However, when the particle world took shape, Pauli's own world began to collapse. His series of troubles began three years ago when his beloved mother committed suicide because of her father's infidelity. She died at 48. Less than a year later, his father remarried and married an artist in his twenties-about the age of Paulie. Pauli despised his father's decision and nicknamed his father's new wife "evil stepmother".
Pauli (right) began to accept Jung's concept of duality prototype during Jung's treatment (left). For example, Jung believed that men tend to suppress their feminine side (Anima), while women tend to suppress their masculine side (animus). Finally, these interests lead Pauli to further explore symmetry in physics.
1928, Pauli was appointed as a professor at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. His career was booming, but he lost hope day by day. 1929 In May, due to some unknown reasons, he officially left the church and gave up the Catholicism he had been believing in since his birth. Pauli often went to Berlin-because Einstein, Schrodinger, Planck (who was gloriously retired at that time but still active) and others all taught and lived here, and Berlin became one of the main centers of theoretical physics at that time. On the trip to Berlin, Paulie met Kate Depner (K? Deppner) and started dating her. At that time, she also had a pharmacist boyfriend, but she was attracted by Paulie. Paulie proposed to her. Although Paulie was still far from the girl of her dreams, she agreed for some reason. They got married on 1929.
The marriage has been in constant conflict from the beginning. Kate's interest in pharmacists has not diminished, and she continues to meet him. After a few weeks, she began to ignore her husband. Paulie spent most of her second year of marriage in Zurich, while she stayed in Berlin. 1930 1 1 month, they divorced. To Paulie's chagrin, Kate ended up with the pharmacist. "If she chose a matador, I might understand, but she chose such an ordinary pharmacist ..." He sighed.
Because his love life was a mess, Paulie began to drink and smoke, and he became a frequent visitor to the bar. Surprisingly, his ideas about neutrinos appeared almost at the same time. Even if his life is in crisis, he can maintain a high degree of concentration and creativity. Paulie's father decided to intervene. He suggested that Paulie go to carl jung for treatment.
Pauli was familiar with Jung's work because Jung often gave lectures at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. Pauli accepted his father's suggestion, contacted Jung and made an appointment to meet. At that time, Paulie was anxious to get her mental state back on track, hoping that the treatment would work. He longed for personal therapy from the founder of analytical psychology, but Jung handed him over to his young assistant, Ona rosenbaum. Jung explained that in view of Pauli's problems with women, he had better receive the assistance of a female therapist first. Rosenbaum's job is to record Paulie's dreams until he is confident enough to write them down himself.
Rosenbaum's treatment of Pauli started from 1932 and lasted for about 5 months. After that, the initiative was given to Pauli, who used self-analysis to record his dreams, which lasted about 3 months. In the end, Jung personally served as Pauli's therapist for the next two years. When Jung took over the treatment, there were more than 300 records about Pauli dreams, which was very helpful to form treatment suggestions. In addition to sharing dreams, Pauli also revealed her mood swings, unstable behavior, alcohol dependence and problems in communication with women.
In order to study the influence of collective unconsciousness on the mind, including the role of dreams and fantasies, Jung has been looking for research objects that can clearly recall dreams. In the early 1930s, Jung's concept of * * * synchronization was still in its infancy. This theory is based on Einstein's concept of dynamic space-time and needs a lot of physical knowledge to support it. At this time, Pauli, an outstanding quantum physicist who can clearly remember dreams, appeared, which is a miracle.
carl jung
In the end, Jung directly or indirectly collected about 1300 Pauli dreams and used them in his own research (and kept them secret for patients). As a result, as the scholar Beverly zabriskie sarcastically said, "Jung's readers have a better understanding of Wolfgang Pauli's subconscious than his sober life and achievements." As for how Pauli took the trouble to remember so many dreams, it is really a mystery. Besides his amazing memory, he must have trained himself in some way. These dreams provided rich resources for Jung to establish his theory.
Of course, this is not just a research project. Jung sincerely hopes to help Pauli realize his repressed feelings continuously. The main point of Jung's treatment is to show Pauli how the emotional self symbolized by Anima's prototype was suppressed and then succumbed to pure reason. Paulie realized how unbalanced his life was. After two years of treatment, Pauli's psychological state gradually stabilized-at least for a period of time. He was finally able to maintain a mature relationship and married Francesca Bethlem in London in 1934. At about the same time, he decided to terminate the private therapy meeting. He felt that his mental state was more stable and he drank less-at least temporarily.
