Archetype of the Absolute: The Unity of Opposites in Mysticism, Philosophy, and Psychology, Paperback

In "Archetype of the Absolute: The Union of Opposites in Mysticism, Philosophy and Psychology," Sanford Drob traces the "problem of the opposites" in the history of ideas and develops the thesis that apparent oppositions in philosophy, including those that underlie competing paradigms in psychology, are complementary rather than contradictory. The doctrine of the complementarity and union of opposites underlies the mysticism of the Tao and the Kabbalah, the dialectical thinking of Hegel, the psychology of C.G. Jung, and various interpretations of quantum physics, and it has been spoken of as the "master archetype." In this intellectual tour de force, Drob draws upon thinkers from Heraclitus to Jacques Derrida and Slajov Zizek, to resolve metaphysical and psychological puzzles and reconcile a wide range of oppositions, including those between determinism and free-will, realism and idealism, reason and imagination, and theism and atheism. Drob reveals the significance of the doctrine of the union of opposites in the Kabbalah and other mystical traditions, provides a deep examination of Hegel's dialectical efforts to overcome "contradiction," and fully explores C. G. Jung's notion that "the self" is a "coincidence of opposites." He shows that a full conceptual analysis of competing paradigms in psychological theory and practice reveals them to be complementary and interdependent. Concluding chapters consider the fundamental oppositions between sign and signified, subject and object, and identity and difference, and explore the possibility (and limits) of a "rational-mystical" ascent to the "Absolute."

About the Author:

Sanford L. Drob is a Core Faculty Member in the doctoral program in Clinical Psychology at Fielding University and is on the faculty of the C. G. Jung Institute in New York. He holds doctorates in both philosophy and clinical psychology, is a prolific artist, and has made contributions in the fields of philosophy, theology and clinical/forensic psychology. For many years, he served as the Senior Forensic Psychologist and Director of Psychological Assessment at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York. Dr. Drob is well known for his writings on the psychology of C. G. Jung and for his efforts to develop a universalist rational-mystical theology through a synthesis of Jewish mysticism and contemporary thought. In a series of books (Symbols of the Kabbalah, 2000, Kabbalistic Metaphors, 2000, Kabbalah and Postmodernism, 2009, ) as well as on his website, www.newkabbalah.com, Drob shows how the symbols of the Lurianic Kabbalah articulate a "basic metaphor" that is reprised in a philosophical idiom in the writings of such later thinkers as Hegel, Freud, Jung and Derrida, and which serves as a compelling model for understanding the world and the place of humanity within it. Drob is also known for his writings on the psychologist C. G. Jung. His books, Kabbalistic Visions: C. G. Jung and Jewish Mysticism (2010), and Reading the Red Book: An Interpretive Guide to C. G. Jung's Liber Novus (2012) approach Jung from a philosophical, theological and psychological point of view. Dr. Drob maintains an active practice in forensic psychology and psychological assessment in New York City. As a painter, he works in a traditional representational idiom in order update and resignify theological, mystical and archetypal themes, and addresses basic philosophical and theological questions through the medium of narrative painting. His paintings can be seen a www.sanforddrobart.com.