All the same, every science is a function of the psyche, and all knowledge is rooted in it.
The attempts that have been made, during the last three hundred years, to grasp the psyche are all part and parcel of that tremendous expansion of knowledge which has brought the universe nearer to us in a way that staggers the imagination.
The thousand fold magnifications made possible by the electron microscope vie with the five hundred million light-year distances
which the telescope travels.
Psychology is still a long way from a development similar to that which the other natural sciences have undergone; also, as we have seen, it has been much less able to shake off the trammels of philosophy.
All the same, every science is a function of the psyche, and all knowledge is rooted in it.
The psyche is the greatest of all cosmic wonders and the sine qua non of the world as an object.
It is in the highest degree odd that Western man, with but very few—and ever fewer exceptions, apparently pays so little regard to this fact.
Swamped by the knowledge of external objects, the subject of all knowledge has been temporarily eclipsed to the point of seeming nonexistence. ~Carl Jung, CW 8, Para 357
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
Psyche:
The totality of all psychological processes, both conscious and unconscious.
The psyche is far from being a homogenous unit–on the contrary, it is a boiling cauldron of contradictory impulses, inhibitions, and affects, and for many people the conflict between them is so insupportable that they even wish for the deliverance preached by theologians.[“Psychological Aspects of the Mother Archetype,” CW 9i, par. 190.]
The way in which the psyche manifests is a complicated interplay of many factors, including an individual’s age, sex, hereditary disposition, psychological type and attitude, and degree of conscious control over the instincts.
Psychic processes . . . behave like a scale along which consciousness “slides.” At one moment it finds itself in the vicinity of instinct, and falls under its influence; at another, it slides along to the other end where spirit predominates and even assimilates the instinctual processes most opposed to it. [“On the Nature of the Psyche,” CW 8, par. 408.]
The tremendous complexity of psychic phenomena led Jung to the belief that attempts to formulate a comprehensive theory of the psyche were doomed to failure.
The premises are always far too simple. The psyche is the starting-point of all human experience, and all the knowledge we have gained eventually leads back to it. The psyche is the beginning and end of all cognition. It is not only the object of its science, but the subject also. This gives psychology a unique place among all the other sciences: on the one hand there is a constant doubt as to the possibility of its being a science at all, while on the other hand psychology acquires the right to state a theoretical problem the solution of which will be one of the most difficult tasks for a future philosophy.[“Psychological Factors in Human Behaviour,” ibid., par. 261.]