In this somewhat advanced article, Assagioli describes the synthesis principle by taking as a starting point processes in nature and biology and human psychology.
By Roberto Assagioli. Translated by Ella Ostermann
Also read the article The Balancing and Synthesis of Opposites .
We have so far stubbornly continued to discuss two widespread errors, which are maintained not only by the common man, but also by some scientists and philosophers.
The first: that the human psyche is an organic and coherent entity.
The second: that psyche and consciousness are identical and coexist.
We have seen how observation reveals, if there are no preconceived ideas or theoretical “clouds”, that even in the conscious part of our mind, there are a mass of disparate elements full of contradictory tendencies, from which the great complexities, anxieties and contradictions of man originate. Next, we saw that, outside the enlightened part of consciousness, numerous psychic activities of quite different nature and value and at different levels were taking place, ranging from elementary instinctive tendencies to the highest manifestations of artistic creation and spiritual enlightenment.
There is a fundamental tendency towards synthesis in consciousness
But having established this, we can, or rather must, consider the other aspect of reality and give it the importance and value it deserves. Psychic elements and tendencies do not exist side by side completely independently of each other, in constant conflict, mitigated only by temporary compromises, alliances, or fusions of instincts and desires. This view, which the more conventional psychoanalysts more or less explicitly hold, is a pessimistic and desperate theory, which fortunately does not correspond to reality.
It is a derivative of the empiricist theory, supported in recent times by Condillac and other colleagues, and generally by the positivists and materialists of the past century. But the representatives of this view did not take into account the fact, and if they did, then only partially and quite inadequately, that there is in the human psyche another fundamental tendency to union and synthesis, which is more profound and vivid than the simple, mechanical connection between feelings and ideas.
It is a tendency which expresses a universal principle, the manifestations of which are found at an elementary level prior to the formation of individual psychic life, and which succeeds it at a higher and more extensive level, where a great interhuman and superhuman synthesis is formed?
Synthesis in the world of chemistry
The word synthesis comes from the Greek: Syn-thesis, which means: composition. The basic principle of synthesis is already seen in its simplest form in inorganic matter and becomes clear in the difference between chemical mixtures and chemical compounds. In mixtures, two different chemical substances are in contact with each other, but no matter how much they are mixed, they do not form anything new. A mixture is the sum of the properties of the individual elements. A typical example: air is a mixture of oxygen, carbon dioxide and water vapor (plus a few other trace elements). All of these elements are free and can be easily isolated. Therefore, we can retain the oxygen and exhale the carbon dioxide when we breathe. On the other hand, water vapor is formed in the air by evaporation and leaves it by condensation independently of the oxygen and carbon dioxide.
Something quite different happens when a chemical compound is formed, and for example oxygen and hydrogen combine to form water, which is a substance quite different from its components. These are gases at normal temperatures, whereas water is liquid. Furthermore, water is a stable substance that requires specific and special laboratory processes to dissolve, and they require a large expenditure of energy. It is interesting to note that the combining of chemical substances often requires a large expenditure of energy, and that man uses the compounds for both dynamic purposes and destructive purposes. An example of the first: internal combustion engines, whose propelling force is the combination of gasoline and oxygen. An example of the second is dynamite. We will discuss the interesting analogies later, the dynamic and explosive combinations of psychic elements.
There is another interesting fact that also has a thought-provoking analogy in the world of the psyche. It is not always enough to bring two chemical substances into contact with each other: it is necessary to light a fire, or a spark (in the same way, there are elements in us that have existed inactively side by side for years, but a spark is enough to make them connect).
Changing the properties of atoms
But the new advances in physics allow us to go a step further. The atom, initially considered to be a single and indivisible element, is in reality a dynamic synthesis of electrical charges: between the central nucleus and the elements that rotate ‘dizzyingly’ around it. The atom is a fine balance between attraction and repulsion, between centripetal and centrifugal forces. The emission or replacement of an electron is enough to change the properties of an atom, to create various radiations, electro-magnetic vibrations, light phenomena and sounds that emit enormous qualities of energy. It is these incessant, extremely rapid influences of force that produce all phenomena in the cosmos, and that make all living manifestations possible.
