The concept of typology in Schiller, Nietzsche and Jung: an historical and comparative study

Hyslop, Rachel Ann (2008) The concept of typology in Schiller, Nietzsche and Jung: an historical and comparative study. MPhil(R) thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

From the earliest times humankind has classified individuals into types in order to explain human differences and behaviour. The idea of typology was intrinsic to the thought of Schiller, Nietzsche, and Jung. Although a small amount of research has been undertaken into typology in Schiller’s and Nietzsche’s works, and there has been an explicit recognition of the importance of typology in Jung by Jungian analysts, there has been no comparative study between these three thinkers. Therefore I proposed to bridge this gap with a detailed and comparative analysis of their main link – typology.

In order to analyse fully the typological concepts present in Schiller, Nietzsche and Jung’s works, and to compare them in both their synchronic and diachronic contexts, it was necessary to examine chronologically their own differing conceptions of typology, and to study the extent to which they draw on their predecessors, before comparing them. Friedrich Schiller was instrumental in the typology of the human personality as he was the first to elucidate two fundamentally different types of cultural production – the naïve and the sentimental – and from this typological distinction he elaborated the psychological pairing of realist and idealist in Über naïve und sentimentalische Dichtung (1795-6). His typology of human nature, evolved in Über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen (1795), classified three drives of the individual human: Stofftrieb; Formtrieb; and Spieltrieb. In the same work, in which he was concerned with the problem of yearning for personality, his preoccupation with opposing modes and the problems to which they give rise came to the fore. This argument later attracted the attention of Jung, as well as being, so Jung claimed, the problem that Nietzsche had his Zarathustra identify and work through in Also sprach Zarathustra (1883-1885). This was the problem of opposites entailing such opposing modes as good and evil, or above and below. Furthermore, Nietzsche’s ideas on the typological pair Apollonian and Dionysian, Die Geburt der Tragödie (1872), were heavily indebted to Schiller. Carl Jung, having benefited from the insight of the two previously mentioned thinkers’ typological works, included chapters in recognition and criticism of their types in his main typological work, Psychologische Typen (1921). In this work, he made typology integral to the conceptualisation of the human individuation-process. His typology was a formulation of structural elements of the psyche, intended to help understand the wide variations in individuals. Jung’s typological works, brought together in the sixth volume of the Gesammelte Werke, ultimately spell out eight types: two attitudes – extravert and introvert - each containing four functions; thinking, feeling, sensation and intuition. Two further (arche) types, the animus and anima, in belonging to the shadow of the eight types, were further, complicated elements in this typology.

The explicit and significant links displayed an intimate connection between these three thinkers, whereby each of the three developed types, which may be compared on the basis that each of their typologies dealt with the synthesis of opposing types. This union of opposing types may be seen for all three as having the potential to ultimately lead to the successful negotiation of the process of achieving wholeness.

• Item Type: Thesis (MPhil(R))
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Keywords: German, German philosophy, philosophy, typology, typological study, Schiller, Nietzsche, Jung, Schiller Nietzsche and Jung comparison, wholeness, individuation, individuation through typology.
• Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General); P Language and Literature > PT Germanic literature; B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Modern Languages and Cultures > German
• Supervisor's Name: Bishop, Professor Paul
• Date of Award: 2008
• Depositing User: Ms Rachel Ann Hyslop
• Unique ID: glathesis:2008-285
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 02 Jul 2008
• Last Modified: 10 Dec 2012 13:17
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/285