http://www.theperspectivesofnietzsche.com/nietzsche/nchrist.html
This website shows some of Nietzsche's most powerful ideas and quotations
Nietzsche and his Influence on Modern Psychology
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Repression
In "Beyond Good and Evil" Nietzsche writes about what psychology now refers to as repression. Repression is known as one of many defense mechanisms, where after trauma, people may "forget" what has happened to them. In reality, this memory of trauma isn't forgotten, it is just no longer a part of the conscious memory. Nietzsche states, "Forgetfulness is no mere vis inertiae, as the superficial believe; it is
rather an active – in the strictest sense positive – inhibiting capacity...The temporary shutting of the doors and windows of consciousness; guaranteed freedom from disturbance by the noise and struggle
caused by our underworld of obedient organs as they cooperate with
and compete against one another." (Nietzsche, 1886:40).
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. Beyond Good and Evil. Waiheke Island: Floating Press, 1886. Print.
Nietzsche and Jung
Carl Jung was a psychologist whos work included the selective unconscious, introversion/extroversion, and archetypes. Throughout his work, he was fascinated by the work that Nietzsche had done in his field. He even states in one of his works "Memories and Dreams, Reflection Reveals" that "The meaning of my existence is that life has addressed a question to me. That is a supra-personal task, which I accompany only by effort and with difficulty. Perhaps it is a question which preoccupied my ancestors, and which they could not answer? Could that be why I am so impressed by the problem on which Nietzsche foundered: the Dionysian side of life, to which the Christian seems to have lost the way?" (Jung, 1965 [1961], p. 350) . Nietzsche often influenced Jung's work. Nietzsche helped to provide Jung with the terminology (the Dionysian) and the case study (Zarathustra, for example) to help him create his ideas and theories.
Jung, C. G. (1965 [1961]). Memories, dreams, reflections. New York: Random House. - See more at: http://www.depthinsights.com/Depth-Insights-scholarly-ezine/e-zine-issue-3-fall-2012/jungs-reception-of-friedrich-nietzsche-a-roadmap-for-the-uninitiated-by-dr-ritske-rensma/#_ENREF_10
Jung, C. G. (1965 [1961]). Memories, dreams, reflections. New York: Random House. - See more at: http://www.depthinsights.com/Depth-Insights-scholarly-ezine/e-zine-issue-3-fall-2012/jungs-reception-of-friedrich-nietzsche-a-roadmap-for-the-uninitiated-by-dr-ritske-rensma/#_ENREF_10
The Role of the Unconscious in Nietzsche and Freud
An article in a journal called "The Role of the Unconscious in Nietzsche and Freud" by Katrina Mitcheson states the similarities between the idea of social influence in Freud and Nietzsche when she states "Both Freud and Nietzsche recognize the importance of the relationship
between individual psychology and social institutions. Freud’s interest is not
limited to the individual patient; he is concerned not just with the neurotic,
and the specificities of their individual past, but with the pathology of the
normal and the common childhood experiences that shape us all. Freud’s "Civilization and Its Discontents" and "Totem and Taboo" attempt to use the insights of
psychoanalysis to understand social customs, religion and morality: ‘the study
of the psychology of the neurosis is important for an understanding of the
growth of civilisation’ (Freud, 1912:73). The analysis of the social taboo is
presented as analogous to the phobia of a neurotic; both the individual creation of a neurotic, personal ‘taboo’ and the establishment of shared socially accepted taboos involve the repression, but not complete abolition, of
instinctual desires and result in ambivalent attitudes towards the object of
taboo. The neurotic endeavours ‘to create by private means what is effected
in society by collective effort’ (Freud, 1912:73). " This is just another example of the similarities in their theories.
Freud, Sigmund 1912 (1950) Totem and Taboo, Strachey, James (trans.), London, Routledge.
Mitcheson, Katrina. "The Role of the Unconscious in Nietzsche and Freud." Sussex-Ucu. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. <http://ww.sussex-ucu.org.uk/cspt/documents/issue9-3.pdf>.
Freud, Sigmund 1912 (1950) Totem and Taboo, Strachey, James (trans.), London, Routledge.
Mitcheson, Katrina. "The Role of the Unconscious in Nietzsche and Freud." Sussex-Ucu. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. <http://ww.sussex-ucu.org.uk/cspt/documents/issue9-3.pdf>.
The Unconsious
Nietzsche and Freud both had their ideas about the unconscious. Freud describes two types of unconscious in "The Ego and the Id." He states that "we have two kinds of unconscious - the one which is latent but capable of becoming conscious, and the one which is repressed and which
is not in itself and without more ado, capable of becoming conscious.
... The latent, which is unconscious only descriptively, not in the
dynamic sense, we call preconscious; we restrict the term unconscious to the
dynamically unconscious repressed (Freud, 1923:15)." This is similar to the idea of unconscious that Nietzsche has. Nietzsche's ideas are most seen in "Beyond Good and Evil." Nietzsche refers to the real motivations behind philosophers' work when he states, "It has gradually become clear to me what every great philosophy has
hitherto been: a confession on the part of its author and a kind of
involuntary and unconscious memoir; moreover that the moral (or
immoral) intentions in every philosophy have every time constituted
the real germ of life out of which the entire plan has grown (Nietzsche,
1886:37)."
In these writings, we can see that both Nietzsche and Freud have similar ideas about the unconscious mind.
Freud, Sigmund 1923 (1984) ‘The Ego and the Id’ in On Metapsychology: The
Theory of Psychoanalysis, Strachey, James (ed.), London, Penguin.
Nietzsche, Friedrich 1886 (1973) Beyond Good and Evil, Hollingdale, R. J (trans.),
London, Penguin.
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