A Look at Psychosynthesis Therapy

In Assagioli’s main book on the subject, he explained that psychosynthesis therapy’s primary goal is “the conscious and intended reconstruction or re-creation of the client’s personality, through the interaction and collaboration of the client and therapist.” Later, he outlines the stages for an individual as a being’s harmonious development. This includes:

• Detailed knowledge of one’s personality
• Control of different elements
• Understanding of one’s true self or the creation or discovery of a unifying centre.
• Psychosynthesis: the rebuilding or formation of the personality around a new centre.

The first stage is considered a tall order that is impossible to achieve an absolute goal with. This is considered unachievable and a sign of arrogance. The reasoning behind this process is that a client should be willing to enter a mindful reflection on what presents from the unconscious. This shouldn’t be rushed and requires patience, along with the courage to go back and look at difficult memories and reflections. For the fullest exploration, the client must agree to stay with the process. Psychosynthesis may be used for short-term therapy, but it is important understand that it doesn’t offer any type of “quick fix.”

While the therapist and client continue exploring the personality, the client also identifies ways to control various elements. Assagioli considered this the second stage of development. However, the control isn’t about achieving a rigid mastery of the personality. Instead, it is about the control that results from letting go of the process and finding the most effective ways to make happen the choices that are certain to arise. Development is considered a fluid, non-linear process.

According to Piero Ferrucci, “When human growth is balanced and healthy it advances in every direction; it looks like an expanding ball rather than a horizontal line. It is precisely for this reason that psychosynthesis endeavors to take into consideration all the dimensions of a life which truly matter.”

Here’s a comparison that is often attribute dto Assagioli. If the psyche is a house, we are worried with the underground basement, bottom floor, and the top floors of the house.

During therapy, Assagioli states, “‘the synchronization and assimilationinto one functioning whole of all the qualities and functions of the individual must be aimed at and actively fostered.” Disidentification is a process frequently used to achieve this integration. Disidentification involves stepping away from what controls us with a heightened sense of awareness of the deeper choice that results from self-identification or the alignment of the personality with the Self. This requires that the client take on the role of the arbitrator and later director of the development of their psyche. In therapy, the therapist initially takes on the more active role. As time progresses, the therapist’s impact “becomes increasingly catalytic…in the final stage the therapist withdraws slowly and is interchanged by the self, with whom the client has established a growing relationship.”