s and there are therefore strong psychodynamic roots in psychosynthesis.  In his doctoral thesis Assagioli gave a critique of Freud’s approach, claiming it was incomplete as it did not address the actualised elements of human nature and how to enable man to fully live his potential.  From early on he challenged the purely scientific and reductionist attitudes of the time, bringing to the forefront the possibility that man also has self actualising potential which can be stimulated and developed.

He was influenced by many spiritual and philosophical traditions and people, such as the Russian esotericist Ouspensky, the Sufi mystic Inhayat Khan,  Jung, Buber, the founder of logotherapy Viktor Frankl and Alice Bailey, with whom he was a close friend.  His concerns were towards fragmentation and the possibility for synthesis at both an individual and collective level, including an interest in education and social issues.  These spiritual and mystical influences mean that within psychosynthesis lies a deeply optimistic and structured approach to not just personal development, but spiritual synthesis, personally and culturally, in which the individual finds a meaningful, purposeful and interconnected place within the whole.