A pioneer in psychotherapy explores the will and reveals a liberating power.
In this interview with Stuart Miller, who was the head of the Esalen Institute, Assagioli touches on a number of important aspects about the will and, for example, how the therapist can use the will as part of the therapist role.
By Roberto Assagioli and Stuart Miller; Translation: Hans Ole Pedersen
Source: From Intellectual Digest, October 1972
For about 50 years [1] Roberto Assagioli, MD, an Italian psychotherapist, has been quietly developing an understanding of the will, which he describes at length in his book The Act of Will [2]. Until very recently, the will has not been in vogue. Many intellectuals, disgusted by the Victorian idea of the will as “willpower,” joined the revolt against the will that has characterized our century in many ways. Indulgence, spontaneity, and liberation became the watchwords of art, psychotherapy, and education. In embittered licentiousness, many thinking people accepted their suffering as the inevitable price of their pleasures. Emotions, impulses, and longings had to be embraced, since the truth lay in them. The Victorians had repressed their impulses and had to suffer the double penalty of psychological suffering and social hypocrisy.
In recent years, there have been signs that people are taking a new look at willpower. One of these signs – and not the least – has been the influx of foreign, especially American, guests who have visited Dr. Assagioli, whom Michael Murphy, director of the Esalen Institute, has even called “a sage.”
In 1910 Roberto Assagioli was one of the founders of psychoanalysis in Italy. At the same time, he began to develop a larger psychological system, “psychosynthesis,” which included analysis but placed it in a larger human context, encompassing not only the will but also the idea of a “higher unconscious.” Freudians have tended to emphasize man’s latent biological drives and inclinations, but have largely ignored man’s other hidden resources: the unconscious sources of creativity, ethical and religious inspiration, and scientific discoveries. Assagioli argues that we need a “height psychology” as well as a “depth psychology.”
For 60 years he worked as a doctor, psychotherapist and teacher. He now lives in an old stone house on the outskirts of Florence, where at the age of 84 he still works about ten hours a day. His office is packed with books and stacks of notes, representing decades of activity. He reads and speaks half a dozen languages in connection with his work and keeps up to date with the latest developments in psychology and education. He also maintains an extensive correspondence with psychosynthesis centers around the world.
He speaks very slowly and very simply. Too simply, some of his students say. People who have worked with him have learned to listen and read his writings with great attention, to really ponder what at first glance may seem like relatively obvious points. Instead of being obvious, they are often profound and even revolutionary in meaning and application.
Psychosynthesis is becoming an increasingly important part of the work at the Esalen Institute. Here is what Assagioli recently said to Stuart Miller, director of Esalen and editor of the Esalen book series, published by Viking Press.
Interest in the will again
On a cultural and scientific level, the return of the will is due to the development of humanistic psychology. That is, a scientific psychology that is truly human and embraces what Abraham Maslow called man’s “higher capacities.” In the past, scientific psychology ignored many fundamental human themes: love, joy, inspiration, intuition, and will. Maslow and Michael Polanyi, among others, have broadened the concept of what science and the scientific method are, and I applaud that. On a general human level, the return of the will can be attributed to our growing understanding of the results of the uncontrolled expression of drives, needs, and emotions. People are now becoming aware of the need for some regulation and control, some order and harmony, instead of chaos, in human life.
As a side note, it is important to make it clear that I am in no way advocating repression, a quality often incorrectly associated with the will. Freud taught us the dangers of repression, and there is no place for it in proper psychosynthesis or in the will. The will must be intelligent, not harsh and heavy-handed.
Another reason for the renewed interest in the will is connected with the widespread interest in self-analysis, introspection and psychoanalysis. These activities naturally lead one to become aware of and analyze all aspects of one’s inner psychological nature. Through this process, people have gained a direct, existential experience of themselves, not only as a central reality, but also as a dynamic element. I think this is a very positive result of the analytical process. The Freudians themselves called this reality the “ego”; it is the knowledge contained in the statement “I am”. It is the central point of the person. Introspection has shown us that the changing content of our consciousness (sensory impressions, thoughts, feelings, etc.) is one thing, while the “I” the self, the center, is another thing. This is an important realization.
