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Psychoanalysis in the Light of Anthroposophy
GA 178

10 November 1917, Dornach

I. Anthroposophy and Psychoanalysis I

Considering on this occasion the lectures which I am having to give just now in Zürich,1Anthroposophy and the Science of the Soul (Nov. 5), Anthroposophy and Spiritual Science (Nov. 7), Anthroposophy and Natural Science (Nov. 12), Anthroposophy and Social Science (Nov. 14). I am freshly reminded that one can hardly come into touch with the spiritual life of that city in any broad sense at present without giving some attention to what is now called analytical psychology, or psychoanalysis. And various considerations connected with this realization have decided me to introduce what I have to say today with a short enumeration of certain points in analytical psychology, in psychoanalysis. We shall link it then with further remarks.

We have often noted how important it is for the researcher in the field of anthroposophical spiritual science, to connect his considerations with what is offered by the moving forces of our own age. It may be said that all sorts of people who feel drawn to psychoanalysis today are earnestly searching for the spiritual foundations of existence, for the inner realities of the soul of man. And it may be called a curious characteristic of our own time that so many of our contemporaries are becoming aware of quite definite, and most peculiar forces in the human soul. The psychoanalysts belong to those who, simply through the impulses of the age, are forced to hit upon certain phenomena of soul life.

It is especially important also not to remain entirely oblivious of this movement, because the phenomena of which it takes cognizance are really present, and because in our own time they intrude themselves for various reasons upon the attention of human beings. Today they must become aware of such phenomena.

On the other hand it is a fact that the people who concern themselves with these things today lack the means of knowledge required for the discussion and, above all, for the understanding of them. So that we may say: psychoanalysis is a phenomenon of our time, which compels men to take account of certain soul processes, and yet causes them to undertake their consideration by inadequate methods of knowledge. This is particularly important because this investigation, by inadequate methods of knowledge, of a matter that quite obviously exists and challenges our present human cognition leads to a variety of serious errors, inimical to social life, to the further development of knowledge, and to the influence of this development of knowledge upon social life.

It may be said that even less than half-truths are, under certain circumstances, more harmful than complete errors. And what the psychoanalysts bring to light today can be regarded only as an assortment of quarter-truths.

Let us consider a few excerpts from the research magazine of the psychoanalysts. What is called psychoanalysis today had its origin in a medical case observed by a Vienna interne, a Dr. Breuer, in the eighteen-eighties. Dr. Breuer, with whom I was acquainted, was a man of extraordinarily delicate spirituality besides what he was as a physician. He was interested to a high degree in all sorts of aesthetic, and general human problems. With his intimate manner of handling disease, it was natural that one case, which came under his observation in the eighties, was particularly interesting to him.

He had to treat a woman who seemed to be suffering from a severe form of hysteria. Her hysterical symptoms consisted of an occasional paralysis of one arm, dreamy conditions of various kinds, reduction of consciousness, a deep degree of sleepiness, and besides all this, forgetfulness of the usual language of her every day life. She had always been able to speak German; it was her native language, but under the influence of her hysteria could no longer do so; she could speak and understand only English.

Breuer noticed that when this woman was in her dreamy condition she could be persuaded, by a more intimate medical treatment, to speak of a certain scene, a very trying past experience. Now I will make clear to you from the description of the case given by the Breuer school, how the woman in her half-conscious condition, sometimes artificially induced, gave the impression that her hysteria was connected with a severe illness of her father, through which he had passed a long time before. Breuer could easily hypnotize a patient, and when he had placed her under hypnosis and encouraged her to speak of it, she told of an experience she had had during her father's illness. She had helped with the nursing, and always came back to this definite experience. I will quote from the report: [The following quotations are translations of passages from C. G. Jung's Die Psychologie der unbewussten Prozesse. Ein Ueberblick über die moderne Theorie und Methode der analytischen Psychologie, Zürich, 1917.]

“On one occasion she was watching at night in great anxiety and tension, for the sick man had a high fever, and a surgeon was expected from Vienna to perform an operation. Her mother had left her for a time, and Anna (the patient) sat by the sickbed, her right arm across the back of the chair. She fell into a kind of waking dream, and saw, as if issuing from the wall, a black snake approaching, to bite her father. ...”

Men of the present day are always stricken by materialism, so we find in the report at this point the following suggestion, which is of no value whatever:

(“It is very probable that in the meadow behind the house there were a few snakes which had frightened the girl previously, and which now furnished material for the hallucination.”)

That is only an interpolated remark, to which you may attach importance, or not—it does not matter. The point is that the snake seemed to her to come out of the wall to bite her father.

“She wanted to fight off the creature, but was as if paralyzed; the right arm hanging over the back of the chair had gone to sleep and became anaesthetized and paralyzed and, as she looked at it, the fingers changed into little snakes tipped with skulls.”

All this was beside her father's sick bed.

“She probably tried to chase away the snake with the lamed right hand, and so associated the anaesthesia and lameness with the snake hallucination. When this had disappeared she wished, in her fright, to pray, but every language failed her. At last she remembered an English nursery rhyme, and could continue to think and pray in this language.”

The whole illness originated from this experience. From it there had remained the paralysis of one hand, reduction of consciousness in varying degrees, and inability to express herself in any language but English. Dr. Breuer then noticed that the condition was ameliorated whenever he had her tell this story, and he based his treatment upon this fact. By means of hypnosis he drew from her little by little all the details, and really succeeded in bringing about a marked improvement in her condition. The patient got rid of the matter, as it were, by uttering and communicating it to another.

Breuer and his collaborator Freud, in Vienna, who were both influenced, as was natural at this period, by the school of Charcot [Jean Martin Charcot, French M.D. (1825-1893).] in Paris, diagnosed this case as a psychic trauma, a psychic wound, what is called in England a “nervous shock.” The psychic shock was supposed to consist of this experience at her father's bedside, and to have had an effect upon the soul similar to that of a physical wound upon the body.

It must be noted that from the beginning Breuer conceived the whole affair as a soul illness, as a matter of the inner life. He was convinced from the beginning that no anatomical or physiological changes could have been shown, no causes, for example, such as changes in the nerves leading from the arm to the brain. He was convinced from the start that he was dealing with a fact within the soul.

They were inclined in these early days to regard these cases as induced by wounds of the soul, shocks, etc. Very soon, however, because of Dr. Freud's active interest, theories took on a different character. With Freud's further development of the subject Dr. Breuer was never fully in accord. Freud felt that the theory of soul wounds would not do, did not cover these cases, and thus far Breuer agreed with him. I will remark in parenthesis that Dr. Breuer was a very busy practicing physician, thoroughly grounded in science, an excellent pupil of Nothnagel [Hermann Nothnagel, M.D. (1841-1905).] and because of external circumstances alone never became a professor. We may well believe that if Breuer, instead of remaining one of the busiest physicians in Vienna, with little time for scientific research, had obtained a professorship and so been able to follow up this problem, it might have assumed a very different form!

But from then on Dr. Freud took especial interest in the matter. He said to himself: the theory of trauma does not explain these cases. We need to determine under what conditions such a soul wound develops. For it might be said with justice that many girls had sat beside a father's sickbed with equally deep feelings, but without producing the same results. The unscientific layman deals with such problems promptly by the extraordinarily profound explanation that one is predisposed to such symptoms while another is not. Although very “profound,” this is the most absurd solution that can be arrived at, is it not? For if you explain things that occur on the basis of predisposition, you can easily explain everything in the world. You need only say: the predisposition for a certain thing exists.

Of course serious thinkers did not concern themselves with such ideas, but sought the real conditions. And Freud believed that he had discovered them in cases like the following. You will find innumerable similar cases in the literature of the psychoanalysts today, and it may be admitted that an immense amount of material has been collected in order to decide this or that point within this field. I will describe this one case, making it as comprehensible as possible. Its absolute historical accuracy is not important to us.

There was a woman with other guests at an evening party, a gathering of friends to bid good-bye to the mistress of the house, who had become nervous and was about to leave for a health resort abroad. She was to leave on that evening, and after the party had broken up, and the hostess departed, the woman whose case we are describing was going with other supper guests along the street when a cab came around the corner behind them (not an automobile—a cab with horses), driven at a great pace. In the smaller cities people returning home at night often walk in the middle of the street instead of on the sidewalk. (I do not know if you have noticed this). As the cab rushed towards them the supper guests scattered to right and left on to the sidewalks, with the exception of this one woman whom we are considering. She ran along the street in front of the horses, and all the driver's cursing and swearing and the cracking of his whip could not deflect her. She ran until she came to a bridge where she tried to throw herself into the water in order to avoid being run over. She was rescued by passersby, and returned to her party, being thus preserved from a serious accident.

This performance was of course connected with the woman's general condition. It is due, undoubtedly, to hysteria if a person runs along the middle of the street in front of horses, and the cause of such an action had to be discovered. Freud, in this and similar cases, examined the previous life back to childhood. If, even at an early age, something happened that was not assimilated by the soul, it could create a tendency which might be released later by any sort of shock.

And in fact such an experience was found in the childhood of the woman in question. She was taken driving as a child, and the horses became frightened and ran away. The coachman could not control them, and when they reached the river bank he sprang off, ordering the child to jump too, which it did, just before the horses plunged into the river. Thus the shocking incident was there, and a certain association of horse with horse. At the moment when she realized her danger from the horses she lost control of herself, and ran frantically in front of them instead of turning aside—all this as an after-effect of the childhood experience. You see that the psychoanalysts have a scientific method, according to present-day scientific ideas. But are there not many who have some such experience in childhood without such a reaction, even with the association of horse with horse? To this single circumstance something must be added to produce a “predisposition” to run in front of horses, instead of avoiding them.

Freud continued his search, and actually found an interesting connection in this case. The woman was engaged to be married, but was in love with two men at the same time. One was the man to whom she was engaged, and she was sure that she loved him best; but she was not quite clear about that, only halfway so; she loved the other also, this other being the husband of her best friend, whose farewell supper had taken place that evening. The hostess, who was somewhat nervous, took her departure, and this woman left with the other guests, ran in front of the horses, was rescued, and brought back quite naturally into the house she had just left. Further inquiry elicited the fact that in the past there had existed a significant association between the lady and this other man, the husband of her best friend. The love affair had already taken on “certain dimensions,” let us say, which accounted for the nervousness of her friend, as you may easily imagine. The physician brought her to this point in the story, but had difficulty in persuading her to continue. She admitted at last that when she came to herself in her friend's house, and was again normal, the husband declared his love to her. Quite a “remarkable case,” as you see!

Dr. Freud went after similar cases, and his researches convinced him that the hysterical symptoms, which had been attributed to a psychic “trauma” or wound, were due instead to love, conscious or unconscious. His examination of life experiences showed that circumstances might greatly differ, indeed in the most characteristic cases, that these love stories might never have risen into the consciousness of the patient at any time.

So Freud completed what he called his neurosis theory or sexual theory. He considered that sexuality entered into all such cases. But such things are extraordinarily deceptive. To begin with, there is everywhere at the present time an inclination to call sex to your aid, for the solution of any human problem. Therefore we need not wonder that a doctor who found it to be a factor in a certain number of cases of hysteria set up such a theory.

But on the other hand, since analytical psychology is carrying on a research with inadequate tools, this is the point at which the greatest danger begins. The matter is dangerous first, because this longing for knowledge is so extremely tempting, tempting because of present circumstances, and because it may always be proved that the sex connection is more or less present. Yet the psychoanalyst Jung, who wrote Die Psychologie der unbewussten Prozesse (see the above quotations that are translations of passages from C. G. Jung's Die Psychologie der unbewussten Prozesse. Ein Ueberblick über die moderne Theorie und Methode der analytischen Psychologie, Zürich, 1917.), Professor Jung of Zürich does not share the opinion that Freud's sexual “neurosis theory” covers these cases. He has instead another theory.

Jung noted that Freud has his opponents. Among them is a certain Adler. This Adler takes a quite different viewpoint. Just as Freud tested large numbers of cases, and settled upon sex as the original cause (you can read it all in Jung's book), so Adler approached the problem from another side, and decided that this side is more important than the one that Freud has placed in the foreground.

Adler—I will only generalize—found that there was another urge that played quite as important a role in the human being as the sexual impulse emphasized by Freud. This was the desire for power, power over one's environment, the desire for power in general. The “will to power” is even regarded by Nietzsche as a philosophical principle, and as many cases may be found to support the power-impulse theory as Freud found for his sexual theory.

One need only begin “analyzing” hysterical women to find that such cases are not at all rare. Assume for example that a woman is hysterical and has spasms—heart spasms are a favorite in such cases—as well as all sorts of other conditions. The home is stirred up, the whole environment, everything possible is done, doctors are summoned, the patient greatly pitied. In short, she exercises a tyrannical power over her environment. A reasonable person knows that in such a case there is really nothing the matter, even though such patients are aware of their condition and suffered from it. They are in reality perfectly healthy—but ill when they wish to be. You may diagnose them as well and ill at the same time. They do of course fall down when they faint in a heart spasm, but they fall as a rule on the rug, not on the bare floor! These things may be observed.

Now this subconscious lust for power leads very easily to hysterical conditions. Adler investigated the cases at his disposal from this particular standpoint, and found everywhere when hysterical symptoms appeared that somehow the lust for power had been aroused and driven into unhealthy extremes. Jung said to himself: “Oh well, one cannot say that Freud is wrong; what he observed is there, and one cannot say that Adler is wrong; what he observed is also there. So it is probably sometimes one way, and sometimes the other!”

That is quite reasonable; it is sometimes one way and sometimes another. But Jung built upon this a special theory. This theory is not uninteresting if you do not take it abstractly, simply as a theory, but see in it instead the action of our present-day impulses, especially the feebleness of our present knowledge and its inadequacy. Jung says: there are two types of people. In one type feeling is more developed, in the other thinking.

Thus an “epoch-making” discovery was made by a great scholar. It was something that any reasonable man could make for himself within his own immediate environment, for the fact that men are divided into thinking men and feeling men is sufficiently obvious. But scholarship has a different task: it must not regard anything as a layman would, and simply say: in our environment there are two types of people, feeling people and intellectuals—it must add something to that. Scholarship says in such a case: the one who feels his way into things sends out his own force into objectivity; the other draws back from an object, or halts before it and considers. The first is called the extroverted type, the other the introverted. The first would be the feeling man, the second the intellectual one. This is a learned division, is it not? ingenious, brilliant, really descriptive up to a point—that is not to be denied!

Then Jung goes on to say; In the case of the extraverted type (that of the man who lives preferably in his feelings), there exist very frequently in the subconscious mind intellectual concepts, and he finds himself in a collision between what is in his consciousness and the intellectual concepts that float about subconsciously within him. And from this collision all sorts of conditions may arise, conditions mainly characteristic of the feeling type.

In the case of those who occupy themselves more with the mind, the men of reason, the feelings remain down below, swarm in the subconscious, and come into collision with the conscious life. The conscious life cannot understand what is surging up. It is the force of the subconscious feelings, and because man is never complete, but belongs to one of these two types, circumstances may arise that cause the subconscious mind to revolt against the conscious, and may frequently lead to hysterical conditions.

Now we must say that Jung's theory is simply a paraphrase of the trivial idea of the feeling and the reasoning man, and adds nothing to the facts. But from all this you needs must realize that men of the present are at least beginning to notice all sorts of psychic peculiarities, and so concern themselves that they ask what goes on within a man who shows such symptoms. And they are at least so far along that they say to themselves: These are not due to physiological or anatomical changes. They have already outgrown bare materialism, in that they speak of psychic phenomena. So this is certainly one way in which people try to emerge from materialism, and to reach some knowledge of the soul.

It is, however, very peculiar, when you look at the subject more closely, to see into what strange paths people are led by the general inadequacy of their means of cognition. But I must emphatically point out that men do not realize into what they are being driven, and neither do their supporters, readers, and contemporaries. Thus, rightly regarded, the matter has actually a very dangerous side, because so much is not taken into consideration. In the subconscious mind itself there is a commotion, it is the theories which agitate in the subconscious. It is really strange. People set up a theory in regard to the subconscious, but their own subconsciousness is agitated by it. Jung pursues the matter as a physician, and it is important that psychological questions should be handled from that standpoint, therapeutically, and that many should be striving to carry over the matter into pedagogy. We are no longer confronted by a limited theory, but by the effort to make it into a cultural fact.

It is interesting to see how someone like Jung, who handles this matter as a physician, and has observed, treated, and apparently even cured all sorts of cases, is driven further and further. He says to himself: when such abnormal psychological symptoms are found, a search must be made in order to discover any incidents of childhood which may have made such an impression on the human soul life as to produce after-effects. That is something especially sought for in this field: after-effects of something that happened in childhood. I have cited an example which plays quite a role in the literature of psychoanalysis: the association of horse and horse.

