Psychosynthesis is a transpersonal and non-dogmatic spiritual psychology initially developed by Roberto Assagioli, a lesser-known contemporary of Carl Jung, that seeks to synthesize the psyche and inner world to expand to higher states of mind and consciousness with the will and love to navigate the human journey.
Transpersonal psychology emphasizes the whole of a person and operates on the foundational belief that individuals are not merely a brain, but a body with emotions, beliefs, values, purpose, and a connection to a larger spiritual whole.
All impaired states of wellbeing, whether at the individual or collective level and whether those impairments manifest internally or through relationships, can always be drilled down to a lack of fluid harmony or synthesis of the mind or of the inner world, regardless of how that state came to be. This lack of fluid harmony prevents the realization of your own inherent wholeness.
You probably haven't heard of psychosynthesis because it requires acknowledgement of everything a modern society void of meaning has rejected: purpose, soul, a union of multiplicity, interconnectedness, and a mind-body connection that is equal parts dual and one.
We are innately complex creatures, multidimensional beings composed of various parts or layers of ourselves (officially called “sub-personalities” in psychosynthesis). We all have inner contradictory characteristics or competing archetypes within us, some taking over unconsciously, some stuck in a specific nervous system response, and others kept hidden from ourselves or the world, fragmented off.
These parts that split off from the rest of our psyche are called psychic fragmentations by the psychologists (the more distinctly separated parts) and soul loss by the shamans. It’s all the same story. It’s the same journey we walk through the stars to tell. It’s the same diverse unity of being we seek in our fragmented world...
We have to identify our parts so we can synthesize them and then ultimately become unrestricted by them through disidentification. This work is called Psychosynthesis and it’s a process to engage with this complexity of self and give awareness and meaning to every part of you, and cultivate the resiliency to let yourself endlessly evolve in each present moment.
This exploration leads us to Self with a capital “S”, unconditioned, always changing, and inherently whole. Who you are before what’s happened to you, and without the current trend. Where we live freely guided by our own intuition.
Every one of our many parts serves a purpose once understood and integrated. And we need every single one. There are so many aspects of ourselves we can't quite put our finger on or we've doubted this part's potential or purpose. Pairing psychosynthesis with astrology can help us navigate these harder-to-articulate or recognize parts, even the ones that carry shame or burdens. Astrology also helps us articulate our authentic motivations and desires, which are necessary as we need to be directing our energy towards the arrow of time that supports a life of meaning for us.
Unlike psychoanalysis, psychosynthesis is not a perpetual study of the unconscious and shadows, but instead seeks to synthesize our conscious and unconscious layers to create inner harmony and expand to higher consciousness states of mind. This is an important distinction. We are so much more than just the traumas we experienced and that we keep buried deep in our psyches.
Transformation requires your own inner revelation, a sense of direction to inspire towards, and, most shockingly to the modern world, it requires you to safely feel through the pain, so you can let it go. Importantly though, psychosynthesis, or at least my approach of it, does not abandon shadow exploration, but instead adds further dimensions to it. It puts shadow work to use, using the darkness as fuel for something more enlightening.
We can look to the polarity axis of Scorpio and Taurus, the axis of death and rebirth, to better understand this dynamic. As opposites, they share the same objective of survival but travel opposite paths in the world to seek those means. Scorpio is the watery archetype of this, seeking safety by digging into the sand, into the shadows and dark, building emotional strength by confronting the darkness of the world and of the human mind. Taurus, however, seeks that same survival on the surface through material strength and the safety of stillness. Rather than digging into the shadows, Taurus relies on the comforts and safeties that can be seen and touched like material comforts, money, prestige, luxury, and mother earth, as well as comforts like self-worth and self-value.
As with any polarities, you cannot experience the full power of one without learning from the opposite. Scorpio cannot fulfill its power of transformation, the archetypal experience of rebirthing into the phoenix, without embracing the self-love and the willingness to just be where and what you are that Taurus possesses. Transformation breeds from the shadows but a Scorpio trying to transform solely in the dark without reaching above the surface will destroy itself.
