Jungian Archetypes: Jung, Gödel, and the History of Archetypes

307 Pages·2009·5.91 MB·English

by  Robin Robertson

Praise for Jungian Archetypes
“A patient once asked me ‘What are all those science magazines doing in your
waiting room?’ Real Jungian analysts, she believed, read only Parabola,
Shaman’s Drum, or Modern Wicca. It’s a safe bet that she’s not likely to read
this book. Too bad. If she did she’d learn things about Jung that would
pleasantly surprise her.
Jung was a scientist. Analysts are as well, although some don’t realize it.
Others, strangely enough, seem to want to deny it. But many of us love science,
consider ourselves to be squarely in the scientific tradition, and stand in awe of
its methods and discoveries. Robin Robertson writes for this latter group. He
particularly enjoys mathematics, which, as the language of science, has its own
paradoxes, contradictions, and metaphors.
In Jungian Archetypes: Jung, Gödel, and the History of Archetypes, he traces
the history of science as expressed through mathematics.… Robertson’s book is
a dialogue between the history of science and Jungian theory.… His outline of
the history of science is excellent.… His review of Jung is equally adept. He
writes clearly, simply, and completely … he is very good at simplifying the
complex.”
—John R. Van Eenwyk
Pacific Northwest Society of Jungian Analysts Excerpted from The Journal of
Analytical Psychology, January, 1997
“Jungian Archetypes is the most recent summation of [Robertson’s] pioneering
work in drawing together the scattered strings of historical thought on the
possibilities and limitations of human consciousness.… Step by step Robertson
softly invites us to review once again the eternal questions of meaning and value
that awakened our consciousness in youth and lead us on the numinous quests
that hopefully continue to stir our endeavors in maturity. He makes the
profoundly complex issues of Cantor’s Set Theory of Transfinite Numbers and
Gödel’s Proof of the limitations of mathematical logic—surely esoterica for
most ordinary mortals—open and available to the literate reader. More, he
convinces us of their relevance for our personal growth and the sense of meaning
we seek in depth psychology. In this broadly appealing book, Robertson is doing
something vastly more than simply explicating Jungian psychology: He is
involved in sketching a plausible technical foundation for archetypal psychology
in the coming millennium.”
—Ernest L. Rossi, Ph.D.
Psychological Perspectives, Issue 33, 1996
“Robertson meticulously and effectively exposes the parallels between Jung the
psychologist and Gödel the mathematician. His documentation of illustrated
historical contributors to both fields is interesting and informing. In a direct style
of writing, he has woven the development of abstract concepts and scientific
research into a cohesive whole, showing that, at their root, psychology,
philosophy, and science are different languages for the same understandings. For
those who are skeptical and feel that science and psychology are antithetical to
each other, Jungian Archetypes will provide proof to the contrary.”
—John Maerz
Starchild Books, Port Charlotte, FL New Age Retailer, October, 1996
“Robin Robertson focuses on the quest for understanding the nature of hidden
reality and especially on the roles that mathematics and psychology have played
in that quest. It begins with a review of the foundations of both disciplines with
their culmination in the works of Gödel and Jung. It ends with an appraisal of the
limits to knowledge and with an expression of the need for a holistic union of
mind with the unknowable aspects of the universe. These are invoked for the
good of the individual, the intellectual enterprise, and humanity. I will claim that
it also has relevance in posing a challenge to our discipline of dynamics and
complexity. The book is exceptionally well crafted and clearly written.”
—Fred Abraham
The Blueberry Brain Institute Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology and Life
Sciences Newsletter January–March, 1996, Vol. 3, No. 3
Jungian Archetypes
Jung, Gödel, and the History of Archetypes
Robin Robertson
C
ONTENTS
Illustrations
Preface
Chapter 1. The Renaissance Ideal
Chapter 2. The Birth of Science
Chapter 3. What Do We Know and How Do We Know It?
Chapter 4. Pragmatic Responses
Chapter 5. Founders of Experimental Psychology
Chapter 6. Founders of Clinical Psychology
Chapter 7. Cantor’s Set Theory of Transfinite Numbers
Chapter 8. Sigmund Freud
Chapter 9. Logic’s Tower of Babel
Chapter 10. Background for Jung’s Psychology
Chapter 11. Jung’s Model of the Psyche
Chapter 12. Background for Gödel’s Proof
Chapter 13. Archetypes of Development: Shadow
Chapter 14. Archetypes of Development: Anima/Animus
Chapter 15. Archetypes of Development: Self
Chapter 16. Gödel’s Proof
Chapter 17. Alchemy as a Model of Psychological Development
Chapter 18. Mysterious Union
Chapter 19. Number as Archetype
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
About the Author
I
LLUSTRATIONS
Pythagoras the Musician. F. Gafurius, Theorica Musice, Milan, 1492. David