Later, however, Jung came upon the fact that in many of the cases of genuine illness it cannot be proved, even if you go back to his earliest childhood, that the patient as an individual is suffering from any such after-effects. If you take into consideration everything with which he has come in contact, you find the conflict within the individual, but no explanation of it. So Jung was led to distinguish two subconsciousnesses: first the individual subconsciousness, concealed within the human being. If in her childhood the young woman jumped out of a carriage and received a shock, the incident has long since vanished from her consciousness, but works subconsciously. If you consider this subconscious element (made up of innumerable details), you get the personal or individual subconsciousness. This is the first of Jung's differentiations.

But the second is the superpersonal subconsciousness. He says: There are things affecting the soul life which are neither in the personality nor in the matter of the outside world, and which must be assumed therefore as present in a soul world.

The aim of psychoanalysis is to bring such soul contents into consciousness. That is supposed to be the healing method: to bring everything into consciousness. Thus the physician must undertake to extract from the patient, not only what he has experienced individually from his birth on, but also something that was not in the outside world and is of a soul nature. This has driven the psychoanalysts to say that a man experiences, not only what he goes through after his physical birth, but also all sorts of things that preceded his birth—and that all this creates disorder within him. A man who is born today experiences thus subconsciously the Oedipus Saga. He not only learns it in school; he experiences it. He experiences the Greek gods, the whole past of mankind. The evil of this consists in the fact that he experiences it subconsciously. The psychoanalyst must therefore say—and he does go so far—that the Greek child also experienced this but, since he was told about it, he experienced it consciously. Man experiences it today, but it only stirs within him—in the thoughts of the extraverted man, in the subconscious feelings of the introverted type. It growls like demons.

Now consider the necessity that confronts the psychoanalyst if he is true to his theory. He would have to take these things seriously and say simply that when a man grows up and may be made ill by his relation to that which stirs within him—a relation of which he knows nothing—that this connection must become conscious, and it must be explained to him that there is a spiritual world inhabited by different gods. For the psychoanalyst goes so far as to say that the human soul has a connection with the gods, but it is a cause of illness in that the soul knows nothing of it.

The psychoanalyst seeks all sorts of expedients, sometimes quite grotesque. Let us assume that a patient comes and displays this or that hysterical symptom, because he is afraid of a demon—let us say—a fire demon. Men of earlier periods believed in fire demons, had visions of them, knew about them. Present-day people still have connections with them (the psychoanalyst admits that), but these connections are not conscious; no one explains that there are fire demons, so they become a cause of illness.

Jung however goes so far as to assert that the gods, to whom man is unconsciously related, become angry and revenge themselves, this revenge showing itself as hysteria. Very well, it amounts then to this: such a present-day man who is mistreated by a demon in his subconscious mind, does not know that there are demons, and cannot achieve any conscious relation with them because—that is superstition! What does the poor modern man do then, if he becomes ill from this cause? He projects it outwardly, that is to say he looks up some friend whom he had liked quite well, and says: This is the one who is persecuting and abusing me! He feels this to be true, which means that he has a demon which torments him, and so projects it into another man.

Often psychoanalysts, in treating such a case, deflect this projection upon themselves. Thus it often happens that patients, in a good or evil sense, make the doctor into a god or a devil.

So you see the physician of the present day is forced to say to himself: Men are tormented by spirits, and because they are taught nothing about them, cannot take possession of them in consciousness, they become therefore tormenting spirits among themselves, project their demons outwardly, persuade one another of all sorts of demoniacal nonsense, etc. And how disastrous this is assumed to be by the psychoanalysts is shown by the following case which Jung describes. He says: “Certain of my colleagues claim that the soul energies that spring from such torment, must be deflected into another channel.” Let us turn back then to one of the elementary cases of psychoanalysis. A patient comes, whose illness was caused, according to her psychoanalytical confession, by her having been in love, many years before, with a man whom she did not get. This had remained with her. Of course she might be annoyed by a demon, but in most cases observed by the doctors it turns out that something has happened in the individual subconsciousness, which they classify separately from the super-personal subconscious. The doctors try to divert this immature fantasy or to transform it. If a love-thirsty soul can be persuaded to make use of her accumulated affections in humanitarian services, perhaps as head of a charitable institution, it may turn out well. But Jung himself says: “It is not always possible thus to divert this energy. Energies so implanted in the soul have often a certain definite potential which cannot be directed.” Very well, I have no objection to this expression, but wish only to point out that it is a translation of what the layman often discusses, and the way in which he often expresses himself. But Jung describes a case which is interesting, and a good example of the fact that these potentials cannot always be directed.

An American, a typical man of today, a self-made man, the efficient head of a business that he had built up, having devoted himself to his work and achieved a great success, thought then: I shall soon be forty-five, and have done my bit! Now I will give myself a rest. So he decided to retire, bought himself an estate with autos and tennis courts, and everything else that belonged to it, intending to live in the country, and simply to draw his dividends from the business. But when he had been for a time on his estate he ceased to play tennis or to drive his car, or to go to the theater. He took no pleasure in the gardens that were laid out, but sat in his room alone, and brooded. It hurt him there, and there, everything hurt him. Actually his head hurt, then his chest, and then his legs. He could not endure himself, ceased from laughter, was tired, strung up, had continual headache—it was horrible. There was no illness that a doctor could diagnose! It is often that way with men of the present, is it not? They are perfectly healthy, and yet ill. The doctor said: "This trouble is psychic. You have adapted yourself to business conditions, and your energies will not readily take another course. Go back to business. That is the only suggestion that I can make.” The man in question grasped this, but found that he was no longer any good at business! He was just as ill there as at home.

From this Jung rightly concludes that you cannot easily deflect energy from one potential to another, nor even turn it back again when you have failed. This man came to him for treatment. (You know many people come to Switzerland bringing such illnesses and non-illnesses!) But he could not help this American. The trouble had taken too strong a hold; it should have been handled earlier.

You see from this that the therapy of deflection has also its difficulties, and Jung himself offers this example. Important facts are met everywhere which—I now may say—will be successfully dealt with only by spiritual science or Anthroposophy, in accordance with exact knowledge. But there they are, and people notice them. The questions are there. It will be discovered that the human being is complicated, and not the simple creature presented to us by the science of the 19th century. The psychoanalyst is confronted by a remarkable fact which is quite inexplicable by the science of today. In Anthroposophy, together with the information given in my lectures, you will easily find an explanation, but I can come back to the point in case you do not find it. It may happen, for example, that someone becomes hysterically blind, that is, his blindness is an hysterical symptom. This is possible. There are hysterically blind people, who could see, yet do not—who are psychically blind. Now such people are sometimes partially cured—partially; they begin to see again, but do not see everything. Sometimes such an hysterically blind man recovers sufficient sight to see people, all but their heads! Such a half-cured person goes along the streets, and sees everyone without a head. That really occurs, and there are even stranger symptoms.

All this may be dealt with by spiritual science—anthroposophically oriented spiritual science—and in a lecture that I gave here last year you may find an explanation of the inability to see the heads of people. [Lecture given at Dörnach, August 5, 1916.] But the present psychoanalyst is faced by all these phenomena. And so much confronts him that he says to himself: It may be quite disastrous for a man to be connected with the superpersonal unconscious; but for God's sake (the psychoanalyst does not say ‘for God's sake,’ but perhaps ‘for science's sake’) do not let us take the spiritual world seriously! It does not enter their minds to consider the spiritual world seriously. Thus something very peculiar happens. Very few notice what strange phenomena appear under the influence of these things. I will call to your attention something in Jung's book Die Psychologie der unbewussten Prozesse, [see the above quotations that are translations of passages from C. G. Jung's Die Psychologie der unbewussten Prozesse. Ein Ueberblick über die moderne Theorie und Methode der analytischen Psychologie, Zürich, 1917.] recently published, which will show you where the psychoanalyst lands today. I shall have to read you a passage.

“According to this example” (these are examples showing that a man has within him, not only the contents of his present personal life, but far-back connections with all sorts of demonic, divine, or spiritual forces, etc.)—“According to this example of the genesis of new ideas from the store of the primeval pictures”—(here he does not call them ‘gods’ but ‘primeval pictures’)—“we will take up the further description of the transference processes. We saw that the libido, in those apparently preposterous and curious fantasies, had seized upon its new object, namely the contents of the absolute unconscious.” (The absolute unconscious is the superpersonal unconscious, not the personal.) “As I have already said, the uncomprehended projection of the primeval pictures upon the physician involves a danger for the further treatment that must not be under-estimated.” (The patient transfers his demons to the doctor. That is one danger.) “The pictures contain not only the best and greatest of all that mankind has thought and felt, but also every infamous and devilish deed of which men have been capable.”

Just think! Jung has come so far as to perceive that a man has subconsciously within him all the most fiendish crimes, as well as the most beautiful of all that mankind has been able to think and feel. These people cannot be persuaded to speak of Lucifer and Ahriman, [Compare Rudolf Steiner, The Luciferic and Ahrimanic Influences in their Relation to Man, 1918, reprinted in Anthroposophie, Vol. 17, Book 2, p. 159.] but they agree upon the preceding statement, which I shall read to you once more:

“The pictures contain not only the best and greatest of all that mankind has thought and felt, but also every infamous and devilish deed of which men have been capable. If the patient cannot distinguish the personality of the physician from these projections, then every possibility of mutual understanding is lost, and the human relationship becomes hopeless. If, however, the patient avoids this Charybdis he falls into the Scylla of the introjection of these pictures, that is to say that he attributes their qualities not to the physician but to himself.” (Then he himself is the devil.) “This danger is equally serious. In projection he staggers between an extravagant and morbid adulation and a hateful contempt for his physician. In introjection he falls into a ridiculous self-deification, or a moral self-laceration. The mistake that he makes each time is in attributing to himself the contents of the absolute unconscious. So he makes himself into a god or a devil. Here lies the psychological reason why men have always needed demons, and were never able to live without gods—except a few particularly clever Western specimens of yesterday and the day before, supermen whose god being dead, have made gods of themselves, rationalistic pocket size gods with thick skulls and cold hearts.”

Thus you see, the psychoanalyst is driven to say: The human soul is so made that it needs gods, that gods are necessary to it, for it becomes ill without them. Therefore it has always had them. Men need gods. The psychoanalyst ridicules men, saying that when they lack other gods they make gods of themselves, but “rationalistic pocket size gods with thick skulls and cold hearts. The idea of God” (he says further), “is simply a necessary psychological function of an irrational nature. ...”

To describe the necessity of the God-concept in these terms is as far as one can go by the methods of natural science! Man must have a God; he needs him. The psychoanalyst knows that. But let us read to the end of the sentence:

“The idea of God is simply a necessary psychological function of an irrational nature, which has nothing to do with the question of the actual existence of God.”

When you read the complete sentence you run upon the great dilemma of the present day. The psychoanalyst proves to you that man becomes ill and useless without his God, but says that this need has nothing to do with the existence or non-existence of God. And he continues:

“For this latter question” (namely, of the existence of God,) “belongs to the most stupid questions that can be framed. Man knows well enough that he cannot conceive a God, much less imagine that he really exists, or that there can be any occurrence not conditioned by natural causes.”

Now I beg of you, here you find—here you are standing at the point where you may catch at things. The things are there, knocking upon the doors of knowledge. Seekers are also there. They admit an absolute necessity, but when that necessity is stated as a serious question they consider it one of the stupidest that can be suggested.

You see, you have there one of the points in the cultural life of today from which you may note exactly what is always avoided. I can assure you that, in their examination and knowledge of the soul, these psychoanalysts are far ahead of what is offered in current psychiatry by the universities. They are not only far beyond ordinary university psychiatry and psychology, but in a certain sense they are right to look down upon this dreadful so-called science. But one may catch them in any such passage, showing as it does what mankind is actually facing in the attitude of contemporary science.

Many do not recognize this. They do not realize the force of belief in authority. There has never been such faith in authority, nor has it ever reigned so absolutely as in the subconscious mind today. One asks again and again: Just what do you do as physicians when you handle hysterical cases? You seek something in the subconscious mind that is not solved within consciousness. Yes, but you find repeatedly just such a subconscious content in the case of the theorists. If you lift it into full consciousness it turns out to be exactly what has been murmuring in the subconsciousness of the modern doctors and their patients. And all our literature is so saturated with it that you are in daily and hourly danger of imbibing it. And since it is only through spiritual science that men may become aware of these things, many take them up unknowingly, draw them into their subconsciousness, where they remain.

This psychoanalysis has at least pointed out that the reality of the soul is to be accepted as such. They do that. But the devil is everywhere at their heels; I mean that they are neither able nor willing to approach spiritual reality. Therefore you find in all sorts of places the most incredible statements. But present humanity has not the degree of attention necessary to perceive them. We should naturally expect any reader of Jung's book to fall off his chair under the table at certain sentences, but men of the present do not do that; so only think how much of it must lie in the subconsciousness of modern humanity. Yet for this very reason, because these psychoanalysts see how much there is in the subconscious—and they do see it—they look upon many things differently from other people. In his Preface Jung says something, for example, part of which is not bad.

“The psychological processes which accompany the present war, above all the incredible depravity of public opinion, the mutual calumnies, the undreamed of fury of destruction, the flood of lies, and men's inability to halt the bloody demon, are all adapted to set before the eyes of thinking humanity the problem of the restlessly slumbering, chaotic realm of the subconscious. This war has shown pitilessly to the cultured man that he is still a barbarian, and at the same time what an iron rod of correction awaits him should it again occur to him to hold his neighbor responsible for his own bad character. The psychology of the single individual corresponds to the psychology of the nations.”

And now comes a sentence which makes you wonder what to do with it.

“What the nations do is done by each individual, and so long as the individual does it the nation will do it too. Only a change in the attitude of the individual can bring about a change in the psychology of the nation.”

These sentences, placed side by side, show how destructively this thinking works. I ask you if it is sensible to say: “What the nations do is done by each individual?” It would be equally reasonable to ask: Could an individual do it without nations doing it too? It is nonsense, is it not, to say things like that. The unfortunate thing is that even prominent thinkers are impressed by it. And this sort of thinking is not only to become therapy, but take the lead in pedagogy. This again is founded upon the justifiable longing to introduce into pedagogy a new soul and spiritual element. Are conclusions to be accepted which were reached by entirely inadequate methods of cognition? These are nowadays the important questions.

We shall return to the matter from the standpoint of anthroposophical orientation, and throw light upon it from a broader horizon. Then we shall see that one must set about it in a much bigger way, in order to succeed with these things at all. But they must be handled concretely. The problems which as yet have been investigated only by the old, inadequate methods, must be placed in the light of anthroposophical knowledge.

Take, for example, the problem of Nietzsche. Today I will only suggest it; tomorrow we shall consider such problems more thoroughly. We know already from former lectures: [Lectures given at Dörnach, October 14, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28; November 2, 3, 4, 1917.] from 1841 to 1879 battle of spirits above; from 1879 on, the fallen spirits in the human realm. In future such and similar things must of necessity play a role whenever a human life is studied. For Nietzsche was born in 1844. For three years before he descended to earth his soul was in the spiritual realm in the midst of the spirit battle. During his boyhood Schopenhauer was still living, but died in 1860, and only after his death did Nietzsche devote himself to the study of Schopenhauer's writings. The soul of Schopenhauer cooperated from above in the spiritual world. That was the real relationship. Nietzsche was reading Schopenhauer, and while he was absorbing his writings Schopenhauer was working upon his thoughts.

But how was Schopenhauer situated in the spiritual realm? From 1860 through the years when Nietzsche was reading his books, Schopenhauer was in the midst of the spiritual battle that was still being fought out on that plane. Therefore Schopenhauer's inspiration of Nietzsche was colored by what he himself gathered from the battle of spirits in which he was involved. In 1879 these spirits were cast down from heaven upon the earth. Up to 1879 Nietzsche's spiritual development had followed very curious paths. They will be explained in the future as due to the influence of Schopenhauer and of Wagner. In my book Friedrich Nietzsche, a Fighter against his Time, you may find many supporting details. Wagner had up to that time no particular influence except that he was active on earth. For Wagner was born in 1813; the battle of spirits only began in 1841. But Wagner died in 1883, and Nietzsche's spiritual development took its peculiar direction when Wagner's influence began. Wagner entered the spiritual world in 1883, when the battle of spirits was over, and the defeated spirits had been cast to earth. Nietzsche was in the midst of things when the spirits began to roam around here on earth. Wagner's post mortem influence upon Nietzsche had an entirely different object from that of Schopenhauer.

Here begin the super-personal but definite influences, not those abstract demonic ones, of which the psychoanalyst speaks. Humanity must resolve to enter this concrete spiritual world, in order to comprehend things which are obvious if only the facts are tested. In the future Nietzsche's biography will state that he was stimulated by that Richard Wagner who was born in 1813, and took part up to 1879 everything that led to the brilliant being whom I described in my book; that he had the influence of Schopenhauer from his sixteenth year, but that Schopenhauer was involved in the spiritual battle that was fought upon the super-physical plane before 1879; that he was exposed to Wagner's influence after Wagner had died and entered the spiritual world, while Nietzsche was still here below, where the spirits of darkness were ruling.

