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And the Anchorite THE PSYCHOLOGIST THE PHILOSOPHER AND THE ANCHORITE. JUNG, NIETZSCHE AND THüS SPAICE ZARATAUSTRA BY JENNY MCMASTER BA (Honours) (Religion and Art History), Carleton University, ûttawa, 1999 A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Shidies and Researeh in partial fiilfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Coiiege of the Humanities (Reiigion) Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario May 11,2001 u&iüiomand Acquisitions et &log mphic Se~iœs senrices Mbiiiraphiques The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence aiiowing the exclusive pennethnt B la National Liiof Canada to Bibliothèque natide du Canada de reproduce, loan, distnite or selî reproduite, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des oopies de cette thèse sous paper or elecbroaic farmats. la fonne de mimfiche/fflm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains owmdup of the L'auteur consme la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être hnprims reproduced without the author's ou auûement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. cana!! ABSTRACT The purpose of this thesis is to elucidate the psychologicai and spirituai thought of Carl Jung and Friederich Nietzsche through their cornparison. Part 1wiii investigate the Seminars participated in by Jung and his followers on Nietzsche's Thus Spke Zarathustra, as weii as materiai found in the Coilected Works on the subject. Part II wÎli attempt to relay a likely response from Nietzsche. Part JII will investigate the practicai ramifications of Jung and Nietzsche's soteriologies with regards to the use of the intuitive and artistic in philosophy, psychology and spirituality. It wiil aiso examine the adequacy of Jung and Nietzsche methods of dealing with abnomai psychological experience and altered states of consciousness. ûeneral Introduction .................................................................... 1 Part 1: Jung on Nietzsche .............................................................. 8 Chapter 1: TheSeminars ............................................................ 10 Chapter 2: The CoUected Works ................................................... 63 Conclusions Part 1..................................................................... 91 Part II: A Response From Niewhe.. .............................................. 93 Chapter 1: Jungian Slips.............................................................. 93 Chapter 2: Affimhes. ................................................................. 100 Chapter 3: Disagreements. The Other Side of the Paradox .....................136 Conclusions Part II .................................................................. 172 Part III: Art. Alchemy and Mysticai Experience................................ 178 Chapter 1 :Jung on Art .............................................................. 185 Chapter 2: Nietzsche and Art ......................................................192 Chapter 3: Similarities in Jung and Nietzsche's Approaches ..................206 Chapter 4: The Remaining Divide ................................................214 Chapter 5: Mystical Experience ................................................... 230 Conclusions Part III ................................................................. 245 ûeneral Conclusions............................................................... 251 Bibliography......................................................................... 266 CITATIONS PRIMARY SOURCES AC Nietzsche, The AnttChrist BT Nietzsche, The Bi* of T-y BGE Nietzsche, Beyond Gdand Evil GC Geoffrey Clive (Editor), The Pbilosophy of Nietzsche Jung, The CoUected Works Nietzsche, Ecce Homo Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morals Nietzsche, The Gay Science Nietzsche, Gesammelte Werke (CoUected Works, German) Jung, Cescunmelte Werke (CoUected Works, German) EH Nietzsche, Human al1 too Human MDR Jung, Memories, Dreams and Refiecdons NB Nietzsche, Nietzsche Briefwechsel (Neitzsche's Personal Correspondences) NCW Nietzsche, Nietzsche Contra Wagner SI, S2 Jung, The Seminars TI Nietzsche, TwUight of the Idols TOS Nietzsche, Thought out of Season UW Nietzsche, Me Unscûiid des Werdens Nietzsche, Untimely Medltaths flhoughîs Out OP Season) Nietzsche, The WUI to Power Nietzsche, La Volunîe de Puissance (Will to Power, French) Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra SECONDARY SOURCES B Peter Bishop, The Monysian Self C JJ. Clarke, Jung and Eastern Thought D Gie Deleuze, Nietzsche and Pbilosophy Daveys Nicholas Daveys, Intro to Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Trans. Thomas Common) Charles Taylor, Human Agency and Langage Hofstadter and Kuhns, PbUirsophies