Roberto Assagioli (27 February 1888 – 23 August 1974) was an Italian psychiatrist and pioneer in the fields of humanistic and transpersonal psychology.

His work, including two books and many monographs published as pamphlets, emphasized the possibility of progressive integration (that is, synthesis) of the personality.

Assagioli was exposed to many creative outlets at a young age, such as art and music, which were believed to have inspired his work in Psychosynthesis.

By the age of 18, he had learned eight different languages, including Italian (his native tongue), English, French, Russian, Greek, Latin, German, and Sanskrit.

In 1940, Assagioli was arrested and imprisoned by Benito Mussolini's Fascist government, having been accused of "praying for peace and inviting others to join him along with other international crimes.

"[2] He was placed in a solitary cell in Regina Coeli prison for 27 nights, until he was released and returned to his family.

His son died at the age of 28 from lung disease, which was accredited to severe stress from the harsh living conditions during the war.

[1] The years after the war were relatively calm, and it was during this time that he founded various foundations dedicated to Psychosynthesis in Europe and North America.

Assagioli lived a long and prosperous life with a happy forty-year marriage until he died at age 86 on 23 August 1974.

After finishing his studies in Italy, Assagioli went to Switzerland, where he was trained in psychiatry at the psychiatric hospital Burghölzli in Zürich.

He was largely inspired by Freud's idea of the repressed mind and Jung's theories of the collective unconscious.

It is not against psychoanalysis or even behavior modification but it insists that the needs for meaning, for higher values, for a spiritual life, are as real as biological or social needs.

You might say that there is a feminine polarity to the will – the willing surrender, the joyful acceptance of the other functions of the personality.At the end of the interview, Keen himself concluded:

Enter as evidence in the case for psychosynthesis an ad hominem argument: in speaking about death there was no change in the tone or intensity of Assagioli's voice and the light still played in his dark eyes, and his mouth was never very far from a smile.Assagioli was also interested and active in the field of consciousness and transpersonal work.

[7][8] He was also a co-founder of the School for Esoteric Studies, intended to teach the work of Alice Bailey at an advanced level.