PSYCHOSYNTHESIS AS A METHOD OF ADULT’S PERSONALITY POST-TRAUMATIC GROWTH IN THE CONTEXT OF SOCIAL LIMINALITY

Abstract

The article presents the results of the analysis of the theoretical foundations of psychosynthesis as a method of adult’s personality post-traumatic growth in the context of social liminality – a transitional shift in social structures, in particular as a result of a war. Using psychosynthesis’s primary sources, along with the results of the previous studies of the liminality of the subject in adulthood, the author puts forward the concept of posttraumatic growth (PTG) as a liminal process that has a level of threshold self-knowledge and a level of threshold self-change, which constitutes the self-development of the affected personality as a result of psychological trauma. Both levels involve focused development of the adult’s subjectivity (self-awareness and will) in order to identify and transform traumatized (surviving) and protective subpersonalities in psychological aid through psychoeducation. Preserving the original concepts of the theory of psychosynthesis, the author suggests that the stages of psychoeducation are consistent with the methodology of psychosynthesis in general and correspond to the stages of PTG in particular: they include «know thyself», «possess yourself», and «transform yourself». It is emphasized that in psychological aid to adults in the wartime (liminal) and post-war (post-liminal) periods of the formation of Ukrainian society, PTG is characterized by personal development with the possibility of further fulfillment of the client’s spiritual needs, which are not dominant but rather are exceptional in psychosynthesis. It is important to note the importance of timely medical and psychological distinction between post-traumatic stress disorder and PTG, which have similar manifestations but different natures of internal conflicts. Moreover, the work with PTG takes into account the neurotic type of overcoming trauma through liminal pause, i.e. the chronic dominance of the protective subpersonality in the structure of unconscious internal conflict, and thus the inability to reach the threshold self-knowledge.