Appendix Two: Thinking and Meditation; Appendix Three: Questionnaire on the Will; Appendix Five: Differential Psychology

Appendix Two: Thinking and Meditation                             


Assagioli identifies three types of meditation here: reflective, receptive and creative. He relates thinking and meditation, emphasizing that what many or most of us call thinking is more like having thoughts that spontaneously and without control, play in our mind. We are not actually directing them to some chosen end. Meditation, he says, will help us calm and direct our thoughts so that they may effectively accomplish the thinking tasks we have set our mind to do.

In order to meditate, we need to get physically relaxed and calm, emotionally calm and tranquil and mentally recollected, turning our "mind's interest and attention inward." It will take time and persistent effort to bring the mind under control.

Reflective Meditation
Reflective meditation involves thinking about some subject, "exploring all its implications, ramifications, and meanings." As we attempt to do this, we soon realize that we are likely to fall into mental shortcuts, prejudices and to jump to conclusions. Practice will help us achieve more concentration and clarity. The objects of meditative reflection can be: psychological and spiritual qualities to which we aspire; symbols of higher qualities and integration; "seed-thoughts" such as simple statements of aspiration, or even paradoxical statements, such as Zen koans; and the Self. Reflective meditation on the Self is meant to give us the ability to distinguish between the Self and our identification with various functions and elements of the personality. We reflect on the Self, so to speak, "from above" and aim at "understanding, interpretation and evaluation of what we discover in ourselves."

Receptive Meditation
The purpose of receptive meditation is to be able to receive inspiration, messages, and guidance for action from the superconscious. For this to happen, the mind must be silent and waiting. Assagioli notes that our minds often rebel against silence and try to fill it, but if we persist, the mind will quiet. If we become "heavy" or "somnolent" we should end the meditation because there is danger that we will get messages and urges from our personal lower unconscious or from the lower collective unconscious.

Assagioli discusses the forms in which messages arrive, through "seeing" (understanding), intuition, or illumination - in which a sense of inner divinity seems to permeate oneself, nature and living beings. Another way is through "hearing," having a sense that some message has been "spoken" and that we have heard it. We feel we need to respond, allow the message to work within us. A third way of receiving a message is through the sense of "contact," of being "in touch" with the Self which brings us into a greater alignment with It, and gives us a greater sense of life and energy. The fourth way of receiving messages is in a strong "stimulus to action." We have an urge "to do a given thing," to take on certain tasks or some mission.

Assagioli makes it clear that these messages, whatever form they take, are clear at the time, but fade from awareness quickly. Therefore, we ought to register them. Registration means to deliberately write down what we have received as soon as we can, which will also help in understanding what they are about.

Sometimes, the message we receive comes at a later time, after a meditation that has not seemed particularly fruitful. It will help if we stay open to such delayed messages by maintaining "an inner attitude of watchful waiting."

Creative Meditation
Assagioli suggests that thought is powerful and creative in itself. Yet, because of our undisciplined minds and our internal conflicts and contradictions, we do not create what we would like. He says we need to understand our motives, making sure that they are good, and clarify and determine our objectives. He indicates that this current period of time is one in which new "forms" "are being built into every sphere of life." Our role in creating these new forms can be important.

The stages of creative meditation as given by Assagioli are:

1. Clear conception and precise formulation of the idea;
2. Use of the imagination, i.e., "clothing" of the idea in pictures and "suggestive" symbols;
3. Vivifying the idea with the warmth of feeling and propulsive force of desire.

The final section of this Appendix includes a rather extensive outline for meditation on the will.

Appendix Three: Questionnaire on the Will
This is a relatively short but intense and searching questionnaire on one's relationship with one's will, its qualities and aspects, and status of one's development and training of the will.

Appendix Five: Differential Psychology
In this Appendix Assagioli addresses the "angles" which psychologists might use to differentiate among people. Some psychologists use traits and factors to make these distinctions, some use various typologies, and some seem to approach individuals as individuals (Idiographic Psychology). There are many dangers in rigid typologies and ways of categorizing people and their personalities, but, Assagioli says, there are some distinctions among people that have some usefulness. For example, he writes that the differences between introversion and extroversion, in general, and on different personality levels, can help us understand and (presumably) accept the differences among us. When introversion and extroversion are applied to the four Jungian psychological functions, we can see that the personalities of introverted feeling types and extroverted sensing types, for example, might have quite different perspectives on whatever they are viewing or dealing with.

Toward the end of this Appendix Assagioli makes the point that deep understanding is different that simply "knowing about" someone. He writes that Binswanger concluded that "this understanding requires union of heart and head" which can be called "loving thinking." Finally, "in the realm of the superconscious and the Transpersonal Self, "we find the paradoxical union or integration and coexistence of the individual and of the universal."

