IAJS 2024, Claire Savage: Jung and Nicolescu: The Play of Opposites and the Spark of Life
February 3, 2026 at 02:39AM
Claire Savage
Jung and Nicolescu: The Play of Opposites and the Spark of Life

Abstract:
This presentation examines the concept of opposites through the perspectives of C.G. Jung and theoretical physicist Basarab Nicolescu. Opposition plays a foundational role in Jung’s psychology, manifesting in theories such as the transcendent function, active imagination, the
unconscious, the shadow, and the reconciling symbol. Despite its importance, Jung’s ideas are rarely integrated into mainstream disciplines like teacher education and counseling psychology. Jung himself lamented the lack of a “self-consistent mathematics” in psychology, acknowledging that the field lacked an external framework to reflect itself objectively.
Jung intuited a deep relationship between physics and psychology, suggesting that nuclear physics and the psychology of the unconscious would one day converge—one through the atom, the other through the archetype. Nicolescu’s quantum scientific theories and transdisciplinary
approach show that opposites, rather than being antagonistic, can collaborate to create new realities. This aligns with Jung’s belief that “life is born only of the spark of opposites.” By moving from the outdated models of classical science, which reject reconciliation of opposites, toward a quantum scientific paradigm, we can integrate and transcend the opposites themselves.

Bio: Claire Savage is a special education teacher and educational psychologist. Her final dissertation has recently been approved by the Depth Psychology Department at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Claire’s research interests focus on the intersection of Jungian studies, spirituality, and well-being, and she is passionate about sharing these ideas with colleagues in
teacher education and counseling psychology. She lives and works in San Francisco.
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