Psychosynthesis

Psychosynthesis is an approach to psychology that was developed by Roberto Assagioli, M.D. He compared psychosynthesis to the prevailing thinking of the day, contrasting psychosynthesis for example with Existential psychology, but unlike the latter considered loneliness not to be "either ultimate or essential.". Assagioli asserted that "the direct experience of the self, of pure self-awareness... - is true." Spiritual goals of "Self-Realization", and the "interindividual psychosynthesis" - of 'social integration...the harmonious integration of the individual into ever larger groups up to the "one humanity"' - were central to Assagioli's theory. Psychosynthesis was not intended to be a school of thought or an exclusive method but many conferences and publications had it as central theme and centres were formed in Italy and the USA in the 1960s.

Psychosynthesis departed from the empirical foundations of psychology in that it studied a person as a personality and a soul but Assagioli continued to insist that it was scientific. Assagioli developed therapeutic methods beyond those found in psychoanalysis. Although the unconscious is an important part of his theory, Assagioli was careful to maintain a balance with rational, conscious therapeutical work.

Assagioli 'was not the first to use the term, psychosynthesis, it was also used by Bezzoli'. Freud for his part used the same term as the goal for the patient in psychoanalysis: 'As we analyse...the great unity which we call his ego fits into itself all the instinctual impulses which before had been split off and held apart from it. The psycho-synthesis is thus achieved in analytic treatment without our intervention, automatically and inevitably'.