WHOLENESS/Psychosynthesis Model
-All of; entire
-In an unbroken, balanced or undamaged state; in one piece, no part removed
-Healthy, a thing that is complete in itself.
The concept of Wholeness has most successfully been explained to me by the psychological theory and model called Psychosynthesis. It was developed by psychiatrist, Roberto Assagioli over his lifetime, 1888 - 1974. A contemporary author, Jean Hardy writes about Assagioli and his teachings in her book, A Psychology with a Soul. For anyone interested in this subject, this is a good place to start.
When I first started talking about integrating the Feminine and Masculine energies within ourselves and the culture, creating wholeness, I felt that Assagioli’ Psychothinsis model provided the best map to assist one’s “getting there. It includes both the masculine and feminine principles and is based on integrating these principles to create a ‘whole’ psychologically healthy person.
This Psychosynthesis Diagram that we will be using to help explain this dynamic, personality integrating process is below. I hope that you will create one for yourself as well.
1. I have drawn a large circle to represent the wholeness of a personality. You do the same. Now draw a smaller circle in the middle, labeling it, SELF.
2. Within SELF are the two qualities of SELF, Consciousness and Will. These are attributes of SELF that create Awareness (Consciousness) and the ability to Choose.(Will)
3. Now I have drawn opposite characteristics of human personality and behaviors that are in potential within human beings. These are called Subpersonalities. If we put all of the possibilities or human subpersonalities together, on could envision it as a 360 degree orchestra. This is what I call the Orchestra of Subpersonalities. It is the SELF in the middle consisting simply of Consciousness (awareness) and Will (making choices) that I call the Conductor of this Orchestra of Subpersonalities. This conductor (Self) has the capacity to activate the subpersonalities at any one point in time using it’s abilities of Consciousness and Will.
4. It’s now your turn to think of ten more attributes of yourself or another person and draw lines like sun rays through the larger circle. At the other end of the line is its opposite.
5. For example, if you have Happy at the end of one line, put its opposite, Sad on the other end and continue around the circle with opposite You will end up with 20 qualities or 10 opposite characteristics of human beings which we will now call Subpersonalities of SELF. The number of qualities and their opposites are endless. All behaviors are in potential, not necessarily activated. We’re like a Kush Ball of subpersonalities if you remember those! Remember, the subpersonalities are the orchestra and the SELF is the conductor.
6. These continuums are the choice range of subpersonality expression….sad and the many degrees and variations in between to reach happy.
7. The Conductor says which subpersonality will be “up”. We have an endless number of subpersonalities so the self, or internal conductor has an enormous job of orchestrating them all!
If I am aware that my happy subpersonality is up, I am feeling happy or if I am aware that my sad subpersonality is up, I am feeling sad. This is the consciousness piece. Now the conductor has a chance to decide and act on whether he or she wants to be in that subpersonality to be present. A whole SELF then can ask, “ Is this subpersonality serving me well?” and if not, I need to make a choice to go somewhere else on the continuum or choose another subpersonality to respond. Empathy, Discouraged, or Determination, perhaps. The cartoon movie, Inside Out, is a great example of how these subpersonalities express themselves and interact which can help us have a sense of humor with our ‘selves’. I think a goal as a whole human being is to be a full orchestra of possibilities for feeling, not just stuck in a few. (In best possible world of human personality, of course)
It is the Self or Center, activating subpersonality characteristics that create our individual personalities. If I combine my wholeness map, (the one we created above) with those of other people, we would be on our way to identifying the potential 360 degree personality characteristics that are available to us as human beings. We own them all in potential whether they are activated or not. Wholeness is embracing all of them with consciousness which is totally non-judgmental, and then making a choice of whether we want to be in a subpersonality at any one moment, or not. Wholeness is embracing them all with consciousness and then exerting the Will to make our choices of where we want to ‘live’ in any one moment.
So for example, my Self becomes conscious or aware that I am in my happy subpersonality or my amused subpersonality or my glum subpersonality or my all the way to sad subpersonality. There are many options on the continuum between Happy and Sad. As human beings we are not meant to remain stuck in any one subpersonality because we are all a full orchestra of possibilities!
A practical application might be when one becomes aware of a particular feeling, take anger for example. One becomes aware of the feeling the feeling. It is important to feel that feeling and become aware that it is present. Once one is aware, recognizing that one has a choice and can identify other subpersonality responses if one chooses. Often when one consciously delves into the source of anger, at the end of the continuum line is the feeling of hurt, which is also a subpersonality, just in shadow.
Then with this awareness one can assert the Will and create a different response, move out of the anger response and address the hurt response for greater connection and dialogue. This is just one of the many possibilities for using the wholeness diagram. With each awareness comes a new conscious subpersonality addition to the 360 degree wheel of possibilities. Those subpersonalities of which we are unaware are considered to be in shadow or shadow aspects of our wholeness wheel.
This will be a subject of a future post along with many more examples and additional exercises that will demonstrate the use of the wholeness map. One of my favorites is the “I am aware” exercise we shared in one of our first few posts. Another would be to act out a subpersonality that is up by creating a body posture and/or movement and then switch to its opposite body posture or movement. You can exaggerate them or have someone else call out one from your map or their map to act out. The important thing is to try it with lightness and see what you learn about yourself. A whole group could try acting out their subpersonalities together and see what dynamic occurs. I remember that Virginia Satir used this interaction model for her family therapy sessions. ( Virginia Satir, Your Many Faces)
I have often toyed with the idea of having a Subpersonality party and see what “costumes” people choose to bring. It would certainly be an awareness exercise and conversation starter!