Jung and Nicolescu: The Play of Opposites and the Spark of Life

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to review the work of depth psychologist C. G. Jung and theoretical physicist Basarab Nicolescu, and to compare and analyze their engagement with the concept of the opposites. The principle of opposition is essential to Jung’s point of view—and can be found in his theory of the transcendent function, the practice of active imagination, the unconscious, the shadow, and the realization of the reconciling symbol. Through quantum scientific theory and philosophical logic, and through the supposition of the existence of different levels of reality, Nicolescu showed that opposites need not be mutually exclusive antagonists, but rather, can work together to create something new, thus supporting Jung’s (1943/1966a) idea that “life is born only of the spark of opposites” (p. 53). Jung and Nicolescu demonstrate how to shift from outmoded axioms of classical science, which exclude the means for reconciliation of the opposites, to quantum scientific axioms that include and transcend the opposites themselves. But to experience this shift and to make room in the psyche for the reconciling symbol, I find it necessary to attend to emotions, feelings, and the deepest parts of the “heart, the depths of the psyche, the tap-root” (Jung, 1934/1969i, p. 410); otherwise, these are just ideas bouncing around in ego-consciousness. For this, the Sumerian story of the descent of Inanna and the grief ritual work of Francis Weller is invaluable.