Psychosynthesis and Technology Initiatives for Peace

--The Psychological Dimension--

Psychosynthesis is a comprehensive psychology theory created by Roberto Assagioli. It is also a practical working method for personal growth. “These methods are unified around the notion of a self at the core of each individual that can direct the harmonious development of all aspects of the personality. Beyond that personal harmony lies access to higher realms—creativity, transpersonal experience, and spiritual development.”
(Quote from the back cover of “Psychosynthesis.”)

“The basic purpose of psychosynthesis is to release or, let us say, help release, the energies of the Self. Prior to this the purpose is to help integrate, to synththesize, the individual around the personal self, and then later to effect the synthesis between the personal ego and the Self.” Roberto Assagioli “Psychosynthesis”

“Psychosynthesis” and “The Act of Will” both by Assagioli are primary source books for the theories and methods of psychosynthesis. The following link provides some very basic information about Assagioli’s theory, including his “egg” diagram of the self or psyche.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/daviwat/building/psychology.html#synthesis

So what connection can there possibly be between Technology Initiatives for Peace (TIP) and psychosynthesis?

For the moment let us forget the technology and focus on peace. If our initiatives are aimed to achieve peace, then we should have a deep understanding of what we mean by peace. An essential part of the TIP project would seem to be to develop an understanding of what peace is and how it can be achieved. It would include inner peace, peace between people and spiritual peace. I would hope that this would include the perspectives of many disciplines and one of the more significant of these would be that of psychology.

Psychosynthesis is well suited for an initiative having to do with peace. “Psychosynthesis – a natural way for personality integration and peace in the world,” by Ewa Bialek, Ph.D. makes this argument.

http://www.emk.hu/conf/index.php?file=antologia/bialek.htm&lang=en

If our project is to be successfully implemented, there must be many effective acts of will by a large number of people. Assagioli’s “The Act of Will” is the best book that I have read on the subject. He writes of the phases of training the will, aspects of the will, qualities of willing and the stages of willing. Many writings about the will focus almost exclusively on the strong will. This is only one aspect of the will, there is also the skillful will, the good will, and the transpersonal will. My notes on “The Act of Will” can be found at this link.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/daviwat/actofwill.html

As I see it the TIP project will be a lot of individuals and organizations feeding each other. Those with an expertise in psychosynthesis can feed TIP with information and techniques that help everyone understand what peace is and how it is achieved. They can provide similar assistance on matters involving the will and how it can best be used to attain our goals.

Roberto Assagioli proposed something he called the Will Project. To the best of my knowledge this project was never achieved and is largely dormant today.

“A very important and urgent application of the use of the will is that concerning the great issue of peace and war.” Assagioli

http://www.buildfreedom.com/tl/tl10d.html#TWP

http://www.psicosintesi.it/rivista/project.htm

My thought would be that the Will Project has some similarities to TIP. Any advancement of the Will Project would be supportive of TIP.

It has been many years since Assagioli proposed the Will Project. Much of the technological capacity for communication and working together that exists today did not exist when Assagioli made his proposal. The internet, discussion groups, blogs and other technologies now exist that could facilitate the completion or advancement (maybe it would never be complete, always a work in progress) of the Will Project.

Are there potential technological tools that could facilitate the completion of a project like Will Project? Would it be possible that there could be idea management software, databases, contact creation and control software, which would make the management of such a project more effective and efficient? Would the technologists who get involved with Technology Initiative for Peace be able to provide such technology and the instruction for its use?

I have focused here on Psychosynthesis. Just in the field of psychology I see a number of other approaches that would have much to offer TIP. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs would be an excellent guideline for the creation of TIP’s needs-framework. Ken Wilber’s integral theory with its all levels, all quadrants approach to the evolution of consciousness has much to offer, as does Spiral Dynamics.

For those who might have an interest, here is the web page for Yahoo’s Psychosynthesis group.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/psychosynthesis/