Psychosynthesis can be seen as the ongoing process of becoming more conscious of who we are and learning to honour that in our daily lives. Psychosynthesis is truly a journey to the core of our being.
The first stage of Assagioli’s psychosynthesis is this exploration of the personality. Fortunately you do not have to take on this task alone. An integral part of psychosynthesis is working with a guide who can help you, acting as an empathic holding presence to facilitate your process. Whilst Assagioli did say that it is possible to do the whole thing by yourself, the benefits of working with a properly trained and experienced therapist are undeniable.For example the therapist may help you to disidentify from certain subpersonalities that are holding you back in your life.
A large part of the middle unconscious is dominated by subpersonalities. Subpersonalities are critical to all psychosynthesis theory. A full description of subpersonality theory is given here. One of the key therapeutic principles in working with subpersonalities is the principle of disidentification. Actually it would be more accurate to say it is a process of identification, disidentification and Self-identification. This can be summarised in Assagioli statement that: “We are dominated by everything with which our self becomes identified. We can dominate and control everything from which we disidentify ourselves.”
After exploring the contents of the personality, the next stage of psychosynthesis represents the emergence of the ‘I’ or Personal Self. This stage of psychosynthesis can be compared to traditional psychotherapies and indeed bears many similarities to much humanistic and transpersonal psychotherapy.
Assagioli said that the ‘I’ is comprised of two parts – awareness and will. The more you use them the stronger they will become. It is easiest to practice strengthening the ‘I’ in relation to the contents of your middle unconscious. This is the part of your unconscious that can most feely pass in and out of awareness. In other words, that part of you that requires relatively little effort to make conscious again. Despite our best efforts, it is almost impossible not to have some degree of ‘shadow’ – unexplored unconscious. But in making the right effort towards exploring and untangling our unconscious patterns, the freer we become.
This leads on to the next stage of psychosynthesis – contact with Self. It is a good idea to practice meditation and self awareness exercises which form an extremely valuable role in helping to increase our awareness and connection. It would be pertinent to mention here Assagioli’s ‘Identification Exercise’ here to give a practical insight into this seemingly abstract territory. A full description of a Disidentification Exercise is given here.
