Psychosynthesis, The Pathless Path, The Greatest Danger
Existential Espresso Vol. 94
What I’ve been reading:
Psychosynthesis: A Manual of Principles and Techniques by Roberto Assagioli
Roberto Assagioli was an Italian psychiatrist and a student of Sigmund Freud. Although he valued psychoanalysis as a great progress in the field of psychology and overall human development, he considered it incomplete. That is how and why he developed psychosynthesis.
Just like Maslow, whom he often references throughout his works, Assagioli decided to focus on human potential and flourishing as well as to view the development of the psyche in a more holistic way.
A proof of this similarity between two pioneers of humanistic psychology, and the reason why I was attracted to Assagioli, is the following paragraph, where he talks about how the study of everything that’s “wrong” with human nature, although helpful in the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders, has also been harmful.
However, this pathological approach has, besides its assets, also a serious liability, and that is an exaggerated emphasis on the morbid manifestations and on the lower aspects of human nature and the consequent unwarranted generalized applications of the many findings of psychopathology to the psychology of normal human beings. This has produced a rather dreary and pessimistic picture of human nature and the tendency to consider its higher values and achievements as derived only from the lower drives, through processes of reaction formation, transformation, and sublimation. Moreover, many important realities and functions have been neglected or ignored: intuition, creativity, the will, and the very core of the human psyche—the Self.
-Roberto Assagioli (Psychosynthesis: A Manual of Principles and Techniques)
What I’ve been listening to:
Living Myth Podcast with Michael Meade: The Pathless Path
I recommended one of Michael Meade’s lectures not too long ago. He is an author and a mythologist whose work you’ll find immensely valuable and engaging if you’re a fan of thinkers like Carl Jung, Alan Watts, and Joseph Campbell.
What I’ve been thinking about:
One of the most dangerous things that can happen to you is to gain success on a path that takes you further away from who you truly are. To be incentivised to leave your real self behind in exchange for someone else’s idea of what “the good life” is.
Thank you for reading.
Stay strong, love life, and never feel sorry for yourself.
P.S. In case you’ve been aware that I have a community of the coolest, most versitile, and most supportive human beings online, the Sisyphus Society, and you were tempted to give it a try:
On Friday, I’ll open the community for new members at a promotional price, but for 48 hours only. Stay tuned.
Free Resources:
My free ebook: The Lost Art of Reading
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