The self as will and consciousness
This center is also experienced as having a dynamic aspect. It has, to use an analogy, force or energy. When we experience ourselves as “selves,” as subjects, we often have an experience that can be summed up in this sentence: “I am a force, a cause.” This is an experience of the human will.
The star diagram (below) shows the central position of the self and the connection of the will to it. The will simply serves as the guiding energy for all other psychological functions. We find that the realization of the self is often connected with the realization that the self has a will – that in a certain sense it even is a will.
THE WILL, THE CENTER OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE PSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS
The triangles emanating from the middle circle represent the psychological functions:
1. Sensation;
2. Emotion – Feeling;
3. Impulse – Desire;
4. Imagination;
5. Thoughts;
6. Intuition.
The will (7) occupies a place shown by the circular area around the point of self-awareness (8), the “I” or Ego.
As with other important experiences, such as the aesthetic or the religious, the realization of the will must also be experienced. How, for example, can one convey to others what the aesthetic sense is and how it is awakened? It can be a sudden revelation by immersing oneself in a particularly beautiful sunset, the play of colors in the ocean, the panorama from a mountaintop. It can come from looking into the eyes of a child, or by looking at the Mona Lisa, or reading The Divine Comedy , or listening to Vivaldi, Bach, or Wagner.
So too with the will. It can emerge into consciousness when confronted with danger, when the instinct of self-preservation tells us to flee, or fear paralyzes the body; at such moments a force from the depths of our being can unexpectedly make us take the dangerous step forward or bravely confront an attacker. Faced with the threats of a superior, when our self-love tries to lure us into surrender, this force can make us say resolutely “No.” Even when seemingly sweet temptations creep up on us, the same force can break out, shake us, and above all, set us free. Will is freedom. That is what is important.
In most cases, the discovery of the will is not so dramatic, but we reveal it in action. When we make a physical or mental effort, when we are up against some obstacle, we can feel a strength, a special energy within us, and we experience the feeling of will or wanting. However, it is often in those cases mixed with a jumble of impulses, desires, hopes.
The qualities of the will
As I said, freedom is one of the basic principles of the will – freedom to choose and to act as we wish. For example, during the war I was imprisoned by the Fascists for a month. For many reasons I was put in solitary confinement. I was free to choose an attitude: rebellion, or sullen submission, or indifference, or cheerful acceptance. No one could interfere with my inner reaction. I chose acceptance and asked myself how I could get something useful out of the opportunity. The greatest benefit was to use it as a refuge. The conditions were ideal! No noise. No interruptions. Regular meals. I meditated, read. Completely carefree. And I got good results from my meditations. The central experience can be summarized as follows: freedom through acceptance.
Choosing is one of the stages of the act of will, one of the most important. And this illustrates that an act of will often happens without any effort. I did n’t have to use any willpower whatsoever to make the decision. It was completely spontaneous, authentic; it was just the application of my general attitude to life. So it was an act of will because it was a choice, a conscious choice, but without the slightest effort.
The will is usually considered to be associated with strength and effort, and it often is, but not necessarily. Let me repeat: the will is not something hard, rigid, unconditional and exclusive. It basically has a regulatory function. It is the psychological function that directs and regulates the play of all the others. An analogy is the conductor of an orchestra who does not play himself, but directs those who play the different instruments.
This helps to distinguish will from what the Victorians called “willpower.” Another analogy may be helpful: the automobile. The Victorian will, which gave the concept such bad publicity, was like a man who, in order to get to his destination, stood behind his car and tried to push it toward its destination. The intelligent will, the properly trained will, corresponds to the more efficient and sensible approach, where the man gets into the car, sits down comfortably, turns on the ignition, and steers the car so that he can use the energy of the gasoline to get him to his destination.
The will as part of the therapist’s role
It is clear that the will can have a central function in all the various human endeavors – education, business, daily activities, and so on. In therapy, one can explain to the client the true nature and functioning of the will, and two can awaken his own will to get well. This is very important. Because of the diversity of human nature and our ambivalence, a client may want or need to get well, but not want to. The client may cling convulsively to the benefits of being sick. Or he may want to be cured by external means, by the doctor or with medicine, and not do his part to get well. As a third point, the therapist can help the client to exercise and use his own will and not lean on the therapist.
