The Higher Self

In the context of our psychosynthesis work, we build an awareness of the Higher Self as a place from which it is possible to gain perspective on the various components of our personality, on events in our life, and on the obscure forces that sometimes seem to war within us. It is possible to gradually build the ability to more readily access this Higher Self, and from the perspective it gives us, to exercise greater freedom in our emotional and mental lives, and acquire greater power over our own past and future.

The concept of the Higher Self is key to psychosynthesis. Roberto Assagioli was critical of conventional modern analyses of the personality, which in his day were represented most typically by the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud, because they failed to incorporate any recognition of the human potential for spiritual experience and growth - the "higher" aspects of the person. This theoretical shortcoming, Assagioli held, was reflected also in the practical failure of conventional therapeutic and conselling techniques to provide means and opportunities for spiritual exploration, growth and meaning.

In his work to redress this shortcoming, Assagioli turned east. He became learned in Sanskrit and Indian spiritual and philosophical systems, and drew particularly on the Indian (especially Advaita Vedânta) concept of Ātman or [universal] Self to construct a concept of human being which not only incorporates Higher Self, but in an important sense sees it as the centre of the person and the greatest power in us.