Ecce Mulier

<p>Creativity and madness sparked by the intrusion of unconscious symbolism arise from the same feminine depths—what Jung following Goethe called the realm of the Mothers. Which one triumphs depends on the strength of the ego under the onslaught of unconscious contents. The developmental course of that ego and its archetypal aspects are charted here in a psychobiography that ventures into the realm of the Mothers so that the creativity and the madness of Friedrich Nietzsche can be better understood.</p><p>Drawing upon classical archetypalist and developmental approaches Dr. Ostfeld de Bendayán investigates the purpose and meaning of Nietzsche’s states of mind his emotional life his dominant patterns of behavior his recurrent fantasy motifs his interests and choices his symptoms and his manifestations of the Self. Dreams visual and auditory hallucinations and poems are mined for insights and alchemy religion philosophy literature and archetypal symbolism provide further illumination. The result is a rich analytical psychological portrait that enhances our understanding of psychic dynamics in general of the etiology of psychosis of the fruitful alliance between psychology and myth of the existential condition of postmodern (Dionysian) humanity and of the relationships between the creative process and the collective unconscious.</p>