The Dark Ground of Spirit: Schelling and the Unconscious

by S.J. McGrath

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling is widely regarded as one of the most difficult and influential of German philosophers. In this book, S. J. McGrath not only makes Schelling's ideas accessible to a general audience, he uncovers the romantic philosopher's seminal role as the creator of a concept which shaped and defined late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century the concept of the unconscious. McGrath shows how the unconscious originally functioned in Schelling's philosophy as a bridge between nature and spirit. Before Freud revised the concept to fit his psychopathology, the unconscious was understood largely along Schellingian lines as primarily a source of creative power. Schelling's life-long effort to understand intuitive and non-reflective forms of intelligence in nature, humankind and the divine has been revitalised by Jungians, as well as by archetypal and trans-personal psychologists. With the new interest in the unconscious today, Schelling's ideas have never been more relevant. The Dark Ground of Spirit will therefore be essential reading for those involved in psychoanalysis, analytical psychology and philosophy, as well as anyone with an interest in the history of ideas.

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy

232 pages, Hardcover

First published January 11, 2011

Reviews

[C. Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent. Chapter 2 can stand alone as a fantastic introduction to Boehme.

[Dylan O'Brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Dark Ground of Spirit is an extremely well-written introduction to some of the most electrifying aspects of F.W.J. Schelling's thinking. McGrath admirably introduces Schelling's concepts on the themes of drive, ground, transcendence, and nature (among others). Although he highlights the distinctions between the different stages in Schelling's thought (Nature-Philosophy/Identity Philosophy/Weltalter/Positive Philosophy), it is helpful, especially for the beginner, that McGrath also draws parallels between each stage, bringing the continuities between all of the respective stages into focus.

McGrath convincingly shows that the same basic issues inspired Schelling throughout his long and storied career (as one of the first and last German Idealists). Although his methodology and tone changed a great deal between the optimistic early years of Nature-Philosophy and the later Revelation-Centric Positive Philosophy, it was Schelling's same interest in evil, the aporetic nature of human freedom, and the interrelation between the transcendent and the immanent, which animated his writings from beginning to end.

Especially intriguing is McGrath's discussion of Schelling's relationship to Psychoanalytic theory, which is clear from the title of the book. In discussing psychoanalysis McGrath engages Schelling with the work of Freud, Jung, Lacan, and Zizek. The general conclusion is that Schelling offers a more affirmative, less fearful and cynical theory of the unconscious. Unlike Freud and his followers, Schelling takes the unconscious to be productive of character, meaning, and love. The unconscious is not a mere repository of harmful instincts which must be either: (a) crushed by; or (b) sublimated to human society. Thus, Schelling is painted here as both a predecessor and a successor of Psychoanalysis insofar as he was an early theorist of the unconscious, but he also avoided many of the pitfalls of later psychoanalytic dogma. Contemporary psychoanalytic theorists would do well to grapple with Schelling's work.

My single gripe about this book, and the reason I knocked off one star, is that McGrath at times seems too eager to downplay Schelling's non-Christian theoretical background. The influence of Vedic texts on Schelling's thinking is not even acknowledged here (though historians have noted Schelling's early reception of the Upanishads, an important Hindu text), Neo-Platonism is given short shrift, and the influence of Spinoza on Schelling is treated as more suspect than (I believe) is warranted. McGrath's gloss on Spinoza, which appears occasionally throughout the book, is especially uncharitable (for example, Spinoza is presented as a morally deficient determinist on page 99). Now, some of that un-charitability is likely due to Schelling's reading of Spinoza, but McGrath does not make much of an effort to set the record straight. Additionally, given the idea of Schelling's unconscious as productive-creative, I would have appreciated some engagement with Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari, who seem a natural point of comparison when discussing a non-representational unconscious which produces substantial meaning and relationships. Many of the shortcomings of orthodox psychoanalysis, including those outlined by McGrath, are overcome in Deleuze and Guattari's work.

But all griping aside, this is a very good book on Schelling. I'd recommend it to anyone as a helpful introduction. I would have written the book differently, had I been the author. But I could not have written a better book.

[Philemon - · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're interested in German philosopher Friedrich Schelling, this book provides a wonderfully clear analysis of his "middle period" theory of "historic immanence," which in turn involved his developing a theory of the unconscious (based on Jakob Boehme's writings) that paved the way for Freud and Jung.

If you're interested in Boehme, don't miss Chapter 2, another wonderfully clear explication of that notoriously difficult theosophist's thinking.

[Franklin · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5. Lot of psychology in here, fantastic.