Similarities between quantum physics and Jungian psychology: the case of synchronicity or how an analogy fails

Abstract

In this paper I analyze the analogy between not causally related events in Quantum Mechanics and the conception of synchronicity of Carl G. Jung. First, I will state a general frame about analogy and the tools for its analysis in science. Second, I will describe the Principle of Complementarity and its origins, as well as some of its epistemological consequences, such as the loss of deterministic causality.  Then, I will outline the historical context in which Jung had contact with the Quantum Theory and the way he used it in his own psychological theory. Finally, I analyze the analogical use he made of non-causality to justify and accommodate synchronicity. I will show that this analogy fails and how this shows a paradoxical attitude towards scientific criteria in Jung’s perspective.