by Phil Goss
‘By virtue of the simultaneously individual and social nature of the self and the microcosmic relationship of the individual to the macrocosm of the world, beneficial ‘effects’ can also come about acausally or synchronistically.’
As Main (2004) argues, ‘synchronicity’ is more than a term Jung deployed to try to explain meaningful coincidence. Rather, he sets it up as a source of insight, where we might be able to make some meaning about the connections suggested; and of mystery, in a world where this term can otherwise be reduced to describe gaps in scientific knowledge. As Main further remarks, by bringing a dimension of the indeterminable to science, based on his ‘acausal’ experiences:
‘… precisely this alien and subversive character is what fits synchronicity to underpin Jung’s radical critique of the scientism, soullessness, and authoritarianism of modern western culture, as he perceived it.’
Main, 2004, p. 143
In this respect, an argument can be made for seeing synchronicity as thoroughly relevant for postmodern attempts to loosen the West’s historical tendency to adopt fixed explanations for what makes our world the way it is. Rosemary Gordon (1993) also makes a useful point: the acausal nature of synchronicity does not have to be seen as problematic in how it seems to contradict or undermine causal thinking. Rather, the two can complement each other, once we accept the paradox of their co-existence.
Jung and the famous ‘scarab beetle’
The most well-known example of synchronicity referred to by Jung involved an analysand of his who reported a dream in which she was given a golden scarab. You might recognize this word from Chapter 1 and Jung’s vision that included a giant black scarab beetle swimming in an underground stream, which in turn he related to an Egyptian myth of rebirth.
In this case of a woman who dreamed about receiving a golden scarab, Jung described how firmly she would tend to cling to the rational, and not allow its opposite into her awareness (he thought she had a ‘rigid animus’). Jung reports, just as the woman was describing the dream image above to him in his consulting room, there was a knocking sound on the window behind him. He saw a flying insect trying to get into his consulting room. He opened the window and caught the creature in his cupped hands. He realized that, on closer inspection, this was a scarabaeid beetle – the closest type of beetle to an African scarab to be found in central Europe – and, not only this, but it is an insect that would not usually choose to fly into a darkened room from the brighter environment outside.
Jung came to see meaning in this event, as it seemed as if his well-defended analysand was affected by this eruption of nature into the analytic space. She had shown a little loosening of her hardened intellectualism while describing the dream, but this unexpected manifestation, in an instinctually alive form, of the irrational, seemed to allow her to open up to deeper influences. It signified a long-awaited shift in her attitude towards the analysis and her own process within it.
The key point here, which illustrates the fundamental principle of synchronicity is, two things that were happening simultaneously – in this case a woman reporting a dream about a scarab and a scarab-like insect flying nearby and colliding with the window of the room she was in – were not causally connected. The telling of the dream did not make the beetle fly into the window, and the beetle flying into the window did not prompt the woman to describe the dream. These two aspects of the situation were not ‘logically’ connected but there does seem to be a relationship between the two, represented by the commonality of the presence of a scarab in both elements of the equation.
This kind of example, which Jung uses to ‘evidence’ the veracity of his theory, could be criticized as reflecting confirmation bias, whereby a person seeks out the so-called ‘evidence’ to confirm what they have already decided is the case. This criticism holds up when applied to an earlier study of Jung’s, which purported to show an ‘acausal connection’ between a person’s star sign and their choice of partner, not least as participants were self-selecting supporters of this idea.
The idea of synchronicity has also been seen in certain quarters as another example of how Jung generated a mystical edge to his conceptual framework and clinical practice. Richard Noll (1994), for example, made a forthright argument that the Jungian project as a whole was more like a cult, with Jung as its leader, which had built up a view of the contemporary world which owed more to religious fervour than intellectual rigour and proper psychological investigatory practices. For Noll, synchronicity fitted this critique of Jungian thinking well, as it tried to provide a quasi-scientific rationale for what was in his view, Jung’s cult of personality, disguised as analytical psychology. However, whatever view one takes about synchronicity, Jung’s use of examples such as the scarab one can provide beguiling food for thought in the face of the difficulty in ‘proving’ its validity.
Science and Jungian thought
Post-Jungian thinkers have taken Jung’s ideas and blended these with recent theoretical developments. Hester Solomon (2007) adopts the theory of ‘emergence’, which draws on complexity and chaos theory to help us understand how deeper structures may be at work behind the apparent unpredictability of molecular and other activity. As she puts it (op. cit. p. 284), ‘Under the right conditions, a structural transformation into a more complex pattern or meaning may occur…(and)…then genuinely novel properties and processes may emerge.’
She makes the comparison in psychological terms with Jung’s idea of the transcendent function powering the individuation process – an underlying dynamic which generates something new out of the often messy interface between conscious and unconscious influences. She demonstrates how Jungian thinkers such as Cambray (2009) deploy emergence theory to provide perspectives on the interaction of psyche and matter. This aims to complement orthodox scientific frameworks and deepen understanding about how physical matter might intersect with subtle psychic influences, within a post-Newtonian framework. This fits with Jung’s adoption of the medieval idea unus mundus (all of reality is united as one).
