Melville's Moby Dick: A Jungian Commentary

Studies in Jungian Psychology by Jungian Analysts #69

by Edward F. Edinger

Book by Edinger, Edward F.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Mythology, Criticism

150 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1976

About the author

Edward F. Edinger was a medical psychiatrist, Jungian analyst and American writer.
Edward F. Edinger Jr. was born on December 13, 1922, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, earning his Bachelor of Arts in chemistry at Indiana University Bloomington and his Doctor of Medicine at Yale School of Medicine in 1946. In November 1947, as a first lieutenant, he started a four-week Medical Field Service School at the Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas. He became a military doctor in the United States Army Medical Corps and was in Panama. In New York in 1951, he began his analysis with Mary Esther Harding, who had been associated with C.G. Jung.
Edinger was a psychiatrist supervisor at Rockland State Hospital in Orangeburg, New York, and later founder member of the C.G. Jung Foundation in Manhattan and the CG Jung Institute in New York. He was president of the institute from 1968 until 1979, when he moved to Los Angeles. There he continued his practice for 19 years, becoming senior analyst at the CG Jung Institute of Los Angeles.
He died on July 17, 1998, at his home in Los Angeles at age 75, according to family members due to bladder cancer.

Reviews

[Scott Brennan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a phenomenal book for anyone who loves to wrestle with the labyrinth of a novel that is Moby-Dick. Edinger brilliantly unpacks the layered archetypes and symbols upon which the novel is built, and he writes very lucidly and with passion. Each sentence offers a new discovery. I rate this four+ stars because of the innumerable insights it provides, and I agree with Edinger's interpretations up until a point. I feel he significantly misread the chapter "The Pequod Meets the Bachelor." Though the sailors on the ship left Nantucket as bachelors, they return home wedded to Polynesian brides with whom they eloped. Thus, they are no longer bachelors, no longer representative of carefree naivety; instead they represent the wholeness Ahab turned his back on in the emotional desertion of his wife (or anima in Jung's terms). The chapter title, the name of the ship, and the situation are therefore ironic, and the Batchelor mocks the miserable consequences of Ahab's chosen path. This misreading causes a chain reaction of other interesting and slightly off interpretations, especially regarding the extent of Ahab's personal growth. I also disagree with the interpretation of the chapter "The Log and the Line" in which Ahab takes mad Pip under his care. I view this strange adoption as nothing more than Ahab's vain public display of charity used to inflate his ego, a further manifestation of his narcissism.

Still--wow!--what a phenomenal work of literary criticism and psychological analysis. It helped me appreciate Moby-Dick and Melville's brilliance in an entirely new way, and I read Edinger's book as if in a fever because it helped me resolve many of the novel's richest, brilliant, and most challenging ambiguities.

[James Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is literary criticism from a Jungian perspective. Edinger, while a Jungian, does not limit his analysis merely to the Jungian outlook, but also includes classical, biblical, and other literary references.

The approach that he uses is through examining the book as a psychological document. He considers it "as a record in symbolic imagery of an intense inner experience". In doing so he tries to serve three ends:
"first, to elucidate the pyschological significance of Moby-Dick; second, to demonstrate the methods of analytical psychoogy in dealing with wymbolic forms; and third, to present the fundamental orientation which underlies the therapeutic approch of analytical psychology."

The subtitle of the book, "An American Nekyia", refers to the eleventh book of the Odyssey, called a Nekyia, which is used as a reference to a journey to the underworld. This seems particularly apt when attempting to elucidate some of the deep meaning suggested by the text of Moby-Dick. It also can be seen in biblical terms as demonstrated by the sermon based on the tale of Jonah and the Leviathan. Whether discussing Prometheus, Faust, the Sphinx or demonism, Edinger produces a fascinating commentary on the potential meaning of the ultimate story of the whale.

The breadth of his approach makes his book attractive and worthwhile. While I did not always agree with his conclusions, his arguments and analyses were always thought-provoking. I would recommend this as one of the best literary criticisms to include in any close reading of Moby-Dick.

[Debbie Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

As long as you love Moby Dick, you don't have to buy quite all the Jungian mumbo jumbo to get something out of this one.

[Brett · Rating 2 out of 5]

More useful as a Jung primer and Melville biography than criticism. I was kind of hoping that Mr. Ed Ed would come up with a funky new interpretation, but it's actually a pretty straightforward reading overlaid with some Jungian metaphors that could just as easily be substituted with Dionysian/Apollonian, reason/intuition, etc... I don't find criticism that relies heavily on binary opposition to be terribly interesting or helpful nowadays. In any case, I more or less came to the same conclusions as this guy so that's probably the reason for the tepid response.

I did learn a few new things about Melville and the analysis of Ahab and his 40 years of whaling was interesting.

[P.S. Carrillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal insights into the greatest American novel, a must read for anyone who loves literary fiction.