ART AND IMAGES IN PSYCHIATRY Parsifal Anselm Kiefer

James C. Harris, MD

What attitude is required if I am to be able to live in spite of evil?...[A] the year of Kiefer’s birth. In it, Jung writes that each genera- complete spiritual renewal is needed. And this cannot be given tion must determine for themselves how “to live in spite of gratis, each man must strive to achieve it for himself....Theeternal evil” (epigraph).1(p217) When Kiefer learned of Germany’s truths cannot be transmitted mechanically; in every epoch they must hidden past, he sought to confront it using literary, philo- be born anew from the human psyche. sophical, mythological, and theological sources. His search Carl Jung, After the Catastrophe,19451(p217) led to a series of paintings of the Parsifal legend. Like Parsi- fal, Kiefer was protected from exposure to aggression and Anselm Kiefer’s art is his vehicle for coming to terms with Ger- war during his youth and was propelled to find a deeper many’s wartime past. He was born March 8, 1945, as the last meaning in his life as he matured. In his Parsifal paintings, bombs were falling in Germany during World War II. Kiefer’s Kiefer examines the mythological archetype of a hero who generation was protected throughout childhood from refer- sought to heal an enduring wound; for Kiefer, that wound ences to Adolf Hitler and Germany’s role in the Holocaust. For was the Nazi past. German society, 1945 was year zero as it started to rebuild The setting he chose to engage past tragedy was an attic. from the wartime damage, to buildings and to the psyche. For For him, an attic served as a metaphorical storage place to en- his generation, the letters and belongings from the war years ter and confront discarded and repressed traumatic memo- were put away, and the memories of Germany’s wartime past ries of the Nazi past. The first victims of that Holocaust were were stored in societal attics of the mind. The details of this chronic mental patients and those with intellectual disabili- past were kept from his generation. ties deemed “life unworthy of life”2 whose deaths in gas cham- Carl Jung’s examination of the psychological aftermath bers were a rehearsal for what was to come later in the death of Germany’s defeat, After the Catastrophe, was published camps. Only by experiencing another’s pain through empa-

Anselm Kiefer (born 1945), German. Parsifal, 1973. Oil on textured wallpaper mounted on nettle cloth, 300 × 533 cm. © 2013 Anselm Kiefer. All rights reserved. Photograph © 2013 Kunsthaus, Zürich, Switzerland.

