Along with the idea of a spiritual or transpersonal Self, Psychosynthesis emphasizes "the value placed upon exploration of creative potential, and the hypothesis that each individual has a purpose in life.
It is, first and foremost, a dynamic and 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.
[8] Psychosynthesis has a strong presence in the fields of coaching and especially psychotherapy, some of which can be referenced in the external links and training centers listed at the bottom of this page.
He asserted that the scientific method means clear thinking and sound reasoning on well-established facts, which are not limited to what can be weighed or measured.
[14] He asserted that “It is undeniable that all subjectively lived psychological phenomena are facts, even if not susceptible to direct weighing and measuring procedures, and as such can be studied scientifically.
Psychosynthesis was not intended to be a school of thought or an exclusive method.“It could be defined principally as a general attitude, a tendency toward, and a series of activities aiming at, integration and synthesis in every field.”[13] However, many conferences and publications had it as a central theme, and psychosynthesis training centers were formed in Italy, the UK and the United States in the 1960s and are now found in many countries in Europe, North and South America, Asia, New Zealand and Australia.
The transpersonal dimension is glimpsed for example during peak experiences (Maslow) of inspired creativity, spiritual insight, and unitive states of consciousness.
Psychosynthesis recognizes the process of self-realization, of contact and response with one's deepest callings and directions in life, which can involve either or both personal and transpersonal development.
Similarly, his conception is related to the field of transpersonal psychology with its focus on higher states of consciousness, spirituality, and human experience beyond the individual self.
[27] By another account, 'the lower unconscious, which contains one's personal psychological past in the form of repressed complexes, long-forgotten memories and dreams and imaginations'.
[28] According to John Firman and Ann Gila, "the lower unconscious is that realm of the person to which is relegated the experiences of shame, fear, pain, despair, and rage associated with primal wounding suffered in life.
It comprises that range of experience related to the threat of personal annihilation, of destruction of self, of nonbeing, and more generally, of the painful side of the human condition.
[29] As long as this range of experience remains unconscious, the person will have a limited ability to be empathic with self or others in the more painful aspects of human life.
[43] The higher unconscious in psychosynthesis must not be confused with Freud’s “superego.” Assagioli asserted, “There is one point that needs clarification; and that is that there are different levels of moral consciousness, and it is important to distinguish between them.
But at times the conscious self rises or is raised to that higher region where it has specific experiences and states of awareness of various kinds which can be called “spiritual” in the widest sense.
At other times it happens that some contents of the superconscious “descend” and penetrate into the area of the normal consciousness of the ego, producing what is called “inspiration.” This interplay has great importance and value, both for fostering creativity and for achieving psychosynthesis.
[46] William James recognized that various psychological traits are not integrated, but form behavioral roles that he called "the various selves," which shift according to the relationships we have with other people, surroundings, groups, etc.
'One of the first people to have started really making use of subpersonalities for therapy and personal growth was Roberto Assagioli', psychosynthesis reckoning that 'subpersonalities exist at various levels of organization, complexity, and refinement'[48] throughout the mind.
A five-fold process of recognition, acceptance, co-ordination, integration, and synthesis 'leads to the discovery of the Transpersonal Self, and the realization that that is the final truth of the person, not the subpersonalities'.
Let us dwell on this statement, striving to realize this pure consciousness of being, this stable, unchanging Center, steady as a rock amidst the churning waves of becoming.
Assagioli wrote, “The conscious self is generally not only submerged in the ceaseless flow of psychological contents but seems to disappear altogether when we fall asleep, when we faint, when we are under the effect of an anesthetic or narcotic, or in a state of hypnosis.
Assagioli describes Self-Realization (not to be confused with self-actualization)[59] as “the realization of one’s True Self — the discovery or creation of a unifying center: the controlling Principle of our life.
without the experience of illumination of the Self, and also of intermediate degrees, the percentage of self-consciousness at the higher levels and of communion with the Universal.”[62] Writing about the model of the person presented above, Assagioli states that it is a "structural, static, almost 'anatomical' representation of our inner constitution, while it leaves out its dynamic aspect, which is the most important and essential one".
The “Dark Night of the Soul.” Psychosynthesis was regarded by Assagioli as more of an orientation and a general approach to the whole human being, and as existing apart from any of its particular concrete applications.
'Dialogue, Gestalt techniques, dream work, guided imagery, affirmations, and meditation are all powerful tools for integration', but 'the attitude and presence of the counselor are of far greater importance than the particular methods used'.
Psychosynthesis offers an overall view which can help orient oneself within the vast array of different modalities available today, and be applied either for therapy or for self-actualization.
[82] A more technical danger is that premature concern with the transpersonal may hamper dealing with personal psychosynthesis: for example, "evoking serenity ... might produce a false sense of well-being and security".
[83] Practitioners have noted how "inability to ... integrate the superconscious contact with everyday experience easily leads to inflation", and have spoken of "an 'Icarus complex', the tendency whereby spiritual ambition fails to take personality limitations into account and causes all sorts of psychological difficulties".
Assagioli himself discussed the issue of psychological disturbances related to spiritual awakening or Self-realization, and its diagnosis and treatment, in Chapter 2 of his book Psychosynthesis (1965.)
[85] Stephen Potter's "Lifemanship Psycho-Synthesis Clinic", where one may "find the psycho-synthesist lying relaxed on the couch while the patient will be encouraged to walk up and down"[86] would seem a genuine case of "parallel evolution", since its clear targets, as "the natural antagonists...of the lifeplay, are the psychoanalysts".