A person does not find a final solution to their conflicts unless they overcome their personality and recognise and realise their connectedness with the world.
Human beings are well equipped for this, for they carry gnosis within them and with this inner guide they can find their path in the outer world (according to the psychotherapist Arie Sborowitz)
Spiritual thoughts about the ways of the soul and the meaning of life are increasingly finding their way into psychotherapeutic treatment in our time. A pioneer of such thinking, was C.G. Jung (1875-1961), who wrote in his ‘Analytic Psychology’:
One of the most brilliant examples of the life and meaningfulness of a personality that history has preserved for us, is the life of Christ. [1]
Attention is also turning to philosophical statements about the soul of man. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) formulated:
But the insight into the absolutely necessary and eternal truths is that which distinguishes us from mere animals and causes us to have reason and the sciences, in that it leads us and raises us to the knowledge of God and of ourselves. And this is precisely what is called the rational soul or spirit in us. [2]
After many years of research in the fields of perception, emotion and communication, scholars in the humanities have come to the realization that success in therapeutic treatment is to be sought in, and owed to the Other, the interpersonal, the ‘third factor’. One speaks of the ‘Fifth Paradigm’, which opened up a new perspective for psychoanalytic psychotherapy at the beginning of the 21st century. But how far is the road still lying before us, and what transformations are still to come in order to do justice to the “rational soul or spirit“, as Leibniz called it?
Psychotherapeutic work has become an established form of medical treatment in modern society. Numerous scientific studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of psychotherapeutic treatment, and their results have been incorporated into practice. The treatment concepts of different therapeutic methods offer various ways of dealing with afflictions of the psyche, and often achieve good results. The social prejudices of the past century regarding the treatment of mentally ill patients have by and large, been overcome. Thousands upon thousands of people are engaged in psychotherapeutic work. There are recognisable healing successes with anxiety, depression, psychoses and other psychological illnesses – but the results usually do not last long. What is the secret of a psychotherapy that leads to satisfactory healing?
For some years now, there have been increasing research efforts made to determine the influence of the personality of the psychotherapist on the process and outcome of psychotherapy treatment. According to the controlled studies and meta-analyses that have been conducted, a significant part of the success of a treatment depends on the personality of the psychotherapist. There is no doubt that the interpersonal skills of a psychotherapist are influential, that they have a promoting effect on the ‘working alliance’. If a psychotherapist proves to be empathetic, authentic, friendly and respectful, both verbally and non-verbally, this is positively received by the patient. However, it has also turned out that the differences in interpersonal skills are not sufficient to explain therapy successes; it therefore remains inconclusive as to what contributes to a decisive effect in the end. [3]
Metaskills in Process-Oriented Psychotherapy
A psychotherapist’s personality and attitude as well as their worldview and value system, have an impact on the process and outcome of psychotherapy treatment. But what should be included in a psychotherapist’s view of the human being, in order to recognise and treat the patient as a whole being, as a bearer of a rational soul or spirit?
Undoubtedly, the ability to grasp this soul-spirit dimension in a person, and thus to see in them more than just a personality endowed with independent thinking, feelings and willpower, would benefit the therapeutic processes.
The US-American physicists and learning analysts, Amy and Arnold Mindell, are the founders of Process-Oriented Psychotherapy; they conceive of it as a kind of mental practice and speak of metaskills. [4]
This is a new term in psychotherapy that refers to a therapist’s subtle receptive abilities. The authors see in psychotherapy, the task of helping people to follow their path in life and to realise what they are inwardly ready for. For this, psychotherapists need the mental metaskills – the essential attributes of process-oriented psychotherapy.
The spiritual qualities of a therapist that lie hidden deep down reveal themselves during treatment and build a bridge to the patient’s soul. This manifests itself during the application of one of the known techniques and methods. Thus, deep feelings rise up to meta-abilities and psychotherapy enters the realms of a spiritual practice.
