Roberto Assagioli facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Roberto Assagioli
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Roberto Assagioli
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| Born | February 27, 1888 Venice, Italy
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| Died | August 23, 1974 (aged 86) |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Occupation | Psychiatrist |
Roberto Assagioli (born February 27, 1888 – died August 23, 1974) was an Italian psychiatrist. A psychiatrist is a doctor who helps people with their mental health. Roberto Assagioli was a leader in new ways of thinking about psychology, especially in areas called humanistic and transpersonal psychology. He created a special way of understanding the mind called psychosynthesis. This method is still used today by many therapists and psychologists. His work focused on how people can bring all parts of their personality together to become more whole.
Contents
Life Story
Roberto Assagioli was born in Venice, Italy, on February 27, 1888. His birth name was Roberto Marco Grego. When he was two years old, his father died, and his mother married Alessandro Emanuele Assagioli. Roberto grew up in a family that loved art and music, which later helped inspire his ideas about psychosynthesis.
He was very smart and learned many languages by the age of 18. He knew Italian, English, French, Russian, Greek, Latin, German, and Sanskrit. He also traveled a lot, especially to Russia, where he learned about different ways societies work.
In 1922, he married Nella Ciapetti, and they had one son, Ilario Assagioli.
In 1940, during World War II, Assagioli was put in prison by the government led by Benito Mussolini. He was accused of "praying for peace." He spent 27 nights alone in a cell before being released. During the war, his family's home in Florence, Italy, was destroyed. They had to hide in the mountains to stay safe. Sadly, his son died at age 28 from a lung illness, which was made worse by the difficult war conditions. After the war ended, Assagioli went back to his work and continued to develop psychosynthesis.
The years after the war were peaceful for him. He started many foundations in Europe and North America to teach about psychosynthesis. Roberto Assagioli lived a long life, passing away at 86 on August 23, 1974. He had been married for 40 years.
Assagioli preferred people to remember him for his scientific work, not his personal life. Because of this, there are not many stories about his life, and most of them are not in English.
His Education
Assagioli first studied to become a doctor specializing in the brain and mental health (neurology and psychiatry). He got his degree in Florence, Italy, in 1910. During this time, he started writing articles that disagreed with some ideas in psychoanalysis. He believed his approach was more complete.
After his studies in Italy, Assagioli went to Switzerland. There, he trained at a mental health hospital in Zürich. He then opened the first psychoanalytic practice in Italy, which he called Istituto di Psicosintesi. However, he still felt that psychoanalysis was not fully complete.
Psychosynthesis
How it Started and Grew
Assagioli is famous for creating psychosynthesis. This is a way of understanding psychology that looks at the whole person, including their spiritual side. He was inspired by ideas from other famous psychologists like Freud and Jung. Freud talked about the "repressed mind" (hidden thoughts and feelings), and Jung had theories about the "collective unconscious" (shared human experiences).
Assagioli had trained in psychoanalysis, but he felt it was missing something. He believed that important parts of being human, like love, wisdom, creativity, and willpower, should also be included in understanding the mind. He started working on psychosynthesis in 1911 and continued until he died. Assagioli and Freud wrote letters to each other, but they never met. Assagioli once said that psychosynthesis builds upon psychoanalysis, using it as a first step.
However, Assagioli disagreed with some of Sigmund Freud's ideas that he thought were too narrow. He didn't like that Freud focused only on problems and didn't pay enough attention to the positive parts of a person. Psychosynthesis was one of the first approaches that came from psychoanalysis but also included a person's artistic, kind, and brave qualities. Assagioli's work was more similar to the psychologist Carl Jung. Both Assagioli and Jung believed that a person's spiritual life was important. They also thought that mental health problems could sometimes be linked to spiritual issues. Assagioli felt that Jung's ideas were the closest to his own understanding of psychosynthesis.
Assagioli said that his month in solitary prison in 1940 greatly inspired psychosynthesis. He used that time to practice meditation and strengthen his mind. He realized he could turn a difficult situation into a chance to learn about himself.
Interview with Psychology Today
In December 1974, Assagioli was interviewed by Sam Keen for Psychology Today magazine. In this interview, Assagioli talked about how Freudian psychoanalysis and psychosynthesis were different.
He explained that psychosynthesis focuses more on the "higher unconscious" (our potential for growth and wisdom) and developing our "transpersonal self" (the part of us connected to something bigger). He said that Freud was only interested in the "basement" of a person, meaning their basic instincts and hidden problems. But psychosynthesis is interested in the "whole building." He meant that it wants to help a person explore every part of their personality, from the "basement" to the "terrace" where they can enjoy life and look at the stars. Psychosynthesis tries to bring all parts of the personality together. It doesn't go against psychoanalysis, but it believes that our needs for meaning, higher values, and a spiritual life are just as important as our basic physical or social needs.
Assagioli also mentioned that Carl Jung was the closest to psychosynthesis in his ideas and how he worked with people. Both Assagioli and Jung believed that people are basically healthy. They thought that mental health problems are often just temporary issues. They felt that nature always tries to bring things back into balance, and that our minds naturally try to bring different parts together. The goal of therapy, they believed, is to help a person change and combine different parts of their personality. Both Jung and Assagioli emphasized the need for people to develop their higher mental abilities and their spiritual side.
He also pointed out some differences between his work and Jung's. Assagioli explained that psychosynthesis includes more ways of understanding how the mind works. He said that besides imagination, there are also functions that make us want to act in the world, like instincts, desires, and hopes. He stressed that there's a big difference between desires and the will (our power to choose and act). He placed the will at the very center of our self-awareness.
Assagioli explained that the will isn't just about being strong or controlling. He said there's also an "accepting will," a "yielding will," and a "dedicated will." He meant that sometimes, willpower is about willingly giving in or joyfully accepting other parts of your personality.
Spiritual Work
Assagioli was also very interested in how our minds work and how we can grow beyond our everyday selves. He studied different spiritual ideas, including theosophy and Eastern philosophies. He created various meditation techniques, such as reflective, receptive, and creative meditation.
He also helped several spiritual groups that followed the ideas of "ageless wisdom" (the idea that there are basic truths found in all spiritual traditions). He started two groups to teach meditation based on the ideas of the New Age teacher Alice Bailey: The Group for Creative Meditation and the Meditation Group for the New Age. He also helped start the School for Esoteric Studies, which taught Alice Bailey's work at a more advanced level.
Books and Writings
- 1906 – Smiling Wisdom (Italian)
- 1910 - La psicanalisi (His thesis, in Italian)
- 1926 - Psychosynthesis – A new method of healing (Booklet, English)
- 1965 - Psychosynthesis: A Collection of Basic Writings by Roberto Assagioli ISBN: 0-9678570-0-7 (English)
- 1966 - Per l'armonia della vita. La psicosintesi (Italian)
- 1973 - The Act of Will by Roberto Assagioli ISBN: 0-670-10309-8 (English)
- 1993 - (Published after his death) Transpersonal Development: The Dimension Beyond Psychosynthesis by Roberto Assagioli ISBN: 1-85538-291-1 (English)
- 2016 - (Published after his death) Freedom in Jail by Roberto Assagioli (English)
- 2022 - (Published after his death) Creating Harmony in Life by Roberto Assagioli ISBN: 979-1221402742 (English)
See also
- Religion and mythology
