The Infinite Psyche and Virtual Unity

Abstract

James Hillman is well known for his critique of Jung’s Self as a totalizing import from monotheistic religion, which erases differences within an infinitely pluralistic psyche. This topic remains a tension within contemporary post-Jungian discourse. In this paper, I propose the dispute between Hillman and Jung must be framed metaphysically to make sense of how unity and multiplicity function within the infinite. Drawing on Henri Bergson’s philosophy of duration, I develop a conceptual alignment between a Bergsonian “virtual unity” and the Self. Unlike an actual unity that is finished and static, virtual unity is a dynamic structural tendency that directs multiplicity toward coherence without final closure—the way in which, I argue, the Self operates. Through this Bergsonian mediation, Hillman’s critique emerges as a legitimate warning against the literalizing tendency of consciousness while also recovering a real, though virtual, sense in which unity is operative in the infinite psyche.