychosynthetic therapy<\/a>, with its \u201copenness,\u201d the great variety of its techniques, and its response to the actual existential needs of the individual \u2014 seen in the light of a being in continuous development and becoming \u2014 yields positive and often very satisfactory results.<\/span><\/p>\n To give an accurate picture of these results, it would be necessary to provide complete clinical histories of some cases, but here I will limit myself to briefly mentioning the most salient results.<\/span><\/p>\n In many cases, the main and fundamental result has been \u201cexistential,\u201d in the sense that a completely different attitude toward life and toward oneself has developed.<\/span><\/p>\n The patient has moved:<\/span><\/p>\n Some of the specific therapeutic results have been:<\/span><\/p>\n These results were achieved within the framework of, or as an effect of, general psychosynthetic treatment aimed at the integration, maturation, and development of the patient’s personality.<\/span><\/p>\n …<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> While this typed manuscript was undated, it is clearly given as a lecture after 1966, as indicated in the first paragraph of this article. \u2014Ed.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> The lectures on \u201cJung and Psychosynthesis\u201d can be found online at https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/en\/c-g-jung-and-psychosynthesis\/<\/a>\u00a0\u2014Ed.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> There is at least one documentation of Assagioli\u2019s use of psychosynthesis therapy to accomplish the \u201cfull sexual normalization\u201d of a young man described as homosexual, whom he described as having suffered from \u201cpsychosexual trauma\u201d by being \u201ccorrupted by a tutor.\u201d See Assagioli Archives Doc. #20846 (hand-written notes in Italian). There is evidence that Assagioli continued to the end of his life to regard homosexuality, or what he called \u201csexual inversion,\u201d as an issue that for some people would be a matter of psychotherapeutic activity. See also Assagioli, Psychosynthesis of the Couple<\/em>, Cheshire Cat Books, 2022. \u2014Ed.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Assagioli’s inclusion of “healing of homosexuality” among the positive results of psychosynthetic therapy reflects the prevailing psychiatric consensus of his era rather than an aberration from it. When the American Psychiatric Association published the first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders<\/em> (DSM-I) in 1952, homosexuality was classified as a “sociopathic personality disturbance”; the DSM-II of 1968 retained it as a “sexual deviation.” Wikipedia<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> This classification meant that, within the mainstream framework of psychiatry through the 1960s and into the early 1970s, therapeutic interventions aimed at changing sexual orientation were considered legitimate clinical practice. The intellectual roots of this position ran from the 19th-century German psychiatrist Richard Krafft-Ebing, who viewed homosexuality as a “degenerative” disorder, through Sigmund Freud, who framed it as arrested psychosexual development, to mid-century psychoanalytic orthodoxy. Psychiatric News<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> This manuscript postdates 1966 but was almost certainly composed before the decisive shift in professional consensus: in 1973, the APA removed the diagnosis of “homosexuality” from the DSM, following an internal deliberative process that weighed competing theories \u2014 those that pathologized homosexuality and those that viewed it as a normal variation of human development. PubMed Central<\/span><\/span><\/a>.<\/span> Even after that decision, homosexuality was not immediately depathologized in full: the DSM-III of 1980 introduced “Ego-Dystonic Homosexuality,” and it was only with the DSM-III-R of 1987 that any reference to homosexuality as a disorder was removed entirely. Namisb<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> Assagioli’s view is therefore best understood as a product of the psychiatric culture in which he was trained and practised \u2014 one that has since been comprehensively revised. KS\u2014Pub.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Assagioli on Bio-Psychosynthesis, Self-Realization, and the Goals of Psychosynthetic Therapy By Roberto Assagioli Lecture Manuscript (post-1966) Doc. #23763, 23764, 23765 \u2013 Assagioli Archive, Florence [1] Original title: Principi informatori e risultati della terapia psicosintetica Translated and Edited With Notes by Jan Kuniholm Editorial Note: The abstract, contextual subtitle, and cross-sections have been added for clarity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":875,"featured_media":0,"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":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-psychosynthesis-and-psychotherapy","entry","has-post-thumbnail","override","gs-1","gs-odd","gs-even","gs-featured-content-entry"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nLecture Manuscript (post-1966)
\nDoc. #23763, 23764, 23765 \u2013 Assagioli Archive, Florence [1]<\/a>
\nOriginal title: Principi informatori e risultati della terapia psicosintetica
\nTranslated and Edited With Notes by Jan Kuniholm<\/p>\n
\nAbstract<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n
\nBio-Psychosynthesis and the Integration of the Body<\/span><\/h3>\n
\n
Energy, Sublimation, and Transpersonal Awakening<\/span><\/h3>\n
Relational and Social Dimensions of Psychosynthetic Therapy<\/span><\/h3>\n
\n
Therapeutic Outcomes and Existential Transformation<\/span><\/h3>\n
\n
\n