The therapist has two main roles: the mother role and the father role . The mother role of the therapist is appropriate in the first part of the treatment, especially in more serious cases. It consists of providing a sense of protection, understanding, compassion and encouragement. What a wise mother does. It is a direct help from the therapist to the client.
The father’s role, on the other hand, can be summarized as training for independence . The true father’s role, as I see it, is to encourage, to awaken the child’s inner energies and show him the way to independence. The father’s function is therefore to awaken the client’s will.
Some people feel that the concept of the will conflicts with much of today’s teaching, such as psychoanalysis, encounter groups, Zen, primal therapy, etc. The idea behind these methods, they claim, is that the real self is brought to light by freeing the self from resistance, complexes, bodily inhibitions, blockages. It is the path of letting go, of allowing, of liberation. It has been called a left-hand path, as opposed to the right-hand path of discipline. These people ask me whether the return to the will and psychosynthesis in general is a movement towards the psychological right.
First, I would say that these two paths are not opposites. They can integrate each other and have their respective purposes and functions. In the past, especially in Victorian times, the right-hand path, the path of discipline, was abused. Active techniques of personal development, so important in psychosynthesis and in the training of the will, were forced upon people by others. But these techniques, these targeted techniques, should rather be used voluntarily by the individual or the group. The techniques should only be learned, not imposed: herein lies the change from the Victorian view. The individual is free to decide whether he will use these techniques or not, how he will use them, which ones he will use, and to what extent he will use them. Then comes the problem of combining them with what is called the left-hand path.
The great utility and necessity of the left-hand path, the path of liberation, is to free people from all binding bonds and inhibitions and prepare the way for the realization of the Self (with a capital S), the experience of the Transpersonal Self. This, I believe, is its purpose, and a most important one. The peak experiences, experiences of great joy, ecstasy, and enlightenment that people often report in encounter groups, for example, have something to do with their coming into contact with their Transpersonal Self, however briefly.
This Transpersonal Self is different from the personal self or ego we spoke of before. It could be called a “Higher Self,” although the new word Transpersonal is better, as it is not so obviously value-laden. In the old days the Transpersonal world was called the spiritual world, but I do not mean only the world that contains specific religious experiences, but all experience that possesses values that are higher than the average: ethical, aesthetic, heroic, humanitarian, and altruistic.
Now the experience of the Self, often realized by the left-hand path, is not an end in itself. Once they have felt the liberation and the experience of the Transpersonal, people are faced with the practical problem of harmonizing their whole existence, their whole being, including the body, with that plane. And this explains the fact that people who two or three years ago urged total liberation now feel that it is not enough. They feel a need to add something to their liberation techniques, namely active techniques for developing a completely whole person. By completely whole I mean the central goal of psychosynthesis: the development of all the psychological functions (see the star diagram) in harmony, of a completely completed and realized personality, a human being with the body.
The many tasks of the will
In many areas, especially in social relations, there are urgent tasks for the will. The first is to control and utilize the aggressive and combative tendencies – the will to dominate, which is so prevalent in our society, either openly or disguised. Here one must take into account the different and even contradictory aspects of the will. It is the good will , or the will-to-good, that must govern the selfish or egocentric will.
The will is directly related to the great problem of war and peace. I have little faith that agreements, pacts, armies, balances of power and other external measures will produce any solution to that problem. From a psychological point of view, one can say that war gives free rein to aggressive and combative energies. One must find the will to first control, then govern, and finally utilize those energies in many constructive ways. When one knows the methods of awakening and training the will, one gets the clearest understanding that war is the most primitive, stupid, wasteful way of trying to solve problems. I believe we will only see an end to war when one learns to control and transform his inner energies. The methods of these transformations have proven effective both for individuals and small groups. They can easily be used on a larger scale to achieve a peaceful solution to collective human conflicts. This means working towards, and gradually achieving, the psychosynthesis of humanity.
[1] The article was written in 1972
[2] Published in Danish 2005: The Psychology of Will
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