Part Four - Appendix Material

The Psychosynthesis book study ends this week.  Our assignment for this time was to read through the several items that form Part Four - The Appendix. Some of the materials are quite straightforward, while others are really complex and technical. For example, two of the articles include discussions of psychological research in projective testing or imagery for diagnosis and treatment. The first, "Initiated Symbol Projection" describes use of "twelve motives" (motifs) such as walking through a meadow, up a mountain, visiting a house, visualizing a person of the same sex (who is often a person who has "a personality the subjects believe they should or could develop"), visualizing a pool of water in a swamp, etc. The purpose of using these various symbols is to ascertain more about the personality of the patient, as well as to indicate in what areas the person needs assistance to grow, to achieve a psychosynthesis.

The second of these two article is "Meditative Techniques in Psychotherapy." This article was written by Dr. Wolfgang Kretschmer of the Tubingen University Psychiatric Clinic and first published in 1951. It focuses on the use of deep relaxation and imagery to elicit deep unconscious symbolic material, bring it to consciousness and to transformation. It ends with this paragraph:

Meditation has a good chance of eventually becoming one of the leading therapeutic techniques. All the newer systems with which the writer is familiar look for a development in this direction. But whether this development takes place depends completely on a deep-going reformulation of psychotherapeutic training and the practice of psychotherapy. It is of the greatest importance that psychotherapists continue to study meditation. We can only hope that meditation will continue to develop into a systematic technique which can aid men towards their goal of developing their highest psychic potentialities.

Since this was written imagery and visualization have become ubiquitous in psychotherapy. There are training programs specifically in the use of imagery, guided imagery, guided imagery with music, and so forth. Meditation of all kinds is extremely popular. It is offered by teachers at many different levels, psychotherapists, spiritual leaders of many faiths, yoga practitioners, and medical personnel. Meditation is being taught in jails, prisons, hospitals, schools, and churches. This is something to celebrate.

At the same time, we still need for psychotherapists themselves to practice meditation. And there is also need for ongoing research into the effects of meditation, not just research from the "outside" of the mind, as happens when the brain of meditators is imaged by very high-tech machines, but also from the "inside" as advanced meditators share their inner experience. May we, humanity, develop our highest psychic and spiritual potentialities and see what happens next!

Chapter 8: Transmutation and Sublimation of Sexual Energies

In this chapter Assagioli attempts to counsel people on how to manage sexual energy in a way that is healthy, pro-social and wholly human, i.e., considers that sexual energy is tied to the whole human being, not just the physical. He examines the then-current situation of sexual behavior or morals, noting that generational tensions were being played out, that religious prohibitions and attitudes were declining and that sexual liberation did not eliminate sexual problems, but, in some areas may have increased them.

Because of the Freudian insights about sexual repression creating neurotic patterns, Assagioli does not recommend going back to repression of the sexual drive. Nor, however, does he advocate "free love," that leads to other problems. Instead he counsels that drives, the energies within/behind drives, can be transmuted and sublimated. The energies can be harnessed for other good purposes and used (and the energies thus absorbed) for those purposes. He states that sexual energies can be transmuted in two directions, the vertical and the horizontal. If they are directed towards the vertical, the spiritual, they may emerge as mystical sense of union with the Beloved. If they are directed towards the horizontal they may be taken up through substituting other sensual pleasures such as food, enjoyment of nature or appreciation of beauty.  Another example of the horizontal direction of transmutation of sexual energies is channeling them into other forms of love, such as "comradeship and friendship" which may finally "radiate as brotherly love upon all human beings and upon all living creatures." And, the third kind of transmutation is into creative activities. Here Assagioli gives the example of Richard Wagner and his sublimation of unfulfilled love into the opera, "Tristan and Isolde".

In the last section of the chapter, Assagioli offers some practical psychological methods for effecting a process of transmutation and sublimation. Several of the methods involve right use of will, direction of intent, and devoting energy to creative work. He also recommends using symbols, particularly heroic or ideal images of manhood or womanhood, or the symbol of the lotus, or symbolic movement, or symbols that occur in dream images.

Happy New Year!

We've had a couple of rousing telephone discussions recently even in the midst of the holidays pulling at our attention. In these discussions we've covered techniques of imaginative evocation of interpersonal relationship and music as a source of disease and of healing. It is clear from our conversations that we as a group tends towards hope and optimism, towards concern with healing in our own lives and in our interactions with others. We collectively focus on Light and Love moving through us and throughout the world.

May all of us, those who participate in this book study, and those who may come across this blog, have a New Year characterized by hope, optimism, healing and radiance. May all both receive and radiate Light and Love in 2011!