Return of the World Soul: Wolfgang Pauli, C. G. Jung and the Challenge of Psychophysical Reality: The Battle of the Giants

by Remo F. Roth

Is quantum physics closer to black magic than it is to science? This was the crucial question Wolfgang Pauli faced towards the end of his life. Pauli, one of the founders of the modern quantum theory, had also spent his creative life interacting with Carl Jung in an attempt to integrate physics and depth psychology, and heal the split between inner and outer worlds. This great endeavor, this crucial question explored by two great minds to bring about a true unus mundus is at the essential heart of the Return of the World Soul .

Genres: Psychology

218 pages, Paperback

First published September 16, 2011

Reviews

[A.A. Attanasio · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Nobel Laureate physicist and one of the founding fathers of modern psychology hammer out the intersecting inferences of quantum theory and depth psychology! This book is advanced reading for those interested in exploring the relationship of consciousness and physics (a strange kinship famously demonstrated by the double-slit experiment). From the first sentence, we enter the fantasy life of an effulgently creative physicist and his soulful speculations about the intimate interpenetrations of psyche and matter. This is science fantasy and mythopoeic thinking of the first water. The implications open huge creative opportunities for readers skillful with symbolic reflection.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remo is a very creative, classically trained Swiss certified Jungian therapist and psychologist. His greatest influence must be considered to be Marie-Louise von Franz, who was his training analyst at the Institute. It was she who provided many of the directions of his subsequent thought, including her recognition of the many parallels between his dreams and those of Wolfgang Pauli, the nobel-laureate physicist who corresponded with Jung for so many years on the reconciliation between quantum physics and Jung's psychological concepts.

This volume is dense with ideas and requires patient consideration. Whether you agree with his ideas about the proper symbolic image of the Self or not, there can be no doubt that Dr. Roth has invested himself in his creative life and produced works that are worth exploring. He is a creative, productive thinker and only profit can be gained from a study of his material.

Lastly, a bit of disclosure; Dr. Roth served as the external reader on my dissertation defense. I found him to be engaging, encouraging, and interested in furthering his ideas.

[Kenya · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was and has been fascinating! I look forward to reading it a few more times.

I've been intrigued these past couple of years and researching the correlation between consciousness, psyche, matter, and spirit, and out of nowhere I found this book in a little bookstore. It being the only one of its topic and genre, and amongst the few in English in the whole place, I think Jung would agree to label it a Synchronicity.

It is compact in substance - quite dense, even though it's pretty short but well-written and easy to understand. There's so much I can say regarding how insightful, profound, and penetrating it has been in my journey but as with everything, to each their own.

I highly recommend it.

Just as with anything else, it won't be the be-all end-all, but it might bring one closer to an understanding of things that lie dormant in our subconscious and unconscious and it might cause one to consider things a bit differently than one has been.

I'm looking forward to reading part two!

[Abner Rosenweig · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is tempting to dismiss this book entirely as a kind of childish fingerpainting with the dreams of two geniuses, Jung and Pauli, but... Roth is one of the few thinkers who has the creativity and the courage to even attempt such wild speculation. I don't see much validity in Roth's reason--quite often he's not rational at all--however I give him credit for doing fascinating work and I encourage him and others to continue their investigations into a possible psychophysical theory.

This volume is a discussion of Jung and Pauli's attempts to apprehend the nature of mind and matter. Roth mostly uses archetypal symbols, dreams, and synchronistic events as materials from which he begins to construct a theory--not the sturdiest ground to build on. In his second volume, Roth promises to develop three ideas of his own: his psychophysical theory, body-centered imagination, and something he calls eros ego. The ideas pique my interest, but after a shaky, insubstantial first volume, I won't rush to read the next.

It's tough to be a pioneer. You're working outside established paradigms and open yourself to a great deal of criticism and disrepute. While I don't see much in this book, I'm grateful that Roth is continuing Jung and Pauli's work. I think the next great advance in physics and cosmology will involve a shift in our understanding of mind and its relationship to matter, and it will be Roth or a brave thinker like him who's eventually able to articulate it.

[Walt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Remo Roth's book does not appear to have been reviewed by Physicists or Jungian Annalists to fact check his understanding of physics or his psychology. He just asserts his point of view without any outside fact checking. He states he has understood what Jung and Pauli did not understand. In addition, Roth implies he has gone beyond Jung, and that von Franz said he must. Yet there is no verification of his claims from other sources.

Both Jung and Pauli were giants in their fields. It seems to me that Roth needs to give more credibility to his book by having his book reviewed by experts in these fields. Otherwise, this is his view on psychophysical reality. To state that these giants could not understand what he says he has, and he, Roth, has discovered their mistakes needs verification.

It does not seem credible to me that Roth, a non physicist, non mathmatician, non Jungian analyst has discovered what a Nobel Prize winning physicist like Pauli, and a renowned figure like Jung have missed in what Roth says are their mistakes.

Also Roth divides the psyche into more parts. This does not seem to make since from a non dual perspective. Nor does it make sense from Bell's Theorem which states at bottom the material world seems to rest on a seemless whole, a non dual whole what Jung called the psychoid realm also known as the extensionless dot.

[Lex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved reading this book! If you like Jung and physics you'll love it.