Notes

One of the pioneers of the psychoanalysis movement around Sigmund Freud, Roberto Assagioli (1888-1974) also saw that it neglected the exploration of what Abraham Maslow would later call "the farther reaches of human nature." Under the stimulus of the Master Djwhal Khul, through Alice A. Bailey, Dr Assagioli set out to create a scientific approach which not only addressed man's impulses and drives, but the whole man -- including his creativity and will, joy and wisdom. He called his approach psychosynthesis. (Adapted from his online biography.)

Dr Assagioli was one of the disciples in Alice Bailey's group receiving personal instructions from the Master DK, which were later published in Alice Bailey, Discipleship in the New Age (2 vols). He also wrote the foreword to the Italian edition of The Light of the Soul, in which the Master DK gives his paraphrases of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. The teachings in the two volumes of Alice A. Bailey's Esoteric Psychology formed the basis for psychosynthesis.

Re-published as Psychosynthesis -- A Collection of Basic Writings in 1971 (Penguin) and in 2000 (The Synthesis Center).

Links

• Roberto Assagioli: Psychosynthesis and the Esoteric Roots of Transpersonal Psychology
• Roberto Assagioli on Wisdom
• Roberto Assagioli: The Scientist of the Spirit (video documentary)