Jung considers this a fact: that Nietzsche found a demon, and projected it without upon Wagner. Oh well—projections, potentials, introverted or extraverted human types—all words for abstractions, but nothing about realities! These things are truly important. This is not agitation for an anthroposophical world-conception for which we are prejudiced. On the contrary, everything outside of anthroposophy shows how necessary this conception is for present-day humanity!

Über Die Psychoanalyse I

Gelegentlich der Vorträge, die ich jetzt in Zürich zu halten habe, trat mir erneut wiederum entgegen, daß man kaum mit dem geistigen Leben dieser Stadt in Berührung kommen kann in weiterem Umfange, ohne daß man den Blick hinlenkt auf dasjenige, was jetzt genannt wird die analytische Psychologie oder Psychoanalyse. Verschiedene Erwägungen, die sich an dieses Apersu knüpfen, veranlassen mich heute, dasjenige, was ich vorzubringen habe, einzuleiten mit einem kurzen Hinweis auf mancherlei gerade aus der analytischen Psychologie, aus der Psychoanalyse. Wir werden daran dann andere Bemerkungen zu knüpfen haben. Aber wir haben es ja gesehen, wie bedeutungsvoll es doch gerade für den anthroposophisch orientierten Geisteswissenschafter ist, seine Betrachtungen an dasjenige anzuknüpfen, was die Zeit darbietet, was die Zeit bewegt. Man kann sagen, daß sich heute zur Psychoanalyse auch hingezogen fühlen allerlei Leute, welche ernsthaftig suchen nach den geistigen Untergründen des Daseins, nach den seelischen Innerlichkeiten des Menschen, und daß es schon in gewissem Sinne einer Charaktereigentümlichkeit unserer Zeitepoche entspricht, daß eine Reihe unserer Zeitgenossen aufmerksam wird gerade auf ganz bestimmte, eigentümlich geartete Kräfte in der menschlichen Seele. Und zu denjenigen, die einfach heute durch die Impulse der Zeit, ich möchte sagen, mit der Nase gestoßen werden auf gewisse Erscheinungen des Seelenlebens, zu denen gehören die Psychoanalytiker.

Es ist ganz besonders wichtig auch, nicht ganz unaufmerksam zu sein auf diese Bewegung aus dem Grunde, weil die Ereignisse, auf welche diese Bewegung losgeht, einmal da sind, und weil sie in unserer Zeit — aus verschiedenen Gründen, die wir ja auch noch besprechen können — den Menschen ganz besonders vor das Seelenauge treten. Der Mensch muß heute aufmerksam werden auf dergleichen Erscheinungen.

Auf der andern Seite liegt das vor, daß die Menschen, die sich mit diesen Dingen befassen, heute die Erkenntnismittel entbehren, diese Dinge zu besprechen, diese Dinge vor allen Dingen zu verstehen. So daß man sagen kann: Psychoanalyse ist in unserer Zeit eine Erscheinung, welche die Menschen nötigt, aufmerksam zu werden auf gewisse Seelenvorgänge; auf der andern Seite aber veranlaßt sie die Menschen, solche Seelenerscheinungen mit, ich möchte sagen, unzulänglichen Erkenntnismitteln zu betrachten. Und das ist ganz besonders bedeutsam, weil diese Betrachtung mit unzulänglichen Erkenntnismitteln einer Sache, die ganz augenscheinlich da ist und die menschliche Erkenntnis in der Gegenwart herausfordert, zu den mannigfaltigsten schweren Verirrungen führt und nicht ungefährlich ist für das soziale Leben, für die Fortentwickelung der Erkenntnis und den Einfluß dieser Fortentwickelung der Erkenntnis auf das soziale Leben.

Man kann schon sagen: Viertelswahrheiten können unter Umständen schädlicher sein als ganze Irrtümer. Und als eine Art von Viertelswahrheiten müssen schon die Dinge betrachtet werden, welche bei den psychoanalytischen Theoretikern heute zutage treten.

Wollen wir einmal einiges sozusagen aus dem Forschungsmagazin der Psychoanalytiker uns versuchen vor die Seele zu führen. Ausgegangen ist ja das, was man heute Psychoanalyse nennt, von einem Krankheitsfall, den ein Wiener Arzt, ein Wiener Internist, Dr. Breuer, beobachtet hatte schon in den achtziger Jahren. Dr. Breuer, den ich selbst kannte, war ein außerordentlich feingeistiger Mensch neben dem, daß er Arzt war. Er war interessiert für alle möglichen ästhetischen und allgemein menschlichen Fragen in wirklich hohem Maße. Nun, bei seiner intimen Art, mit der er einging auf Krankheitsfälle, war ihm begreiflicherweise ein Krankheitsfall, den er in den achtziger Jahren hatte, ganz besonders interessant. — Er hatte eine Dame zu behandeln, welche anscheinend unter schweren hysterischen Erscheinungen litt. Diese bestanden darin, daß die Dame eine einseitige Armlähmung hatte zuweilen, daß sie Dämmerzustände hatte, Herabdämmerung des Bewußtseins, Schlaftrunkenheit in sehr bedeutsamer, tiefer Form, und außerdem, daß sie ihre Sprache vergessen hatte, die sie sonst als ihre Umgangssprache hatte. Sie hatte immer deutsch sprechen können, das war auch ihre Sprache; aber sie konnte unter dem Einfluß ihrer hysterischen Krankheit nicht mehr deutsch sprechen, sie konnte nur noch englisch sprechen, verstand nur noch englisch.

Nun bemerkte Breuer, wenn die Dame in ihrem Dämmerzustande war, dann konnte man sie durch eine intimere ärztliche Behandlung veranlassen, die Rede zu bringen auf eine bestimmte Szene, die sie erlebt hatte, ein sehr schweres Erlebnis. Nun will ich Ihnen aus der Darstellung dieses Falles, die von der Breuerschen Schule gegeben worden ist, anschaulich machen, wie die Dame aus ihrem Dämmerzustand heraus, teilweise auch unter künstlich herbeigeführten Dämmerzuständen — Breuer konnte gut den Menschen in Hypnose versetzen —, veranlaßt wurde, etwas von diesen Erlebnissen zu sagen. Und dadurch bekam man die Vorstellung, daß diese Hysterie, von der sie befallen war, zusammenhing mit einem ganz bestimmten Krankheitsfall, den sie mit ihrem Vater vor langer Zeit durchgemacht hatte. Der Vater war krank, und sie beteiligte sich in ganz wesentlicher Weise an der Krankenpflege und hatte einmal ein Erlebnis bei dieser Krankenpflege. Auf dieses Erlebnis kam sie immer wieder zu sprechen und eine Darstellung, die sie gab bei solcher Gelegenheit, wie ich sie eben charakterisiert habe, ist die folgende: «Einmal wachte sie nachts in großer Angst um den hochfiebernden Kranken und in Spannung, weil von Wien ein Chirurg zur Operation erwartet wurde. Die Mutter hatte sich für einige Zeit entfernt, und Anna (die Patientin) saß am Krankenbett, den rechten Arm über die Stuhllehne gelegt. Sie geriet in einen Zustand von Wach-Träumen und sah, wie von der Wand her eine schwarze Schlange sich dem Kranken näherte, um ihn zu beißen.»

Dem Menschen der Gegenwart schlägt immer der Materialismus etwas ins Genick; und so finden wir in diesem Krankheitsbericht auch die folgende Bemerkung, auf die nicht weiter etwas zu geben ist: «(Es ist sehr wahrscheinlich, daß auf der Wiese hinter dem Hause wirklich einige Schlangen vorkamen, über die das Mädchen schon früher erschrocken war, und die nun das Material der Halluzination abgaben.)» Also das ist nur eine Zwischenbemerkung, auf die Sie mehr oder weniger geben mögen oder nicht; das ist ja gleichgültig. Also die Schlange kam aus der Wand heraus und wollte den Vater beißen — so stellte sie sich vor. «Sie wollte das Tier abwehren, war aber wie gelähmt; der rechte Arm, über die Stuhllehne hängend, war «eingeschlafen, anästhetisch und paretisch geworden, und als sie ihn betrachtete, verwandelten sich die Finger in kleine Schlangen mit Totenköpfen.» Das war also alles am Krankenbette des Vaters. «Wahrscheinlich machte sie Versuche, die Schlange mit der gelähmten rechten Hand zu verjagen, und dadurch trat die Anästhesie und Lähmung derselben in Assoziation mit der Schlangenhalluzination. Als diese verschwunden war, wollte sie in ihrer Angst beten, aber jede Sprache versagte, sie konnte in keiner sprechen, bis sie endlich einen englischen Kindervers fand und nun auch in dieser Sprache fortdenken und beten konnte.»

Von diesem Ereignis ist diese ganze Krankheit ausgegangen. Von diesem Ereignisse blieb also eine einseitige Handlähmung, Dämmerzustände und die Unfähigkeit, sich in einer andern als in der englischen Sprache auszudrücken.

Nun bemerkte Dr. Breuer, daß immer eine Erleichterung des Zustandes dann eintrat, wenn er sie erzählen ließ, und darauf gründete er seinen Heilplan. Er versuchte nach und nach den ganzen Tatbestand herauszubekommen, indem er die Kranke hypnotisierte, und es gelang ihm dadurch wirklich, eine wesentliche Besserung des Zustandes herbeizuführen, so daß die Kranke die Sache gewissermaßen los wurde, indem sie sie von sich gab und einem andern mitteilte.

Breuer und sein Mitarbeiter, Freud in Wien, die dazumal begreiflicherweise aus der Zeitgeschichte heraus unter dem Einfluß der Charcotschen Schule in Paris standen, hatten es zunächst dem zugeschrieben, was man ein seelisches Trauma, eine seelische Verwundung nennen könnte, «nervous shock», wie es in England genannt wurde. Der seelische Schock sollte also in diesem Erlebnis am Krankenbett bestanden haben und so ähnlich gewirkt haben auf die Seele wie eine physische Verwundung auf den Leib.

Von vornherein — das muß bemerkt werden — hat Breuer die ganze Sache als eine seelische Krankheit aufgefaßt, hat sie also als eine interne Angelegenheit betrachtet. Er war überzeugt, daß anatomische oder physiologische Veränderungen nicht nachweisbar gewesen wären, also zum Beispiel nicht irgendwie eine Veränderung zugrunde gelegen hätte in jenen Nerven, welche von der Hand nach dem Gehirn gehen oder dergleichen. Davon war er von vornherein überzeugt, daß er es mit einer innerlich psychischen Tatsache zu tun hatte. Man war in den ersten Zeiten geneigt, die Sache so zu betrachten, daß man sich sagte: Solche Dinge können eintreten durch seelische Verwundung, Traumata, Schocks und dergleichen. — Bald aber nahm die Sache dadurch, daß sich insbesondere Dr. Freud damit beschäftigte — mit dessen weiterem Verfolgen der Sache Dr. Breuer keineswegs etwa völlig einverstanden war -, einen etwas andern Charakter an, und zwar dadurch, daß sich Freud sagte: Mit dem seelischen Schock, mit der seelischen Verwundung die Sache zu erklären, geht doch nicht an; man kommt damit nicht aus. — Auch Breuer war davon überzeugt, daß man damit nicht auskomme, wenn man bloß von der seelischen Verwundung spricht. — Ich bemerke in Parenthese, daß Dr. Breuer ein vielbeschäftigter praktischer Arzt war, wissenschaftlich gründlich durchgebildet, ein ausgezeichneter Schüler von Nothnagel war, der nur durch äußere Umstände nicht Professor geworden ist. Man kann, wenn man solche Dinge überhaupt hypothetisch aussprechen will, des Glaubens sein, daß, wenn Breuer eine Professur bekommen hätte und die Sache hätte verfolgen können, während er einer der vielbeschäftigtsten Internisten von Wien war und also wissenschaftlich sich wenig damit befassen konnte, so würde sie vielleicht ganz andere Gestalten bekommen haben! — Nun beschäftigte sich vorzugsweise Dr. Freud mit der Sache. Er sagte sich, mit dem bloßen Trauma, mit der Seelenverwundung kommen wir nicht aus; es handelt sich darum, nachzuforschen, unter welchen Bedingungen eine solche — man kann sie ja so nennen — Seelenverwundung wirkt. Denn nicht wahr, mit Recht sagte man sich: Das Mädchen saß am Krankenbett des Vaters, aber viele Menschen sitzen am Krankenbett, die ganz gewiß ebenso tiefe Eindrücke haben, denen passiert solch eine Sache nicht. — Der unwissenschaftliche Laie ist ja in solch einem Fall sehr bald fertig mit einer außerordentlich tiefsinnigen Erklärung; er sagt: Nun ja, der eine hat die Disposition, der andere hat die Disposition nicht. - Nun also, nicht wahr, sehr tiefsinnig zwar, aber das Albernste, was man aussprechen kann. Denn wenn man die Dinge, die da sind in der Welt, alle als Dispositionen erklärt, so kann man eben leicht Erklärungen für alles finden, denn man braucht dann nur zu sagen: Es ist eben die Disposition zu etwas da.

Also mit solchen Dingen wollten sich natürlich die Menschen, die immerhin ernsthaft dachten, nicht befassen, und so suchte man nach den Bedingungen der Sache. Auf solche Bedingungen glaubte nun Freud durch Fälle zu kommen, wie etwa der folgende ist. Sie finden unzählige solche Fälle in der Literatur der Psychoanalytiker heute schon verzeichnet, und man kann sagen, daß wirklich ungeheuerstes Material zusammengetragen ist, um auf dies oder jenes auf diesem Gebiete zu kommen. Also ein Fall, den Psychoanalytiker verzeichnen, ist etwa der folgende. Ich will ihn so erzählen, wie er am verständlichsten sein kann. Es handelt sich ja dabei durchaus nicht um eine absolute historische Genauigkeit für uns.

Eine Dame war mit andern Gästen in einer Abendgesellschaft. In dieser Abendgesellschaft feierte man das Abschiedsfest für die Frau des Hauses, welche nervös geworden war und einen ausländischen Kurort aufsuchen mußte. Sie sollte an dem Abend abreisen. Man feierte das Abschiedsfest. Als man auseinandergegangen war, die Dame des Hauses abgereist war, da ging die Dame, um die es sich handelt, deren Fall eben gerade beschrieben werden soll, mit einigen andern Gästen, die aus dem Souper kamen — wie man sagt —, auf der Straße zusammen, da kam, von hinterrücks her um die Ecke gebogen, in die Straße einbiegend eine Pferdedroschke sehr rasch gefahren. Wie man das in Städten, wenn man nach Hause geht, öfter macht ich weiß nicht, ob Sie diese Erfahrung gemacht haben -, man geht dann nicht auf dem Seitentrottoir, sondern häufig mitten auf der Straße. Als nun der Wagen hinten heransauste, da liefen die Leute, die von dem Souper kamen, nach rechts und links aufs Trottoir. Nur die Dame, um die es sich handelt, die lief nicht aufs Trottoir, sondern lief vor dem Wagen fort, vor den Pferden davon auf der Straße weiter, und sie war trotz des Fluchens und Schimpfens des Kutschers — Kutscher tun dies in diesem Falle - nicht davon abzubringen, vor dem Wagen herzusausen. So lange rannte sie vor dem Wagen her, trotz des Knallens mit der Peitsche, bis sie an eine Brücke kam, und da wollte sie sich ins Wasser stürzen, aus Furcht, überfahren zu werden. Sie wurde von Passanten gerettet, zu ihrer Gesellschaft zurückgebracht und wurde auf diese Weise vor einem großen Unfall bewahrt.

Nun, diese Erscheinung hängt natürlich zusammen mit dem ganzen Befinden der betreffenden Dame. Es ist eine ausgesprochen hysterische Sache, wenn man vor den Pferden davonläuft, statt aufs Trottoir abzubiegen. Nun handelte es sich darum, nach den Ursachen einer solchen Angelegenheit zu forschen. Da kam Freud zunächst darauf, weil er in diesem Falle wie in andern Fällen bestrebt war, gewisse Teile der Ursachen im rückgelegenen Leben zu suchen, also in dem Leben, welches der Betreffende als Kind oder überhaupt früher durchgemacht hatte. Wenn da etwas aufgetreten ist, was gewissermaßen seelisch nicht ganz verarbeitet ist, so kann es eine Impulsanlage zurücklassen, und die kann dann später ausgelöst werden durch irgendwelche schockierenden Ereignisse.

