I am not a mechanism, an assembly of various sections
And it is not because the mechanism is working wrongly that I am ill I am ill because of wounds to the soul, to the deep emotional self.
DH Lawrence
http://www.psychosynthesis.net/Psychosynthesis.html
This is an excellent introduction to Psychosynthesis Therapy, which takes a holisic approach to healing the " human " part of a human being.
Read the whole article here :
http://www.psychosynthesis.net/Psychosynthesis.html
Most modern definitions of psychotherapy describe it as remedial treatment of mental or personality disorder. In contrast Thomas Moore in his book, 'Care of the Soul' suggests that the soul needs a different language and attitude from that of the medical model favoured by traditional forms of psychotherapy. If we are not to use the medical model of health and sickness, what model shall we use?
An alternative version of the etymological origins of psychotherapy is that of the 'Therapae' were the Greek maidens who served in the temples of Asclepius to prepare those who came to receive a sacred dream that would be a healing response to their suffering. If we were to take assisting clients to have a sacred dream as a guiding metaphor for the practice of psychotherapy, we would be clearly offering something different than 'remedial treatment'.
Most psychotherapists would agree with a basic aim of relief of suffering but the framework within which this suffering is perceived can differ widely. Within a medical model, the patient is asked, “What is wrong with you”. The opening quote from D.H.. Lawrence is a clear challenge to this view of the human psyche. An different question is provided in the Grail myth, when Perceval is instructed to ask of the wounded king, “What ails thee?” In modern English we might ask, “What troubles you?. What troubles us in our modern world may be more of a reflection on the times we live through, than our dysfunctional family. A general answer might be that we have become disconnected from our true Self and the role of the psychotherapist is not to dampen down that 'ailment' but to place it within a different context that brings meaning to the suffering.
In this short paper on the Psychosynthesis approach to psychotherapy, we will clarify the nature of a Psychosynthesis model by positioning it in relation to other psychotherapeutic approaches. We will examine how Psychosynthesis responds to significant psychological questions and explore its views of change. If the dialectic between Freud and Jung can be characterised as that of a tension between ego and soul, then Assagioli's vision was to bring into psychotherapy a third element, that of the spirit. In a complete picture of the human psyche, all three are needed and the distinctions between soul and spirit are as important as those between ego and soul. Spirit without soul has no containing vessel and soul without spirit loses direction and becomes self-absorbed.
I'm all defraged