ABSTRACT
In Nietzsche’s personal pathologies we have the modern crisis in a microcosm. Nietzsche faced the great dilemma of our times: he could no longer believe in God and therefore was left with only himself as the sole source of his great, “godlike” creative powers. But Nietzsche’s psyche could not bear this great burden and he succumbed to mental illness. Jung’s analysis of works by Nietzsche, including The Birth of Tragedy and Thus Spake Zarathustra, give us valuable insights not only to Nietzsche himself but to the illness of the modern age. Nietzsche’s philosophy showed signs of resistance to the collectivizing influences of modernity. It was, in Jung’s view, a cry for individuation. Jung argued, contrary to Nietzsche, that with a belief in God, psychological balance and individuation were possible, overwhelming responsibility could be assigned to a higher, more capable, being, and order and meaning could be brought to what otherwise would be chaos.