Eugene Smith, History of Mathematics, Vol. 1, reprint of 1939 edition (New
York: Dover Publications, 1958)
Plato: a fanciful portrait. From a drawing by Raphael in the Accademia at
Venice. David Eugene Smith, History of Mathematics, Vol. 1, reprint of 1939
edition (New York: Dover Publications, 1958
Leonardo Da Vinci’s drawings of musculature of human body. Jean Paul
Richter, The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, Vol. 2 (New York: Dover
Publications, 1970)
Euclid. From Mathematical Mac Tutor, School of Mathematical and
Computational Sciences, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews Fife, Scotland
First Page of al-Khowarizmi’s Algebra. Library of G. A. Plimpton. David
Eugene Smith, History of Mathematics, Vol. II, reprint of 1939 edition (New
York: Dover Publications, 1958)
Copernicus. From an early engraving. David Eugene Smith, History of
Mathematics, Vol. II, reprint of 1939 edition (New York: Dover Publications,
1958)
René Descartes. Carl B. Boyer, A History of Mathematics (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1968)
La Géométrie (facsimile page). David Eugene Smith and Marcia L. Latham, The
Geometry of René Descartes, reprint of 1925 edition (New York: Dover
Publications, 1954)
Isaac Newton. From a Portrait by Godfrey Kneller. Dirk J. Struik, A Concise
History of Mathematics, 4th revised ed., reprint of 1948 edition (New York:
Dover Publications, 1987)
Opening of Leibniz’s first paper on the calculus. In the Acta Eruditorium of
1684, as reprinted by C. I. Gerhardt, 1858. Dirk J. Struik, A Concise History of
Mathematics, 4th revised ed., reprint of 1948 edition (New York: Dover
Publications, 1987)
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. John Stillwell, Mathematics and its History (New
York: SpringerVerlag, 1989)
Leonhard Euler. John Stillwell, Mathematics and its History (New York:
SpringerVerlag, 1989)
Jean le Rond d’Alembert. Dirk J. Struik, A Concise History of Mathematics, 4th
revised ed., reprint of 1948 edition (New York: Dover Publications, 1987)
David Hartley. The National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland
Cardan. David Eugene Smith, A Source Book in Mathematics, reprint of 1929
edition (New York: Dover Publications, 1959)
Karl Friedrich Gauss. After a painting by A. Jensen. Dirk J. Struik, A Concise
History of Mathematics, 4th revised ed., reprint of 1948 edition (New York:
Dover Publications, 1987)
Nikolai Lobachevsky. Dirk J. Struik, A Concise History of Mathematics, 4th
revised ed., reprint of 1948 edition (New York: Dover Publications, 1987)
Bernard Riemann. John Stillwell, Mathematics and its History (New York:
SpringerVerlag, 1989)
Ernst Heinrich Weber. The National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland
Hermann von Helmholtz. The National Library of Medicine, Bethesda,
Maryland
Paracelsus. The National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland
Woodcut portrait of Andreas Vesalius. J. B. deC. M. Saunders and Charles D.
O’Malley, The Illustrations from the Works of Andreas Vesalius of Brussels,
reprint of 1950 edition (New York: Dover, 1973)
Franz Anton Mesmer. The National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland
Jean Martin Charcot. The National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland
Georg Cantor. Dirk J. Struik, A Concise History of Mathematics, 4th revised ed.,
reprint of 1948 edition (New York: Dover Publications, 1987)
Karl Weierstrass. Dirk J. Struik, A Concise History of Mathematics, 4th revised
ed., reprint of 1948 edition (New York: Dover Publications, 1987)
Giuseppe Peano. From Mathematical MacTutor, School of Mathematical and
Computational Sciences, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews Fife, Scotland
Bertrand Russell. From Mathematical MacTutor, School of Mathematical and
Computational Sciences, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews Fife, Scotland
Gottlob Frege. From Mathematical MacTutor, School of Mathematical and
Computational Sciences, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews Fife, Scotland
C. G. Jung. Photo AKG London
Kurt Gödel. Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton, New Jersey.
David Hilbert. From Mathematical MacTutor, School of Mathematical and
Computational Sciences, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews Fife, Scotland
The stages of alchemy necessary to produce the Philosopher’s Stone. From
Steffan Michelspacher, Cabala, 1616
Alchemical mining, ultimately of the alchemist himself. From Michael Maier,
Septimana Philosophica, 1620
Philosopher representing Hermes Trismegistos. From Michael Maier, Septimana
Philosophica, 1620
The combat between the fixed and the volatile. From Michael Maier, Viatorium,
1618
Culmination of the unio mentalis releases the anima, just as Athena was born
from the head of Zeus. From Michael Maier, Atalanta Fugiens, 1618
The royal marriage that marks the union of mind and body. From Michael
Maier, Tripus Aureus, 1618
To Lore Zeller, who has been so kind
to so many of us in Jungian psychology.
And to my late friend Gail Duke,
who always asked me to write more about mathematics.
PYTHAGORAS