The relationship between psyche and matter stands as one of the most generative and unresolved tensions in the depth-psychological tradition. Jung himself refused to privilege either pole: he could regard the psyche as a quality of matter and matter as a concrete aspect of the psyche, provided that psyche was understood as the collective unconscious — a formulation that deliberately resists reduction in either direction. The most sustained engagement with this problem is von Franz's volume Psyche and Matter, whose twelve essays map the rapprochement between analytical psychology, quantum physics, microphysics, and psychosomatic medicine. Von Franz develops Jung's spectral model — psychic life running from an 'infrared' pole where psychic processes merge into physical processes, to an 'ultraviolet' archetypal pole — as the conceptual architecture within which psyche and matter are neither identical nor wholly separate. The principle of synchronicity functions as the theoretical hinge: in each synchronistic event, one meaning manifests simultaneously in psychic and material registers, suggesting a unus mundus beneath both. Jung's technical writings on the psychoid archetype (in The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche and The Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche, co-authored with Pauli) establish that the archetype, at its deepest level, is not purely psychic but borders on the physical. Conforti, Hoeller, and Edinger extend the discussion toward field theory, alchemy, and ancient arche-cosmologies respectively, while Giegerich challenges the entire ontological framing. The term thus names not a settled doctrine but an open problem at the frontier of depth psychology.
In the library
21 passages
Jung even asserted that he would have no objection to regarding the psyche as a quality of matter and matter as a concrete aspect of the psyche, provided that the psyche was understood to be the collective unconscious.
This passage states Jung's foundational thesis: psyche and matter are potentially convertible descriptions of a single underlying reality, identified with the collective unconscious, and synchronicity is the principle that might unite their complementary registers.
von Franz, Marie-Louise, Psyche and Matter, 2014thesis
the latter hypothesis requires a psyche that touches matter at some point, and, conversely, a matter with a latent psyche, a postulate not so very far removed from certain formulations of modern physics.
Von Franz here forwards Jung's argument that the interaction hypothesis — rejecting pre-established harmony — necessitates positing a latent psychic dimension within matter and a material threshold within psyche, convergent with certain positions in modern physics.
von Franz, Marie-Louise, Psyche and Matter, 2014thesis
they can only be in a state of interaction. But the latter hypothesis requires a psyche that touches matter at some point, and, conversely, a matter with a latent psyche, a postulate not so very far removed from certain formulations of modern physics.
Jung and Pauli together argue that if psychic and physical events are genuinely interrelated rather than merely parallel, each domain must possess latent properties of the other — a mutual ontological interpenetration.
Jung, C. G. and Pauli, Wolfgang, The Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche, 1955thesis
At the infrared pole, the psychic processes flow or merge into the physical processes; how and where are still unclear in many respects. However, we know quite definitely that there is a relationship of exchange between these two factors.
Von Franz employs a spectral metaphor to map the psyche-matter continuum, locating the point of merging at the 'infrared' pole while acknowledging that the precise mechanism of exchange remains empirically unresolved.
von Franz, Marie-Louise, Psyche and Matter, 2014thesis
In sum, that which we designate as matter or energy in the external world is an archetypal image, just as the mind is... what is interesting for psychologists is the question of how these two archetypal powers show themselves in our consciousness.
Von Franz argues that both matter and mind are, from a psychological standpoint, archetypal images rather than independently verifiable ontological absolutes, reframing the psyche-matter question as one of consciousness rather than metaphysics.
von Franz, Marie-Louise, Psyche and Matter, 2014thesis
The archetype as such is a psychoid factor that belongs, as it were, to the invisible, ultra violet end of the psychic spectrum. It does not appear, in itself, to be capable of reaching consciousness.
Jung's concept of the psychoid archetype positions the deepest structural level of psychic life at a boundary that is simultaneously psychic and trans-psychic, pointing toward the zone where psyche and matter are indistinguishable.
Jung, C. G. and Pauli, Wolfgang, The Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche, 1955supporting
psychic phenomena exhibit a certain quantitative aspect. Could these quantities be measured the psyche would be bound to appear as having motion in space, something to which the energy formula would be applicable.
Jung contends that psychic phenomena possess a latent quantitative dimension that, were it measurable, would render the psyche formally equivalent to mass in motion — a bridge toward the natural-scientific description of matter.
Jung, Carl Gustav, The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, 1960supporting
Western alchemy originated in Alexandrian times when the philosophical mind of the Greeks encountered the techno-magic of the Orient and the North African cultures... the idea of one divine basic principle — arche — of the universe.
Von Franz traces the historical roots of the psyche-matter problem to the Greek concept of arche and the alchemical tradition, establishing that the question of a single primordial substance underlying both mind and matter has deep pre-modern precedents.
von Franz, Marie-Louise, Psyche and Matter, 2014supporting
general acausal orderedness — that, namely, of the equivalence of psychic and physical processes where the observer is in the fortunate position of being able to recognize the tertium comparationis.
Von Franz articulates synchronicity as grounded in an 'acausal orderedness' that reveals the equivalence of psychic and physical processes through a shared tertium comparationis — the meaning-content common to both registers.
von Franz, Marie-Louise, Psyche and Matter, 2014supporting
these relationships seem rather to indicate a causal relationship, an interaction between psyche and matter. Only the processes involved in 'miraculous' cures, which are unpredictable, can, in my opinion, be understood as synchronistic incidents.
