Originally published in 1993, Discovering Your Self is a remarkable and original personal account which examines the psychological walls we build around us. In it, Reinhard Kowalski, a consultant clinical psychologist and psychotherapist, develops his model of psychotherapy and psychosynthesis in a personal, psychological, clinical and political way. The result is a psychological guide-book through an increasingly complex, changing and confusing inner and outer world.
His exploration draws on re-formulated cognitive behaviour therapy, stress management, and psychosynthesis psychotherapy, as well as Leontyev’s activity theory, and the works of Grof, Wilber and Masterson. In addition, Douthwaite’s economic considerations and the process of German unification, with its symbolism of the ‘Wall coming down’, are discussed in a psychotherapeutic way. The discovery of ‘Self’ is seen as a process that needs to constantly to deal with ‘breaking walls and building bridges’ between the different aspects and levels of our being.
Throughout the book there are experiential exercises and meditations, based in psychosynthesis, that are relevant for therapists and for individuals who are on their own journey of personal growth. The book aims at sharing with the reader ways and means of becoming conscious of our own inner ‘greenhouse’, the closed system within, and of breaking through the walls that we have built within us, around us, and between each other.
The result is fascinating book that challenges our widely accepted views of ourselves in a practical and experiential way.