Psychosynthesis: A Psychotherapist's Personal Overview

ABSTRACT: Psychosynthesis, a therapeutic orientation based on personal experience, bridges psychological and theological conceptions of human nature. Psychotherapy is conducted in the here-and-now with emphasis on the relationship. Within that context, many techniques are employed. Imagination and intuition are cultivated. The client is helped to identify with his "personal self, " the center of consciousness and will, and to exercise willing control over the process of therapy and over his life. Basic principles include the existence of a higher unconscious, which is the locus of transpersonal needs, the interrelatedness of one to all, the reality of consciousness and will. Positive strivings and continuing growth are emphasized. I first became interested in psychosynthesis because I was looking for a point of view that could bridge psychology and religion, that could span the artificial but heuristic gap that had been made between these areas of knowledge. To me, the positing of separate and distinct fields of study is a temporary strategy designed to facilitate our understanding but fated eventually to give way to a resynthesis of knowledge so that the interrelationships between all disciplines will become clearly apparent. Such a fusion can best take place between two disciplines that deal with human nature when they share the same image of mankind. When I first encountered psychosynthesis, I thought that Roberto Assagioli's views offered the kind of broad perspective that could provide a continuum from the concepts and methods of psychotherapy to the concerns of theology