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thy could Parsifal restore the Grail, and only through existen- tial engagement through his art could Kiefer come to terms with the past. Kiefer’s sources for the Parsifal legend were Wolfram von Eschenbach’s epic story and Richard Wagner’s music drama. The tale is based on the ancient legend of a Holy Grail knight whose father, the knight Gurmanet, was killed in battle. Parsi- fal’s bereaved mother abandoned her royal life and retreated to the woods, taking him with her. There she resolved to keep her son from learning about aggression and war. Fearing his early death in combat, she tried to ensure that he would never learn about the chivalric traditions of hunting and armed con- flict. So successful was she that the adolescent Parsifal was fun- damentally naive about the world. Yet his innocence was lost when he encountered a group of knights in the forest and, un- thinkingly, joined their quest without ever saying goodbye to his mother. Soon afterward, mourning his departure, she died of grief. The key element in the Parsifal myth is how an innocent lacking in common sense is made wise by compassion. Kiefer sought to address the demoralization brought about when learning of the extent of Nazi atrocities by confronting the past in his art. He began at the age of 24 with his Occupations pho- tographs, which were a series of photographs of himself giv- ing the straight-armed Nazi salute as a parody to ridicule the Nazis in locations with historical significance in the different Detail of the Grail from Parsifal. cities that the Nazis had sought to occupy.3 These provoca- tive photographs are a reminder of what happened and the the same enchantress. In the midst of Kundry’s seductive kiss, need to come to terms with the past. As the series progresses Parsifal suddenly cries out in pain and rejects her. The pain he and is extended, the straight-armed salute depicted by Kiefer experiences, through empathy with Amfortas, is identical to begins to waver, suggesting a sense of shame. that of Amfortas’ pain. Because Parsifal resists temptation Kiefer completed 4 attic paintings of the Parsifal legend. through compassion for Amfortas’ suffering, he regains the The largest of these, Parsifal, depicts the final scene of Wag- Spear from the evil sorcerer. Cursed by the enchantress for re- ner’s music drama. The Knights kneel before Parsifal and sing jecting her, Parsifal wanders for many years but eventually finds “Höchsren Heiles Wunder! Erlösung dem Erlöser!” (“Highest, Ho- the Grail Castle. He heals Amfortas’ wound with the Spear and liest Wonder! Redemption to the Saviour!”); these words are is anointed redeemer, the successor to Amfortas and Guard- inscribed above the Grail in Kiefer’s painting (detail). Parsi- ian of the Grail. fal’s birth and attainment of chivalric status as a knight are de- Although Kiefer’s painting seems to reenact the Parsifal leg- picted in his other 3 Parsifal paintings, numbered Parsifal 1, 2, end, its setting in the attic of past memories and the way it is and 3.4 In Parsifal, the knight’s name is inscribed at the top cen- depicted give it a double-edged meaning. Despite the naming ter, and the name Amfortas, his predecessor as the leading Grail of the hero in the painting, the song of praise, and the depic- knight, is shown at the bottom. In the legend, Amfortas, long- tion of the Grail itself (detail), something is amiss. For this Grail time guardian of the holy relics (the Holy Grail and the Holy resides in an attic, out of conscious memory. How can this hid- Spear), is injured by the Holy Spear when it is wielded by an den Grail be restored to consciousness as a symbol of re- evil sorcerer who has taken the Spear from him. Amfortas lost newal? Unlike the traditional Grail, Kiefer’s Grail seems to over- the Spear to the sorcerer when he succumbed to the tempta- flow with blood. But is it the blood of the Savior or, instead, tions of Kundry, an enchantress, and was distracted. Thus, Am- the unredeemed blood of past German atrocities? Must those fortas bears a wound that will not heal. Afterward, Amfortas, atrocities be atoned for before the meaning of the Grail be guilty for having sinned, declares himself unworthy of per- restored by emotional confrontation with the wartime past? forming the Holy Office and refuses to conduct the Grail ritual Kiefer’s art in the ensuing decades addresses this task of entrusted to him, one that physically and spiritually sus- atonement.4 tained his fellow knights. Without joining in the holy rites, spiri- Carl Jung was attracted to the Parsifal legend long before tual desolation descends on the Grail knights. It is proph- Kiefer was. Jung’s engagement with the legend emerged dur- esized that only a fool made wise by compassion could regain ing his midlife crisis in the years before the First World War the Holy Spear and heal Amfortas’ wound. Parsifal is the cho- when he recorded a series of inner dialogues and elaborated sen innocent (lacking in common sense) who can heal Amfor- on them in his Liber Novus (Red Book).5 Jung wrote that those tas by regaining the Spear. Thus begins Parsifal’s quest to re- years of psychological turmoil resulted in all his later writing. claim the Holy Spear. Yet Parsifal also falls under the spell of Psychological Types (1921)6 was the first book he wrote after this

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prolonged period of active imaginative encounters. In Psycho- him that it be produced in the Bayreuth Festival Theatre that logical Types, Jung interprets Amfortas’ wound as psychologi- he designed, it was only produced there for the next 2 de- cal, not physical. In this book, the wound itself takes on mythic cades after his death. What appealed to Wagner in creating meaning, as Jung addresses the human tendency to psycho- his Parsifal was not a particular religion but religions as a logical dissociation and fragmentation when an individual is source of myths and symbols. In them, he found his means to unable to master life experiences or come to terms with psy- illustrate spiritual truths. In Parsifal, he draws on both Chris- chological trauma. tianity and Buddhism for his views on compassion—action For Jung, the legend of Parsifal and the Holy Grail largely based on empathy that emerges from “suffering with” an- has to do with mastering and resolving enduring uncon- other person. What is awakened in Parsifal is “a sense of scious maternal ties. Jung used the term incest symbolically fellow-suffering.”10(p237) Through his identification with Am- to describe psychological regression. In Jung's mythic view, the fortas, Parsifal has an astute insight into the first Buddhist Noble temptation to incest is not a literal or symbolic genital seduc- Truth, that of dukkha (suffering). This insight leads him to em- tion by the personal mother; instead, it is a seduction to re- bark on a path to find its cessation. Through self-denial and gress into a blissful dissolution of personal identity accompa- empathetic reflection, Parsifal realizes the interconnected- nied by fear of independence. ness of all of life and restores the Holy Grail to its rightful place. Jung described the mythic journey of the hero who must

