Within the depth-psychology corpus, quantum physics functions not as mere scientific backdrop but as an epistemological mirror held up to the psyche itself. The literature divides broadly into three registers. First, there is the technical-philosophical register exemplified by Wolfgang Pauli, whose writings engage the formal structures of complementarity, the exclusion principle, and the observer-system problem with the precision of a physicist who also grasps their psychological resonance—particularly the analogy between the indeterminacy introduced by atomic measurement and the disturbance wrought by psychological observation upon the unconscious. Second, a synthetic register emerges in authors such as Ponte and Schäfer, von Franz, and Romanyshyn, who draw explicit structural homologies between Jungian ontology—the psychoid, synchronicity, the collective unconscious—and quantum-physical discoveries about probability fields, non-locality, and the role of the observer. Third, thinkers like McGilchrist and Simondon treat quantum theory as evidence that reality is constitutively continuous-yet-discontinuous, relational, and resistant to classical objectification—conclusions that support broader arguments about the nature of mind and Being. The central tension running through all three registers is whether the quantum-psychological parallel is formal analogy, deep structural identity, or speculative overreach. Pauli himself refused to resolve this tension, maintaining it as a productive aporia. That restraint has not always been preserved by later inheritors.
both of these disciplines have led at the same time to revolutionary changes in the Western understanding of the cosmic order, discovering a non-emp
This paper’s central thesis is that quantum physics and Jungian psychology converged simultaneously on a transformed ontology that overturns classical Western assumptions about the cosmic order.
, Carl Gustav Jung, Quantum Physics and the Spiritual Mind: A Mystical Vision of the Twenty-First Century, 2013thesis
Jung spends a great deal of time on the convergence between his psychology and quantum physics. In both sciences, a principle of complementarity is present.
Romanyshyn identifies Jung’s engagement with quantum physics as pivotal to depth psychology, anchoring both fields in the shared principle of complementarity between observer and observed.
, The Wounded Researcher: Research with Soul in Mind, 2007thesis
there can be an essential limitation to the simultaneous use of two or more classical concepts or visualisable images, on account of the finiteness of the quantum of action.
Pauli articulates the foundational epistemological constraint of quantum physics—the wave-particle complementarity—as a structural limitation built into the very nature of atomic description.
, Writings on Physics and Philosophy, 1994thesis
quantum mechanics may be regarded as the rational generalisation of classical physics, and complementarity as the generalisation of causality in the narrower sense.
Pauli frames quantum mechanics as a philosophical generalization that subsumes classical causality into a broader, complementarity-based rationality.
, Writings on Physics and Philosophy, 1994thesis
the interactions of the measuring instruments with the system observed remain partially indeterminable whenever the finiteness of the quantum of action
Pauli draws a structural parallel between the measurement problem in quantum mechanics and the autonomy of the unconscious, both marked by irreducible indeterminacy in the observer-observed relation.
, Writings on Physics and Philosophy, 1994thesis
Maybe psychology needs a quantum revolution analogous to the one in physics, which moved that discipline beyond its Newtonian phase.
Romanyshyn proposes that depth psychology requires a paradigm shift comparable to quantum physics, moving beyond its Newtonian inheritance toward the invisible, psychoid depths.
, The Wounded Researcher: Research with Soul in Mind, 2007thesis
quantum theories penetrate into more profound strata of reality than all previous theories. The theory of relativity itself now appears to us as simply a macroscopic and statistical view of phenomena
McGilchrist, citing de Broglie, positions quantum field theory as ontologically deeper than relativity, aligning it with his argument that reality’s foundations are inaccessible to classical and macroscopic frameworks.
, The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World, 2021thesis
quantum theories penetrate into more profound strata of reality than all previous theories. The theory of relativity itself now appears to us as simply a macroscopic and statistical view of phenomena
McGilchrist reiterates, via de Broglie and Bergson, that quantum field theory discloses reality at a depth that relativity and classical physics cannot reach.
, The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World, 2021thesis
the electrons in atoms are probability fields. When this aspect of electrons first became known was unclear. What are probabilities? Probabilities are dimensionless numbers, ratios of numbers.
Ponte and Schäfer introduce the quantum concept of probability waves as non-material, information-bearing fields—a foundation for later analogies with the archetypal layer of the unconscious.
, Carl Gustav Jung, Quantum Physics and the Spiritual Mind: A Mystical Vision of the Twenty-First Century, 2013supporting
Under the pressure of the physical facts summed up under the heading ‘finiteness of the quantum of action’, this logical generalisation has emerged into a higher synthesis as a finally satisfactory solution of earlier contradictions
Pauli argues that the quantum of action forced a logical synthesis that dissolved the contradictions of classical physics, replacing the ideal of the detached observer with a participatory epistemology.
, Writings on Physics and Philosophy, 1994supporting
we are dealing here with an invisible reality, in which features are becoming fundamental which are at least negligible and without practical importance for macroscopic objects.
Pauli emphasizes that quantum mechanics discloses an invisible stratum of reality whose constitutive features have no macroscopic analogue, requiring a wholly new conceptual framework.
, Writings on Physics and Philosophy, 1994supporting
Quantum physics came across another fact which concerns the problem of time even more directly, namely, the so-called symmetry concerning the direction of time.
Von Franz draws on quantum physics’ time-symmetry in subatomic processes to illuminate depth-psychological questions about the non-linear, reversible nature of psychic time and synchronicity.