In der Tat fand sich auch leicht ein solches Erlebnis in der Kindheit der betreffenden Dame. Sie war als Kind in einer Kutsche gefahren und da passierte es, daß die Pferde scheu wurden und durchgingen und gerade losstürmten auf das Ufer des Flusses. Der Kutscher sprang ab, forderte auch das Kind auf, abzuspringen ; im letzten Augenblicke sprang es noch ab, der Wagen mit den Pferden sauste in den Fluß hinein, und die Pferde waren mit dem Wagen zugrunde gegangen. Also das schockierende Ereignis war da. Eine gewisse Assoziation zwischen Pferd und Pferd war auch wiederum da. Im Augenblicke, wo die Dame ihre Gefahr den Pferden gegenüber sah, verlor sie den Halt, das Bewußtsein, und rannte vor dem Wagen her, statt auszuweichen, unter dem Einfluß, der Nachwirkung des infantilen Erlebnisses. Aber wiederum, Sie können daraus sehen, daß bei den Psychoanalytikern schon eine wissenschaftliche Methodik zu finden ist, so wie man heute Wissenschaft treibt, das haben die Psychoanalytiker schon - aber nicht wahr, es gibt natürlich sehr viele Menschen, denen in der Jugend so etwas passiert und die dennoch nicht dasselbe machen werden, davonlaufen vor den Pferden, wenn auch Pferd mit Pferd sich assoziiert. Also es muß zu der einen Sache noch etwas hinzukommen, wenn eine solche Veranlagung eintreten soll, daß man vor Pferden davonläuft, statt auszuweichen.

Da forschte Freud weiter nach. Und in der Tat, es fand sich gerade in diesem Fall ein sehr interessanter Zusammenhang. Dieser Zusammenhang bestand in folgendem: die betreffende Dame, die also vor den Pferden davongerannt war, war in Verlobung stehend mit einem Herrn. Aber sie liebte zwei; den Herrn, mit dem sie in Verlobung stand - sie war vollkommen überzeugt, daß sie den mehr liebte als den andern -, aber sie liebte auch den andern. Darüber war sie sich nicht ganz klar, aber so halb und halb. Der andere aber, das war der Mann ihrer besten Freundin, und diese Freundin war die Hausfrau, deren Abschiedssouper gefeiert worden war an jenem Abend. Also die Hausfrau, die etwas nervös war, reiste ab; die Freundin war mit beim Abschiedssouper, war weggegangen mit den andern Gästen, rannte vor den Pferden davon, und als man nachforschte, erfuhr man, daß allerdings früher bedeutungsvolle Zusammenhänge zwischen dem andern Herrn, also dem Mann ihrer besten Freundin, und dieser Dame bestanden haben. Das Liebesverhältnis hatte immerhin einige, nun, sagen wir, einige Dimensionen angenommen. Und nun hingen diese Dimensionen auch sogar etwas zusammen mit der Nervosität der Freundin, wie Sie sich ja auch denken können. Kurz und gut, also nichts ahnend - nach ihrer eigenen Meinung - ging diese Dame mit den übrigen Gästen weg, rannte auf der Straße vor den Pferden davon, wurde gerettet, die Gäste brachten sie zurück, es war unter den gegebenen Verhältnissen das Selbstverständliche, in das Haus, woher sie eben gekommen waren, wo sie das Abschiedssouper gegessen hatten. Und nun forschte der Arzt dem ganzen Krankheitsfall nach. Er brachte es in der Tat dahin, daß ihm die Dame die Sache erzählte. Aber hier stockte sie, und nur mit Mühe konnte er sie veranlassen, den weiteren Fortgang zu erzählen. Da kam denn heraus, daß in der Tat - wir wissen ja, eben war die Frau abgefahren, der Mann war allein zu Hause — der Mann in dieser Situation, nachdem sie wieder zu sich gekommen und normal war, ihr eine Liebeserklärung gemacht hat. Also sehen Sie, eine sehr merkwürdige Sache.

Andern Fällen ähnlicher Art ist nun Dr. Freud nachgegangen und nach seinen Forschungen hat sich ihm ergeben, daß solche Dinge immer nur dann eintreten, wenn irgendwie eine Liebe im Spiel ist, wenn irgend etwas von Liebe dabei im Spiel ist, wenn dabei irgend etwas unter der Decke des Bewußtseins schlummert von irgendwelchen Liebesdingen. Freud war zu der Überzeugung gekommen, wenn man bei solchen Hysterischen, welche, wie man früher geglaubt hat, durch seelische Verwundungen in ihre Lage gekommen sind, wenn man in ihrem Leben nachforscht, kann man finden, mögen was immer für Verhältnisse vorliegen, es können mancherlei Konstellationen da sein, aber von irgendeiner Seite her muß die Liebe ihr Spiel treiben. Wohlgemerkt, es braucht eben, und das sind die charakteristischsten Fälle, die bedeutungsvollsten, es braucht diese Liebesgeschichte dem betreffenden Patienten durchaus nicht zum Bewußtsein gekommen zu sein.

Nun, so war dasjenige fertig, was Freud seine Neurosetheotrie, seine Sexualtheorie nannte. Er fand in allen solchen Fällen, daß das Sexuelle in die Sache hineinspielt. Sehen Sie, diese Dinge sind natürlich außerordentlich verführerisch. Erstens besteht in der Gegenwart überhaupt die Neigung, überall, wo man irgend etwas Menschliches erklären will, das Sexuelle zu Hilfe zu rufen. Daher braucht es uns nicht zu verwundern, daß ein Arzt, der in so und so vielen Fällen bei hysterischen Krankheitsformen die Liebe mit im Spiel findet, eine solche Theorie aufstellt.

Auf der andern Seite ist gerade dies der Punkt, wo, weil die analytische Psychologie ein Erkenntnisversuch ist mit unzulänglichen Mitteln, die denkbar größtmögliche Gefahr beginnt. Deshalb wird die Sache so gefährlich, weil, ich möchte sagen, diese Erkenntnissehnsucht so ungeheuer verführerisch ist; verführerisch durch die Zeitumstände, dann aber auch dadurch, daß wirklich immer nachweisbar das sexuelle Verhältnis irgendeine Rolle spielt. Nun, der Psychoanalytiker Jzng, der das Buch geschrieben hat «Die Psychologie der unbewußten Prozesse», Professor Jung in Zürich ist nun nicht der Meinung, daß man auskomme mit der Freudschen Sexualtheorie, Neurosetheorie, sondern er ist einer andern Meinung.

Jung hat bemerkt, daß Freud auch seine Gegner hat. Unter diesen Gegnern Freuds ist auch ein gewisser Adler. Dieser Adler steht auf einem ganz andern Standpunkte. Wie Freud eine große Anzahl von Fällen geprüft hat — Sie können das alles bei Jung in seinem Buche nachlesen — und überall das Sexuelle hineinspielen gesehen hat und daher die Induktion, den Schluß gezogen hat: Also ist eigentlich das Sexuelle die auslösende Ursache -, so hat sich Adler eine andere Seite der Sache besonders angesehen und hat gefunden, daß diese andere Seite wesentlich wichtiger sei als diejenige, die Freud in den Vordergrund gestellt hat. Adler - ich will im allgemeinen nur charakterisieren — fand, daß, ebenso wie das Sexuelle im Menschen eine sehr dominierende Rolle spielt, noch ein anderer Trieb eine sehr dominierende Rolle spielt, das ist der Trieb: Macht zu bekommen über seine Umgebung, der Machttrieb. Wille zur Macht sollte ja bei Nietzsche sogar ein philosophisches Prinzip sein. Und man kann, geradeso wie Freud das Sexuelle zur 'Theorie gemacht hat, auch für den Machttrieb unzählige Fälle zusammenstellen. Man braucht nur Hysterische einmal zu analysieren, die Fälle sind gar nicht so selten. Nehmen Sie an, eine Dame sei hysterisch; sie bekommt Krämpfe — besonders Herzkrämpfe sind in einem solchen Falle sehr beliebt — und alle möglichen Zustände. Das Haus wird in Bewegung gesetzt, die ganze Umgebung, alles Mögliche; die Ärzte werden herbeigeschafft, die Kranke wird ungeheuer bedauert. Kurz, sie übt eine tyrannische Macht über die Umgebung aus. Ein vernünftiger Mensch weiß in einem solchen Fall, daß einem solchen Menschen meist gar nichts fehlt in Wirklichkeit, obwohl sie durchaus ihres krankhaften Zustandes sich bewüßt sind und darunter leiden. Aber es fehlt ihnen in Wirklichkeit nichts, sie sind eigentlich gesund, und sind auch krank, wenn Sie wollen. Man kann sie für gesund und als krank auffassen. Sie fallen gewiß hin, indem sie ohnmächtig werden im Herzkrampf; aber sie fallen in der Regel auf den Teppich, und nicht daneben! Man kann diese Dinge sehr gut beobachten.

Dieses nun, was ins Unbewußte hinunterdrängt, was Machttrieb ist, das führt insbesondere leicht zu hysterischen Zuständen. Adler hat vorzugsweise versucht, die Fälle, die ihm zu Gebote standen, nun nach diesem Machttrieb zu untersuchen, hat wiederum gefunden, daß überall, wo hysterische Fälle auftreten, irgendwie etwas nachgewiesen werden kann, daß der Machttrieb in irgendeiner Weise aufgestachelt worden ist und ins Krankhafte verzerrt worden ist. Jung sagt sich: Nun ja, schließlich kann man dem Adler nicht Unrecht geben; das, was er beobachtet hat, ist da. Man kann dem Freud nicht Unrecht geben; das, was er beobachtet hat, ist da. Also wird es halt mal so, mal so sein.

Das ist auch ganz vernünftig, es wird schon bald so, bald so sein. Aber nun baut Jung eine besondere Theorie darauf auf. Diese Theorie ist nicht uninteressant, wenn man sie nicht bloß abstrakt als Theorie nimmt, sondern wenn man sie so betrachtet, daß man in ihr zugleich ein Wirken von Zeitimpulsen sieht, von dem, was in die Zeit hereinspielt, namentlich von dem Erkenntnisohnmächtigen, möchte ich sagen, unserer Zeit, von den Erkenntnisunzulänglichkeiten. Jung sagt: Es gibt überhaupt zwei Menschentypen, zweierlei Menschen. Bei dem einen Menschentypus ist mehr das Fühlen ausgebildet, bei dem andern mehr das Denken. |

Nun, es hat also wiederum einmal ein großer Gelehrter eine epochemachende Entdeckung gemacht, die eigentlich jeder vernünftige Mensch in seiner nächsten Umgebung als auf der Straße liegend immer machen kann; denn daß man die Menschen in Gefühlsmenschen und in Gedankenmenschen einteilen kann, liegt ja so ziemlich auf der Hand. Aber Gelehrsamkeit hat noch eine andere Aufgabe; sie muß die Dinge nicht so laienhaft betrachten, dadurch, daß sie etwa sagt: Unter den Menschen unserer Umgebung sind zwei Typen, Gefühlsmenschen und Verstandesmenschen -, sondern Gelehrsamkeit muß etwas anderes noch machen. Gelehrsamkeit sagt in einem solchen Falle, der, der sich einfühlt, begibt sich gewissermaßen aus sich selbst heraus zur Objektivität; der andere zieht sich gewissermaßen vom Objekt zurück oder hält davor an und denkt darüber. Der erste heißt der extravertierte Typus, der andere heißt der introvertierte Typus. Der erste wäre also der Gefühlsmensch, der zweite der Verstandesmensch. Also nicht wahr, es ist eine gelehrte Einteilung gemacht, scharfsinnig, geistreich, wirklich entsprechend bis zu einem gewissen Grade, das ist nicht abzuleugnen.

Nun sagt Jung weiter: Beim extravertierten Typus — also demjenigen, wo der Mensch vorzugsweise in Gefühlen lebt -, bei dem bleiben sehr häufig die Verstandesbegriffe im Unterbewußten stecken; er lebt in Gefühlen, aber im Unterbewußten bleiben die Verstandesbegriffe stecken. Und jetzt kommt er in Kollision mit dem, was er in seinem Bewußtsein hat, und dem, was da unten im Unterbewußten herumwimmelt als Verstandesbegriffe. Aus dieser Kollision können allerlei Zustände herkommen. Diese Zustände werden vorzugsweise bei solchen Menschen eintreten, welche gefühlsmäßige Anlagen haben.

Dagegen bei den andern, die mehr sich mit dem Geist beschäftigen, bei den Verstandesmenschen, bleiben die Gefühle im Untergrunde und drängen im Unterbewußten, wimmeln im Unterbewußten und kommen in Kollision mit dem bewußten Leben. Das bewußte Leben kann sich nicht erklären, was da eigentlich an es heranschlägt. Es sind die unterbewußten Gefühle. Und aus dem Umstande, daß der Mensch eigentlich nie vollständig ist, sondern einmal der Typus, einmal jener Typus ist, können solche Zustände entstehen, daß das Unterbewußte revoltiert gegen das Bewußte. Und das kann eben sehr häufig zu hysterischen Zuständen führen.

Nun, nicht wahr, man kann sagen, die Theorie Jungs ist ja eigentlich nichts als eine Umschreibung, wie gesagt des trivialen Urteils von dem Gefühlsmenschen und dem Verstandesmenschen, und es ist keine besondere Vertiefung des Tatbestandes. Aber aus alledem müssen Sie ersehen, daß immerhin die Menschen der Gegenwart aufmerksam werden auf allerlei seelische Eigentümlichkeiten, daß ihnen diese seelischen Eigentümlichkeiten vor das Geistesauge treten und sie sich damit befassen, daß sie fragen: Was geht vor in einem Menschen, in dem solche Dinge auftreten? — Immerhin, die Leute sind so weit, sich zu sagen: Physiologische, anatomische Veränderungen sind es nicht. — Über den bloßen Materialismus sind die Leute doch hinaus; den bloßen Materialismus geben sie nicht zu; sie reden vom Seelischen. Also immerhin sicher ein Weg, auf dem die Leute suchen, aus dem bloßen Materialismus herauszukommen und das Seelische ins Auge zu fassen.

Nun ist es aber höchst eigentümlich, wie, wenn man näher zusieht, die Erkenntnisunzulänglichkeiten eigentümlich wirken, wie wirklich der Erkenntnisversuch mit unzulänglichen Mitteln die Leute in merkwürdige Bahnen hineinführt. Nur muß ich ausdrücklich bemerken, die Menschen sehen nicht, in was sie hineingetrieben werden, und ihre Anhänger und Leser und Zeitgenossen sehen es auch nicht. Die Sache wird, wenn man sie richtig betrachtet, wirklich eine sehr gefährliche Seite haben, weil so vieles nicht gesehen wird dabei, also selbst im Unterbewußten rumort bei den Leuten. Es ist ganz eigentümlich, die Theorien selbst rumoren im Unterbewußten. Die Leute stellen eine Theorie über das Unterbewußte auf, aber sie rumoren selber mit ihrer Theorie im Unterbewußten.

Jung betreibt die Sache als Arzt, und das ist ja im Grunde bedeutsam, daß man die Patienten seelisch-therapeutisch behandelt von diesem Gesichtspunkte aus. Zahlreiche Menschen arbeiten daran, die Sache überzuführen in die Pädagogik, sie pädagogisch anzuwenden. Also wir sehen schon, wir stehen hier nicht vor einer eingeschränkten Theorie, sondern vor dem Versuche, etwas zu einer Kulturerscheinung zu machen. Es ist sehr interessant, wie also jemand, der als Arzt die Sache behandelt wie Jung, wie der, indem er allerlei Fälle wiederum beobachtete, behandelte auch, sogar scheinbar auch wirklich kurierte, wie der immer weiter und weiter getrieben wird. Und so wird Jung zu folgendem getrieben. Er sagt sich: Man muß also, wenn man solche abnormen Erscheinungen im Seelenleben eines Menschen findet, in diesem Seelenleben des Menschen weitersuchen, vor allen Dingen suchen, inwiefern infantile, kindliche Ereignisse auf das Seelenleben des Menschen einen Eindruck gemacht haben und nachwirken. — Das ist ja etwas, was man insbesondere auf diesem Gebiete sucht: infantile Nachwirkungen, Nachwirkungen aus der Kindheitszeit. Ich habe Ihnen ja das Beispiel angeführt, das in der psychoanalytischen Literatur eine große Rolle spielt.

Nun kommt aber Jung darauf, daß bei den wirklichen Krankheitsfällen sehr zahlreich diejenigen sind, wo es sich nicht nachweisen läßt, daß der Mensch als Individuum irgend etwas hat, wenn man auch bis in die früheste Kindheit zurückgeht. Wenn man alles, mit dem der Mensch in Berührung gekommen ist, ins Auge faßt - man findet den Konflikt im Individuum Mensch, das man vor sich hat, nicht, woraus sich die Sache erklären ließe. Dadurch kommt Jung zu einer Unterscheidung von zwei Unbewußten: erstens das individuelle Unbewußte, das also im Menschen drinnensteckt, wenn auch nicht im Bewußtsein. Nicht wahr, wenn die junge Dame in der Kindheit aus dem Wagen gesprungen ist und einen Schock bekommen hat, so ist das längst entschwunden, ist nicht mehr im Bewußtsein, sondern es wirkt unterbewußt. Wenn man nun dieses Unbewußte nimmt — der Mensch hat unzähliges Unbewußte in sich -, so bekommt man das persönliche oder individuelle Unbewußte. Das ist das erste, was Jung unterscheidet.