Even though he was no longer a patient, Pauli kept the habit of communicating with Jung for the rest of his life, including sharing his dreams. In the letter, they speculated on the meaning of dream and its connection with prototype. For Pauli, who has an outstanding mathematical mind and is busy solving the most profound problems in theoretical physics, it is not surprising that various geometric elements and abstract symbols appear in his dreams, such as symmetrically arranged circles and lines. Jung will explain these elements and symbols according to his prototype theory. Elements of mathematics and physics enriched Pauli's dream, and Jung associated it with ancient symbols. In this way, the two thinkers have established a profound metaphorical connection between the two fields.
Pauli mentioned one of his dreams about physics conference in his letter to Jung. There are many examples of polarization in physics in this dream (things are polarized under certain conditions), including electric dipoles (positive and negative charges are arranged in balance) and the splitting of atomic spectral lines under the action of external magnetic fields. Jung thinks that the symbolic meaning of this dream may represent "the complementary relationship in the self-regulation system, including the complementary relationship between men and women".
Freud used to say, "Sometimes cigars are cigars." As a physicist, Pauli sometimes dreams about things related to physics. Isn't that normal? Can't a dipole be just a dipole, not a symbolic combination of men and women? Like Freud, Jung was aware of this possibility, so he was always careful to avoid arbitrariness when drawing conclusions.
carl jung
In Pauli's other dream, an ancient symbol called serpent appeared: a snake coiled in a circle and holding its tail in its mouth. This symbol is related to the Taoist concept of Yin and Yang, which embodies the concept of periodic destruction and regeneration, including the rotation of four seasons and the cycle of nature. This symbol also shows that rotational symmetry, Pauli and others participated in the exploration of quantum properties. Borrowing a term from eastern philosophy also constitutes the embryonic form of mandala.
In the cooperation between Pauli and Jung, one striking point is that their words gradually converge. Thanks to Pauli, Jung learned more and more knowledge of quantum physics, including the probabilistic characteristics of quantum mechanics and the importance of observers in it. Because of Jung, Pauli was completely immersed in the study of mysticism, numerology and ancient symbolism.
From then on, Jung began to perfect his concept of temporality, and prepared to write a monograph on it. With Pauli's help, he hopes to develop this concept into an important principle recognized by psychologists. As part of this goal, he is eager to create his own symbol-quaternion-to represent the connection in nature. Jung arranged a series of reports on this subject. 1950 when preparing for the lecture, he wrote a letter to Pauli and attached a four-in-one diagram, in which he made a parallel comparison between the law of causality and the theories of consistency *, space and time. It looks like this:
* Translator's note
Consistency theory refers to a non-causal relationship in hermeneutics which is similar to the consistency law of hermeneutics. The law of consistency in hermeneutics refers to "the lower part is like the upper part, and the upper part is like the lower part;" Outside as inside, inside as outside "(as above, as follows; As below, so above; Inside, outside; This is nothing more than this, and it is also true inside.
1950165438+1October 24th, Pauli spent time thinking about jung's chart, and then replied and criticized his practice of separating space and time. Pauli pointed out that Einstein's revolution merged space and time into a single entity-space-time-rather than opposing poles. Therefore, he proposed an improved chart (Jung accepted it and made some further modifications):
Pauli's comparison of energy (and momentum) and space-time is consistent with the dichotomy proposed by Heisenberg's uncertainty principle in the relativistic version. The more we know about space-time, the less we know about energy-momentum (similar to space-time in relativity, energy and momentum are entities in four-dimensional space), and vice versa.
Different from the mechanical model of causality, Pauli's concept of causality is called "statistical causality" and was later adopted by Jung. Pauli believes that in view of the randomness in some kinds of single quantum measurements, such as determining whether radioactive samples show decay within a certain period of time, the law of causality should cover the concepts of probability and mean.
Only when researchers take several averages can they predict the experimental results. In the same letter, Pauli linked the temporality of * * * with the super psychologist J.B. Rhine's research on mind reading: "As you said, your research is exactly the same as Ryan's experiment. I also believe that the empirical work behind these experiments is well founded. "
Jung was very interested in Pauli's suggestion, and boldly proposed to expand the connotation of the concept of temporality of * * * to cover the non-causal relationship without mental factors-that is, pure physical interaction. He didn't specify quantum entanglement, but it must be included in his extended definition.
