Psychosynthesis & Higher Unconscious

We all know about the unconscious. But we we need to thank Psychosynthesis for introducing us to the higher unconscious.


Sigmund Freud gave us the current popular understanding of the unconscious. He suggested that it was that dank, dark and mysterious part of the psyche where repressed and suppressed material goes to live. Stuff such as socially unacceptable ideas, wishes or desires, traumatic memories, and painful emotions.


However Roberto Assagioli, who created Psychosynthesis suggested that the difficult material we struggled to incorporate were not just drives and urges that were painful and socially unacceptable but also aesthetic experience, creative inspiration, and higher states of consciousness which we often repel and repress. This was the higher unconscious. As beautifully expressed in the poem by Marianne Williamson.


Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate,
but that we are powerful beyond measure.


It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?


Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.


Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.


We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some; it is in everyone.


And, as we let our own light shine, we consciously give
other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.


So holding the psychosynthetic frame, let us explore the unconscious for the richness that it holds.