‚Das zweite ist aber das überpersönliche Unbewußte. Er sagt: Es sind auch solche Dinge, die ins Seelenleben hereinspielen, die nicht in der Persönlichkeit sind, die aber auch nicht im Materiellen draußen in der Welt sind, die also angenommen werden müssen als in einer seelischen Welt vorhanden.

Nun geht doch die Psychoanalyse darauf hinaus, solche Seeleninhalte zum Bewußtsein zu bringen. Das soll ja gerade die Therapie, die Heilmethode sein: die Sache zum Bewußtsein zu bringen. Also muß der Arzt darauf ausgehen, nicht nur das aus dem Kranken herauszuforschen, was der Kranke individuell erlebt hat, sondern auch allerlei anderes, was er gar nicht individuell erlebt hat, was auch draußen in der Welt nicht war, sondern seelischer Inhalt ist. Dabei kommen ja die Psychoanalytiker darauf, daß sie sagen: Eigentlich hat der Mensch nicht nur das erlebt, was er selbst seit seiner physischen Geburt erlebte, sondern von seiner physischen Geburt an weiter zurück alles Mögliche. Und das rumort jetzt in ihm. Ein Mensch, der heute geboren wird, erlebt also auch unterbewußt zum Beispiel die Sage von Ödipus. Nicht bloß lernt er die Sage von Ödipus in der Schule, diese Sage erlebt er. Er erlebt die griechischen Götter; er erlebt die ganze Vergangenheit der Menschheit mit. Und das Schlimme besteht gerade darinnen, daß der Mensch dieses alles nun erlebt, aber es will nicht herauf ins Bewußtsein. Der Psychoanalytiker muß sich also sagen — und bis zu diesem Grade geht er sogar: Das griechische Kind erlebte das auch; aber dem Griechen, dem erzählte man das; der erlebte es also auch im Bewußtsein. Der heutige Mensch, der erlebt es auch, aber es rumort in ihm - bei dem extravertierten Menschen in unterbewußten Gedanken, bei dem introvertierten als unterbewußte Gefühle. Das rumort in den Menschen drinnen; das rumort wie Dämonen.

Nun denken Sie sich, vor welcher Notwendigkeit eigentlich der Psychoanalytiker steht, wenn er seiner Theorie treu ist! Er stünde eigentlich vor der Notwendigkeit, diese Dinge ernst zu nehmen und einfach zu sagen: Nun ja, wenn heute ein Mensch aufwächst, und das ihn gerade zur Krankheit führen kann, daß er eine Beziehung hat zu dem, was in ihm rumort, und er doch nichts weiß von dieser Beziehung, so muß man ihm eben diese Beziehung bewußt machen, so muß man ihm gerade erklären, daß es eine geistige Welt gibt, daß es darin Götter gibt, daß es verschiedene Götter gibt. Denn so weit kommt sogar der Psychoanalytiker, daß er sagt: Die menschliche Seele hat ihre Beziehung zu den Göttern; aber es liegt eine Krankheitsursache darinnen, daß sie nichts weiß von diesen Beziehungen. Alle möglichen Auskunftsmittel sucht der Psychoanalytiker. Aber diese Auskunftsmittel sind manchmal grotesk. - Nehmen wir an, ein hysterischer Kranker kommt und zeigt diese oder jene hysterische Erscheinung, weil er Furcht hat vor einem Dämon, sagen wir einem Feuerdämon. Frühere Menschen haben an Feuerdämonen geglaubt, haben von Feuerdämonen auch Anschauungen gehabt, haben gewußt davon. Die jetzigen haben auch Beziehungen zu Feuerdämonen das gibt der Psychoanalytiker zu -, aber die Beziehungen sind nicht bewußt, und man erklärt es den Menschen auch nicht, daß es Feuerdämonen gibt. Also führt das zur Krankheitsursache. Jung versteigt sich sogar so weit, daß er sagt: Die Götter, zu denen man Beziehungen hat, aber von deren Beziehungen man nichts weiß, die rächen sich, die zürnen, die rächen sich; und es kommt die Rache als Hysterie zum Vorschein. — Schön. Er sagt also, solch ein heutiger Mensch, der nun malträtiert wird in seinem Unterbewußten von einem Dämon, er weiß nicht, daß es im Feuer Dämonen gibt; ein Feuerdämon quält ihn, aber er kann keine Beziehung zu ihm kriegen, denn - das ist Aberglaube! Das geht nicht. Was tut denn solch ein armer moderner Mensch, der über der Sache krank wird? Er projiziert die Sache nach außen, das heißt, er sucht sich irgendeinen Freund auf, den er vorher ganz gern gehabt hat oder dergleichen, und sagt: Der ist es, der verfolgt mich, der schimpft über mich. — Er fühlt sich von ihm verfolgt und so weiter. Das heißt, der betreffende Kranke hat einen Dämon, der ihn quälte, in einen andern Menschen hineinprojiziert.

Oftmals besteht die Therapie, die die Psychoanalytiker anwenden, darinnen, daß sie die Sache ablenken auf sich. Da kommt es sehr häufig vor, daß - in gutem und in bösem Sinne — die Patienten den Arzt zum Gott oder zum Teufel machen.

Sie sehen die außerordentlich interessante Tatsache, daß der Arzt der Gegenwart gedrängt wird, sich zu sagen: Die Menschen sind von Geistern gequält, und weil man ihnen von Geistern keine Lehre gibt, weil sie keine Lehre aufnehmen, also in ihrem Bewußtsein nichts davon aufnehmen, so werden sie zu Quälgeistern untereinander, projizieren ihre Dämonen nach außen, reden einander allerlei dämonisches Zeug auf und so weiter. - Und wie radikal verhängnisvoll der Psychoanalytiker das ansieht, das mag Ihnen daraus hervorgehen, daß Jung folgenden interessanten Fall anführt. Er sagt, gewisse seiner Kollegen sagen, wenn nun einer solche Seelenenergien in sich hat, die von solchen Quälereien kommen, so müsse man sie ableiten auf etwas. Also nehmen wir an, gehen wir wieder zurück auf Elementarfälle der Psychoanalyse: Eine Patientin kommt; ihre Krankheit rührt davon her, wie man nach dem Abhören der psychoanalytischen Beichte findet, daß sie in früherer Zeit in jemand verliebt war, den sie nicht gekriegt hat, und das ist ihr geblieben. Es könnte auch ein Dämon sein, der sie quält; aber in den meisten Fällen, die die Ärzte beobachten, ist es so, daß irgend etwas sich ereignet hat in dem individuellen Unterbewußten, das sie unterscheiden von dem überindividuellen Unterbewußten. Und da versucht der Arzt abzuleiten, indem er das, was unausgegorene Phantasie ist, ableiten, überleiten will. Also er sagt: Wenn eine liebebedürftige Seele da ist, die den «Ihren» nicht gekriegt hat, müsse sie diese Liebesmenge, die sie da nicht anwenden könne, in Samariterdienste wenden, sie müsse diesen oder jenen Wohltätigkeitsveranstaltungen vorstehen und so weiter. -— Na, es kann das recht gut gemeint sein; aber Jung sagt selber, es läßt sich nicht immer diese Energie so ableiten. Selbstverständlich, der gelehrte Herr muß wiederum ein bißchen eine Auskunft haben; deshalb sagt er, die Energien, die auf solche Weise in der Seele sitzen, haben ein gewisses Gefälle; das kann man nicht immer dirigieren. Nun, ich habe gar nichts gegen diese Ausdrücke, ich möchte nur hervorheben, daß es nur, nicht wahr, durchaus nichts anderes ist als eine Umsetzung desjenigen, was der Laie sehr häufig bespricht, aber natürlich so, wie er sich ausdrückt. Aber Jung erzählt nun einen Fall, der sehr interessant ist, der gut ausdrückt, wie dieses Gefälle eben nicht dirigiert werden kann.

Ein Mann, Amerikaner, typischer Mensch der Gegenwart, Selfmademan, hat sich zum tüchtigen Führer und Leiter eines Geschäftes gemacht, hat mit Riesenkraft diesem Geschäft sich gewidmet, großen Erfolg gehabt, große Einkünfte auch und denkt nun: Demnächst werde ich fünfundvierzig Jahre alt, nun habe ich mich geplagt genug in meinem Leben, jetzt werde ich mir auch einmal Ruhe gönnen. Und er kauft sich einen Landsitz mit Autos und Tennisplätzen und allem, was dazu gehört. Er dachte also, mit fünfundvierzig Jahren sein Geschäft zu verlassen und da hinaus auf den Landsitz zu ziehen und da zu leben, bloß die Tantiemen zu beziehen von dem Geschäft. Aber siehe da, als er auf seinem Landsitz eine Zeitlang war, spielte er nicht Tennis, fuhr nicht Auto, ging nicht in die Theater, hatte keine Freude an den Blumen, die angelegt waren, sondern setzte sich einsam in sein Zimmer und brütete vor sich hin. Da tat es ihm weh, da tat es ihm weh, alles tat ihm weh, und tatsächlich schmerzte ihn bald der Kopf, bald die Brust, bald die Beine. Also er konnte sich selber nicht mehr ausstehen, hörte auf zu lachen, war müde, abgespannt, hatte immerfort Kopfschmerzen, es war schrecklich. Keine Krankheit; keine für den Arzt zu konstatierende Krankheit. So ist es ja bei sehr vielen Menschen in der Gegenwart, nicht wahr; sie sind eigentlich ganz gesund und sind doch krank. Ja, also eine Krankheit war nicht da. Der Arzt wußte schon nichts anderes, als zu sagen: Sehen Sie, die Geschichte ist seelisch — das sagen ja heute schon die Ärzte -, Sie sind seelisch krank; Sie haben sich den Geschäftsverhältnissen angepaßt, da sind Sie drinnen, jetzt können Ihre Energien nicht gleich andere Gefälle annehmen, sie haben ihr eigenes Gefälle, sie können nicht dirigiert werden. Gehen Sie wiederum zurück in Ihr Geschäft, das ist das einzige Mittel, das ich weiß. — Nun, der betreffende Herr sieht das auch ein. Aber siehe da, jetzt kann er auch nicht mehr im Geschäft etwas leisten! Er ist untauglich, er ist jetzt drinnen ebenso krank wie er draußen war auf seinem Landsitz.

Daraus schließt Jung mit Recht: Man kann die Energien nicht so leicht von einem Gefälle auf ein anderes bringen. Selbst wenn man sie wieder zurückbringen will, geht es auch nicht. Der Betreffende kam sogar zu ihm in Behandlung, aber er konnte diesem Manne auch nicht helfen, weil es schon zu spät war; es hatte die Krankheit schon zu stark um sich gegriffen, man hätte früher eingreifen müssen. Dies zeigt Ihnen, daß es mit der Therapie der Ableitung auch schon seine Schwierigkeiten hat. Jung führt das Beispiel selber an.

Überall begegnet man Tatsachen, die von Bedeutung, von Wichtigkeit sind, die, jetzt darf ich es wohl sagen, nur durch Geisteswissenschaft oder Anthroposophie zu bewältigen sein werden, erkenntnismäßig; aber sie sind da. Den Leuten fallen sie auf. Also die Fragen sind da, Sie finden sie überall. Das wird man schon entdecken, daß der Mensch ein kompliziertes Wesen ist, daß er nicht jenes einfache Wesen ist, von dem man sich eine illusionäre Vorstellung gemacht hat durch die fortgeschrittene Wissenschaft des 19. Jahrhunderts. Vor dem Psychoanalytiker von heute steht eine merkwürdige Tatsache. Wenn Sie diese Tatsache nehmen, ja, für die heutige Wissenschaft ist sie geradezu unerklärlich. In der Anthroposophie werden Sie mit den Mitteln, die Sie schon haben in meinen Vorträgen, leicht eine Erklärung finden. Ich kann aber auf die Erscheinung noch einmal zurückkommen, wenn Sie die Erklärung nicht selber finden sollten. Es kann zum Beispiel vorkommen, daß jemand hysterisch blind wird, also nicht sieht. Es gibt hysterisch Blinde, die also durchaus sehen könnten und doch nicht sehen, seelisch Blinde. Nun kann es sein, daß solche Menschen partiell geheilt werden, sie fangen wieder an zu sehen, aber sie sehen nicht alles. So zum Beispiel kann der eigentümliche Fall eintreten, daß ein solcher hysterisch Blinder wiederum sein Sehvermögen bekommt, alles am Menschen sieht, just nicht den Kopf! Solch ein partiell Geheilter geht also in den Straßen herum und sieht alle Menschen ohne Kopf. Das gibt es wirklich. Es gibt noch viel kuriosere Erscheinungen.

Nun, das alles ist, wie gesagt, mit anthroposophisch orientierter Geisteswissenschaft schon zu bewältigen, und aus einem Vortrage, den ich hier im Lauf des vorigen Jahres gehalten habe, können Sie die Erklärung zum Beispiel für diese Erscheinung leicht finden, daß man auch einmal die Köpfe der Menschen nicht sehen kann. Aber, wie gesagt, dem heutigen Psychoanalytiker liegen alle diese Erscheinungen vor. Und so viel liegt ihm schon vor, daß er sich sagt: Es kann für den Menschen außergewöhnlich verhähgnisvoll werden, wenn er nun Beziehungen gar zu dem Überpersönlich-Unbewußten hat. Aber um Gottes willen, ja, um Gottes willen sagt der Psychoanalytiker nicht, aber um der Wissenschaft willen nur ja nicht etwa jetzt Ernst machen mit der geistigen Welt! Nur ja das nicht! Das geht den Leuten nicht ein, mit der geistigen Welt Ernst zu machen. Und da kommt denn etwas ganz Merkwürdiges zustande. Es wird von den wenigsten Menschen bemerkt, was für sonderbare Erscheinungen unter dem Einfluß dieser Dinge zustande kommen. Ich will sie aus dem Jungschen Buche «Die Psychologie der unbewußten Prozesse», das vor kurzem erst erschienen ist, aufmerksam machen auf eine außerordentlich interessante Sache, aus der Sie sehen werden, wozu der Psychoanalytiker heute schon kommt. Ich muß Ihnen allerdings ein Stückchen vorlesen: «Nach diesem Beispiel», es sind solche Beispiele, wo er zeigt, daß der Mensch nicht nur mit dem, was in seinem individuellen Leben oder in der Gegenwart ist, sondern weit zurück Beziehungen hat zu allem möglichen Dämonischen und Göttlichen und Geisterhaften und so weiter, «nach diesem Beispiel für die Entstehung neuer Ideen aus dem Schatze der urtümlichen Bilder», hier nennt er es nicht Götter, sondern urtümliche Bilder, «wollen wir die weitere Darstellung des Übertragungsprozesses wieder aufnehmen, Wir sahen, daß die Libido eben in jenen anscheinend ungereimten und absonderlichen Phantasien ihr neues Objekt ergriffen hat, nämlich die Inhalte des absoluten Unbewußten.» Also das absolute Unbewußte ist das überpersönlich Unbewußte, nicht das persönliche. «Wie ich bereits sagte, ist die nicht eingesehene Projektion der urtümlichen Bilder auf den Arzt eine nicht zu unterschätzende Gefahr für die weitere Behandlung.» Also der Patient setzt seine Dämonen heraus und setzt sie auf den Arzt. Das ist eine Gefahr. «Die Bilder enthalten nämlich nicht nur alles Schönste und Größte, das die Menschheit je dachte und fühlte, sondern auch jede schlimmste Schandtat und Teufelei, deren die Menschen je fähig waren.»

Denken Sie, so weit kommt Jung schon, daß er einsieht: Der Mensch hat in sich unbewußt alle Schandtaten und Teufeleien neben dem Schönsten, was die Menschheit je fähig war zu denken und zu fühlen. Also nicht wahr, irgendwie herbei lassen sich die Leute nicht, von Luzifer und Ahriman zu sprechen; aber zu einem solchen Satze versteht er sich: «Die Bilder enthalten nämlich nicht nur alles Schönste und Größte, das die Menschheit je dachte und fühlte, sondern auch jede schlimmste Schandtat und Teufelei, deren die Menschen je fähig waren. Wenn nun der Patient die Persönlichkeit des Arztes von diesen Projektionen nicht unterscheiden kann, dann geht jede Verständigungsmöglichkeit verloren, und die menschliche Beziehung wird unmöglich. Wenn aber der Patient diese Charybdis vermeidet, so fällt er in die Scylla der Introjektion dieser Bilder, d.h. er rechnet ihre Qualitäten nicht dem Arzte zu, sondern sich selber.» Also dann ist er selber der Teufel; er findet selber, daß er der Teufel ist. «Diese Gefahr ist ebenso schlimm. Bei der Projektion schwankt er zwischen einer überschwänglichen und krankhaften Verhimmelung und einer haßerfüllten Verachtung seines Arztes. Bei der Introjektion gerät er in eine lächerliche Selbstvergötterung oder moralische Selbstzerfleischung. Der Fehler, den er beide Male macht, besteht darin, daß er sich persönlich die Inhalte des absoluten Unbewußten zurechnet. So macht er sich selber zum Gott und zum Teufel. Hier liegt der psychologische Grund, warum die Menschen immer der Dämonen bedurften und nie ohne Götter leben konnten, ausgenommen einige besondere kluge Specimina des homo occidentalis von gestern und vorgestern, Übermenschen, deren Gott tot ist, weshalb sie selber zu Göttern werden, und zwar zu rationalistischen Duodezgöttern mit dickwandigen Schädeln und kalten Herzen.»

