Review by Choice Review
The lectures delivered by Jung from 1934 to 1939 on Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra are important for a number of reasons. First, the elaborate many of Jung's major concepts, allowing serious students of Jung to more fully understand his theories. Second, Thus Spoke Zarathustra is an excellent vehicle for Jungian analysis of an individual (Nietzsche) in the process of severe mental decompensation. Third, there is no hint here of either anti-Semitism or pro-Nazi sentiments expressed in more than 1,500 pages of informal lecture notes delivered while Hitler was coming into power in Germany. Quite the reverse; Jung stated that the Nazi symbol, the swastika, was, literally, a demonic sign. Further, he noted that Nietzsche could not properly be considered the philosopher of Nazism--Hegel would be more appropriate. Indeed, Jung applauded Nietzsche's break with Wagner over Wagner's anti-Semitism. Reading Jung's lectures on Thus Spoke Zarathustra will go a long way toward correcting charges that Jung was an anti-Semitic admirer of Hitler and a practicer of mythological voodoo (see Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Against Therapy: Emotional Tyranny and the Myth of Psychological Healing, CH, Jan '89). An important addition to the holdings of university libraries. -M. W. York, University of New Haven
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
