Jung's Seminar on Nietzsche's Zarathustra: Abridged Edition

by James L. Jarrett (Editor)

Nietzsche's infamous work Thus Spake Zarathustra is filled with a strange sense of religiosity that seems to run counter to the philosopher's usual polemics against religious faith. For some scholars, this book marks little but a mental decline in the great philosopher; for C. G. Jung, Zarathustra was an invaluable demonstration of the unconscious at work, one that illuminated both Nietzsche's psychology and spirituality and that of the modern world in general. The original two-volume edition of Jung's lively seminar on Nietzsche's Zarathustra has been an important source for specialists in depth psychology. This new abridged paperback edition allows interested readers to participate with Jung as he probes the underlying meaning of Nietzsche's great work.

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy

352 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 16, 2020

Reviews

[Deviprasadh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thus spoke zarathustra is one of the fundamental fictional- poetic- philosophical work that should be read by everyone in the planet. Some influential High schools have included it in their curriculum.

I just came across in a podcast by Jordan Peterson that Dr. Carl jung had done a lecture series on TSZ.

Jung comes at TSZ from a psychological standpoint and essentially adds that in order to love others, we should first love ourselves. We love ourselves by integrating every part of ours. We become an integrated individual when we realise that everyone of us have a spark of the divine deeply inside, and all the worldly knowledge we acquire and actions we do are just to grasp at the divine.

Unfortunately we become our own worst enemies by sabotaging all our hardwork with impulsivity. We might think that by indulging in expedient actions we become happy, but we end up with personal shame. Just because we are ashamed of ourselves, we lash out at others like the meek passive snivelling snot nosed entitled children. Hedonism isnt the pathway to happiness.
The shortest pathway is to adopt responsiblity, confront suffering forthrightly & voluntarily in the pursuit of a worthy goal.

So many more knowledge bombs abound, do give it a read if youre a fan of TSZ.

[Petter Gran · Rating 5 out of 5]

One genius analyzing the work of another genius.

This is just impossible to grasp, yet so satisfying to read

[Deken Flaherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jung’s seminars are always great for helping to understand the context and dialogue.
It is amazing to hear what Jung’s thoughts were on Nietzsche. FN was such a decisive and powerful writer with motives to change the world. But FN the man was a struggling human who left his body behind to fly around in his intuition. It’s a great reminder of double edge sword that is intuition.
I enjoyed the topic of This spake Zarathustra, and enjoyed hearing Jung’s analysis of the literary work and his analysis of the man.
My favorite take away from the book is the discussion of the quote, “love thy neighbor, as you would love thyself”.
FN never remembered to include the second half of the statement, love thyself. And Jung describes how pivotal that is. It’s difficult to love thy neighbor (extroversion) when one doesn’t know how to love thyself (introversion).
Jung talks about the key to happiness. It is to be a pleasure, a pleasure to thyself and a pleasure to others.