Also Sie sehen, der Psychoanalytiker kommt dazu, zu sagen: Die Menschenseele ist so geartet, daß sie die Götter braucht, daß sie die Götter notwendig hat, daß sie krank werden muß, wenn sie die Götter nicht hat. Daher hat sie immer die Götter gehabt; die Menschen brauchen die Götter. Er spottet sogar, der Psychoanalytiker, daß wenn sie die Götter nicht haben, so müssen sie selber zu Göttern werden, aber nur zu «rationalistischen Duodezgöttern mit dickwandigen Schädeln und kalten Herzen». «Der Gottesbegriff», sagt der Psychoanalytiker weiter, «ist nämlich eine schlechthin notwendige psychologische Funktion irrationaler Natur...»

Nun, nicht wahr, Sie sehen, weiter kann ja nicht gegangen werden, als auf naturwissenschaftliche Weise die Notwendigkeit des Gottesbegriffes in dieser Art darzustellen. Der Mensch muß den Gott haben, das weiß der Psychoanalytiker heute, er braucht ihn. Aber, ich habe den Satz nicht zu Ende gelesen, lesen wir ihn zu Ende: «Der Gottesbegriff ist nämlich eine schlechthin notwendige psychologische Funktion irrationaler Natur, die mit der Frage nach der Existenz Gottes überhaupt nichts zu tun hat.»

Also hier stoßen Sie, indem Sie Vorder- und Nachsatz zusammenlesen, auf das große Dilemma der Gegenwart. Der Psychoanalytiker beweist einem, daß der Mensch krank wird, wenn er seinen Gott nicht hat; aber diese Notwendigkeit hat mit einer Existenz Gottes nichts zu tun. Und er fährt fort: «Denn diese letztere Frage», nämlich die nach der Existenz Gottes, «gehört zu den dümmsten Fragen, die man stellen kann. Man weiß doch hinlänglich, daß man sich einen Gott nicht einmal denken kann, geschweige denn sich vorstellen, daß er wirklich existiere, so wenig wie man sich einen Vorgang denken kann, der nicht notwendig kausal bedingt wäre.»

Nun bitte ich Sie, hier stehen Sie vor dem Punkt, wo Sie die Dinge abfangen können. Die Dinge sind da, pochen an der Türe der Erkenntnis. Die Leute, die suchen, sind auch da; sie erkennen die absoluteNotwendigkeit, aber - sie betrachten dasjenige, was sie als absolute Notwendigkeit halten, wenn es als ernste Frage aufgeworfen wird, als eine der dümmsten Fragen, die überhaupt aufgeworfen werden.

Da haben Sie einen der Punkte, wo Sie aus dem heutigen Geistesleben heraus unmittelbar sehen können, woran man eigentlich immer vorbeigeht. Ich kann Ihnen die Versicherung geben, diese Psychoanalytiker als Seelenkenner oder als Seelenforscher sind noch immer weit, weit über das hinaus, was die landläufige Universitätspsychiatrie bietet - sie sind weit, weit, weit über das hinaus, was die Universitätspsychiatrie, die Universitätspsychologie zumeist bietet, und sie haben Recht in einer gewissen Weise, auf diese schreckliche sogenannte Wissenschaft herabzusehen. Aber man kann sie abfangen an solch einer Stelle, wo man so recht sieht, welchen Dingen die gegenwärtige Menschheit gegenübersteht, indem sie der zeitgenössischen Wissenschaft gegenübersteht.

Das bemerken ja zahlreiche Menschen nicht. Die Menschen wissen heute gar nicht, wie heutiger Autoritätsglaube ist. Es war ja niemals solcher Autoritätsglaube, wie er in der Gegenwart herrscht; niemals ist er mehr in dem Unterbewußten drunten gewesen als heute. Man muß immer wieder und wiederum sagen: Ja, um Gottes willen, was tut ihr denn eigentlich, wenn ihr als Therapeuten hysterische Menschen behandelt? - Ihr sucht einen unterbewußten Inhalt, der nicht gelöst ist vom Bewußtsein. Ja, aber man findet solche unterbewußte Inhalte bei den Theoretikern in Hülle und Fülle. Wenn man den heraufhebt aus dem Unterbewußten, dann kommt eben so etwas zum Bewußtsein, wie das, was Ihnen jetzt zum Bewußtsein kommen muß, was in dem Unterbewußten der modernen Ärzte und modernen Patienten rumort. Die ganze Literatur ist davon durchsetzt; es ist ja das überall drinnen, und Sie sind täglich und stündlich dem ausgesetzt, das aufzunehmen. Und weil man nur mit der Geisteswissenschaft auf solche Dinge aufmerksam werden kann, deshalb nehmen so viele Menschen diese Dinge unbewußt auf, saugen sie ein in ihr Unterbewußtsein, und sie sind dann im Unterbewußtsein darinnen.

Diese Psychoanalyse hat wenigstens die Menschen aufmerksam gemacht darauf, daß Seelisches als Seelisches zu nehmen ist. Das tun sie. Aber überall sitzt ihnen der Teufel im Nacken. Ich möchte sagen, sie können nicht heran an die geistige Wirklichkeit und wollen vor allen Dingen nicht heran an die geistige Wirklichkeit. Daher findet man überall in der Gegenwart Vorder- und Nachsätze, die das Unglaublichste darstellen. Aber die Menschen in der Gegenwart haben nicht den Aufmerksamkeitsgrad, diese Dinge anzuschauen. Natürlich, wer das Buch von Jung liest «Die Psychologie der unbewußten Prozesse», der müßte ja eigentlich unter den Tisch fallen, wenn er auf seinem Stuhle sitzt, wenn er solch einen Satz liest. Das tut aber der heutige Mensch nicht. Also denken Sie, wieviel wirklich in diesem Unbewußten darinnen liegt bei dieser modernen Menschheit. Und deshalb auch, weil diese Psychoanalytiker sehen, wieviel im Unterbewußten liegt — denn das sehen sie ja —, sehen sie manche Dinge anders als andere Leute. Gleich in der Vorrede sagt zum Beispiel Jung etwas, was in dem einen Teil des Satzes nicht schlecht ist: «Die psychologischen Vorgänge, welche den gegenwärtigen Krieg begleiten, vor allem die unglaubliche Verwilderung des allgemeinen Urteils, die gegenseitigen Verleumdungen, die ungeahnte Zerstörungswut, die unerhörte Lügenfiut und die Unfähigkeit der Menschen, dem blutigen Dämon Einhalt zu tun, sind wie nichts geeignet, das Problem des unter der geordneten Bewußtseinswelt unruhig schlummernden chaotischen Unbewußten dem denkenden Menschen aufdringlich vor die Augen zu rücken. Dieser Krieg hat es dem Kulturmenschen unerbittlich gezeigt, daß er noch ein Barbar ist, und zugleich, was für eine eiserne Zuchtrute für ihn bereit liegt, wenn es ihm etwa noch einmal einfallen sollte, seinen Nachbarn für seine eigenen schlechten Eigenschaften verantwortlich zu machen. Die Psychologie des Einzelnen aber entspricht der Psychologie der Nationen.» Und nun kommt ein Nachsatz, mit dem man wiederum nicht weiß, was man mit ihm anfangen soll. «Was die Nationen tun, tut auch jeder Einzelne, und so lang es der Einzelne tut, tut es auch die Nation. Nur die Veränderung der Einstellung des Einzelnen ist der Beginn zur Veränderung der Psychologie der Nation.»

Also diese Sätze nebeneinander sind wiederum so, daß sie zeigen, wie destruktiv es auf das Denken wirkt. Denn ich möchte Sie einmal fragen, ob es einen Sinn hat zu sagen: «Was die Nationen tun, tut auch jeder Einzelne.» Dann müßte es ja einen Sinn haben, zu fragen: Könnte es auch der Einzelne tun, ohne daß es die Nationen tun? Nicht wahr, es ist ein absoluter Unsinn, solches zu sagen. Und der Unsinn ist es, der heute selbst bei hervorragenden, großen Geistern überwältigend wirkt; er wirkt überwältigend. Nun soll gar diese Sache, in der solch destruktives Denken wirkt, Therapie nicht nur sein, soll auch pädagogisch leiten. Wiederum liegt die berechtigte Sehnsucht zugrunde, in die Pädagogik ein neues seelisches, spirituelles Element hineinzutragen. Soll dasjenige hineingetragen werden, was mit ganz unzulänglichen Erkenntnismitteln gefunden wird? Das sind die wichtigen Fragen heutzutage!

Wir werden nun auch vom Standpunkte anthroposophischer Orientierung auf die Sache zurückkommen, die Sache beleuchten von einem größeren Horizonte aus, werden dann sehen, wie man die Sache viel, viel größer anfangen muß, wenn man überhaupt mit diesen Dingen zurechtkommen will. Aber man muß sie auch konkret anfangen. Man muß vor allen Dingen solche Probleme, die gewöhnlich nur noch mit den alten unzulänglichen Erkenntnismitteln gesucht werden, in das Licht anthroposophischer Erkenntnis rücken.

Nehmen Sie zum Beispiel das Problem Nietzsche. Ich will heute das Problem nur andeuten; wir wollen solchen Problemen morgen nähertreten. Wir wissen nun schon aus den verflossenen Vorträgen: Von 1841 bis 1879 Geisterkampf oben; von 1879 an die gestürzten Geister im Reiche der Menschen. Solche Dinge und ähnliche werden in künftigen Zeiten eine Rolle spielen müssen, wenn man das Leben der Menschen betrachtet. Denn Nietzsche ist 1844 geboren; drei Jahre gerade ist seine Seele, bevor sie auf die Erde herunterstieg, oben im Reich der Geister im Geisteskampf darinnen. Er ist ein Knabe, als Schopenhauer noch lebt. Schopenhauer stirbt 1860. Erst nachdem Schopenhauer gestorben ist, widmet Nietzsche sich der Lektüre der Schopenhauerschen Schriften. Da wirkt die Seele Schopenhauers mit, die oben in den geistigen Reichen ist. Das ist das reale Verhältnis. Nietzsche liest Schopenhauer; aber Schopenhauer wirkt in den Gedanken Nietzsches, die die Schopenhauerschen Schriften aufnehmen, weiter.

Aber in welcher Lage ist denn Schopenhauer da oben? Schopenhauer ist da oben von 1860 bis in die ganzen Jahre hinein, wo Nietzsche Schopenhauer liest, drinnen im Kampf der Geister, während dieser noch oben ausgefochten wird. Was also Schopenhauer Nietzsche inspiriert, das nimmt er selber auf im Zusammenhange mit dem Kampf der Geister, in den er hineinversetzt wird. 1879 werden diese Geister vom Himmel auf die Erde heruntergestürzt. Bis 1879 sehen wir Nietzsches Geistesgang sehr merkwürdige Bahnen gehen. Man wird sie künftig erklären aus dem Einflusse Schopenhauers und Wagners. Sie finden in meiner Schrift «Friedrich Nietzsche, ein Kämpfer gegen seine Zeit» manche Anhaltspunkte dafür. Wagners Einfluß war bis dahin nicht anders, als daß er auf der Erde wirkte. Denn Wagner ist 1813 geboren; 1841 hat erst der Geisterkampf begonnen. Aber Wagner stirbt 1883. Nietzsches Geistesgang beginnt dann seine merkwürdige Richtung in einer gewissen Weise, als der Einfluß Wagners beginnt. Aber Wagner kommt 1883 in die geistige Welt, als der Geisterkampf oben schon vorbei ist, als die Geister schon vom Himmel auf die Erde gestürzt waren. Nietzsche steht drinnen, als die Geister hier auf der Erde herumgehen, Wagner lebt oben, als sie schon heruntergestürzt waren. Der Einfluß Wagners auf Nietzsche post mortem zeigt eine ganz andere Aufgabe, nicht so wie der Einfluß Schopenhauers auf Nietzsche. Hier beginnen die überpersönlichen konkreten Einflüsse; nicht jene abstrakten dämonischen, von denen die Psychoanalyse spricht. Die Menschheit wird sich entschließen müssen, in diese konkrete geistige Welt einzutreten, die Dinge, die auf der Hand liegen, wenn man nur die Tatsachen prüft, wirklich auch aufzufassen. Man wird künftig eine Biographie Nietzsches darnach schreiben, daß er angeregt war von jenem Richard Wagner, der 1813 geboren ist, alles das mitgemacht hat, was führte zu dem glänzenden Wesen, was ich ja charakterisiert habe in meinem Buch, bis 1879; daß er den Einfluß Schopenhauers hatte von seinem sechzehnten Jahre ab, aber Schopenhauer den Geisterkampf mitgemacht hat in der geistigen Welt oben vor dem Jahre 1879, daß er dem Einflusse Wagners ausgesetzt war, nachdem Wagner post mortem in die geistige Welt hineingeführt war, und er herunten war, wo die Geister der Finsternis walteten.

Jung findet, daß es Tatsache ist: Nietzsche findet einen Dämon, er projiziert ihn nach außen, auf Wagner. Nun ja, Projektionen — Gefälle, introvertierte, extravertierte Menschentypen -, alles Worte für Abstraktionen, aber nichts von Wirklichkeiten! Sehen Sie, meine lieben Freunde, die Dinge sind bedeutungsvoll. Und es ist nicht so, daß man bloß agitieren will für eine Weltanschauung, für die man eingenommen ist, sondern gerade das, was da ist außer dieser Weltanschauung, das zeigt, wie notwendig diese Weltanschauung der gegenwärtigen Menschheit ist.

Davon dann morgen weiter.

About Psychoanalysis I

During the lectures I am currently giving in Zurich, I have once again been struck by the fact that it is almost impossible to come into contact with the intellectual life of this city in any meaningful way without turning one's attention to what is now called analytical psychology or psychoanalysis. Various considerations connected with this observation have prompted me today to begin what I have to say with a brief reference to a number of points taken directly from analytical psychology and psychoanalysis. We will then have other comments to make on these points. But we have seen how important it is, especially for anthroposophically oriented spiritual scientists, to link their observations to what the times offer, to what moves the times. It can be said that today all kinds of people who are seriously searching for the spiritual foundations of existence, for the inner life of the human soul, are drawn to psychoanalysis, and that it is, in a certain sense, characteristic of our age that a number of our contemporaries are becoming attentive to very specific, peculiar forces in the human soul. And among those who are simply being pushed by the impulses of the times, I would say, toward certain phenomena of the soul, are the psychoanalysts.

It is also particularly important not to be completely inattentive to this movement, because the events that this movement is responding to are there, and because in our time — for various reasons, which we can also discuss — they are particularly striking to the human soul. People today must pay attention to such phenomena.

On the other hand, there is the fact that people who deal with these things today lack the means of knowledge to discuss them, to understand them above all. So one can say that psychoanalysis is a phenomenon of our time that compels people to pay attention to certain processes of the soul; but on the other hand, it causes people to view such phenomena of the soul with, I would say, inadequate means of knowledge. And this is particularly significant because this consideration, with inadequate means of knowledge, of something that is quite obviously there and challenges human knowledge in the present, leads to the most manifold serious aberrations and is not without danger for social life, for the further development of knowledge, and for the influence of this further development of knowledge on social life.

It can be said that half-truths can, under certain circumstances, be more harmful than complete errors. And the things that are coming to light among psychoanalytic theorists today must be regarded as a kind of half-truth.

Let us try to examine some of the findings published in psychoanalytic research journals. What we now call psychoanalysis originated from a case of illness observed by a Viennese physician, an internist named Dr. Breuer, back in the 1880s. Dr. Breuer, whom I knew personally, was an extraordinarily refined man, apart from being a physician. He was interested in all kinds of aesthetic and general human questions to a very high degree. Now, given his intimate manner of approaching cases, it was understandable that a case he had in the 1880s was of particular interest to him. He had a lady patient who appeared to be suffering from severe hysterical symptoms. These consisted of occasional paralysis of one arm, twilight states, drowsiness, sleepiness in a very significant, profound form, and, in addition, she had forgotten the language she normally used. She had always been able to speak German, which was also her language, but under the influence of her hysterical illness she could no longer speak German; she could only speak English and only understood English.

