Psychosynthesis: An Integrated Theoretical Base for Holistic Healing Practice

Abstract

Two different orientations exist in life: the personal, or practical, and the transpersonal, or spiritual. The personal experience emphasizes an outward orientation to the mastery of the self through the mastery of some part of the world. The transpersonal experience emphasizes an inward orientation to the mastery of self through the mastery of one's inner world. Traditionally, world cultures have favored one orientation over the other as though they were antithetical approaches to living. Actually, these two dimensions are complimentary perspectives which can be brought together in a healing synthesis.

A world trend is developing in our time toward the synthesis of the practical and the spiritual as demonstrated by the development of the f ield of holistic nursing and in the emergence of the human potential movement. Two versions of synthesis exist, the Eastern and the Western, each with its own cultural emphasis. These two systems are merged in a multidimensional process called Psychosynthesis which supports the potential development of the individual from the level of the personal to that of the global. As such, this holistic system of human development may offer the nurse an integrated, theoretical framework from which to practice the art of holistic healing.

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