Quantum Drummer

As I have mentioned previously, one of my philosophical obsessions has been to understand the reason why we humans divide the world in pairs of opposites, and then automatically we get polarized to one of these opposites. It continues to be an interesting human condition that occurs almost in any interaction among people, and how unfortunately this tendency becomes the beginning of a conflict in which two sides of an idea are debated, with two people defending their “right to be right” and with others normally being forced to take sides and build up the opposition of ideas, again, behaviors that become automatic and end up being ego-based discussions that have a high risk of being destructive.

In the works of Carl Jung, we find that the relationship of opposites is discussed very frequently, and is a central element of his studies of the Psyche. Jung’s works seem to have the most extensive and detailed analysis of the opposites, including their impact in human’s psychology and cognitive processes. The main discussion on opposites by Jung appears in his alchemical works, being a key phenomenon that occurs as part of the union of the masculine and feminine in the Alchemical Wedding. However, it is important to describe how Jung includes the opposites relationship all over his psychological works, starting from his analysis of the origin of the opposites paradigm in the human Psyche.

The Origin of the Opposition Paradigm

In 1955-1956, at the age of eighty, Jung published one of his most important books: Mysterium Coniunctionis, with its less known subtitle: An Inquiry into the Separation and Synthesis of Psychic Opposites in Alchemy. In this book, Jung provides a synthesis of his work in Alchemy and opposites for almost 30 years, starting with his reflections on the book: The Secret of the Golden Flower, an old Chinese manuscript introduced in the West by Jung’s friend Richard Wilhelm in 1929, and later discussed in Jung’s books: Psychology and Alchemy in 1944, Alchemical Studies also in 1944, The Psychology of Transference in 1946 and Aion in 1951. A review of all of these publications by Jung will show us how the relationship of opposites is a central element of his psychology, and a key factor in all of his work.

To provide us with his idea on the origin of the dualistic paradigm in the human psyche, Jung starts his discussion on the introduction to Mysterium Coniunctionis (1963) as follows:

“But, young as the psychology of unconscious processes may be, it has nevertheless succeeded in establishing certain facts which are gaining general acceptance. One of these is the polaristic structure of the psyche, which it shares with all natural processes. Natural processes are phenomena of energy, constantly arising out of a “less probable state” of polar tension. This formula is of special significance for psychology, because the conscious mind is usually reluctant to see or admit the polarity of its own background, although it is precisely from there that it gets its energy.” (p. xvi-xvii).

Key reflections from this paragraph include the concept that “all natural processes are phenomena of energy” and natural processes and the psyche share a “polaristic structure”. Jung also indicates that energy arises from “polar tension” and the critical description of how “the conscious mind is usually reluctant to see or admit the polarity of its own background”.

So the polaristic structure originates from the energy phenomena in nature which always includes two opposite poles, such as electricity (+ and – polarities) and magnetism (+ and – poles) and the conscious mind automatically rejects and does not admit that this polarity exists in all of nature and in itself, therefore forcing consciousness to choose one of the opposites, stay tied to that pole and reject the other pole.

Jung continues with his analysis providing the following detail:

“The psychologist has only just begun to feel his way into this structure, and it now appears that the “alchemistical” philosophers made the opposites and their union one of the chief objects of their work. In their writings, certainly, they employed a symbolical terminology that frequently reminds us of the language of dreams, concerned as these often are with the problem of opposites. Since conscious thinking strives for clarity and demands unequivocal decisions, it has constantly to free itself from counterarguments and contrary tendencies, with the result that especially incompatible contents either remain totally unconscious or are habitually and assiduously overlooked. The more this is so, the more the unconscious will build up its counterposition.” (Jung, 1963, p. xvii).

This interesting paragraph by Jung is telling us how by the time he was writing Mysterium Coniunctionis between 1955—1956, the field of psychology was just starting to look into the effect of the opposites in the human psyche, a phenomena that had been largely used by the alchemists. Jung is also letting us know how the conscious mind, or “conscious thinking” is not able to manage ambiguity, which means that the rational mind has to manage the pair of opposites by choosing one of them and either “overlooking” the other or by keeping the other opposite in the unconscious. This is a key point: When faced with a pair of opposites, the psyche will choose one of them to keep in the conscious mind and the other will be maintained in the unconscious; as Jung says: “The more this is so, the more the unconscious will build up its counterposition.” Which is basically indicating that the polarization will grow stronger unconsciously. This explains how the polarizing behavior occurs: when we are presented with the opposites, based on our pre-existing mindset, we choose one opposite and automatically (unconsciously) reject the other, and we can build up the rejection to the unchosen opposite to the point of radicalization, even if is done unconsciously. If we can imagine two or more people with different mindsets or backgrounds being presented with a pair of opposites, and one of the persons chooses one of the opposites and rejects the other while the second person chooses differently, we can see how a difference of opinion and potential conflict escalation will occur since both persons will unconsciously radicalize their opposites. Since the radicalization of the rejected opposite occurs on an unconscious level, we have no immediate way to rationalize what is happening and we end up potentially in conflict with the other person. This appears to be the basis for the conflict of radicalization among individuals.

On his book: Archetype of the Absolute: The Unity of Opposites in Mysticism, Philosophy, and Psychology, Drob (2017) provides a clearer description of this process as follows:

“Jung held that consciousness and reason produce the divide between the psyche’s opposing tendencies. This is because consciousness strives for clarity and unambiguity and must therefore free itself from contrary or opposing tendencies, which it either overlooks or suppresses. As a result, consciousness identifies itself with one pole of a divide and seeks to exclude, disparage or ignore its antithesis. Thoughts, feelings, and other psychic contents that are incompatible with the determinate thread of awareness are split off from the conscious mind.” (p. 232)

Since the world is constantly presenting pairs of opposites to us, we are always choosing sides based in our conscious mindsets, which will select, or “judge” each pair of opposites based in the background, culture, education, biases, religion and even the language that we have. Both Jung and Freud identified the language as an important element of this process, which is critical to note, as we have found how language is a limiting factor in our thoughts and behaviors. And, on the other hand, the rejected opposite is constantly being kept in the unconscious, or being rejected consciously without having a rational reason for the rejection.

This seems to be the most accurate explanation as to why humans end up polarizing the opposites, and even radicalizing the rejected opposites to the point of entering into conflict with other person’s point of view. It would be very valuable if we could remember that this process is constantly happening, and being able to recognize the unconscious polarization that is happening, in order to minimize the possibility of generating unnecessary differences between people, getting radicalized and escalate the conflicts.

I will continue to discuss more of Jung’s work on the opposites in the following writings.