Roberto Assagioli (1888-1974)
Psychiatrist Roberto Assagioli (1888-1974) was the founder of the school of thought called “Psychosynthesis.” Psychosynthesis was the first Western theory of personality that could truly call itself “transpersonal” in that it incorporated the idea of soul explicitly into its theory of the human personality (Assagioli, 1991, 1992, 1993).
Psychosynthesis is a transpersonal, or spiritual psychotherapy, a phenomenon of the twentieth century Western world. It is a theory and practice of individual development and growth, though with a potential for wider application into social and indeed world-wide settings; and it assumes that each human being is a soul as well as a personality. (Hardy, 1987, p. 1)
Similarity with Freud, Jung, and Adler. Like Freud’s system of psychoanalysis, Psychosynthesis sought to promote the scientific and experimental study of the unconscious and the empirical verification of its concepts in the lives of everyone. Like Jung’s system of Analytical Psychology, the therapeutic techniques of Psychosynthesis emphasized the use of symbol, myth, and imagery. Like Adler’s system of Individual Psychology, it represented an original contribution to our understanding of the psychosocial dynamics of the psyche.
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Difference from Freud, Jung, and Adler. Unlike Freud, Jung, and Adler, Roberto Assagioli explicitly sought to create an inclusive spiritual psychology that was not merely eclectic but truly integrative and multidimensional – coordinating and synthesizing theories and experience of diverse fields of study (e.g., psychodynamic movement, psychosomatic medicine, psychology of religion, investigation of the superconscious and “cosmic consciousness,” Eastern psychology, sociology and anthropology, organismic holism, parapsychology, hypnotism and autosuggestion and ancient religious frameworks) in a specifically empirical, natural, and non-churchly sense.
Assagioli’s work… in its assumption of the existence of the soul, harks back to a wide-ranging literature of religious and spiritual mysticism, both Western and Eastern, to neoplatonic theory, to the many mystics of the Middle Ages in Christian and Jewish thought – Dante, Eckhart, St. John of the Cross, the Kabbalah, to the schools of knowledge founded in the West before the split between science and religion, to Buddhism and Hinduism, and to classical Greek philosophy, particularly Plato. (Hardy, 1987, p. 2)
Key contributions of Psychosynthesis to transpersonal psychology. Piero Ferrucci (1987, p. x), former student and collaborator of Assagioli identifies several key contributions of Psychosynthesis to our understanding of the structure, states, function, and development of human consciousness:
A multi-polar model of the human psyche, with its various ‘subpersonalities’ (as opposed to depth psychology’s bi-polar or tri-polar traditional structure)
The central position of the self as focus of coordination and integration of the personality
The importance of the will and it role in establishing the human personality as a conscious agency capable of choice and purpose
The existence of the transpersonal realm: the higher unconscious as source of inspiration, ecstasy, creativity, intuition, and illumination;
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The pathology of the sublime: the occurrence of psychological disturbances of a spiritual, rather than psychological, origin and nature.
The use of a wide range of active techniques for individuals to use to further their personal and spiritual development.
The use of imagery for the exploration of the unconscious, for the transformation of neurotic patterns, and for the expansion of awareness
The notion that there exists within the personality a natural, inbred tendency toward synthesis and ‘syntropy’ (the opposite of entropy) and the spontaneous organization of meaningful and coherent fields within the psyche.
Assagioli pioneered the application of transpersonal concepts to psychotherapy. According to John Battista (1996a) in his 1996 article, “Abraham Maslow and Roberto Assagioli: Pioneers of Transpersonal Psychology,”
Whereas Maslow explored fundamental issues in transpersonal psychology, Roberto Assagioli pioneered the practical application of these concepts in psychotherapy. Assagioli proposed a transpersonal view of personality and discussed psychotherapy in terms of the synthesis of personality at both the personal and spiritual levels. He dealt with the issue of spiritual crises and introduced many active therapeutic techniques for the development of a transcendent center of personality. (Battista, 1996a, p. 52)
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A psychology with a soul. Most Western theories of personality (from behavioral to trait to biological to phenomenological) focus attention on the surface aspects of ego-directed personality action. Even those personality theories that acknowledge the existence of subliminal, subconscious dimensions to personality structure, functions, states and development (i.e., psychodynamic theories) rarely include discussion of the “soul” in its theorizing or psychotherapeutic applications. Psychosynthesis is different. “In Psychosynthesis, the person is a soul and has a personality” (Hardy, 1987, p. 21).
[Assagioli’s] view, which is the view of most spiritual disciplines, is that the soul is basic and enduring, and that the personality, though essential for being in the world, is relatively superficial and changeable – though often, of course, only with a good deal of difficulty. The soul is the context, the home, the “unmoved move”: the personality is full of content, learned responses, and is dynamic. (Hardy, 1987, p. 22)
Psychosynthesis is neither a particular psychological doctrine nor a single therapeutic technique. Like Fechner, James, Myers, and Jung before him, Roberto Assagioli’s goal was to address the elements of the soul that religion refused to examine and that conventional psychology denied to exist. He sought to explore and demonstrate those psychological characteristics and ability that the soul would have in life. In accomplishing this task, Assagioli did not consider his system of Psychosynthesis to be either a particular psychological doctrine or a single therapeutic technique.
Psychosynthesis… is first and foremost a dynamic, even a dramatic conception of our psychological life, which it portrays as a constant interplay and conflict between the many different and contrasting forces and a unifying center which ever tends to control, harmonize and utilize them. Moreover, Psychosynthesis utilizes many techniques of psychological action, aiming first at the development and perfection of the personality, and then at its harmonious coordination and increasing unification with the Self. (Assagioli, 1993, p. 30).
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