For the Colloquium: Art, Science and Culture: Towards a reevaluation of the work of Carl Gustav Jung
May 10-12, 2012
University of Strasbourg
Strasbourg, France
Abstract:
At a key time in his scientific development, the physicist Wolfgang Pauli underwent analysis by Carl Jung. The encounters were inspiring for both men and sparked changes in their work. I will talk about how two of Pauli’s most important scientific discoveries were affected by Jung’s analysis of his dreams: why atoms are structured as they are (the Pauli exclusion principle) and what this has to do with the archetypal number four; and the necessity for mirror symmetry as an archetype in physics as well as in the collective unconscious. A very different Pauli emerges, one at odds with esteemed colleagues such as Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg.
I think that this will be a fascinating lecture. As a Jungian analyst, I have long been aware of the creative relationship between Pauli and Jung, and the great impact that it had on Jung. Certainly Jung’s study of Pauli’s dreams played a huge role in the formulation of key elements of his thought. Your lecture provides a marvellous opportunity to examine in new depth how the influence went in the other direction. I look forward to the publication of this paper, and of the proceedings of the colloquium as a whole.