Process-oriented psychotherapy follows the natural process and focuses on intentional and unintentional processes, on what is expressing itself and what is trying to express itself. It is not about who or what should express or be present or what roles should be taken. As the work is based on a phenomenological approach, concepts such as experience, awareness, and observation are crucial.
Two Personalities – Two Perspectives
Our sons of God went out. But only one returned.
Four saviours merged into two, and these two became the One. [5]
A spiritual perspective in relation to the structural make-up of man leads to the recognition and exploration of the laws of human organisation, including its subtle (energetic) structures. For a long time, the fourfold make-up of personality, consisting of physical body, etheric body, astral body and mental structure has been known.
The etheric body, also called the vital body, which penetrates the physical body and surpasses it by a few centimetres, maintains the functions of the physical body and supplies it with life energy.
The astral body, which vibrates even higher, is the carrier of emotional states and thus the driving force and impulse for corresponding human actions. It is often disturbances in the astral body that lead to seeing a psychotherapist. Then the emotional upsets are at the centre of a psychotherapeutic treatment.
Another subtle structure is the ‘mental body’, which carries the thinking ability and brain activity. It would be more correct to call the mental body the mental faculty, as it is only in the process of development in most people. The totality of the four bodies forms the so-called ‘lower’ personality.
The other, the ‘higher’ personality, arises, according to Gnostic tradition, from a monad and develops according to radically different, divine laws. It also possesses ‘bodies’ which are nourished and promoted by higher ethers and forces as well as by seven spiritual rays. This ‘second’, this ‘other’ in the total human system, unfolds on a serious spiritual-soul path and unites with the ‘lower’ personality growing towards it.
Seven power centres play a role here, which have been handed down to us by Eastern wisdom, the so-called chakras. They form the passage of the life forces and also the atmospheric and cosmic forces into the human body. Two of them are located in the head and the other five in the rest of the body.
Alice A. Bailey, in her book The Soul and its Mechanism, describes the connection between these seven centres with the glandular system of the body. [6]
Healing Through the Soul’s Encounter with the World
The human´s self is sovereign in itself as this ever and only individual and stands in its personal dignity initially only before God, its creator. It is designed to respond to His address and to obey Him and even in this it is still free to ignore this address and to refuse obedience… [7]
C.G. Jung’s dualistic-gnostic worldview enabled his successors in the art of soul healing to turn to the inner world of the soul in a new way.
The psychotherapist Hans Trüb also saw in it the source of inspiration that led him to found his Dialogical Psychology. Its starting point seems to contradict that of C.G. Jung. Trüb’s research topic is the influence of the outside world and especially the relationships with other people on the development and emergence of the personal-psychological qualities. Ultimately, however, he thereby rounded off the introspection of Jungian psychology. [8]
The perspective of ‘healing through encounter’, proved to be an important basis for humanistic psychotherapy, but also for the psychoanalytic intersubjective approaches. Trüb recognised the affinity with gnosis in C.G. Jung’s psychology through his interpretation of alchemical material, but he did not see healing exclusively in turning to the soul, as he believed Jung did.
According to Trüb’s dualistic worldview, which takes the spiritual seeker to their psychological limits, there are two substantially different systems in the human individual: one directed inwards (towards the soul), and one directed towards the periphery (towards the world). The psychological significance of the role and function of the self – ‘the prodigal son’ – must, in Trüb’s view, also be grasped from an ontological perspective (the doctrine of being). The self can only appear independently and uniquely when it becomes the bearer of responsibility for the soul and this soul faces the call of creation (the world) – with the corresponding courage.
Although the two systems (soul and world) cannot be brought into complete harmony with each other, they cannot be separated from each other either. From this duality, which is a potential unity, the human being suffers subjectively, which manifests itself in objective symptoms. This is the specifically human, inner-psychic conflict that can lead to the functional neurotic personality split. The difficult task of a psychotherapist, according to Trüb, is to, “restore in the patient the subjective unity that has been guiltlessly lost, in truth guiltily forfeited”.