Breuer noticed that when the lady was in her twilight state, she could be induced by more intimate medical treatment to talk about a particular scene she had experienced, a very difficult experience. Now I will illustrate to you from the description of this case, which was given by Breuer's school, how the lady was induced to say something about these experiences while in a semi-conscious state, partly also under artificially induced semi-conscious states — Breuer was good at putting people into hypnosis. This led to the idea that the hysteria from which she was suffering was connected with a very specific illness that she had experienced with her father a long time ago. Her father was ill, and she played a very important role in nursing him. She once had an experience while nursing him. She kept coming back to this experience, and the account she gave on such occasions, as I have just described, is as follows: “Once she woke up at night in great fear for the patient, who was running a high fever, and in suspense because a surgeon was expected from Vienna to perform an operation. The mother had left for a while, and Anna (the patient) was sitting at the sickbed with her right arm resting on the back of the chair. She fell into a state of waking dreams and saw a black snake approaching the sick man from the wall to bite him.”

Materialism always strikes a blow to the neck of modern man; and so we find the following remark in this medical report, to which there is nothing further to add: “(It is very likely that there really were some snakes in the meadow behind the house, which had frightened the girl before and now provided the material for the hallucination.)” So this is just an aside, which you may or may not give much credence to; it doesn't really matter. So the snake came out of the wall and wanted to bite her father—that's how she imagined it. “She wanted to ward off the animal, but was paralyzed; her right arm, hanging over the back of the chair, had ‘fallen asleep, become anesthetized and paretic, and when she looked at it, her fingers turned into little snakes with skulls.’” So that was everything that happened at her father's sickbed. “She probably tried to chase the snake away with her paralyzed right hand, and this caused the anesthesia and paralysis of the same limb to be associated with the snake hallucination. When it disappeared, she wanted to pray in her fear, but every language failed her; she could not speak any language until she finally found an English nursery rhyme and was then able to continue thinking and praying in that language."

This event was the origin of her entire illness. This event left her with paralysis in one hand, a state of semi-consciousness, and the inability to express herself in any language other than English.

Dr. Breuer noticed that her condition always improved when she was allowed to talk about it, and he based his treatment plan on this observation. He gradually attempted to uncover the whole story by hypnotizing the patient, and in this way he actually succeeded in bringing about a significant improvement in her condition, so that she was, in a sense, freed from the matter by revealing it and communicating it to another person.

Breuer and his colleague Freud in Vienna, who at that time were understandably influenced by contemporary history and the Charcot school in Paris, initially attributed it to what could be called a mental trauma, a mental wound, or “nervous shock,” as it was called in England. The mental shock was supposed to have occurred during this experience at the sickbed and to have had a similar effect on the soul as a physical wound has on the body.

It must be noted that Breuer regarded the whole matter from the outset as a mental illness, i.e., as an internal matter. He was convinced that anatomical or physiological changes could not be detected, i.e., that there was no underlying change in the nerves that run from the hand to the brain or the like. He was convinced from the outset that he was dealing with an internal psychological fact. In the early days, people were inclined to view the matter in such a way that they said to themselves: Such things can occur as a result of mental injury, trauma, shock, and the like. But soon, due to the fact that Dr. Freud in particular was concerned with the matter—and Dr. Breuer did not entirely agree with Freud's further investigation of the matter—the matter took on a somewhat different character, namely because Freud said to himself: It is not possible to explain the matter by means of mental shock or mental injury; that is not sufficient. Breuer was also convinced that it was not enough to speak only of psychological wounds. I would like to note in parentheses that Dr. Breuer was a busy practicing physician, thoroughly trained in science, an excellent student of Nothnagel, who only failed to become a professor due to external circumstances. If one wants to speculate hypothetically, one might believe that if Breuer had been given a professorship and had been able to pursue the matter while he was one of the busiest internists in Vienna and therefore had little time to devote to it scientifically, it might have taken a completely different form! Now Dr. Freud took up the matter. He told himself that we cannot get by with the mere trauma, with the emotional wound; it is a matter of investigating under what conditions such an emotional wound—for we can call it that—takes effect. For it was rightly said that although the girl sat at her father's sickbed, many people sit at sickbeds who certainly have just as deep impressions, yet nothing of the sort happens to them. The unscientific layman is very quick to come up with an extraordinarily profound explanation in such a case; he says: Well, one person has the disposition, the other does not. - Well, yes, very profound, but the most ridiculous thing one can say. For if one explains everything that exists in the world as dispositions, one can easily find explanations for everything, because one need only say: It is simply the disposition to something.

Of course, people who thought seriously did not want to deal with such things, and so they sought the conditions of the matter. Freud believed he had found such conditions in cases such as the following. You can find countless such cases already recorded in the literature of psychoanalysts today, and it can be said that truly enormous material has been collected in order to arrive at this or that in this field. One case recorded by psychoanalysts is the following. I will recount it as clearly as possible. Absolute historical accuracy is not important to us here.

A lady was at an evening party with other guests. The party was a farewell celebration for the lady of the house, who had become nervous and had to go to a health resort abroad. She was to leave that evening. The farewell party was in full swing. When everyone had left and the lady of the house had departed, the lady in question, whose case is about to be described, went out onto the street with some other guests who were coming from the supper, as they say, when a horse-drawn carriage came very quickly around the corner and turned into the street. As is often the case in cities when one is going home, I don't know if you have experienced this, one does not walk on the sidewalk, but often in the middle of the street. When the carriage came rushing up behind them, the people who had come from the supper party ran to the right and left onto the sidewalk. Only the lady in question did not run onto the sidewalk, but ran away from the carriage, away from the horses, continuing on the street, and despite the coachman's cursing and swearing — coachmen do this in such cases — she could not be dissuaded from running in front of the carriage. She ran in front of the carriage for a long time, despite the cracking of the whip, until she came to a bridge, where she wanted to throw herself into the water for fear of being run over. She was rescued by passers-by, returned to her companions, and thus saved from a serious accident.

Now, this phenomenon is of course related to the overall state of mind of the lady in question. It is a distinctly hysterical thing to do to run away from horses instead of turning onto the sidewalk. Now it was a matter of investigating the causes of such an incident. Freud first came up with this because, in this case as in others, he was eager to find certain parts of the causes in the past life, that is, in the life that the person concerned had gone through as a child or earlier. If something has happened that has not been completely processed emotionally, it can leave behind an impulse that can later be triggered by some shocking event.

In fact, it was easy to find such an experience in the childhood of the lady in question. As a child, she had been riding in a carriage when the horses became skittish and bolted, rushing toward the riverbank. The coachman jumped out and urged the child to jump out as well; at the last moment, she managed to jump out, but the carriage with the horses plunged into the river and the horses were lost. So there was this shocking event. There was also a certain association between horses and horses. At the moment when the lady saw the danger posed by the horses, she lost her footing, lost consciousness, and ran in front of the carriage instead of dodging it, under the influence of the after-effects of her childhood experience. But again, you can see from this that psychoanalysts already have a scientific methodology, just as science is practiced today. Psychoanalysts already have this—but of course there are many people who experienced something like this in their youth and yet will not do the same thing, run away from horses, even if horses are associated with horses. So there must be something else that comes into play if such a predisposition is to arise that one runs away from horses instead of avoiding them.

Freud investigated further. And indeed, a very interesting connection was found in this particular case. The connection was as follows: the lady in question, who had run away from the horses, was engaged to a gentleman. But she loved two men: the gentleman to whom she was engaged—she was completely convinced that she loved him more than the other—but she also loved the other man. She was not entirely sure about this, but she was torn between the two. The other man was the husband of her best friend, and this friend was the housewife whose farewell dinner had been celebrated that evening. So the housewife, who was somewhat nervous, left; the friend was at the farewell dinner, had left with the other guests, ran away from the horses, and when inquiries were made, it was discovered that there had indeed been a significant relationship between the other gentleman, that is, the husband of her best friend, and this lady. The love affair had taken on, well, let's say, several dimensions. And now these dimensions were also somewhat connected with the friend's nervousness, as you can imagine. In short, unsuspecting—in her own opinion—this lady left with the other guests, ran away from the horses on the street, was rescued, and the guests brought her back, which was the natural thing to do under the circumstances, to the house where they had just come from, where they had eaten their farewell supper. And now the doctor investigated the whole case. He actually managed to get the lady to tell him what had happened. But here she faltered, and only with difficulty could he persuade her to continue. It then emerged that, in fact—we know that the woman had just left and the man was alone at home—the man, in this situation, after she had regained consciousness and was normal, had declared his love for her. So you see, a very strange thing.

Dr. Freud has investigated other cases of a similar nature, and his research has shown him that such things only ever occur when love is somehow involved, when there is something of love involved, when something slumbering beneath the surface of consciousness has to do with love. Freud had come to the conclusion that if you investigate the lives of such hysterical people, who, as was previously believed, had come to their condition through emotional wounds, you will find, whatever the circumstances may be, that there may be all sorts of constellations, but love must be at play from some quarter. Mind you, it is precisely in the most characteristic and significant cases that this love story does not necessarily have to have come to the conscious awareness of the patient in question.

Now, what Freud called his neurosis theory, his sexual theory, was complete. He found that in all such cases, sexuality played a role. You see, these things are, of course, extremely seductive. First of all, there is a tendency in the present day to call on sexuality to explain anything human. It is therefore not surprising that a doctor who finds love playing a role in so many cases of hysterical illness should come up with such a theory.

On the other hand, this is precisely the point where, because analytical psychology is an attempt at knowledge with inadequate means, the greatest possible danger begins. That is why the matter becomes so dangerous, because, I would say, this thirst for knowledge is so incredibly seductive; seductive because of the circumstances of the time, but also because it is always possible to prove that sexual relations play some role. Now, the psychoanalyst Jung, who wrote the book “The Psychology of Unconscious Processes,” Professor Jung in Zurich, does not believe that one can get by with Freud's sexual theory, neurosis theory, but he is of a different opinion.

Jung noted that Freud also has his opponents. Among Freud's opponents is a certain Adler. Adler takes a completely different point of view. Just as Freud examined a large number of cases—you can read all about this in Jung's book—and saw sexuality playing a role in all of them, and therefore drew the conclusion that sexuality is actually the triggering cause, Adler looked at another side of the matter and found that this other side was much more important than the one Freud had emphasized. Adler—I will only characterize him in general terms—found that just as sexuality plays a very dominant role in humans, another drive also plays a very dominant role, namely the drive to gain power over one's environment, the power drive. The will to power was even a philosophical principle for Nietzsche. And just as Freud made a theory out of sexuality, one can also compile countless cases for the power drive. One need only analyze hysterical people; such cases are not at all rare. Suppose a lady is hysterical; she gets cramps—heart cramps are particularly popular in such cases—and all sorts of other symptoms. The house is thrown into commotion, the whole neighborhood, everything possible; doctors are summoned, the sick woman is pitied immensely. In short, she exercises tyrannical power over her surroundings. A reasonable person knows in such a case that there is usually nothing wrong with such a person, although they are well aware of their morbid condition and suffer from it. But in reality there is nothing wrong with them, they are actually healthy, and they are also sick if you want them to be. They can be regarded as healthy or as sick. They certainly fall down when they faint from heart palpitations, but they usually fall onto the carpet and not next to it! These things can be observed very clearly.

Now, what is pushed down into the unconscious, what is the drive for power, easily leads to hysterical states. Adler preferred to examine the cases available to him in terms of this power drive and found that wherever hysterical cases occur, it can be proven in some way that the power drive has been stirred up in some way and distorted into something pathological. Jung says to himself: Well, after all, Adler cannot be wrong; what he observed is there. Freud cannot be wrong; what he observed is there. So it will be one way or the other.

That is also quite reasonable; it will soon be one way or the other. But now Jung builds a special theory on top of it. This theory is not uninteresting if one does not take it merely as an abstract theory, but if one considers it in such a way that one sees in it at the same time the working of temporal impulses, of that which plays into time, namely, I would say, the powerlessness of knowledge, the inadequacies of knowledge. Jung says: There are two types of people, two kinds of humans. In one type, feeling is more developed, in the other, thinking.

So once again, a great scholar has made an epoch-making discovery that any reasonable person in their immediate environment can actually make themselves, because it is pretty obvious that people can be divided into emotional people and intellectual people. But scholarship has another task; it must not view things in such a layman's way, saying, for example, that there are two types of people in our environment, emotional people and intellectual people. Scholarship must do something else. In such a case, scholarship says that the person who empathizes, in a sense, steps out of himself toward objectivity; the other person, in a sense, withdraws from the object or stops in front of it and thinks about it. The first is called the extroverted type, the other the introverted type. The first would therefore be the emotional person, the second the rational person. So, it is a learned classification, astute, witty, and truly appropriate to a certain degree; that cannot be denied.

Jung goes on to say: In the extroverted type — that is, the person who prefers to live in feelings — intellectual concepts very often remain stuck in the subconscious; he lives in feelings, but intellectual concepts remain stuck in the subconscious. And now they come into conflict with what they have in their consciousness and what is swirling around down there in the subconscious as intellectual concepts. All kinds of states can arise from this conflict. These states are more likely to occur in people who have emotional tendencies.

In contrast, in other people who are more concerned with the mind, in intellectual people, feelings remain in the background and push their way into the subconscious, swarm in the subconscious, and collide with conscious life. Conscious life cannot explain what is actually happening to it. It is the subconscious feelings. And from the fact that human beings are never complete, but are sometimes one type and sometimes another, such conditions can arise that the subconscious rebels against the conscious. And this can very often lead to hysterical states.

Well, you could say that Jung's theory is really nothing more than a rephrasing of the trivial judgment of the emotional person and the rational person, and that it does not provide any particular insight into the facts. But from all this you must see that, at any rate, people today are becoming aware of all kinds of psychological peculiarities, that these psychological peculiarities are coming to the forefront of their minds and that they are concerned with them, asking: What is going on in a person in whom such things occur? — At least people have come to the point where they say: It is not physiological or anatomical changes. People have moved beyond mere materialism; they do not admit to mere materialism; they talk about the soul. So this is certainly a path that people are taking in their search to escape from mere materialism and to grasp the soul.

Now, however, it is highly peculiar how, on closer inspection, the inadequacies of knowledge have a peculiar effect, how the attempt to gain knowledge with inadequate means really leads people down strange paths. I must emphasize, however, that people do not see what they are being driven into, and neither do their followers, readers, and contemporaries. When viewed correctly, the matter really does have a very dangerous side, because so much is not seen, so it rumours in people's subconscious. It is very peculiar that the theories themselves rumour in the subconscious. People construct a theory about the subconscious, but they themselves rumour with their theory in their subconscious.

Jung approaches the matter as a physician, and it is fundamentally significant that patients are treated psychotherapeutically from this perspective. Numerous people are working to transfer the matter into pedagogy, to apply it pedagogically. So we can already see that we are not dealing with a limited theory, but with an attempt to turn something into a cultural phenomenon. It is very interesting how someone like Jung, who treats the matter as a doctor, observing all kinds of cases, treating them, even apparently curing them, is driven further and further. And so Jung is driven to the following conclusion. He says to himself: If one finds such abnormal phenomena in a person's soul life, one must search further in that person's soul life, above all to find out to what extent infantile, childish events have made an impression on the person's soul life and continue to have an effect. This is something that is particularly sought after in this field: infantile after-effects, after-effects from childhood. I have given you the example that plays a major role in psychoanalytic literature.

Now Jung comes to the conclusion that in real cases of illness, there are many where it cannot be proven that the person as an individual has anything, even if one goes back to early childhood. If one considers everything with which the person has come into contact, one does not find the conflict in the individual before one's eyes that would explain the matter. This leads Jung to distinguish between two unconscious realms: first, the individual unconscious, which is therefore within the person, even if it is not in consciousness. Isn't it true that when the young lady jumped out of the car in childhood and got a shock, that has long since disappeared, is no longer in consciousness, but works subconsciously? If you now take this unconscious—human beings have countless unconscious elements within them—you get the personal or individual unconscious. That is the first thing Jung distinguishes.

The second, however, is the transpersonal unconscious. He says: There are also things that play into the life of the soul that are not in the personality, but are also not in the material world outside, and must therefore be assumed to exist in a spiritual world.

Now, psychoanalysis aims to bring such contents of the soul to consciousness. That is precisely what therapy, the healing method, is supposed to do: bring things to consciousness. So the doctor must aim not only to find out what the patient has experienced individually, but also all kinds of other things that he has not experienced individually, that were not out there in the world, but are spiritual content. In doing so, psychoanalysts come to the conclusion that human beings have not only experienced what they themselves have experienced since their physical birth, but also everything possible from their physical birth onwards. And this is now rumbling around inside them. A person born today also experiences, for example, the legend of Oedipus in their subconscious. They don't just learn the legend of Oedipus in school, they experience it. They experience the Greek gods; they experience the entire past of humanity. And the terrible thing is that people experience all of this, but it doesn't want to come up into consciousness. The psychoanalyst must therefore say to himself — and he even goes this far: The Greek child also experienced this; but the Greek was told about it; he therefore also experienced it consciously. The modern human being also experiences it, but it stirs within him — in extroverted people in subconscious thoughts, in introverted people as subconscious feelings. It stirs within people; it stirs like demons.

