Psyche and Matter
Psyche cannot be totally different from matter, for how otherwise could it move matter?
And matter cannot be alien to psyche, for how else could matter produce psyche?
Psyche and matter exist in one and the same world, and each partakes of the other, otherwise any reciprocal action would be impossible.
If research could only advance far enough, therefore, we should arrive at an ultimate agreement between physical and psychological concepts. ~Carl Jung; Aion; Page 261.
Image: Psyche and Matter manifesting as Dew. (The ultimate Synchronicity.)
Since psyche and matter are contained in one and the same world, and moreover are in continuous contact with one another and ultimately rest on irrepresentable, transcendental factors, it is not only possible but fairly probable, even, that psyche and matter are two different aspects of one and the same thing.
The synchronicity phenomena point, it seems to me, in this direction, for they show that the non-psychic can behave like the psychic, and vice versa, without there being any causal connection between them. ~Carl Jung, CW 7, Para 418
Carl Jung on Psyche and Soul
Carl Jung wrote much of his work in German.
Difficulties for translation arise because the German word Seele means both psyche and soul. Jung was careful to define what he meant by psyche and by soul.
I have been compelled, in my investigations into the structure of the unconscious, to make a conceptual distinction between soul and psyche.
By psyche, I understand the totality of all psychic processes, conscious as well as unconscious.
By soul, on the other hand, I understand a clearly demarcated functional complex that can best be described as a “personality”. (Jung, 1971: Def. 48 par. 797)
[The translation of the German word Seele presents almost insuperable difficulties on account of the lack of a single English equivalent and because it combines the two words “psyche” and “soul” in a way not altogether familiar to the English reader.
For this reason some comment by the Editors will not be out of place.]
[In previous translations, and in this one as well, psyche– for which Jung in the German original uses either Psyche or Seele– has been used with reference to the totality of all psychic processes (cf. Jung, Psychological Types, Def. 48); i.e., it is a comprehensive term. Soul, on the other hand, as used in the technical terminology of analytical psychology, is more restricted in meaning and refers to a “function complex” or partial personality and never to the whole psyche.
It is often applied specifically to “anima” and “animus”; e.g., in this connection it is used in the composite word “soul-image” (Seelenbild). This conception of the soul is more primitive than the Christian one with which the reader is likely to be more familiar.
In its Christian context it refers to “the transcendental energy in man” and “the spiritual part of man considered in its moral aspect or in relation to God.” . . . –Editors.] (Jung, 1968: note 2 par. 9)
Psyche and Matter
And matter cannot be alien to psyche, for how else could matter produce psyche?
Psyche and matter exist in one and the same world, and each partakes of the other, otherwise any reciprocal action would be impossible.
If research could only advance far enough, therefore, we should arrive at an ultimate agreement between physical and psychological concepts. ~Carl Jung; Aion; Page 261.
Since psyche and matter are contained in one and the same world, and moreover are in continuous contact with one another and ultimately rest on irrepresentable, transcendental factors, it is not only possible but fairly probable, even, that psyche and matter are two different aspects of one and the same thing.
The synchronicity phenomena point, it seems to me, in this direction, for they show that the non-psychic can behave like the psychic, and vice versa, without there being any causal connection between them. ~Carl Jung, CW 7, Para 418
Carl Jung Depth Psychology Blog