Deciphering the Cosmic Number

[russell]

Deciphering the Cosmic Number: The Strange Friendship of Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung, by Arthur L. Miller. Published just last year. It is kind of a dual biography, focusing on their interactions, with lots of material on Pauli’s physics and Jung’s archetypes. I have read 3/4 of it so far and find it very illuminating. Pauli, besides being a great physicist, was a rather tortured soul and turned to psychoanalyst Jung for help. Their collaboration influenced many ideas such as Jung’s synchronicity, and both of them used the I Ching. The latter is not a major theme of the book, but it is referred to a number of times.

—Russell