overcome the symbiotic relationship that results from overiden- Author Affiliations: Developmental Neuropsychiatry, Johns Hopkins University tification with an engulfing, overprotective, archetypal mother. School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland (Harris). Such overidentification thwarts the drive for independence. The Corresponding Author: James C. Harris, MD, Developmental Neuropsychiatry, child must break free from symbiotic maternal overprotection Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 1800 Orleans St, Baltimore, MD to find his or her own identify.7 In the legend, Parsifal was so en- 21287 ( [email protected]). meshed in his relationship with his mother and so overly iden- Section Editor: James C. Harris, MD tified with her that he did not have a name. “Parsifal” is derived Conflict of Interest Disclosures: None reported. from Fal Parsi, which means “pure fool.”For Jung, Amfortas’ re- Note from the Author: This month the cover art for JAMA Psychiatry permanently moves inside to accompany the psychiatry commentary. The June gression and breakdown result in an always open and never heal- issue was the last issue with art on the cover. Cover art, initiated in November ing wound. His wound represents a failure in psychological 2002 (128 issues), was conceived as a Meyerian portal to each issue. Meyer’s differentiation.6,8 Sexuality and sexual seduction are not the ma- psychobiology emphasizes that the person is the main subject of study in jor issues. Rather, Jung writes that Amfortas relapses into a “brut- psychiatry and thus each cover has introduced an artist as the personal exemplar for a psychiatry theme. The introductory monthly commentary will ish attitude” that is the cause of his suffering and brings about now serve as that portal to introduce each issue and will continue the emphasis his loss of power.”6(p219) The seduction is symbolic, and his psy- on the person. The journal contents that follow examine the underlying levels of chological wound results from his ambivalent submission to a psychobiological organization and experiences that influence the person, among them: molecular, genetic, neural circuitry, diagnostic, environmental, biological urge and results in a loss of vitality. and interpersonal. I look forward to your comments in the months ahead. The issue is deeper than that of repressed sexuality. The Spear and Grail are not sexual symbols because the Spear is 1. Jung CG. After the Catastrophe. In: Civilization in Transition: Collected both the source of Amfortas’ injury and the means to cure it.6 Works. Vol 10. Hull RFC, trans. New York, NY: Bollingen Foundation; 1964: 194-217. What is important is an individual’s cognitive attitude to- 2. Harris JC. The Würgengel. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2006;63(10):1066-1067. ward sexuality or power. Our conscious attitude determines 3. Lopez-Pedraza R. Anselm Kiefer: The Psychology of “After the Catastrophe.” how we judge ourselves. Amfortas views himself as having New York, NY: George Braziller; 1996. sinned and is unable to act, not so much because of sexual se- 4. Tate Gallery. The Tate Gallery 1984-1986: Illustrated Catalogue of duction but because a value that determines his self-worth has Acquisitions/Including Supplement to Catalogue of Acquisitions 1982-84. been rejected (as a result of his behavior). By choosing to res- London, England: Tate Gallery; 1988:515-519. cue himself from these restless sexual compulsive instinc- 5. Harris JC. The Red Book: Liber Novus. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2010;67(6): tual urges, Parsifal maintains his vitality and unites the oppo- 554-556. sites of the feminine symbol of the Grail and the masculine 6. Jung CG. Psychological Types: Collected Works. Vol 6. Princeton, NJ: symbol of the Spear within himself.6 Princeton University Press; 1971. Parsifal is Wagner’s final completed music drama. Wag- 7.LevyD.Maternal Overprotection. New York, NY: Columbia University Press; 1943. ner first conceived of this work in April 1857 but did not finish 9 8. Haule JR. Jung’s “Amfortas’ wound”: psychological types revisited. Spring. it until 25 years later. For Wagner, Parsifal was the culmina- 1992;53:95-112. tion of his inner journey. He took advantage of the particular 9. Kohler J. Richard Wagner: The Last of the Titans. Spenser S, trans. New acoustics of his Bayreuth Festspielhaus in Germany to per- Haven, CT: Yale University Press; 2004. form it. It was finally performed at the second Bayreuth Fes- 10. Millington B. The Sorcerer of Bayreuth: Richard Wagner, His Work and His tival in 1882, the year before he died. So meaningful was it to World. New York NY: Oxford University Press; 2012.

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