Report by Dr. Cherrie Coghlan
A meeting was held in the Society of Analytical Psychologists on
16th of March on the theme of ‘Space and Time at the
Edge of the Mind’. The physicist, Professor Chris Isham, with an
interest in psychology, theology and the work of Jung and a Jungian
analyst, Dr Christopher Hauke, who has written on Jung,
postmodernism and film gave complementary talks. This was followed
by general discussion.
Chris Isham linked space and time, and the development in
quantum theory of the space-time continuum, with the progress of
philosophical and psychological thought from Plato to Kant and to
Jung. According to Kant we use ‘a priori’ templates to
structure our experience. There is a clear continuity between this
and Jung’s archetypes. However, space and time in
Newtonian physics are objective facts about the world. Historically
for the Greeks, as for eastern religious traditions, space and time
were circular. In the mainstream western Judeo-Christian tradition,
however, time is linear with a sense of evolving forward, and this
has been linked with divine purpose.
There has been a constant tension in physics between Newtonian
absolutes and relativity. In relativity, space and time are
unified; we separate them out in our minds. Experiments on
entanglements of sub-atomic particles highlight the
illusory quality of our sense of space and support the notion that
space is something we impose through consciousness. Events can be
connected with each other even if they can’t be causally linked.
The Jungian concept of synchronicity relates to a similar
phenomenon in mental experience. It is as if the unconscious is
like the sea and the peaks of the waves can be connected by
consciousness.
In 1955, Carl Jung wrote ‘...If space and time are only apparent
properties of bodies in motion and are created by the intellectual
needs of the observer, then their relativisation by psychic
conditions is no longer a matter for astonishment but is brought
within the bounds of possibility.’ (Collected Works Vol.
8:840).
Christopher Hauke gave a marvellous example of synchronicity in
a dream he had experienced, relevant in detail to a particular
patient he did not yet know but with whom he later worked.
Jung believed that nuclear physics and the psychology of the
unconscious would sooner or later grow closer together as the
boundaries of the atom and of the archetypes were respectively
explored. At times the discussion touched explicitly on the
transcendental. I was reminded of T S Eliot’s Four Quartets.
Christopher Hauke furnished a less over-exposed piece of spiritual
writing from St. Augustine. ‘Perhaps it might be properly said that
there are three present times: the present of things past, the
present of things present, and the present of things future. These
three are in the soul but elsewhere I do not see them: the present
of things past is in memory; the present of things present is in
intuition; the present of things future is in expectation"
(Confessions X1 20, 26. Gifford p.80)
(There will be another talk held at the SAP that might be of
interest to SIG members entitled ‘GodTalk in the Consulting Room’
by Margaret Clark on Saturday 14th September,
10.00am-1.00pm. Further information on 020 7419 8896.)