The term complexio oppositorum — the union or conjunction of opposites held together in a single figure or principle — occupies a structurally central position in the Jungian depth-psychology corpus. Jung deploys it above all as a characterization of the Self and of God-images: both are conceived as psychic totalities that cannot be reduced to either pole of any binary without falsification. The Holy Ghost, the Self, Mercurius, and the alchemical lapis all receive this designation in Jung's mature work, reflecting his persistent conviction that genuine wholeness is not the elimination of tension but its paradoxical containment. The term carries a dual genealogy: it inherits the theological tradition of Nicholas of Cusa's coincidentia oppositorum while acquiring a distinctly empirical-psychological warrant in Jung's reading of alchemical and Gnostic symbolism. Von Franz extends the concept to account for the Self's enantiodromian reversibility and its appearance as yang/yin, hero/dragon, or light/shadow dyads. The Aion index cross-references complexio oppositorum directly with coniunctio oppositorum, marking the two as closely allied but not identical operations. Crucially, the concept stands as Jung's most explicit counter to dualism: the Self's unity-in-contradiction is opposed not to difference but to the splitting that leaves opposites irreconcilable. The term thus functions simultaneously as a phenomenological descriptor, a theological argument, and a clinical horizon.
my critic should know how very much I stress the unity of the self, this central archetype which is a complexio oppositorum par excellence, and that my leanings are therefore towards the very reverse of dualism.
Jung identifies the Self as the preeminent instance of the complexio oppositorum, explicitly using this identification to refute charges of Manichaean dualism in his thought.
, Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self, 1951thesis
if we conjecture that the striking contradictions we find in our spirit symbolism are proof that the Holy Ghost is a complexio oppositorum (Jungian of opposites). Consciousness certainly possesses no conceptual category for anything of this kind.
Jung argues that the paradoxical symbolism of the Holy Ghost demonstrates that it functions psychologically as a complexio oppositorum, a content transcending any conceptual category available to ordinary consciousness.
, Psychology and Religion: West and East, 1958thesis
The Self is a true "complexio oppositorum," though this does not mean that it is anything like as contradictory in itself. It is quite possible that the seeming paradox is nothing but a reflection of the enantiodromian changes of the conscious attitude.
Peterson, following Jung, affirms the Self as a genuine complexio oppositorum while carefully distinguishing apparent contradiction from intrinsic incoherence, attributing the paradox partly to enantiodromian shifts in consciousness.
, The Shadow of a Figure of Light, 2024thesis
God: as complexio oppositorum, see complexio oppositorum; devil and, see devil s.u.; evil principle in, 709, 710, 712, 713, 723; … two aspects/ambivalence/paradox of, 682-84, 686, 688, 690, 691, 709, 710, 740, 741.
The Symbolic Life index cross-references the God-image directly under complexio oppositorum and catalogues extensive passages on the divine ambivalence and evil principle, demonstrating the term's systematic importance to Jung's theology of the psyche.
, Collected Works Volume 18: The Symbolic Life, 1976supporting
Self (archetype) … as complexio oppositorum, 164f; … Christ as image of, 181f, 215, 230, 233, 264; … Jungian of opposites in, 233.
Von Franz's index entry maps the complexio oppositorum onto the Self archetype and traces its symbolic expressions through Christ, Mercurius, and mandala imagery throughout her study of Jung's myth.
, C.G. Jung: His Myth in Our Time, 1975supporting
complexio oppositorum, 61n, 225, 267; see also coniunctio oppositorum … completeness: and perfection, 68, 69, 111; voluntary, 70; see also wholeness.
The Aion index cross-references complexio oppositorum with coniunctio oppositorum and with the concept of completeness, situating the term within the broader network of Self, wholeness, and alchemical conjunction.
, Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self, 1951supporting
antinomy, 37, 40, 49, 121 … archetypes/archetypal imag(es), 28-31, 53, 56, 62, 66, 68-69, 77, 81, 87, 89-90, 95, 98, 100, 106-110, 115, 120.
Edinger's index to his elucidation of Answer to Job records antinomy as a recurrent category alongside archetypal imagery, indicating that the complexio oppositorum dynamic is operative throughout his engagement with Jung's God-image transformation.
, Transformation of the God-Image: An Elucidation of Jung's Answer to Job, 1992supporting
The myth must ultimately take monotheism seriously and put aside its dualism, which, however much repudiated officially, has persisted until now and enthroned an eternal dark antagonist alongside the omnipotent Good. Room must be made within the system for the philosophical complex.
In Memories, Jung argues that Christian mythology must overcome its suppressed dualism by integrating the dark antagonist into a single, philosophically coherent complex — a position consonant with his broader complexio oppositorum thesis.
, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, 1963supporting
coincidentia oppositorum, God as, 209f … collective: and archetypal symbols, 301; consciousness, 341.
The Alchemical Studies index records God as coincidentia oppositorum, the Cusan cognate of complexio oppositorum, reflecting Jung's deployment of both Latin formulations when treating alchemical and Gnostic God-images.
, Alchemical Studies, 1967aside
the self emerged only gradually in Jung's writings … the intimate link between the self, as the essence of individuality, and individuation as the process by which that individuality may be realised.
Papadopoulos traces the conceptual development of the Self in Jung, providing the theoretical ground from which the Self's characterization as complexio oppositorum becomes intelligible as a culminating formulation.
, The Handbook of Jungian Psychology: Theory, Practice and Applications, 2006aside