Abstract

This chapter surveys the subset of Jungian literature seeking to reinterpret Jung’s ideas regarding complexes and archetypes in light of the new science of complexity. It begins by clarifying the connection between psychic complexes and complex systems—systems whose collective properties are distinct from those of their constituent parts and cannot be reductively explained by them—by showing that Jung’s notion of the autonomous complex is consistent with a central tenet of complex systems: the tendency for self-organization. It explores theoretical and clinical implications before tracing the path from the autonomous complex to Jung’s mature conception of the archetype and demonstrating that, despite the congruence between complexes and complexity, making sense of archetypes from within this perspective proves particularly troublesome. Specifically, it highlights the incompatibility between the a priori archetype-as-such and modern notions of complexity in which novel structures are shown to emerge without any form of blueprint or prefigurative principle. It then argues that the Pauli-Jung conjecture as advanced by Atmanspacher and colleagues represents a framework robust enough to account for these apparent discrepancies, thus preserving Jung’s ideas on archetypes while honoring contemporary complexity research. Finally, it assesses the current state of archetype theory and suggests directions for the future.