Customer Reviews

Psychosynthesis: A Psychology of the Spirit (Suny Series in Transpersonal and Humanistic Psychology)

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Psychosynthesis may not be as popularly known as psychoanalysis, depth psychology, etc., but it holds some tremendously powerful keys for self-understanding, self-renewal, and emotional healing that in turn lead to more empathetic and authentic relationships with others. This book is a clear and comprehensive introduction to psychosynthesis, outling such fundamental concepts as primal wounding, lower and higher unconscious, and subpersonalities within a developmental framework. It has stimulated my own growth and I have been recommending this book widely.

I have been searching since adolescence for theories in psychology that would actually be helpful to me. Though there have been many ideas that have helped, it seemed that I had reached a plateau where I felt I was quite self-aware but that just didn't seem to be enough - it didn't heal what was making my life difficult.

Reading this book has helped me see what I need beyond awareness and has also helped me to better understand the people in my life. The concepts of primal wounding, survival personality, subpersonalities, the healing power of empathic connections and a non-linear view of our development
that recognizes that our earlier experiences are not far away and insignificant, are profoundly helpful ideas.

The wounding we have suffered and the subpersonalities that have developed within us, need more than recognition, they need acceptance, inclusion and synthesis which can only happen in an atmosphere of empathy. Then, and only then, can we become authentic, fully conscious people who do not need addictions and compulsions as crutches. No wonder self-awareness is not enough!

This is not my field and I may not be able to clearly convey all the concepts in this book. I may not even understand all of them. There are stories in the book of different people as they go through psychosynthesis therapy that clarify these concepts and how they work in real people. Even though some of the expressions can be a little intimidating for lay people like myself (unifying center, the difference between "I" and "Self"), I truly believe this book can be helpful to anyone who is seeking to understand how to help heal oneself or others.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Assagioli, Gila and Firman!

Just one thing, where can I find a good psychosynthesis therapist? (-:

This presentation of the Psychosynthesis therapeutic paradigm gives it depth-psychological kick, and provides tools I've found extremely useful. It lays out a theory relating to 'Primal Wounding' (which need not be interpreted as melodramatically as it sounds), a history of violations of the "I"'s relationship with a deeper and more authentic Self, which we carry around and need to resolve. That approach allows the authors to bring in much useful attachment theory, and to connect it with the trad P_Synth technologies of subpersonalities and the Will.

What's so clever is how the 'wounding' is expressed in terms of relationships with what the authors call 'external unifying centres', which could range from parents to bike clubs: anything external in which we see our identities reflected, or in Wounding, violated. This allows you to connect the personal to the societal, as well as to the developmental, in a way I think is unique, especially for a spiritual approach. The book details well how carrying these 'wounds' (which will be equivalent to energetic blockages if you like to play with that) forms social masks, from beneath which we can try to burst out in addictions and abortive attempts to break free, because the Higher or Truer in us needs to manifest but our structures may not provide the means. When we heal, our external lives and personae will be radically altered, as we quit temporizing.

These have been amongst the most instantly usable ideas I have ever employed for self-knowledge, and they deeply stirred my intuition. I made pages of notes which later produced insight after insight when applied, no matter to what. The beauty of the concept, as with so much in this stream, is its simplicity -- it is extensible in many dimensions, ethics for example, especially when seen alongside the High-Middle-Low Unconscious concept of this school, which brilliantly highlights how the good and the bad are repressed equally. The explanation of the release of genuine positive potential is clear and has proven accurate.

The 'Wounding' concept -- whose name I don't like, but whatever -- can be so flexible; I've applied it to situations which were not obvious 'wounds', but always found such insight, so many previously invisible reframes and ways forward. (Of course it's really _me_ cutting off my own Self and the pleasure of reconnection is both profoundly satisfying and reflected in energetic transformations.) The authors write well on the 'immanent-transcendent' nature of the "I", and include new spins on the traditional P_Synth 'disidentification' exercises.

These concepts will work alongside body energy approaches, for example energy exercises in a Taoist or Reichian style, Rubenfeld Synergy, or bodywork generally. But then I could see them contributing just about anywhere -- if you meditate and want to use a self-therapy, for example, I would pick this book up. (Because of P_Synth's emphasis on the Will, followers of the Hermetic exercises of Franz Bardon, or other will-based magical approaches, will find it spot on.) A psychodynamic therapist, looking for an out-of-the-box-useful link to the transpersonal, would be well-served too. In trauma, I can think of Babette Rothschild case studies (see The Body Remembers Casebook: Unifying Methods and Models in the Treatment of Trauma and PTSD) where it could be applied with great effectiveness. It is very, very generous in its universality, and by not being overly definitive, works with the flow of inspiration.

Other P_Synth books I know are What We May Be and Psychosynthesis Counselling in Action (Counselling in Action series), both of which I've also found useful. I'll certainly be reading the work of the school's founder (Roberto Assagioli, a contemporary of Jung and plainly ahead of his time) shortly, and will delve beyond.

Highly recommended.

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EDIT: A year and a half since this review, the concept of the external unifying centre continues to turn up in the way I think about life. That idea is worth the book's price and carries that simplicity which is truth's hallmark. It's also a useful truth. I should catch up with these authors' more recent works.

Very clear exposition of the fundamentals of Psychosynthesis counselling. I highly recommend this text for anyone studying Psychosynthesis counselling