13/09/2021
Hereby you can find also my chapter.
Back at work and the pace is brisk! A wonderful new psychosynthetic garden is taking shape🌳🌷🌱. Here a preview of the original text which, for the English edition, will be enriched by more than twenty-five monographic chapters written by many of our colleagues from all over the world🙏💗!! Details will follow soon.
🌷KNOW, LOVE & TRANSFORM YOURSELF - VOLUME I
In the First Part, I briefly introduce Roberto Assagioli and his Psychosynthesis model.
The FIRST CHAPTER focuses on the personal and cultural biography of the father of Psychosynthesis, providing a necessary context for us to fully appreciate the extraordinarily innovative and pioneering nature of his bio-psycho-transpersonal model.
The SECOND CHAPTER describes the Psychosynthesis model itself, including basic terminology and “definitions”, fields of application and fundamental diagrams.
Stressing the experiential nature of Psychosynthesisas a psychological practice, the THIRD CHAPTER lists the core experiences of the Psychosynthesis process: the multiplicity of the psyche, disidentification, the personal self, the will, the Ideal Model, synthesis, the superconscious and the transpersonal Self.
The Second Part illustrates in detail the phases, or aspects, of this Dantesque journey, with each chapter comprising a brief theoretical exposition, followed by a list of practical tools and techniques.
The FOURTH CHAPTER dwells on an important and needed recommendation about the frame in which these active techniques should be used. Psychosynthesis training is not a fad, it is not driven by superficial and materialistic consumerism and should not be misconstrued as a race to self-improvement and productivity, a competition to see who comes first or gives the best performance. Psychosynthesis training should not be distracted, anxious, obsessive or feverish, but rather aimed at finding “rhythm and harmony, coherence and style, freedom and directionality; It is an inner discipline, a magical ritual, a contact with our evolutionary future, an affirmation of spiritual autonomy, an entering into the cosmic flow.”
For this reason, Psychosynthesis techniques must be used in the context of a meaningful and creative relationship, emerging from the uniqueness of the individual (or group) undertaking the journey, the uniqueness of the psychotherapist who guides it and the uniqueness of each step along the way.
In the FIFTH CHAPTER, we delve into the actual stages, or aspects, of the Psychosynthesis model. We start with the investigation of the conscious personality whose objectives are to explore and understand what shaped our personality and to consolidate our sense of identity.
Using a range of techniques - autobiography; journaling; questionnaires; special imaginative exercises; inventory of psychological characteristics, conscious complexes, main polarities/ambivalence, subpersonalities, psychological functions and superior aspects of the individual - this stage lays down the conditions for an adequate assimilation and mastery of the unconscious elements.
I address the exploration of the unconscious in the SIXTH CHAPTER, where I illustrate the peculiarities of the “analytical phase” in Psychosynthesis, its implementation as well as its potential dangers and contraindications, devoting particular attention to the exploration of the higher unconscious. What is fundamental here is to foster the right attitude of acceptance towards the material emerging into consciousness and to learn how to accurately interpret the symbolic language of the unconscious, by freeing ourselves from, or at least becoming aware of, possibly misguiding preconceptions.
In Psychosynthesis, the exploration of the unconscious is carried out both through classical psychoanalytic methods (free association, word-stimulus associations, analysis of dreams, etc.) and through other, more specifically psychosynthetic techniques: expressive techniques (such as free drawing, writing, free movement, listening and musical improvisations...), as well as a variety of imaginative techniques and other tools for the expansion of awareness and mind-body work.
The SEVENTH CHAPTER explains how we can develop more freedom and learn to master our inner and outer world. This is where the “active phase” of the Psychosynthesis training starts, which involves the persistent and methodical use of specific techniques. First among them is that of catharsis, which allows us to fully reclaim repressed experiences and discharge excess energies. Then - to gain a right sense of proportion and train ourselves to see the funny and “light” side of situations - we may employ critical analysis, humour and the fundamental practices of disidentification and self-identification. This process leads to the experience of the “I” and its specific function, the will, which, again, can be discovered and revealed through countless exercises.
🌷KNOW, LOVE & TRANSFORM YOURSELF - VOLUME II
The discovery that we are, in essence, an “I-that-wills” is the necessary precondition for us to access the transformation phase of psychosynthesis, which is illustrated in the EIGHTH CHAPTER.
Completion of the psychosynthesis process is achieved through the use and transformation of bio-psychic energies, the development of our immature or repressed psychic faculties and the creation of a new and stable organisation of the personality around the “I”. In this phase, it is fundamental to lay out a realistic plan of the type and degree of psychosynthesis we are working towards so that we can gradually implement it through the training of the reproductive and creative power of the imagination. Techniques used in this phase include visualisation, imaginative evocation of other sensations, the technique of the Ideal Model, the technique for the use of symbols.
Equally important, is the application of the wise will, the training of weak or immature functions, the balancing and synthesis of opposites, as well as techniques for inter-personal psychosynthesis. Our objective is to make the living matter of the personality into an object of beauty, in which the Self can be adequately manifested.
The NINTH CHAPTER deals with an even broader and higher type of synthesis which consists of the reorganisation of the various elements around the transpersonal Self. The work focuses mainly on the exploration and integration of the higher unconscious - source of higher intuitions and aspirations, ingenious creations, ethical imperatives, impulses to altruistic action, states of enlightenment, contemplation and ecstasy - and, wherever possible and desirable, self-realisation.
In this phase, various practical tools may be used to promote the correct interpretation, assimilation and use of transpersonal energies. These include the use of symbols in a range of imaginative techniques (inner dialogue and visualisations based on the legend of the Grail, the Divine Comedy, mountain climbing/ascent, the blossoming of the rose etc.), techniques for the development and the use of intuition, the evocation of higher feelings and, above all, meditation, a tool of the utmost importance that organically and systematically combines many of the psychosynthesis techniques, employing them towards different aims.
