Deciphering the cosmic number : the strange friendship of Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung

Summary: 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 (Yijing). This is the story of an extraordinary and fruitful collaboration between two of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century.--From publisher description.

Item details

ISBN: 9780393065329
ISBN: 0393065324
Physical Description: print
xxv, 336 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: New York : W.W. Norton, [2009]
Copyright: ©2009

Contents / Notes

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 311-320) and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

1 Dangerously Famous 3 -- 2 Early Successes, Early Failures 18 -- 3 The Philosopher's Stone 44 -- 4 / Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde 51 -- 5 Intermezzo-Three versus Four: Alchemy, Mysticism, and the Dawn of Modern Science 64 -- 6 Pauli, Heisenberg, and the Great Quantum Breakthrough 89 -- 7 Mephistopheles 107 -- 8 The Dark Hunting Ground of the Mind 124 -- 9 Mandalas 148 -- 10 The Superior Man Sets His Life in Order 158 -- 11 Synchronicity 183 -- 12 Dreams of Primal Numbers 208 -- 13 Second Intermezzo-Road to Yesterday 227 -- 14 Through the Looking Glass 233 -- 15 The Mysterious Number 137 247.