Spotlight: Evolutionary psychology
Links between the field of evolutionary psychology and Jung’s thinking on archetypes can be found in the work of MacLennan (2005), who sees them as embedded in a person’s genotype (their genetic make-up). Theories on personality traits also build on the focus Jung gave to typology, although influential thinkers in this area have developed their own frameworks for making sense of this (Cervone and Pervin, 2007).
Jung’s influence on the arts
We have seen how Jung drew on his own artistic and creative capacities to produce the graphic illustrations for The Red Book, as well as to support his own engagement with the unconscious. He and other Jungians (e.g. Jaffe, 1964) have identified the importance of art where it reveals symbols evocative of archetypal and unconscious influences. However, Jung cautioned against overvaluing the aesthetic quality of art produced in therapy, as it would distract from its therapeutic meaning. Jungian ideas have also influenced a number of important artists, musicians and writers, not to mention filmmakers.
Spotlight: Abstract expressionism
Two artists who developed their style of painting under the influence of a Jungian perspective are Jackson Pollock (1912–56) and Mark Rothko (1903–70). Their ‘abstract expressive’ work followed the way surrealist artists (e.g. Salvador Dali, 1904–89) painted responsively to the flowering interest in psychoanalysis.
Pollock undertook Jungian analysis and fostered a close interest in Jung’s symbolic and archetypal approach. This became reflected in his painting. One piece, Bird (1941), seems to portray his individuation process, with a dominant eye overlooking the whole picture, with a flavour of his apparent negative anima difficulty in the more conflicted elements elsewhere in the picture.
In Rothko’s case, his broad aim was to portray the inner world, as a reaction to what he saw as the overemphasis on appearance in the modern world. Rothko came to see the purpose of producing works of art as experien
tial more than aesthetic – his later work with its huge canvasses washed in shades of colour were designed to evoke emotion and reflection, even a kind of ‘spiritual’ experience. He proposed that the unconscious could be projected on to the pictures and generate conscious awareness of deeper influences. For both Pollock and Rothko, Jungian principles acted as a resource and stimulus for their art.
MUSIC AND WRITING
Other areas of creative expression in the public domain have been touched by the power of Jung’s ideas. The British classical music composer Sir Michael Tippett reports in his autobiography (1991) how reading Jung’s works inspired him to dig deeper into his own psyche (he spent nine months in 1939 analysing his own dreams), and how this helped infuse his compositions with richer layers of meaning. His Midsummer Marriage (1955), for example, has alchemical and individuation-related themes.
The German author Herman Hesse was analysed by Jung and the archetypal resonances of his writing reflect this (for example in Demian, 2006). The Irish poet Seamus Heaney also draws on Jungian archetypes, for example the Great Mother, in his poem ‘Bog Queen’ (1976).
FILM, FILM CRITICISM AND POP CULTURE
There is also a blossoming school of film criticism which applies Jungian symbolism and ideas (e.g. Hauke, 2013), recognizing how film operates like a kind of viewfinder into the human psyche. Concepts such as shadow possession, for example, are graphically portrayed in films such as Lord of the Rings (Jackson, 2001–3), where Frodo wrestles with the problem of the ring’s power and whether he can overcome it. Shadow also crops up in classic filmmaking (e.g. Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) as well as in contemporary films such as V for Vendetta, where collective shadow of an oppressive dystopia is represented by the subversive ‘V’ (McTeigue, 2005).
A more populist example is the American film franchise Star Wars. Although George Lucas, who created and produced the hugely popular series of films, described the key influence on the structure and themes he used as Joseph Campbell’s (2008) ‘hero’s journey’ framework, this in turn was strongly influenced by Jung’s theories.
Another example from popular culture is the British pop/rock group The Police, who released an album in 1983 entitled Synchronicity. This proved to be their most successful record and the title was a direct reference to Jung’s theory. This also reflects how, while notions such as synchronicity have not been recognized in many parts of the academy as scientifically or psychologically significant, Jungian ideas have attracted interest and creative energy in those who influence, and enjoy, popular and higher cultural life.
Key terms
Emergence: Theory arising from studies in physics, which postulates the presence of underlying patterns that generate new structures from apparent chaos.
Synchronicity: Jung’s ‘acausal connecting principle’, which, as this phrase implies, refers to two (or more) disconnected phenomena apparently being connected where there is no causal explanation for this. Jung suggested this happened outside ordinary time and space, while also bridging psyche and matter in how it manifests itself.
Unus mundus: A phrase Jung borrowed from medieval philosophy, which refers to the idea that all of reality is united as one. Synchronicity operates as it does because the relationship between psyche and matter is intimately interconnected, according to Jung.
