Editing Psychosynthesis (section)

== Development ==
Psychosynthesis was developed by Italian psychiatrist, [[Roberto Assagioli]], who was a colleague of [[Sigmund Freud|Freud]], [[Carl Jung|Jung]] and [[Eugen Bleuler|Bleuler]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Giovetti |first=Paola |title=Roberto Assagioli: The Life and Work of the Founder of Psychosynthesis. |publisher=Kentaur Publishing |year=2024 |isbn=978-82-693822-0-4 |edition=1st |location=Oslo, Norway |publication-date=2024 |pages=25 |language=English}}</ref> He began to formulate his ideas as early as 1910, but did not collect his thinking into a whole until the presentation of his pamphlet ''A New Method of Healing: Psychosynthesis,'' which was published in 1927.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Assagioli |first=Roberto |title=A New Method of Healing: Psychosynthesis |publisher=Institute of Psychosynthesis |year=1927 |edition=1st |location=Rome, Italy |publication-date=1927 |language=English}}</ref> He later compared psychosynthesis to the prevailing thinking of the day, contrasting psychosynthesis with [[existential psychology]], but unlike the latter he considered loneliness not to be "either ultimate or essential".<ref name=":10">{{Cite book |last=Assagioli |first=Roberto |title=Psychosynthesis |publisher=Hobbs, Dorman & Co.Inc. |year=1965 |isbn= |edition=1st |location=New York |publication-date=1965 |pages=5 |language=English}}</ref> Assagioli asserted that "the direct experience of the self, of pure ''self-awareness'' — independent of any 'content' of the field of consciousness and of any situation in which the individual may find himself — is a true, 'phenomenal' experience, an inner reality which can be empirically verified."<ref name=":10" /> 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'"<ref>Assaglioli, R. (1993). Psychosynthesis, p. 7 and p.5</ref>—were central to Assagioli's theory.<ref name=":10" />

Psychosynthesis departed from the empirical foundations of behavioral psychology because it studied a person as a personality and a soul,<ref name=":11">''A Psychology with a Soul: Psychosynthesis in Evolutionary Context'' by Jean Hardy, p.20-22.</ref> even though Assagioli continued to insist that it was scientific. He asserted that it is a mistake to consider fields of research “scientific” or not; rather it is the ''method'' of research that is scientific or not. He asserted that the scientific method means clear thinking and sound reasoning on well-established facts, which are not limited to what can be weighed or measured.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Assagioli |first=Roberto |date=Feb 1970 |title=On the Scientific Method |journal=Newsletter of the Association for Humanistic Psychology |volume=VI |issue=3 |via=Online Archive of California}}</ref> He asserted that “It is undeniable that all ''subjectively lived'' psychological phenomena are ''facts'', even if not susceptible to direct weighing and measuring procedures, and as such can be studied scientifically. The pragmatic principle must be accepted that everything has its reality which produces an effect that modifies a preexistent state."<ref>Assagioli, R. (1973b). “''The New Dimensions of Psychology: The Third, Fourth, and Fifth Forces:''A Talk presented in English at the Biennale de Futurologie in Crans sur Sierre in Switzerland on Aug. 30th, 1973. Available Online at <nowiki>https://kennethsorensen.dk/en/new-dimensions-psychology-third-fourth-fifth-forces-roberto-assagioli-m-d/</nowiki>.</ref> Scientific studies of internal states are often done by gathering testimony about inner experiences. This is an accepted approach to study of altered states of consciousness. Assagioli developed therapeutic methods beyond those in psychoanalysis. Although the [[Unconscious mind|unconscious]] is an important part of his theory, he was careful to maintain a balance with rational, conscious therapeutic work. Psychosynthesis was not intended to be a school of thought or an exclusive method.“It could be defined principally as a general attitude, a tendency toward, and a series of activities aiming at, integration and synthesis in every field.”<ref name=":11" /> However, many conferences and publications had it as a central theme, and psychosynthesis training centers were formed in Italy, the UK and the United States in the 1960s and are now found in many countries in Europe, North and South America, Asia, New Zealand and Australia. Today, psychosynthesis is recognized through its membership in the [https://www.europsyche.org/ European Association of Psychotherapy].

Assagioli was not the first to use the term "psychosynthesis". The earliest use was by [[James Jackson Putnam]], who used it as the name of his [[electroconvulsive therapy]]. The term was also used by [[C. G. Jung]] and [[A. R. Orage]], who were both more aligned with Assagioli's use of the term than Putnam's use. C. G. Jung, in comparing his goals to those of [[Sigmund Freud]], wrote, "If there is a 'psychoanalysis' there must also be a 'psychosynthesis which creates future events according to the same laws'."<ref>Jung quoted in J. Kerr, ''A Dangerous Method'' (2012) pp. 214-5.</ref> A. R. Orage, who was the publisher of the influential journal, [[The New Age]], used the term as well, but hyphenated it (psycho-synthesis). Orage formed an early psychology study group (which included [[Maurice Nicoll]] who later studied with Carl Jung) and concluded that what humanity needed was not psychoanalysis, but psycho-synthesis.<ref>A. R. Orage: On Love/Psychological Exercises: With Some Aphorisms & Other Essays, p.126</ref>  The term was also used by Bezzoli.<ref>[http://www.psykosyntese.dk/a-146/ Roberto Assagioli - his life and work] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120211081619/http://www.psykosyntese.dk/a-146/ |date=2012-02-11 }} A biography from Kentaur Institute in Denmark</ref> Freud, however, was opposed to what he saw as the directive element in Jung's approach to psychosynthesis,<ref>J. Kerr, ''A Dangerous Method'' (2012) p. 489.</ref> and Freud argued for a spontaneous synthesis on the patient's part: "[During psychoanalysis] 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."<ref>Sigmund Freud, "Lines of Advance in Psycho-Analytic Therapy" [1918] in Neville Symington, ''Narcissism: A New Theory'' (London 2003) p. 110.</ref>