How Jung Discovered Transdisciplinarity in 1922 without Realizing it, or How America’s Seventeenth Century Alchemist Embarked on Decolonizing in 2023

Abstract The paper argues against the binary “doing/researching” Jung as in clinical practice “does” Jung versus scholarship merely “researches.” Rather the development of Jungian Arts-Based Research provides a form of “doing therapy with the world” in a decolonizing and transdisciplinary context. In fact Jung anticipates key aspects of Transdisciplinarity as described by Basarab Nicolescu, notably his specification of symbol-writing for Transdisciplinary research, and in banishing modernity’s colonial hierarchy in types of knowledge. Moreover, by examining Jung’s essay on James Joyce’s novel, Ulysses , Jung can be seen to go beyond his reluctance to embrace aesthetics as connected to ethics. Finally, the paper provides examples from the Jungian Arts-Based Research novel, The Alchemy Fire Murder , to illustrate the methodology of JABR .