The Rosarium Philosophorum as a universal relational psychology: Jung and object relations

Abstract

In 1926, Jung 'stumbled' upon alchemy and saw 'that analytic psychology coincided in a most curious way with alchemy'. After two decades of study, he published The Psychology of the Transference in which he connects the transferential relationship in psychotherapy with a sixteenth-century alchemical 'opus' called the Rosarium Philosophorum . This paper explores the psychology of the Rosarium using two non-Jungian approaches - Fairbairn's theory of object relations and Clarkson's model of the therapeutic relationship. Following a short review of these approaches, the Rosarium is discussed, step by step, to determine whether and to what extent the story illustrated in this philosophical text can be considered to be a general description of a relational theory of personality development and integration. There appear to be a remarkable number of similarities in the Rosarium and the psychologies of Fairbairn and Clarkson. As Jung wrote about his Psychology of the Transference , 'this venture must be regarded as a mere experiment' but this exploration of the Rosarium , using two different contemporary psychology narratives, represents an 'adventure' that might go some way to confirming Jung's view that the Rosarium Philosophorum is a symbolic representation of the archetype of relationship and a manifestation of a universal relational psychology.