THE ACT OF WILL

I discovered the work of Roberto Assagioli when I was around fourteen.

During my adolescence and early adulthood I would wander around Barcelona, my city, on Saturday mornings in search of books on philosophy, psychology, essays in general, looking for answers to the questions seething inside me, which I found in works that are still with me at home today. All the little money I managed to save by giving private classes to other kids in my district and village were spent on the books I read at night, into the early hours of the morning.

I remember one of the writers who really made an impact on me was the Italian Robert Assagioli. It would take a lot of words and pages to really speak about this lucid psychiatrist, who talked of the power of the will, and said we’re not only ruled by our unconscious, but also by a supraconscious mind that inspires us, gives us our intuition, and allows us to be moved by beauty, solidarity, hope, and the ability to love.

Assagioli isn’t an easy read. He makes demands on you -gently, but he asks things of you. And I wouldn’t want to miss the opportunity this blog gives me to thank this wise Italian with his kind, serious expression, his work, his clarity and his message for the human being. His work “The Act of Will”, in particular, was a turning point in how I perceived the world -as were the works of Viktor Frankl, Stefan Zweig, André Comte-Sponville, and Emilio Lledo, among others.

Hugs and kisses,

Álex