To give an impression of that, I will quote one of the greatest astronomers, Eddington. He says, “The sun’s chromosphere contains a cloud of calcium atoms that appear to float on the sun’s rays. Each of the atoms contains 20 electrons. Eighteen of them are firmly bound to the central nucleus around which they whirl. Two, on the other hand, are ‘more loosely bound.’ Depending on the conditions in the sun’s chromosphere, one of these is separated, while the other, when stimulated by a ray of light, is sent on to a more distant orbit, from where it involuntarily returns to its original orbit. This must be repeated 200,000 times a second to keep the atom in balance in the chromosphere. The twenty-thousandth of a second is divided into two periods: the longer one, in which the atom patiently waits for a light wave to strike it and send the electron further away. The second, in which the electron remains in the more distant orbit. This lasts on the average one hundred-millionth of a second, in which it travels around its orbit a million times”.
Synthesis in the living world
Now we come to the organic world. Biological life appears at first sight as a synthesis. We see that the actions of the individual organs in an animal or human organism are coordinated by a higher unity. There is a living unifying principle, seen in many manifestations that seem intelligent and that make possible the life of the organism. A life that, above all, appears to be a dynamic balance between conflicting systems.
Recent biological and physiological studies have thrown much light on this admirable phenomenon. There is a fundamental dualism between the parasympathetic and the sympathetic systems, and in this struggle the glands and internal secretions participate, the former in one field and the latter in another. One of these groups tends towards catabolism, that is to say towards life in relation to the organism, to its external activity in which energy is consumed. The other group tends towards anabolism, towards reconstruction, towards the accumulation and conservation of energy.
A too long catabolic phase leads to exhaustion, while a too long anabolic phase produces an unusually large accumulation of unused energy. These two phases alternate rhythmically. The most obvious and normal analogy is sleep and wakefulness. During waking hours, the catabolic functions manifest themselves as outward activity, such as life with relationships. During sleep, anabolic activity prevails, so that the organism is repaired and maintained. If one of these phases becomes too dominant, disease occurs.
Basedow, which is caused by overactivity of the thyroid gland, a catabolic organ, causes weight loss and other disorders of a catabolic nature. Another morbid, and even more pronounced manifestation of a defective regulatory ability, are tumors. They are formed by rebellious cells that do not ‘obey’ and follow the normal growth rhythm. Every single day, thousands of cells in the organism die and just as many are born. This creates quantitative and qualitative equilibrium. When this equilibrium is broken, when some groups of cells begin to multiply faster, a foreign organism is formed, a parasite on the original organism, that is, a tumor. This, which violates the law of self-regulation, leads to the destruction of the organism and thus its own destruction.
The significance of this self-regulation is seen at the moment of death, when the unifying principle ceases to function. All cells act individually, and this results in the dissolution of the organism. It interests us especially as an analogy to the study of the life of the psyche. Here the tendency to synthesis is no less strong and fundamental, in fact it reaches a higher degree of complexity and fineness. Sensation, which was regarded by the ‘sensing’ as something quite simple and straightforward, like the atom by the chemists, should be regarded, like the atom, as a complex, even more complex phenomenon. Philosophers and psychologists have discovered this before the physicists.
The tendency towards synthesis in consciousness
Limiting our discussion to more recent thinking, Leibniz already said in response to Locke’s claim that intelligence does not include anything that cannot be perceived by the senses: “Yes, if not intelligence itself.”
In reality, sensation does not exist unless it is felt or perceived by a subject, unless it becomes part of a system, through integration into a psychic synthesis, through union with something that already exists. Leibniz shows how sensation is in reality a grouping of innumerable small elements that are not easy to perceive, that is, that they are subconscious. In a way, one could say that Leibniz laid the foundation for the discovery of the subconscious in more recent times.
