According to Jung, Part Two of Goethe’s Faust was a link in the Aurea Catena from philosophical alchemy and Gnosticism down to Nietzsche’s Zarathustra: both works were “mostly unpopular, ambiguous, and dangerous,” constituting a “voyage of discovery to the other pole of the world.” Yet Jung believed that Nietzsche had not understood himself when he “fell into the mystery and into the unspeakable,” singing its praises to “the crowd that had been forsaken by all the gods.” In Nietzsche’s “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” and the Challenge of Transformation, Paul Bishop examines the significance for Jung of the great thinker of modernity — and postmodernity. For if Zarathustra was Nietzsche’s Faust, Jung saw his own No. 2 personality as corresponding to Zarathustra. After all, Nietzsche was, like Jung, the son of a clergyman — and as Jung frequently reminded those attending his legendary seminar on Zarathustra, “I know what that means”!
This is the third volume in a series of books, examining key texts in German literature and thought that were, in Jung’s own estimation or by scholarly consent, highly influential on his thinking. The project of Jung and the Epic of Transformation consists of four titles, sequentially arranged to explore great works from a Jungian perspective and in turn to highlight their importance for interpreting The Red Book.
Praise for VOLUME 2, Goethe’s “Faust” as a Text of Transformation
“This work is so richly laced with subtle connections between Jung and Goethe that one can almost believe that Jung was indeed the poet’s great-grandson, channeling him half-consciously in his writings and seminars. In this brilliant work, Paul Bishop offers the reader a unique guide to the labyrinthine journey of individuation in both geniuses” — Murray Stein, author of Jung’s Map of the Soul – Deeper Explorations.
Praise for VOLUME 1, Wolfram von Eschenbach’s “Parzival” and the Grail as Transformation
“Paul Bishop, world authority on Jungian thought in its most creative – and prolific! – sense, engages […] with one of the core texts of Western civilization. […] Studying the creative thought of Paul Bishop, one of the most eminent Jung scholars, in this book has been a profound pleasure and gain […]. Everyone in the Jungian world, academics as well as clinicians, could greatly profit from reading Wolfram von Eschenbach’s “Parzival” and the Grail as Transformation” — Gottfried M. Heuer, International Journal of Jungian Studies.
