Deciphering the Cosmic Number: The Strange Friendship of Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung - Hardcover

Arthur I. Miller

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393065324 ISBN 13: 9780393065329

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009

Synopsis

The extraordinary story of psychoanalyst Carl Jung and physicist Wolfgang Pauli and their struggle to quantify the unconscious.

In 1932, the groundbreaking physicist Wolfgang Pauli met the famous psychoanalyst Carl Jung. Pauli was fascinated by the inner reaches of his own psyche and not afraid to dabble in the occult, while Jung looked to science for answers to the psychological questions that tormented him. Their rich friendship led them, in Jung’s words, into “the no-man’s land between physics and the psychology of the unconscious . . . the most fascinating yet the darkest hunting ground of our times.” Both were obsessed with the far-reaching significance of the number “137”―a primal number that seemed to hint at the origins of the universe itself. Their quest to solve its enigma led them on a lifelong journey into the ancient secrets of alchemy, the work of Johannes Kepler, and the Chinese Book of Changes. This is the captivating story of an extraordinary and fruitful collaboration between two of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century.66 illustrations

About this title

About the Author

Arthur I. Miller is professor emeritus at University College London. He has published many critically acclaimed books, including Einstein, Picasso, and writes for publications such as the New York Times. He lives in London.

Reviews

The heart of this book lies not in the promised decipherment of the title but in Miller’s excellent dual biography of two men who changed their fields. Physicist Pauli was a brilliant but unhappy womanizer when his life’s disturbances led him to consult with Jung, famous for connecting psychology with spirituality. The relationship was a fruitful one on both sides, with Pauli making peace with his unsettled soul and continuing his groundbreaking theorizing, while Jung gained understanding of principles of contemporary physics that led, albeit circuitously, to his articulation of the idea of synchronicity, which he felt was one of his most important contributions. A series of Pauli’s vivid dreams, together with Jung’s analysis of them, forms an unexpectedly rich centerpiece of the book. And the cosmic number? A bit of bait-and-switch, that, as it is only briefly mentioned. But a worthy book, nonetheless.

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393065324
• ISBN 13: 9780393065329
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 368