Product Description

Nietzsche wrote in "Ecce Homo" (1888) `that a psychologist without equal speaks from my writings - this is perhaps the first insight gained by a good reader...Who among the philosophers before me was in any way a psychologist? Before me there simply was no psychology'. This study focuses on this pronouncement, examining the contours of Nietzsche's psychology in the context of his life and psychological make-up. Beginning with essays from Nietzsche's youth, the author shows the influence of such figures as Goethe, Byron and Emerson on Nietzsche's development. He goes on to chart the development of Nietzsche's psychological ideas in terms of the imagery, drawn from the dialogues of Plato as well as from Nietzsche's own quasi-mystical experiences of nature, in which he spoke of the soul. Finally, Parkes analyzes one of Nietzsche's most revolutionary ideas - that the soul is composed of multiple "drives", or "persons", within the psyche. The task for Nietzsche's psychology, then, was to identify and order these multiple persons within the individual. Featuring new translations of quotations from Nietzsche's writings, this book reveals the profundity of Nietzsche's lifelong personal and intellectual struggles to come to grips with the soul. Its aim is to make Nietzsche's life and ideas accessible to any reader interested in this complex thinker.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1381296 in Books
• Published on: 1996-06-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

Customer Reviews

An astounding piece of Nietzsche scholarship and commentary.
It goes after just about every bit of psychological theory there is to be found in Nietzsche -- in the thoughts of Nietzsche the young student, in the psychological ideas from the writings of those who inspired him, in the ideas he advanced as his own psychological theories, in the images and metaphors of his texts. Parkes has put himself on the map as a Nietzsche scholar and commentator of the first rank. His is the only recent work I am aware of, besides my own earlier efforts in a book on NIETZSCHE AND PSYCHOANALYSIS, whose approach to Nietzsche is based on the principles of archetypal psychology. This approach is acknowledged in the opening reference to James Hillman, dean of archetypal psychology. Even if thereafter it is no longer explicitly mentioned, it remains actively present in every chapter. This is less a book about Nietzsche the person -- his feelings and thoughts and behaviors and other strictly personal idiosyncrasies -- than about the images and metaphors that shape and animate Nietzschean thought. We owe Mr.Parkes a debt of gratitude for the enormously rich way he has worked the archetypal material that goes by the personified name of "Nietzsche". Daniel Chapelle