Metamorphosis needs both love and will, both the gentle stillness of self-compassion and the willful restless desire of transformation.
The term "spiritual psychology" is redundant because "psyche" meant "soul" in Greek, but we have separated the two and lost the connection to the latter. Psychosynthesis reclaims our soulfulness and reintegrates this into a more whole sense of self. Many healing modalities as well as trauma therapies today are slowly becoming what psychosynthesis already is, a transpersonal psychology that inherently considers your mind, body, and spirit. Somatics, meditation, presence, parts work, the transpersonal,... these are all components already inherent in this type of work.
Psychosynthesis focuses on six psychological functions.
Beginning with bodily sensations allows you to enter inwards and induces inner connection. This is an important idea in psychosynthesis but has only recently even been discussed in traditional psychology and trauma healing modalities.
Importantly, and as understood in energy healing work, all trauma is an experience that penetrates through to cut off the individual from their spirit.
Although healing does not occur in this strictly linear manner, trauma first impacts the individual at the mental level, then if not addressed or if too young to handle it moves to the emotional level, and then if prolonged further it moves to the physical level. Beginning with sensing in the body and then moving to emotions and, lastly, to mind and thoughts, allows the individual to truly connect with themselves without being blocked by deeper unconscious material layers.
This is a map of the psyche as understood from a psychosynthesis perspective, in which our consciousness is multi-layered, interconnected, and transpersonal in nature:
We are complex little creatures with dynamic minds as open as the sky. So much to synthesize but so much available for us to tap into to allow our true potential to unfold, to create our own heaven. We seek to become the center of consciousness, with access to all parts of this diagram, where we have the ability to call upon any one aspect of ourselves in any present moment in which it's needed.
Our inner parts do not need to be blended together nor does any part need to be removed. This is an important distinction from Internal Family Systems (IFS Therapy), which was a later created system that has mimicked much of the parts work of psychosynthesis.
All of our parts and aspects of Self need to be recognized, differentiated, and coordinated, not blended.
Nothing in the universe is ever out of place.
Whatever we identify with we will be consumed by though. To truly liberate from our own limitations or lingering trauma and to truly have the freedom to choose upon any aspect of our being as needed, we must also, when ready, detach from all of these parts. This is what true healing requires and why a transpersonal or transcendent dimension to any healing or development work is paramount. At best, we find temporary solutions or states that are conditional on specific and favorable outward experiences otherwise.
Psychosynthesis is ultimately a discipline to help liberate us from the unconscious cycles of our own minds and emotional body. Similarly, this is what astrology is supposed to offer us, a map to get off the wheel, but modern astrologers often just get souls obsessed with their stars instead.
The core concepts of psychosynthesis can be summarized within these six overarching classifications, with detachment or disidentification allowing for true self liberation. You are not your thoughts nor what happened to you.
Psychosynthesis is not a rigid psychology in the modern sense. Each practitioner can apply the philosophy in unique ways. But at its core are the tools to navigate the human experience with both love and will, and to both discover and follow your own personal "call of self."
As this call of self, your true purpose or calling, emerges through the process, you connect deeper and deeper to who you truly are and what you've always been looking for.
All your answers are in knowing who you are.
Psychosynthesis, with its emphasis on purpose and expanding to higher states of mind, aligns well with coaching modalities. Coaching is not therapy, so there may be natural exploration or processing of past experiences as it arises, but the focus is more on the present as well as the future and potential. The work is about moving beyond unconscious limitations to higher consciousness exploration. Coaching is about moving forward and how to use the past as fuel to do so, rather than solely getting stuck in the past. This is not the fluffy motivational kind of coaching though but is transformative work that taps into your own inner wisdom. It's also not talk therapy so is not about renumerating the past but exploring your potential and innate abilities, through self-knowing and compassion.
At its most ambitious, psychosynthesis should offer guidance for not just self-actualization but for self-transcendence: internal openness and coherence to let the healed ego loosen its grip in wide open space, streaming through consciousness and emptying out through compassion.
Our manyfold selves are both within and without, distinct but linked.
- Susan Reis / The Cyclical Seed