This essay will choose to discuss model (b) ‘I’ and the sense of identity, particularly in relation to the work of John Firman. This essay aligns with the definitions of “I” and Self as outlined by Assagioli (1965), that “I” is one’s sense of personal self, the centre of our consciousness and will, and not to be confused with the psychological contents of consciousness. Assagioli recognized a powerful integrative principle acting within the human psyche – the Self, stating that “I” is a “projection” or “reflection” of Self, seeing Self as the Ground of Being, the luminous Source from which our being flows. I agree with Firman’s (1997) singular use of the term Self to refer to the entirety of “I”s deeper being. Through the process of psychosynthesis, Assagioli believed that the “I” could become freed up to establish itself as an autonomous centre serving the Self, and it is this “freeing up” of “I” from its surrounding “contents”, including its many constellations of personalities, known as subpersonalities in psychosynthesis, that can allow for a person’s authentic sense of identity to emerge.
This essay will focus on the fundamental nature of empathy in psychosynthesis thought, as an inherent quality of “I”, with its source in Self, and how, through the emerging sense of my own sense of “I”, the development of my own personal centre, this psychological tool assisted in my understanding of my own development, and was in fact utterly key to it. I will then discuss and critique the “I”s possible application to clinical work, especially in relation to the importance of developing empathy. Empathy in this sense refers to the potential of “I” to be fundamentally loving towards all aspects of the