After Leibnitz, the synthetic character of psychic activities was made even clearer by Kant, who demonstrated it in perception, judgment, concept, and later further by Wundt, Hoffoding, and Janet.
James has used a clear and ingenious analogy on this. He says, “Take 12 people and give them each a word from a sentence. Then line these people up or put them together. Make them think very carefully about their own word. That will never, ever make any of them aware of the whole sentence.” Therefore, the simple mechanical juxtaposition of sensations and individual elements can never create a meaning simply by connecting the different elements.
Synthesis as forgotten philosophy
The synthesis of opposites has a special significance in the psychic life. This great principle, which is the key to the understanding and solution of so many theoretical and practical problems, was intuitively sensed by Plato, but described even more clearly by Cardinal Da Cusa. He states that unity exists before duality, the synthesis of opposites before their division. This idea was strongly supported by Cusa’s great pupil, Giordano Bruno. He claimed that the synthesis of opposites is the fundamental tenet of a forgotten philosophy which must be revived.
He speaks of the union of opposites: of acute and obtuse angles, of heat and cold, of love and hate, of poisons and their antidotes, of concave and their opposite. He who wishes to know the great secrets of nature must examine and contemplate the greatest and the smallest contrasts and opposites. True magic consists in knowing how to discover the opposite after having found the point of harmony.”
This principle is further developed by Hegel, who made it the core of his philosophical system, called “dialectical”. The opposites are mutually “opposite” but not opposite in terms of unity, since real and concrete unity is only the unity and synthesis of opposites. Immobility is not movement, and immutability is not change. The truth is that unity is not met by an opposite, but by itself. Without opposites, reality would not be reality because there would be no change and no life. The two abstract elements or opposites in themselves, in their separate state, are called by Hegel “moments”. And “moments” are sometimes called something third, namely synthesis. The relationship between the first two and the third is expressed by the words “dissolve”/“transcend”. The two opposite and opposed expressions dissolve and pass into being a synthesis. It is important that the two opposite moments are rejected when they are perceived at a separate stage, but are preserved in the synthetic. The most important triad that Hegel demonstrates, and from which other triads derive, is the triad of being, nothingness, and becoming.
Principles of synthesis applied in psychology
But I cannot enter into a philosophical discussion. It is enough to mention the principle according to which we will apply it to living, concrete, human psychology. In psychic life, as in organic life, we find a rhythmic alternation between two contradictory principles, extroversion and introversion. Extroversion, the living interest is turned outward, and this corresponds to what in organic life is called catabolism, the life of relationships, of consuming, of dissipating energy. On the contrary, introversion means that the living interest is turned inward, which corresponds to anabolism, to the inner life. The rhythm of life should consist of a harmonious alternation between these movements. And to achieve this rhythm, the ‘art of living’ is necessary.
The same can be said about all the other contrasts or polarities with which the human psyche is so rich – we are almost tempted to say “too rich.” They should not be abolished, but exist with a certain degree of autonomy.
Just as organic life is not the abolition of the contrast between catabolism and anabolism, between the life of relations and consumption and the life of reconstruction, so psychic life is not the abolition of one at the expense of the other. It is necessary to have both, it is necessary to have a tension between them, but a creative tension. It is necessary to force them to integrate into a more comprehensive, more complete life, into a superior reality that includes them and at the same time transcends them. That is the real synthesis. To realize it there must be the continued presence and powerful influence of a higher regulating principle. This principle is in its highest aspect a spiritual element, superior to the psychological, which is more or less latent in the human spirit, but which, when liberated and made effective, brings order, harmony, beauty and joy. It gradually transforms the weak and uncertain man, who is himself divided and shaken by violent contrasts and sorrows, into a luminous, pure, complete and solid creature. To a center of fire and light, from which high and beneficial spiritual energies radiate.
Tips:
Also read the article: Balancing and Synthesis of Opposites , which is a somewhat easier approach than the above to understanding the concept of synthesis.
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Also read the article Psychosynthesis an Integral Psychology and the biography of Roberto Assagioli
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