ABSTRACT
According to Jung, Nietzsche’s model fails to unite the opposites for two reasons: it is one-sided, as it promotes one opposite at the expense of the other (the conscious body over the unconscious spirit) and it lacks the essential unifying symbol (God), which would appropriate the balance between opposites. Jung’s evaluation of Nietzsche’s model is incorrect. I intend to show in this chapter that Nietzsche’s model does acknowledge a spiritual, creative realm outside the body, and that this vital principle works symbolically to unite the opposites. We shall also see that Nietzsche’s insanity was not, as Jung claims, the result of a onesided ego-inflation. Our analysis of their affinities in Chapter 8 uncovered an ambivalence and resistance in Jung’s reception of Nietzsche’s model. In this chapter, we shall try to reunite their models in the face of an even more explicit resistance from Jung. I shall try to diagnose this resistance in Chapter 11, by hypothesizing an unconscious personal need on Jung’s part to dissociate himself from Nietzsche in his work.