Now think about the necessity that psychoanalysts actually face if they are true to their theory! They would actually be faced with the necessity of taking these things seriously and simply saying: Well, if a person grows up today, and this can lead him to illness, because he has a relationship with what is stirring within him, and yet he knows nothing about this relationship, then one must make him aware of this relationship, one must explain to him that there is a spiritual world, that there are gods in it, that there are different gods. Even psychoanalysts go so far as to say that the human soul has a relationship with the gods, but that the cause of illness lies in the fact that it knows nothing about these relationships. Psychoanalysts seek all possible means of obtaining information. But these means of information are sometimes grotesque. Let us suppose that a hysterical patient comes and shows this or that hysterical symptom because he is afraid of a demon, say a fire demon. People in earlier times believed in fire demons, had ideas about fire demons, knew about them. People today also have relationships with fire demons—the psychoanalyst admits this—but these relationships are not conscious, and people are not told that fire demons exist. This leads to the cause of the illness. Jung even goes so far as to say that the gods with whom we have relationships but about whom we know nothing take revenge, they are angry, they take revenge, and this revenge manifests itself as hysteria. Fine. So he says that a person today who is being tormented in his subconscious by a demon does not know that there are demons in fire; a fire demon is tormenting him, but he cannot relate to it because—that's superstition! That's not possible. What does such a poor modern person do who is becoming ill because of this? He projects the matter outward, that is, he seeks out a friend whom he previously liked very much or something similar, and says: It is he who is persecuting me, who is scolding me. — He feels persecuted by him and so on. That means that the sick person in question has a demon who tormented him and has projected it onto another person.

Often, the therapy used by psychoanalysts consists of diverting the issue onto themselves. It happens very frequently that — in both a good and a bad sense — patients turn their doctor into a god or a devil.

You see the extremely interesting fact that the doctor of today is compelled to say to himself: People are tormented by spirits, and because they are not taught about spirits, because they do not accept any teaching, because they do not accept anything in their consciousness, they become tormentors of one another, project their demons outward, talk all kinds of demonic things to one another, and so on. And how radically disastrous the psychoanalyst views this may be apparent to you from the fact that Jung cites the following interesting case. He says that certain of his colleagues say that if someone has such soul energies within them that come from such torments, then they must be derived from something. So let's go back to elementary cases of psychoanalysis: A patient comes in; her illness stems from the fact that, after listening to her psychoanalytic confession, it is discovered that she was in love with someone in the past whom she did not get, and this has remained with her. It could also be a demon tormenting her; but in most cases observed by doctors, something has happened in the individual subconscious that distinguishes it from the supra-individual subconscious. And there the doctor tries to derive, by deriving, by transferring what is unformed fantasy. So he says: If there is a soul in need of love that has not gotten “its share,” it must turn the love it cannot apply elsewhere into Samaritan services, it must preside over this or that charity event, and so on. Well, that may be well-intentioned, but Jung himself says that this energy cannot always be derived in this way. Of course, the learned gentleman has to have some kind of explanation, so he says that the energies that reside in the soul in this way have a certain gradient; you can't always direct them. Well, I have nothing against these expressions, I just want to emphasize that it is nothing more than a translation of what the layman very often discusses, but of course in his own words. But Jung now recounts a case that is very interesting and expresses well how this gradient cannot be directed.

An American man, a typical contemporary self-made man, has made himself the efficient leader and manager of a business. He has devoted himself to this business with enormous energy, has been very successful, has earned a large income, and now thinks: I will soon be forty-five years old, I have worked hard enough in my life, now I will allow myself some rest. And he buys a country estate with cars and tennis courts and everything that goes with it. So he thought he would leave his business at the age of forty-five and move out to the country estate and live there, just collecting the royalties from the business. But lo and behold, after he had been at his country estate for a while, he didn't play tennis, didn't drive his car, didn't go to the theater, didn't enjoy the flowers that had been planted, but sat alone in his room and brooded. It hurt him, it hurt him, everything hurt him, and soon his head hurt, then his chest, then his legs. So he could no longer stand himself, stopped laughing, was tired, exhausted, had constant headaches, it was terrible. No illness; no illness that the doctor could diagnose. That's how it is with many people today, isn't it? They are actually quite healthy, and yet they are ill. Yes, there was no illness. The doctor could only say: “Look, the problem is psychological—that's what doctors say nowadays—you are mentally ill; you have adapted to your business circumstances, you are caught up in them, and now your energies cannot be directed elsewhere, they have their own direction, they cannot be controlled.” Go back to your business, that's the only remedy I know. — Well, the gentleman in question understands that. But lo and behold, now he can no longer perform at work either! He is incapacitated, he is now just as ill inside as he was outside on his country estate.

Jung rightly concludes from this that energies cannot be easily transferred from one gradient to another. Even if one wants to bring them back, it is not possible. The person in question even came to him for treatment, but he could not help him because it was already too late; the illness had already taken too strong a hold, and intervention should have taken place earlier. This shows you that there are difficulties with the therapy of diversion. Jung himself cites this example.

Everywhere one encounters facts that are significant, important, which, I may well say, can only be mastered by spiritual science or anthroposophy, in terms of knowledge; but they are there. People notice them. So the questions are there, you find them everywhere. People will discover that human beings are complicated creatures, that they are not the simple beings that advanced science in the 19th century made them out to be. Today's psychoanalysts are faced with a strange fact. If you take this fact, it is virtually inexplicable to modern science. In anthroposophy, you will easily find an explanation using the tools you already have from my lectures. However, I can come back to this phenomenon if you cannot find the explanation yourself. For example, it can happen that someone becomes hysterically blind, meaning they cannot see. There are hysterically blind people who could see perfectly well but do not, who are spiritually blind. Now it may be that such people are partially healed, they begin to see again, but they do not see everything. For example, the peculiar case may arise that such a hysterically blind person regains his sight and sees everything about people except their heads! Such a partially healed person then walks around the streets and sees all people without heads. This really happens. There are even more curious phenomena.

Now, as I said, all this can be dealt with by anthroposophically oriented spiritual science, and from a lecture I gave here last year, you can easily find an explanation for this phenomenon, for example, that one cannot see people's heads. But, as I said, all these phenomena are familiar to today's psychoanalysts. And they are so familiar that they say to themselves: It can be extremely disastrous for people if they have connections to the superpersonal unconscious. But for heaven's sake, yes, for heaven's sake, the psychoanalyst does not say, but for the sake of science, let us not take the spiritual world seriously now! Anything but that! People cannot understand taking the spiritual world seriously. And then something very strange happens. Very few people notice what strange phenomena occur under the influence of these things. I would like to draw your attention to an extremely interesting thing from Jung's book “The Psychology of Unconscious Processes,” which was recently published, from which you will see what psychoanalysts are already coming to today. I must read you a short passage: “According to this example,” and these are examples where he shows that human beings are not only connected to what is in their individual lives or in the present, but also have connections far back in time to all kinds of demonic and divine and ghostly beings and so on, “according to this example for the emergence of new ideas from the treasure trove of primitive images,” here he does not call them gods, but primal images, “let us resume the further description of the transfer process. We saw that the libido has seized its new object in those seemingly absurd and bizarre fantasies, namely the contents of the absolute unconscious.” So the absolute unconscious is the transpersonal unconscious, not the personal. “As I have already said, the unrecognized projection of primitive images onto the doctor is a danger that should not be underestimated for further treatment.” In other words, the patient projects his demons onto the doctor. This is dangerous. “For these images contain not only all the most beautiful and greatest things that humanity has ever thought and felt, but also every worst deed and devilry of which human beings have ever been capable.”

Do you think Jung has already come to the point where he realizes that human beings unconsciously possess all the worst deeds and devilry alongside the most beautiful things that humanity has ever been capable of thinking and feeling? So, people are somehow reluctant to talk about Lucifer and Ahriman, but they can understand a statement like this: “The images contain not only all the most beautiful and greatest things that humanity has ever thought and felt, but also every worst deed and devilry that humans have ever been capable of.” If the patient cannot distinguish the doctor's personality from these projections, then all possibility of understanding is lost and human relationship becomes impossible. But if the patient avoids this Charybdis, he falls into the Scylla of introjecting these images, i.e., he attributes their qualities not to the doctor but to himself.” So then he himself is the devil; he himself finds that he is the devil. “This danger is just as bad. In projection, he vacillates between an exuberant and pathological glorification and a hateful contempt for his doctor. In introjection, he falls into ridiculous self-idolatry or moral self-flagellation. The mistake he makes in both cases is that he personally attributes the contents of the absolute unconscious to himself. In this way, he makes himself both God and the devil. Herein lies the psychological reason why humans have always needed demons and could never live without gods, except for a few particularly clever specimens of homo occidentalis of yesterday and the day before yesterday, superhumans whose god is dead, which is why they themselves become gods, namely rationalistic duodecim gods with thick skulls and cold hearts.”

So you see, the psychoanalyst comes to say: The human soul is such that it needs gods, that it must have gods, that it must become ill if it does not have gods. Therefore, it has always had gods; humans need gods. The psychoanalyst even mocks that if they do not have gods, they must become gods themselves, but only “rationalistic gods with thick skulls and cold hearts.” “The concept of God,” the psychoanalyst continues, “is in fact an absolutely necessary psychological function of an irrational nature...”

Well, you see, it is impossible to go any further than presenting the necessity of the concept of God in this scientific manner. Man must have God, the psychoanalyst knows today, he needs him. But I didn't finish reading the sentence, let's read it to the end: “The concept of God is, in fact, an absolutely necessary psychological function of an irrational nature that has nothing to do with the question of God's existence.”

So here, by reading the first and second clauses together, you come up against the great dilemma of the present day. The psychoanalyst proves to you that man becomes ill if he does not have his God; but this necessity has nothing to do with the existence of God. And he continues: “For this latter question,” namely that of the existence of God, “is one of the most stupid questions one can ask. It is well known that one cannot even conceive of a God, let alone imagine that he really exists, any more than one can conceive of a process that is not necessarily causally conditioned.”

Now I ask you, here you are at the point where you can catch things. Things are there, knocking at the door of knowledge. The people who are searching are also there; they recognize the absolute necessity, but—when it is raised as a serious question, they consider what they hold to be an absolute necessity to be one of the stupidest questions that can be asked at all.

There you have one of the points where you can see immediately, from today's intellectual life, what people always overlook. I can assure you that these psychoanalysts, as soul experts or soul researchers, are still far, far beyond what conventional university psychiatry offers — they are far, far, far beyond what university psychiatry and university psychology generally offer, and they are right in a certain sense to look down on this terrible so-called science. But you can catch them at a point where you can really see what things contemporary humanity is facing in its confrontation with contemporary science.

Many people do not notice this. People today have no idea how strong the belief in authority is today. There has never been such a belief in authority as there is today; never has it been more deeply rooted in the subconscious than it is today. One must say again and again: For God's sake, what are you actually doing when you treat hysterical people as therapists? You are looking for subconscious content that is not separated from consciousness. Yes, but such subconscious content can be found in abundance among theorists. When you bring it up from the subconscious, something comes to consciousness, such as what must now come to your consciousness, what is rumbling in the subconscious of modern doctors and modern patients. The entire literature is permeated with it; it is everywhere, and you are exposed to it every day, every hour, ready to absorb it. And because such things can only be brought to light through spiritual science, so many people absorb them unconsciously, suck them into their subconscious, where they then remain.

Psychoanalysis has at least made people aware that the soul must be taken as the soul. They do that. But everywhere the devil is breathing down their necks. I would say that they cannot approach spiritual reality and, above all, do not want to approach spiritual reality. That is why one finds everywhere in the present day propositions and counter-propositions that represent the most incredible things. But people today do not have the attention span to look at these things. Of course, anyone who reads Jung's book “The Psychology of the Unconscious Processes” should actually fall off their chair when they read such a sentence. But people today do not do that. So think how much really lies in this unconscious in modern humanity. And that is also why these psychoanalysts, because they see how much lies in the subconscious — for they do see it — see some things differently than other people. Right in the preface, for example, Jung says something that is not bad in one part of the sentence: “The psychological processes accompanying the present war, above all the incredible barbarization of general judgment, the mutual slander, the unimagined destructive rage, the unheard-of lying, and the inability of people to restrain the bloody demon, are like nothing else in bringing home to thinking people the problem of the chaotic unconscious that lies restlessly slumbering beneath the orderly world of consciousness. This war has shown the civilized man relentlessly that he is still a barbarian, and at the same time what an iron rod of discipline is in store for him if he should ever again take it into his head to blame his neighbor for his own bad qualities. The psychology of the individual, however, corresponds to the psychology of nations.” And now comes a postscript that again leaves one wondering what to make of it. “What nations do, each individual also does, and as long as the individual does it, the nation also does it. Only a change in the attitude of the individual is the beginning of a change in the psychology of the nation.”

These sentences, when placed side by side, show how destructive they are to thinking. For I would like to ask you whether it makes sense to say: “What nations do, each individual also does.” Then it would make sense to ask: Could individuals do it without the nations doing it? No, it is absolute nonsense to say such a thing. And it is this nonsense that has such an overwhelming effect today, even on outstanding, great minds; it has an overwhelming effect. Now this thing, in which such destructive thinking is at work, is not only supposed to be therapy, but also to provide educational guidance. Once again, the legitimate desire to bring a new spiritual element into education lies at the root of this. Should we introduce something that has been discovered with completely inadequate means of knowledge? These are the important questions of our time!

We will now return to the matter from the perspective of anthroposophical orientation, examine it from a broader horizon, and then see how much more broadly we must approach the matter if we want to come to terms with these things at all. But we must also begin in a concrete way. Above all, we must bring problems that are usually only sought with the old, inadequate means of knowledge into the light of anthroposophical knowledge.

Take, for example, the problem of Nietzsche. I will only touch on the problem today; we will approach such problems in more detail tomorrow. We already know from previous lectures: from 1841 to 1879, there was a spiritual battle above; from 1879 onwards, the fallen spirits were in the realm of human beings. Such things and similar ones will have to play a role in future times when we consider human life. For Nietzsche was born in 1844; his soul was just three years old before it descended to earth, up in the realm of spirits, engaged in spiritual struggle. He was a boy when Schopenhauer was still alive. Schopenhauer died in 1860. Only after Schopenhauer's death did Nietzsche devote himself to reading Schopenhauer's writings. The soul of Schopenhauer, who is up in the spiritual realms, is at work here. That is the real relationship. Nietzsche reads Schopenhauer, but Schopenhauer continues to work in Nietzsche's thoughts, which absorb Schopenhauer's writings.

But what is Schopenhauer's position up there? Schopenhauer is up there from 1860 until the years when Nietzsche reads Schopenhauer, involved in the battle of the spirits while it is still being fought above. What Schopenhauer inspires in Nietzsche, Nietzsche himself takes up in connection with the battle of the spirits in which he finds himself. In 1879, these spirits are cast down from heaven to earth. Until 1879, we see Nietzsche's mind taking very strange paths. In the future, they will be explained by the influence of Schopenhauer and Wagner. You will find many clues for this in my book Friedrich Nietzsche, a Fighter Against His Time. Until then, Wagner's influence was no different than that which he exerted on earth. For Wagner was born in 1813; the battle of the spirits did not begin until 1841. But Wagner died in 1883. Nietzsche's mental development then began to take a strange turn in a certain way when Wagner's influence began. But Wagner entered the spiritual world in 1883, when the spiritual battle above was already over, when the spirits had already fallen from heaven to earth. Nietzsche is inside when the spirits are walking around here on earth; Wagner lives above when they have already fallen down. Wagner's influence on Nietzsche after his death shows a completely different task, not like Schopenhauer's influence on Nietzsche. This is where the supra-personal concrete influences begin, not the abstract demonic ones that psychoanalysis speaks of. Humanity will have to decide to enter this concrete spiritual world, to really understand the things that are obvious if one only examines the facts. In the future, a biography of Nietzsche will be written according to the fact that he was inspired by Richard Wagner, who was born in 1813 and experienced everything that led to the brilliant being that I have characterized in my book, until 1879; that he was influenced by Schopenhauer from the age of sixteen, but that Schopenhauer had undergone a spiritual struggle in the spiritual world above before 1879, that he was exposed to Wagner's influence after Wagner had been introduced into the spiritual world post mortem, and he was down below, where the spirits of darkness reigned.

Jung finds that it is a fact: Nietzsche finds a demon, he projects it outward onto Wagner. Well, projections—differences, introverted, extroverted types of people—all words for abstractions, but nothing real! You see, my dear friends, things are meaningful. And it is not a matter of merely agitating for a worldview that one is committed to, but rather that what exists beyond this worldview shows how necessary this worldview is for contemporary humanity.

We will continue tomorrow.