While I haven’t followed the conversation completely, I did click the link for your friend’s obituary, and saw a most compelling description of a wonderful life lived. To go from studying philosophy, to medical school, to practicing psychiatry. And to have a family. Truly honorable.
With the mention of Jung, a person whom I am vaguely familiar through one of those very short introductions from Oxford Press, I’d like to share an experience I had. While I am at best a novice, I did come to Jung via Robert Bly and a mentor who encouraged me to read Bly. With the introduction to Jung, Bly could be better contextualized, and I appreciated him more.
But what do you do with Jung’s synchronicity?
I once told my philosophy of religion professor at the time, Paul Draper, a student of Plantinga, that the strangest coincidences (or historical-religious experiences) happened to me when I began to ask myself if I was the eternal necessary being.