Coincidences have always aroused curiosity and admiration. Sometimes everything seems inexplicably synchronized so that two seemingly unrelated situations fit together. As a result, people have always made us wonder whether these chance encounters are coincidence or destiny by associating them with a higher power.
Luck has also been a deep source of concern and questions. It has been studied from many different perspectives, from philosophy to the absences. It is a force that has existed since the beginning of life. Why were we born? Why were we born into this family, this country, these conditions but not others? Is there anything that could explain this, or is fate simply chaotic and unsolvable?
There is no such thing as luck, and even the slightest accident that appears to us is born from the deepest source of fate.
Friedrich Schiller
Both fate and coincidence have led to the rise of many theories, ranging from those supported by statistics to supernatural interventions. Among the rest, one name stands out in psychology: Carl Jung. The psychoanalyst and founder of his school of thought, Freud's first follower, devoted much of his work to these events. It was he who assumed the interesting concept of synchronicity.
One of the first to ask about coincidence and fate was Hippocrates, the father of medicine. According to this wise Greek doctor, all components of the universe were linked by "hidden affinity." In other words, he believed there were laws explaining everything, we just didn't know them yet.
Arthur Schopenhauer, a famous German philosopher, thought something similar: the fate of one is always adjusted to the fate of the other, and while each person is the narrator of his own drama, he simultaneously plays a role in the drama of another person. This is something beyond our comprehension.
With Sigmund Freud, the concept of "collective unconscious" started to take place on the subject, and Carl Jung gave it a definite form. He defined it as content beyond our awareness and said that it is common to all people. This includes memories, fantasies, and desires that we are unaware of, but are present in all of us. The collective subconscious is the source of unconscious communication between people and will also explain what we call coincidences.
Later, the psychoanalyst developed the concept of synchronicity, which he defined as "the temporary occurrence of transient events". In other words, the merging of two events, whatever caused the other, is a complementary situation. Over time, Jung's theories turned into a magical thought.
Is there fate really or is it made up?
While Jung's theory is very tempting, it is not the only thing that can explain coincidence and fate. For Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, and Jung’s teacher, it was the other way around. For him, fate really does not exist. Humans are those who stubbornly create destiny to make sense of everything that happens, and also for this reason neurosis causes people to repeat traumatic situations.
Nothing in itself makes sense for classical psychoanalysis. It is people who, upon their desires and trauma, give it meaning. People tend to attribute meaning to coincidences where there is no meaning. “The moment I hit someone, I was walking down the street and that person became the love of my life”. Sure, the same thing happened 30 times at different times, but it didn't turn out to be the love of his life. In fact, the idea of "love of my life" can also be a fantasy. Beautiful, but fantasy.
have noticed that when there is an increase in dopamine in the brain, people increase the tendency to see a pattern in everything, and this has led people to mistakenly attribute meaning to coincidences that are not meaningful, sometimes relating to things that are actually unrelated.
Perhaps the situations we see as destiny are due to the directing hand of the subconscious. Without realizing it, we try to be in certain situations or have certain experiences. As we think, maybe human beings are not that far from fate. Our unconscious fantasies and desires are what design what we call destiny. Just giving it a magical tone gives us some satisfaction.
