Chapter Two: "Self-Realization and Psychological Disturbances"

In the fourth paragraph of this chapter, I noticed something that just passed me by in previous readings of it. Assagioli is discussing the swing between an excessive focus on psychopathology and focus on wholeness. "Some representatives of the new current show a leaning towards reversion to the former conception of man as an already unified personality, which, unfortunately, is far from being the case. The drive towards integration has been rightly described and emphasized as a basic and normal urge of the human personality, but this is something quite different from the illusion of an already organically and harmoniously functioning personality." I don't know if others have this experience, but among my professional acquaintances are therapists who routinely state that we already are whole and already know everything we need to know. Perhaps this is true in the same way as it is true that the oak tree is already in the acorn. But much has to happen for the oak tree to emerge and grow and flourish through many seasons and years. So it is for us. The pattern is inherent, as is the drive towards integration, but the actualization is something that requires much of each one of us.

In Assagioli's discussion of the personal self or ego, the superconscious, and the Self he makes it clear that he is talking about two different meanings for the term 'self-realization.' One meaning is something roughly equivalent to Maslow's self-actualization, and the other meaning is more difficult to grasp. Self-realization, or awareness of or through the Self is "the reaching of the summit where the personal I-awareness blends into awareness of the spiritual Self."

The discussion of stages in Self-realization takes us into territory not often discussed in many mental health circles in the United States. The area of the 'spiritual' is seldom addressed in the favored mental health approaches of cognitive-behavioral therapy or exposure therapy or the therapies that specifically address emotional states, such as emotionally-focused therapies and the therapies that are designed to moderate emotional states. Assagioli says, "We are using the word "spiritual" in its broader connotation which includes, therefore, not only the specific religious experience, but all the states of awareness, all the functions and activities which have as common denominator the possessing of values higher than the average, values such as the ethical, the esthetic, the heroic, the humanitarian and the altruistic. We include under the general heading of ''spiritual development" then all experiences connected with awareness of the contents of the superconscious, which may or may not include the experience of the Self." Because much of psychotherapy in the United States is based within a materialist medical model, the focus appears to be one of working with people who aspire to be average, rather than with those, who may be suffering equally, who are undergoing crises related to awakening and working through the process of spiritual transmutation Assagioli describes in this chapter.

The first two stages of Self-realization, the crisis leading up to spiritual awakening and the crisis caused by the spiritual awakening, deserve to be far better known and more widely discussed than they are. When a relatively high percentage of people are taking medication for depression, anxiety or both, one has to wonder how many of those so diagnosed are experiencing what Assagioli would describe as neurotic conflicts and/or inability to accept or get along with significant others, and how many are treating and forestalling a spiritual awakening. Stages three and four - reactions to spiritual awakening and phases of the process of spiritual transmutation outline some of the ups and downs of the personality as it deals with spiritual influxes (or the ebbing of them) and with the inevitable challenges of living through the changes wrought in dissolving what has seemed to be the center of the personality and regenerating that center by harmonizing all the drives, working with the energies of the superconscious and the Self (especially with the Will), and yet meeting the obligations and duties of ordinary life.

I found myself wishing that Assagioli had given us more of the background thinking for his discussion of the Self, Self-realization, and the superconscious. The "self" has a history in philosophy and religion, and I truly would love to have had an opportunity to discuss with him what was informing his particular understanding of these concepts.