An Introduction to Psychosynthesis and its application to organisational practice

By Aubyn Howard

What is Psychosynthesis?

Psychosynthesis is a psycho-spiritual or depth psychology founded by Roberto Assagioli (1888-1974) and still being developed and applied by different groups of people today, primarily as an approach to Psychotherapy.

Assagioli’s work with Psychosynthesis can be seen as a development of where Jung and Freud left off, in that he was concerned with the higher unconscious as well as the middle and lower unconscious (Freud) and the collective unconscious (Jung). It is certainly a more expansive and inclusive depth psychology than it’s forerunners, both in terms of the aspects of the human psyche that it deals with, and in terms of it’s scope and purpose, being concerned with healthy development in all people and not just in psychological pathology. It is sometimes seen as part of transpersonal psychology – a progression beyond humanistic psychology that acknowledges higher levels and states of consciousness – but it is more holistic in it’s scope than that. In very simple terms Psychosynthesis can be described as a psychology of the spirit, that is concerned with the wholeness of being human and the manifestation of spirit in our lives.

Almost uniquely, it provides a comprehensive theoretical framework, a language and a living context that can be used to explore the deeper psychological and spiritual dimensions of work and organisational life. These dimensions (which include things such as purpose, meaning, crisis, motivation and development at individual and collective levels), are increasingly being recognised as core to the long term health and success of any type of organisation.

Assagioli had a vision to apply his synthesis approach at collective levels to create transformation (e.g. in organisations, education, society, etc), but unfortunately, little has been done to bring this about and most of the on-going application of Psychosynthesis is to psychotherapeutic practice. One of my motives in the work I am doing is to address this imbalance. However, within my attempt to apply Psychosynthesis within an organisational context, I have found it useful to combine and complement it with other approaches and ideas to create a more holistic approach to organisational development, change, leadership and learning. Within an integral approach to organisational work, Psychosynthesis provides the psycho-spiritual perspective that is needed, but it also needs to be complemented by other perspectives, especially by what I describe as behavioural, cultural and integrative perspectives. I have also found it useful to augment the Psychosynthesis developmental approach with other more structural approaches from developmental psychology (in particular Spiral Dynamics) and to develop the Psychosynthetic model of the person to include dimensions and perspective from other theories and models of personality.

Psychosynthesis is both a living psychology as well as a deeply personal and subjective psychology in that each person who studies or practices it tends to create their own unique relationship with it. Therefore anyone that writes about it will tend to describe it in terms that are unique and important to them, and I am doing the same. Perspectives on it will also be coloured by where you learn about it from – my own is strongly shaped by the training provided by the London Institute of Psychosynthesis. Partly because of this, it is not easy too describe Psychosynthesis in definitive terms as a theory or as a practice, which perhaps contributes to it’s rather fragmented presence in the world, it’s relative obscurity…

A personal perspective

So what is Psychosynthesis about for me? These are the key theme’s that stand out from my four years of study and practice…
• The psychology of Will, Self and Spirit
• Working with imagination, abstract mind and creativity
• The psychology of meaning and understanding the role of crisis in our lives
• Understanding and working with the human unconscious and shadow
• The journey of the soul, towards Selfhood and wholeness
• The relationship between the parts and the whole, and the human processes of integration and synthesis towards wholeness
• The processes of identification and dis-identification
• The spiral path of development involving both self-realisation, following the urge for transcendence, and self-actualisation, the drive for manifestation
• Bifocal vision and the guiding role

For me personally the training I participated in was also a process of healing, both healing my wounding from the past and healing the split between mind and heart, or thought and feeling within myself. It worked at many different levels; emotional, intellectual and spiritual, both consciously and unconsciously, individually and collectively.

Psychosynthesis is like a many sided jewel, that can be held up to the light in different ways depending upon what you need to see. Psychosynthesis is amongst other things, a psychology of human development and synthesis towards wholeness, a psychology of the spirit and the soul, of meaning and crisis, a psychology of the will and creativity. Psychosynthesis provides a powerful model of the person and a unique developmental framework which makes important distinctions between the Ego, the I, and the Self. I have married these models to others available within developmental psychology to create an even more powerful model of human personality and development.

Psychosynthesis provides both contextual awareness as well as specific models and tools which can be applied to organisational practice, at individual, group and organisational levels.

At the core of Psychosynthesis is the process of dis-identification – the process of discovery of who you are by letting go of what you are not. The revealing and building of the “I” or strong individual identity takes place through this process.

I must acknowledge Roger and Joan Evans for both their excellent teaching of Psychosynthesis and for being the source of many of the ideas and models for how Psychosynthesis can be applied within an organisational context, that I am seeking to build on. I will also acknowledge them specifically within my course material where they are the source of a particular model.

How can Psychosynthesis be applied to organisational practice?

Key areas of application:
• Change, Leadership, Culture, Purpose and Vision, Learning and Development

Organisational roles:
• Coaching, mentoring, facilitation and consulting.

Key topics (which I will elaborate on in later articles):

• Personal development, self-realisation, self-actualisation
• Personal mastery: Awareness and Will
• Releasing imagination, creativity and will
• Working with the unconscious within organisations
• Mindset reframing and behavioural change
• Cultural alignment through synthesis of the parts
• Meaning and crisis in our work lives
• An holistic model of the person
• A model of change leadership coaching
• Bifocal vision and the guiding relationship
• Types of presence in leadership
• Transference, counter-transference and projection
• Mirroring and the charismatic leader
• The Psychosynthesis organisational toolkit

Some Psychosynthesis links

http://www.psychosynthesis.org/ (The Institute)

http://www.psychosynthesis.edu/index.html (the Trust)

http://www.psychotherapy.org.uk/ (UKCP)

© Aubyn Howard 2006