of Art and B-ty Kari Jaspers, Nietzsche and Christianity Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth John Dourley, "Jacob Boehme and Paul Tichon God" RS Maurice Merleau Ponty. The WcyOP Perception Elain Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels Paul Williams, Mahayana Budàhism Kurt Rudolph, Gnosis Walsh, Roger, "The PsychoIogicai Health of Sbamans" JAAR Shirley Touison, The Celk Alternative Paul Thiele, Tbe Politics of the Sou1 David Wulii?The PsychoIogy of Reügion Walter H Capps, Religions Studies Demis Young, New Alchemy: Elements, Systems and Forees vii INTRODUCTION In the postmodem era the innuence of institutional religion has ceased to k the predominant means of defining the spiritual. Psychology and philosophy are now the preferred methodologies which have been used to fiil this gap. At first glance, philosopher Friederich Nietzsche, the quintessential atheist, and psychologist Car1 Gustav Jung, who considers humanity to be intrinsically religious, seem to have very little in common. The tmth of the matter is, however, that Jung was profoundy influenced by Nietzsche and in many ways Jung is uniquely qualified to comment on Nietzsche. Botb Jung and Nietzsche were preacher's sons and subsequently reacted against the Christian church. Both underwent psychological breakdowns and yet both considered mental illness an opportunity for spiritual growth and the attainrnent of speciai knowledge. Both considered mysticai experience to be something more than a product of pathology. Both used alchemy and symbols as a means of explainhg their systems of thought, Both were greatly influenced by Eastern philosophy. Both considered the irrational and intuitive side of the human psyche to be unfairly maligned, unlike Freud who still considered it automaticaiiy associateci with neurosis, primitiveness and infancy. Both saw the Christian opposites of good and evil as an artificiai split, no longer appropriate to the modem era. Having said this, Jung did deihe many aspects of his psychology in opposition to Nietzsche's philosophy. Jung did not agree with nor understand everything that Nietzsche wrote. Though Jung did most of bis work at the beginning of the Twentieth century, and Nietzsche at the end of the Nieteenth, Nietzsche is more radical and more modem (or postmodern) than Jung in many ways. However, 1would also assert that Jung is correct in bis statemeat, that though Nietzsche championed the unconscious, he still clung to the Western prejudice that conscious experience was the oniy experience which ought to be trusted. In Thus Spoke Zarathustra Nietzsche writes of the Wise Persian Magus, the maker and bnaker of the consecrated tables of natural order.@T, 6 1)' He writes about the Dionysian artist who creates his own values and his own iife as a work of art. The action of his life and the creative affirmation of his fate become a beautiful but tragic myth. Nietzsche also writes about the critical histonan who tears apart his past and reappties it in new and innovative ways. He revalues and reinterprets the religious and culturai imagery he was brought up with. Thus Spoke Zarathustra is Nietzsche's autobiography as a work of art, his Me as a tragic myth, his religion and history gutted and reborn. The work is filled with retigious imagery, including Christian. The apocalypse, the anchorite and the second coming are among the feanires we encounter. Zarathustra, better known as Zoroaster to historians of reiigion, was the prophet who arguably first cracked open the divide between good and evil.(Sl, 5)" The story begim when he descends from his mountain to deliver a new testament to those who are worthy. Jung writes about Nietzsche as a matprophet of the spirit and the unconscious, an alchemist of the psyche and a victim of pathology. Thus Spoke Zaratbustra, explains Jung, represents Nietzsche's effort to teturn the immediacy of the spirit to culture and philosophy.(Sl, 61) in the pstenlightenment world the spirit was seen as a purely cerebral or inîeilectuai phenornenon. Each chapter of Zarathustra, asserts Jung, is like a stage in the process of spintuai initiation.(Sl, 459) Th$ problem, in the psychologist's eyes, was that Nietzsche had twned bis back on tirne tested methods of dealing with undefined spiritual forces. Though Jung and Nietzsche both agreed that the force of the spirit was native to the psyche, Jung believed that Nietzsche did not have enough respect for the sûengtb of spiritual forces. Nietzsche, says Jung, was as much a victim of Thus Spoke Zarathustra as he was its author.(Sl, 5 1) He was one of the first philosophm to acknowledge the emotional, the irrational and the unconscious. And because he deait with unconscious subject matter, he had no choice
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