Chapter 6: Technique of Imaginative Evocation of Interpersonal Relationships

In this chapter Roberto Assagioli discusses how a therapist can help a patient/client "achieve the right inner attitude towards other people and to successfully perform intended actions involving others." He sees this happening in two stages. The first stage involves eliminating that which hinders the patient from holding that right attitude, and the second stage "is a gradual training in developing facility in outer interpersonal relations." The first stage involves catharsis of emotional blocks and increased understanding of negative emotions. The second stage involves imagining the right attitude in a specific relationship and creating a kind of internal model of how that relationship can be warm, loving and harmonious.

In another section of this chapter, Assagioli addresses the attitude of the therapist, stating that interpersonal relationships can be facilitated by the way in which the therapist regards the patient. Referencing the work of Henri Baruk, he says his own approach "consists in the attitude of addressing oneself to the better part of the patient, together with (a)  spirit of confidence, of trust in and appreciation of the patient." In a further explication, Assagioli states that one needs to view the patient not only as  having the "unaffected" aspect of moral conscience, but also the Self. He emphasizes that the role of the Self is not only moral, but also spiritual. He further explains that the conscience "that issues from the spiritual Self is quite different (than the harsh super-ego that Freud identified). It is a wise, loving type of moral conscience; it is not harsh, and follows to some extent the principle so well expressed in the words of the Christ: "Love thy neighbor as thyself.""

In the very last section of the chapter there is a general commentary on all the techniques discussed in this and earlier chapters. Assagioli points out that techniques should be used with patients in a way that takes their particular situation into consideration, and each patient should be regarded as uniquely themselves, rather than "as a member of a class." Finally, he gives some thoughts about research, stating that he feels "that research can be more profitably directed towards the intensive study and treatment of a comparatively small number of cases - resulting in detailed and thoroughly discussed case histories - than towards a more general treatment of the large number of cases needed for statistical purposes."

Reading Chapter 1

Each time I read Psychosynthesis, I'm amazed at how current the issues are, how well the content has withstood 45 years of great change in our world. This book was first published in 1965. By that time, Roberto Assagioli had been developing Psychosynthesis for over 50 years. This year we celebrated 100 years of Psychosynthesis at the AAP (Association for the Advancement of Psychosynthesis) Conference in Chicago, marking the anniversary of Assagioli's dissertation, completed in 1910. How might Psychosynthesis develop in the future?

In the Introduction, Assagioli compares and contrasts Psychosynthesis with existential psychology. In the amazing plethora of psychologies, methods, protocols and techniques offered today, what makes Psychosynthesis stand out? How is it similar and how is it different?

In chapter one, subtitled, "Dynamic Psychology and Psychosynthesis," he lists a large number of influences and strands in the stream of psychology of the day. He says that in attempting to coordinate and synthesize these, one can arrive at "a pluridimensional conception of the human personality." From there he presents his famous schematic, the egg diagram, in which he presents his idea of the psychological structure of the human person.

At the same time, Assagioli makes it very clear that Psychosynthesis is not a 'one-size fits all' psychotherapy. He writes of the dynamism of the concrete real living person. He emphasizes that the Self is 'one,' and states that the small self of ordinary consciousness is but a 'reflection' of the Self.  However, the problem is that humans experience themselves as divided in many ways, ..."we are limited and bound in a thousand ways - the prey of illusions and phantasms, the slaves of unrecognized complexes, tossed hither and thither by external influences, blinded and hypnotized by deceiving appearances."

Then, we are offered a way out: achieve a "harmonious inner integration, true Self-realization and right relationships with others. This is accomplished through the stages of psychosynthesis, which Assagioli lists. He describes what is to be done in each stage.

I'm wondering, what has been our own experience with each of these stages? And, what have we learned through observing and assisting others to through them?

Reading Schedule for the Book Study

Those people who have signed up to participate will have received the schedule by now. Here is an easily accessible record of the schedule for everyone, including people who would like to follow along without full participation.


Psychosynthesis: Reading Schedule

The schedule gives the conference call dates for each section of the book. In the week before the conference call, I will send a reminder email to registered participants, noting the section we are reading and providing a question or topic we may want to discuss.

November 4th Chapter 1
November 11th Chapter 2
November 18th Chapter 3
We skip the week of Thanksgiving
December 2nd Chapter 4, through the section on Will Training
December 9th Chapter 4, beginning with Techniques for the Training and Use of Imagination to the end of the chapter
December 16th Chapter 5
December 23rd Chapter 6
December 30th Chapter 7
January 6th Chapter 8
January 13th Appendix