ABSTRACT
In the Red Book, as in Jung’s later work, complementarity plays as important a role as paradox; the two are intimately connected to each other as well as to his concerns as an explorer of the soul. For him, trauma and spirituality are both governed at a fundamental level by the principle of complementarity. Ego strengthening goes hand in hand with ego transcendence, speech with silence, dialogue with contemplation. In its broadest sense, complementarity implies a “both-and” approach. It has to do with apprehending things in their totality from opposed perspectives. Oneness and wholeness are often best perceived through the use of opposing or contradictory means, the results of which, when taken together, provide an all-encompassing view of the phenomenon under investigation.