, Psyche and Matter, 2014supporting
Natural science and the intellectual sciences cannot be rigorously separated. They form a single interconnected system and if they are touched at any part the effects are felt through all the ramifications
McGilchrist cites Planck’s insistence on the unity of natural and human sciences, using the quantum-physics context to argue that psychology and physics must ultimately share a common ontological framework.
, The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World, 2021supporting
Natural science and the intellectual sciences cannot be rigorously separated. They form a single interconnected system and if they are touched at any part the effects are felt through all the ramifications
McGilchrist deploys Planck’s holistic epistemology—emerging from the quantum context—to argue against the reductionist separation of psychology and physics.
, The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World, 2021supporting
neurology, philosophy and physics should all be approaching a similarly structured reality, albeit from different paths, and therefore seeing different aspects of the same whole.
McGilchrist positions quantum physics as one of three convergent disciplines—alongside neurology and philosophy—that illuminate the same underlying structure of reality from different angles.
, The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World, 2021supporting
neurology, philosophy and physics should all be approaching a similarly structured reality, albeit from different paths, and therefore seeing different aspects of the same whole.
McGilchrist argues that quantum physics, neurology, and philosophy converge on the same reality, supporting an integrated, non-reductionist account of mind and matter.
, The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World, 2021supporting
the adoption of a quantum principle modifies this conception of corpuscular individuation and extends the conversion of the notion of the individual initiated
Simondon invokes quantum theory as the decisive philosophical modifier of individuation theory, showing how the quantum principle dissolves classical particle-identity in favor of a relational, transductive ontology.
, Individuation in Light of Notions of Form and Information, 2020supporting
the idea of causality, criticised earlier from the empirical standpoint by D. Hume, has undergone a further essential generalisation in quantum mechanics.
Pauli traces how quantum mechanics completed Hume’s empirical critique of causality by generalizing it into a probabilistic framework that can no longer sustain classical determinism.
, Writings on Physics and Philosophy, 1994supporting
the probability amplitudes of the virtual oscillators and the energy values of the stationary states were for the first time derived by means of a coherent mathematical formalism.
Pauli narrates the historical crystallization of quantum mechanics—from Heisenberg’s matrix theory through Schrödinger’s wave equation—as the achievement of a consistent mathematical language for the quantum domain.
, Writings on Physics and Philosophy, 1994supporting
light possesses properties describable only by means of the wave picture, as well as others describable only by the particle picture.
Pauli grounds the principle of complementarity in the empirically irreducible wave-particle duality of light, establishing the epistemological foundation that later thinkers would transpose into psychology.
, Writings on Physics and Philosophy, 1994supporting
A half-integer value of the spin quantum number is always connected with antisymmetrical states (exclusion principle), an integer spin with symmetrical states.
Pauli articulates the spin-symmetry connection underlying the exclusion principle, demonstrating the deep structural law governing quantum systems that he would later relate to archetypal ordering in the psyche.
, Writings on Physics and Philosophy, 1994supporting
a new mathematical form of the physical laws is required, which makes fields without test bodies not only physically but also logically impossible.
Pauli argues for a radical reconception of physical law in which the observer and the field are logically inseparable, anticipating the participatory epistemology central to later quantum-psychological dialogue.
, Writings on Physics and Philosophy, 1994supporting
the universal validity of the uncertainty relation is a necessary condition that quantum mechanics should be free from contradictions.
Pauli establishes Heisenberg’s uncertainty relation as the logical cornerstone of quantum mechanics’ internal consistency, not merely a practical limitation.
, Writings on Physics and Philosophy, 1994supporting
I proposed instead of it the assumption of a new quantum-theoretic property of the electron, which I called a ‘two-valuedness not describable classically’.
Pauli recounts his discovery of electron spin as a quantum property irreducible to classical description, illustrating his broader argument that quantum reality exceeds all classical conceptual frameworks.
, Writings on Physics and Philosophy, 1994supporting
Heisenberg, who recognised the calculus of matrix multiplication as the appropriate key to a quantitative translation of classical mechanics into a rational quantum mechanics
Pauli credits Heisenberg with identifying the mathematical structure—matrix mechanics—that enabled classical mechanics to be rationally translated into a quantum framework.
, Writings on Physics and Philosophy, 1994supporting
the present edifice of quantum mechanics is still far from its final form, but, on the contrary, leaves problems open which Einstein considered already long ago.
Pauli acknowledges the incompleteness of quantum mechanics as a theoretical edifice, noting Einstein’s long-standing concerns about unresolved foundational problems.
, Writings on Physics and Philosophy, 1994aside
The classical computation of the fluctuation of momentum of an harmonic oscillator in its interaction with a radiation field is only compatible with the well-known value 3/2kT for its kinetic energy
Pauli traces the historical breakdown of classical statistical assumptions that forced Planck’s quantum hypothesis, contextualizing the quantum revolution in thermodynamic failure.
, Writings on Physics and Philosophy, 1994aside
Einstein would never accept a priori probabilities. In those days he often said: ‘For the rest of my life I will ponder on the question of what light is!’
Pauli characterizes Einstein’s irreconcilable resistance to quantum probability as a defining intellectual stance, underscoring the philosophical stakes of the classical-quantum divide.
, Writings on Physics and Philosophy, 1994aside