Dig deeper
Cambray, J., Synchronicity: Nature and Psyche in an Interconnected Universe (Texas: A & M Publications, 2009)
Campbell, J., The Hero With a Thousand Faces (Novato, CA: New World Library, 2008)
Cervone, D. and Pervin, C., Personality Psychology (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley, 2007)
Freeman, D., Face to Face, episode on C. G. Jung, 22/10/59 (BBC Productions, 1959)
Gordon, R., Bridges: Metaphor for Psychic Processes, Ch. 24 (London: Karnac, 1993)
Hauke, C., Visible Mind: Movies, Modernity and the Unconscious (London: Routledge, 2013)
Heaney, S., ‘Bog Queen’ in North (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976)
Hesse, H., Demian (London: Peter Owen Modern Classics, 2006)
Jaffe, A., ‘Symbolism in the visual arts’ in Jung, C. G. and Von Franz, M. (eds.), Man and His Symbols (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co., 1964)
Jung, C. G., ‘Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies’ in Civilisation in Transition, CW10, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 1970a)
Jung, C. G., Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle (London: Routledge, 1970b)
Jung, C.G., Modern Man in Search of a Soul (London: Routledge Classics, 2001)
Lorenz, K., Studies in Animal and Human Behaviour, vol. 1. (R. Martin, transl.) (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970)
MacLennan, B. J., ‘Evolution, Jung, and Theurgy: Their Role in Modern Neoplatonism’ in Berchman, R. M. and Finamore, J. F. (eds.), History of Platonism: Plato Redivivus (New Orleans, LA: University Press of the South, 2005)
Main, R., The Rupture of Time: Synchronicity and Jung’s Critique of Modern Western Culture (London: Brunner-Routledge, 2004)
Noll, R., The Jung Cult: Origins of a Charismatic Movement (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994)
Shamdasani, S., Jung and the Making of Modern Psychology: The Dream of a Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)
Snow, C. P., The Two Cultures, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001)
Solomon, H., The Self in Transformation (London: Karnac, 2007)
Tippet, M., Those Twentieth-century Blues (London: Hutchinson, 1991)
Films (directors named):
Hitchcock, A., Psycho (Hollywood, CA: Paramount Pictures, 1960)
Jackson, P., Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Wellington: Wing Nut Films, 2001–3)
McTeigue, J., V for Vendetta (Hollywood, CA: Warner Brothers, 2005)
Fact-check (answers at the back)
1 Why has academia not widely accepted Jung’s ideas on science?
a They are too complex for many people to understand
b They suggest a view of reality not wholly based on measurable research outcomes
c They are too critical of conventional science
d They imply that reality can be manipulated by people into any shape they want
2 Why did Jung believe that humanity was generally divided against itself?
a Because Westernized thinking was different from Eastern ideas
b Because people kept going to war
c Because Westernized thinking in arts and science split the rational and the irrational
d Because fascism and communism split politics and nations into left and right wing
3 Why did Jung call synchronicity an ‘acausal connecting principle’?
a Because it involves two unrelated events that do not cause each other but are meaningfully connected
b Because it involves two events which try to influence each other but do not manage to do so
c Because it involves two events, one of which causes the other, but the connection is not clear
d Because it involves two unrelated events which do not connect unless we impose a meaning on this
4 Why did Jung see synchronicity as bridging arts/religion and science?
a It provides a spiritual language to explain quantum physics
b It ruptures time and therefore allows us to experience creative processes
c It brings meaning to science and can link numinous experiences to it
d It helps us visualize a bridge between famous scientists, and writers and gurus
5 What are the three meaningful but acausal ways in which synchronicity coincides?
a Events coinciding in space and time, and those which do not, and those disconnected across inner–outer dynamics
b Events in time and space, those which connect to events not coinciding in time and space, and those linking the inner physical world with outer psychic events
c Events coinciding with inner images, time stopping, and events repeating in a pattern
d Events coinciding in time and space, those not coinciding in time and space but linked, and those linking the outer physical world with the inner, psychic, one
6 How can synchronicity be helpful to the therapeutic process?
a It can create a powerful awareness of unconscious influences for the analysand
b It breaks up the monotony of predictable analyst–analysand dynamics
c It helps the analysand notice coincidences in their daily life
d It helps the analyst understand how the collective unconscious operates
7 How does Jungian thinking link with emergence theory?
a By demonstrating the importance of our emerging individuation process
b By the transcendent function’s generation of new patterns from conflicting old ones
c By highlighting ways in which the collective unconscious emerges archetypally
d By the underlying influence of Jung’s theory of synchronicity on science
8 How can focusing on aesthetic qualities of an analysand’s art affect therapy?
a It might help to understand how a person’s creativity could help them grow
b It might provide the basis of an interesting illustrated case study
c It might stop the analysand from listening to what the analyst says
d It might distract the analysand from the artwork’s meaning for their development
9 How did Jung’s thinking influence the abstract expressionist school of art?
a His abstract thinking provided a good model