Carl Jung and Friedrich Nietzsche were two great thinkers of their time and their work still live on even after their departure on the Planet.
Jung admitted the big influence Nietzsche’s work had on him and even quoted him severally in his works.
But when the moment to attack presented itself, he never let that chance slip away just due to love or blind worshipping. One such chance presented itself while Jung was Discussing the Phenomenon of the Power Complex.
What’s the Power Complex?
Jung Believed that every human had unconscious complexes (bundles of memories, beliefs and desires ) that operated autonomously (independently) like other people in our lives who however have ability to interrupt or influence us. When someone intents to say something and end up saying something else, be sure that an unconcious complex has interrupted. When someone does something that he/she can’t explain ie; leaves one with ‘I don’t know what came over me’ kinda remark, be sure that an unconcious complex might have hijacked the wheel of control…
One such complex is the Power Complex. A bundle of beliefs, memories and desires centered around the idea of influencing, controlling and dominating outcomes, events, environment and even other people.
No one ever admits of having a power attitude or intentions. No one ever admits of being Controlling. No one ever admits of having a will to power.
But as Jung claimed, every living Thing had a will to power even those that present themselves as servants.
Wills to power might not present themselves in overt means but concealed in acts such as Self sacrifice, services and even love. Sometimes it’s expressed through feelings of inferiority for instance; An individual who highlights his/her flaws so that others might give her compliments ie; ‘I know I can never do this’ to get a ‘No you’re more better than this ‘. Basically, most unhealthy power complexes just like superiority complexes are meant to overcome underlying inferiority complexes.
Is power Evil?
Power is not necessarily evil as society frames it but depends on it’s aim and contexts it’s used whether legitimate or illegitimate.
To Jung, a power attitude was either healthy, with legitimate ends and desires or unhealthy with illegitimate desires and needs.
“So the power instinct in itself is perfectly legitimate. The question is only to what ends it is applied. If it is applied to personal, illegitimate ends, one can call it a power attitude because it is merely a compensatory game. It is in order to prove that one is a big fellow: the power is used to compensate one’s inferior feelings.”
The healthy form of power was used for legitimate ends and aims. To achieve anything, we need power. The talented and successful though accused of power complexes by those with inferiority complexes, fall in this category. Those who create useful things for humanity fall in this category.
The unhealthy power complex is loud and booming as if concealing something- inferiorities. Concealing a little scared man beneath it. Jung likened individuals with unhealthy power complexes to frogs who turn into bullies. The same can be demonstrated by individuals who have inferiority complexes but are given positions of higher authority. The tyrannical ruler, the rebellious kid, the bossy individual and controlling parent or spouse… Individuals who must be ‘over others’ to feel secure fall in this category. Individual who only accuse others of power complexes and attitudes but never point them in themselves are also demonstrating this form of power complex to mask their feelings of inferiority.
And this is where Nietzsche comes in.
Jung believed that Nietzsche’s obsession with accusing others of Power complexes was driven by feelings of inferiority that had been contributed by various aspects of his life for instance; inability to marry, bad digestion and failed academic career.
“Now when Nietzsche sees the power aspect of things-and that aspect cannot be denied-he is quite right inasmuch as there is a misuse of power. But if he sees it everywhere, at the core of everything, if it has crept in as the secret of life even, if he sees it as the will to be and to create, then he makes a great mistake. Then he is blindfolded by his own complex, for he is the man who, on the one side, has feelings of inferiority, and on the other, a tremendous power complex. What was the man Nietzsche in reality? A neurotic, a poor devil who suffered from migraine and a bad digestion, and had such bad eyes that he could read very little and was forced to give up his academic career. And he couldn’t marry because an early syphilitic infection blighted his whole Eros side.”
To compensate for this, Jung claimed that Nietzsche had to build a power complex on the other side. Nietzsche had a healthy power complex according to Jung that made him create great work of art but before the devil with his own ways of getting such individuals by another corner by pushing them into the unhealthy power complex bracket where the only passion is ‘how can I get to the top?’
“Now of course, Nietzsche is very much on the side of the inferiority, where the only passion, the only ambition, is: how can I get to the top? How can I make a success, make an impression? So Nietzsche is here the man in the glass house who should not throw stones; he should be careful.”
Jung referred to Nietzsche as a boomer who made tremendous noise with his words just to make an impression over others. An impression that this is who Iam. See me.
References
1. Jung, C. G. (1966). Two essays on analytical psychology (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.; 2nd ed.). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1917)
2. Nietzsche, F. (2005). Thus spoke Zarathustra (G. Parkes, Trans.). Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1883–1885)