Ironically, just as Jung and Pauli readily accepted Ryan's research results, Jung's expansion of the concept of temporality made them very different from Ryan's research results. The extended concept of temporality and the generalization of non-causal law encourage people to explore how the universe is intertwined through mechanisms other than symmetry and causal law. Pauli had reservations about this, but he also realized the value of Jung's expanding concept. He stressed that when expanding to physical processes, we should break through psychological terms, such as not using prototypes to explain.
In his letter to Jung on February 1950 12 12, he wrote: "The more common problem seems to be about different types of global and non-causal orders in nature and the conditions under which they occur. This may be spontaneous or "induced"-that is, the result of experiments designed and conducted by humans. "
1952, as the climax of Jung's cooperation with Pauli, they jointly published the Interpretation and Psychology of Nature (Naturerkl? Rungund psychology). The book contains two papers, namely, Synchronism: A Principle of Causality and the Influence of Archetypal Concept on Kepler's Scientific Thought written by Jung. Their co-authorship proves that Pauli is indeed the provider of dream materials for Jung's research (for anyone who has read this book carefully). Decades later, the first part of this book (the chapter written by Jung) was published in paperback and became a best seller. In this book, Jung's famous anecdote about scarabs is used as a "meaningful coincidence" to illustrate the temporality of * * * *:
A young woman I treated had a dream at a critical moment, in which she got a golden scarab. I was sitting with my back to the closed window when she told me the dream. Suddenly I heard a sound behind me, like a faucet. I turned around and saw a flying insect hit the window pane from the outside. I opened the window and caught it when it flew in. This is the closest creature to the golden scarab that can be found in our latitude-scarab. ...
carl jung
For people with scientific minds, this anecdote can't help Jung prove his point. Any psychotherapist who has analyzed thousands of dreams of different patients will be limited by this simple contingency, and they will always notice the coincidence of dream content and life events at a certain moment, such as accidentally meeting insects. In fact, Jung admits that every story he tells has another explanation-he just wants readers to pay attention to a pattern. Emphasizing the temporality of generalized concepts, including non-causal relationships in physics (such as quantum entanglement and symmetry), will provide more powerful arguments for demonstrating the necessity of transcending pure causal relationships.
But at that time, except Pauli, few scientists supported Jung to combine events, dreams and myths. An outstanding mathematician concluded in an anonymous book review: "I have carefully studied their works for several months, and now it is obvious that they are both completely crazy."
1957 In August, Pauli and Jung, who had corresponded for many years, exchanged the last letter. Pauli's letter to Jung that month was the longest in several years, which contained his long description of a dream and his exposition of symmetry in physics. Jung replied to Pauli's letter with great interest, interpreting the dream mentioned by Pauli as the harmony of opposites, such as the symbol of physical and mental harmony. Jung believes that parity symmetry breaking under weak interaction is similar to an arbitrator-called "the third"-who chooses one of two symmetrically opposed entities. "Third" is more inclined to mind than body, which breaks the symmetry between them. The rest of Jung's letter explores his new interest in UFOs, and he concludes that it is either real (from space) or a new myth with its own prototype.
carl jung
Why did Pauli and Jung's long letter end in that correspondence, even though Pauli lived for more than a year after that? Even if friends write letters, sometimes there will be an interval of months or even years. In addition, from Pauli's attitude towards other physicists, we can see that Pauli is essentially a skeptic, and he critically examines all dogmatic theories, including Jung's theory. For example, he complained to Bohr about the capriciousness of Jungian school. "Jungian school is more enlightened than Freudian school, but it is not so clear and easy to understand. What I am most dissatisfied with seems to be Jung's perceptual and ambiguous use of the concept of' heart', which itself cannot even achieve logical self-consistency. " Paulie also began to doubt Ryan's methods. 1957 On February 25th, Pauli wrote a letter to Ryan, which was received only after Pauli died. In the letter, Paulie asked Ryan about an article he heard criticizing parapsychology. Ryan was angered by this letter and complained to Jung. Jung tried to find this critical article, but found nothing.
What further prompted Pauli to break with Jung was Jung's obsession with UFOs. Pauli was curious about this problem, but failed to devote enough time to research as Jung hoped. That period was also an important period for Pauli and Heisenberg to strengthen the cooperation of unified field theory. In addition, in the last year before the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, Paulie's physical strength began to decline. Therefore, many factors may lead to the end of this long and fruitful dialogue.
* Acknowledgement
The translation of the physics part of this paper has been helped by Amo, Shili and Andromeda. Thank you. If there are still omissions or shortcomings, it is the editor's fault. Please correct me.
Author: Paul halpern | Cover: David Bonazzi
Translator: Wang Liang | Proofread: Ma Xiaoge