Von Franz distinguishes causal psychosomatic interaction from properly synchronistic events, arguing that only the latter — spontaneous and unpredictable — genuinely dissolve the psyche-matter boundary.
von Franz, Marie-Louise, Psyche and Matter, 2014supporting
the emotional stimulus rising from within to establish order comes, as the psychologist can prove, from preconsciously activated patterns of mental behavior, that is, from the archetypes. It is only there, if anywhere, that we might discover instances or sources of negentropy.
Von Franz proposes that the archetypes, as psychic organizers activated prior to consciousness, constitute the psychological analogue of negentropy — linking psychic structuring activity to physical concepts of information and order.
von Franz, Marie-Louise, Psyche and Matter, 2014supporting
we have two modes for acquiring information: by observation and by participation. The latter consists in participating in trans-spatial 'themes'... This is very similar to Jung's idea of a collective unconscious, which is, by his definition, partly trans-spatial and trans-temporal.
Von Franz aligns Ruyer's distinction between observable and participable realities with Jung's collective unconscious, suggesting that the deepest structure underlying both psyche and matter is trans-spatial and participable rather than merely observable.
von Franz, Marie-Louise, Psyche and Matter, 2014supporting
carrier shells can be seen metaphorically as the expression of archetypes in form, psyche, and matter; patterns in nature.
Conforti uses the carrier shell as a natural emblem for the Jungian thesis that archetypes express themselves simultaneously in psychic experience and material form, providing an empirical figure for the psyche-matter continuum.
Conforti, Michael, Field, Form, and Fate: Patterns in Mind, Nature, and Psyche, 1999supporting
Sooner or later nuclear physics and the psychology of the unconscious will draw closer together as both of... [reveal] a reality behind the phenomena of the psyche analogous to that revealed in the realm of physics.
Hoeller cites Jung's prediction that nuclear physics and depth psychology will converge, framing the psyche-matter problem as a matter of parallel revelations of a hidden order behind both physical and psychological phenomena.
Hoeller, Stephan A., The Gnostic Jung and the Seven Sermons to the Dead, 1982supporting
today's materialists find reality in matter (mater!) whereas Jung regarded both realms, spirit and matter, as archetypal ideas which in the last analysis transcend consciousness.
Von Franz contrasts materialist reductionism with Jung's position that matter and spirit are both archetypal ideas that ultimately exceed any consciousness that attempts to grasp them — neither is the final ground.
von Franz, Marie-Louise, C.G. Jung: His Myth in Our Time, 1975supporting
Jung maps the psyche as a spectrum, with the archetype at the ultraviolet end and the instinct at the infrared end.
Stein explicates Jung's spectral model of the psyche, in which the instinctual end shades toward the somatic-material and the archetypal end toward the trans-psychic, visually encoding the psyche-matter continuum.
Stein, Murray, Jung's Map of the Soul: An Introduction, 1998supporting
The archetypes are in some sense the psychic preconditions of our entire human existence, and we can go neither over nor around them. We can, however, develop them further or refine them.
Von Franz argues that the archetypes constitute the irreducible psychic infrastructure that mediates all human engagement with both inner and outer reality, making them the conceptual link through which psyche conditions the apprehension of matter.
von Franz, Marie-Louise, Psyche and Matter, 2014supporting
The difference between materialism and idealism has become more or less meaningless. Both can be equally positivistic, and logically speaking, materialism is just as 'idealistic' as idealism itself.
Giegerich challenges the ontological framing of the psyche-matter debate by arguing that both materialism and idealism are positivistic in the same logical sense, dissolving the conventional opposition rather than seeking its synthesis.
Giegerich, Wolfgang, The Soul’s Logical Life Towards a Rigorous Notion of, 2020aside
An old alchemical dictum says, 'Dissolve the matter in its own water.' This is what we do when we try to understand the process of psychotherapy in terms of alchemy.
Edinger invokes the alchemical maxim as a methodological principle for psychotherapy, implicitly treating the relation between psychic process and material substance as a hermeneutic rather than a strictly ontological question.
Edinger, Edward F., Anatomy of the Psyche: Alchemical Symbolism in Psychotherapy, 1985aside
Mind no longer appears as an accidental intruder into the realm of matter; we are beginning to suspect that we ought rather to hail it as the creator and governor of the realm of matter.
Arroyo cites Jeans's idealist reversal of the standard matter-primacy assumption as consonant with astrological and depth-psychological perspectives on the mind-matter relationship.
Stephen Arroyo, Astrology, Psychology, and the Four Elements: An Energy Approach to Astrology and Its Use in the Counseling Arts, 1975aside
amid the beauty of the Umbrian countryside that inspired St. Francis, I find myself seeking the confluence of matter, psyche, and spirit as St. Francis sought to do more than seven centuries ago.
Conforti frames his interdisciplinary project as a continuation of a perennial spiritual-philosophical aspiration to unite matter, psyche, and spirit, placing the Jungian endeavor within a longstanding tradition.
Conforti, Michael, Field, Form, and Fate: Patterns in Mind, Nature, and Psyche, 1999aside