Trüb’s dualistic worldview introduced the maxim of Hermes Trismegistus into psychology: As above so below, as within so without. Man, called by the soul, has the task of discovering in it “his spiritual realisation of the world”, and can “only then find access to it”. From this he “draws the strength for decision and the courage for conversion”. [9]
Back to the Origin: from Division to Synthesis
The synthesis that Jesus achieved was the new religious concept of the fraternal human community. [10]
For in the integral, healthy soul, consciousness and unconsciousness, while retaining their own characters, are not really separated from each other, but rather turned towards each other – the soul’s wholeness manifests itself precisely in this interrelatedness, it is intact in this way and only in this way. But when the synthesis of the soul breaks, the rupture reveals itself. [11]
According to the psychotherapist Arie Sborowitz, the conception that Jung called transcendent function was for Jesus “the symbol by whose inner content his soul redeemed itself into a new unity. It lifted him out of his crisis and led him to his task”.
“The religious is oriented” – according to Sborowitz – “to the second synthesis [a synthesis of the human soul with its situation in the world – note by the author] in its twofold form […], from the exclusion of which it suffers, with the finding of which it fulfils itself”. The second synthesis “leads at the same time to religio, to inward and outward binding: integration of the soul in itself and integration of the relationship between soul and world fulfil themselves in the interrelated binding consummation”. This is where Sbrowitz sees the religious moment in its totality.[12]
In his view, a person does not find a final solution to their conflicts unless they “overcome” their personality and recognise and realise their connectedness with the world. Human beings are well equipped for this, for they carry gnosis within them and with this inner guide they can find their path in the outer world.
In terms of the development of psychology and psychotherapy, research approaches such as those indicated here introduce a cross-personality perspective. Psychologists, psychotherapists and psychoanalysts of the most diverse backgrounds and training undergo their own transformations in the theory and practice of their paths, and eventually seek the ‘common denominator’. Despite all the divisions in science, this can lead to fruitful cooperation – with mutual recognition and appreciation of the achievements that have been made. This also applies to the differences in the conception of man. The people who ask for psychotherapeutic help are entangled in the most diverse ways in their inner and outer worlds and are often lost in them. Helping them requires some knowledge of these worlds as well as insights into philosophy, quantum physics and a truly spiritual science.
[1] C.G. Jung, Vom Werden der Persönlichkeit (On the Development of the Personality); in: Wirklichkeit der Seele (Reality of the Soul); Zurich 1934
[2] Gottfried Leibniz, Monadology; §28
[3] Sonnenmoser, Marion, Einfluss des Psychotherapeuten auf den Therapieerfolg (The Influence of the Psychotherapist on the Success of a Therapy); in: Deutsches Ärzteblatt PP 7/2014
[4] Mindel, Amy, Metaskills: The Spiritual Art of Therapy; New Falcon Publications, U.S. 1995
[5] Bailey, Alice A., Esoteric Psychology Volume II; in: A Treatise of the Seven Rays; Geneva 1990, p. 229
[6] Bailey, Alice A., The Soul and Its Mechanisms: The Problem of Psychology; Geneva 1976
[7] Trüb, Hans, Heilung durch Begegnung (Healing Through Encounter), Bergisch Gladbach 2015
[8] Trüb, Hans, Vom Selbst zur Welt: Der zweifache Auftrag des Psychotherapeuten, (From the Self to the World: The Twofold Mission of the Psychotherapist), in:“Psyche“, December 1947, year 1/ issue 1; pp. 41-67
[9] ibd., p.63
[10] Sborowitz, Arie, Das religiöse Moment in der Tiefenpsychologie (The Religious Moment in Depth Psychology), in: “Psyche“, 1951, year 5/issue 5; pp.278-289
[11] ibd.
[9] A.a.O., S. 63
[10] Sborowitz, Arie, Das religiöse Moment in der Tiefenpsychologie. In: Psyche, 1951, 5. Jahrgang, Heft 5, S. 278-289
[11] Sborowitz, Arie, a.a.O.
[12] Sborowitz, Arie, a.a.O.
