The Apollonian and Dionysian
The Apollonian[1] and Dionysian Struggle Within the Human Personality
PART ONE
Norman W Wilson, PhD
Three authors form the basis for this essay: philosopher-poet, Friedrich Nietzsche's The Birth ofTragedy, psychiatrist Carl Jung's Psychological Types, and existential psychologist Rollo May's The Courage to Create.
Nietzsche, all too often maligned, claims there are two opposing forces in man's creative nature. He calls these the Apollonian and the Dionysian forces, deriving their names from the two gods in Greek Mythology.
Apollo, the Greek god of music, of the endowments to mankind is also the god of healing. As the sun god, he is the bearer of light, the purifier, and functions as the direct link between mankind and the gods. Yet, as with humankind, he has a mean, cruel, vindictive nature. He demonstrates a lack of pity and frequently involves himself in revenge and unkind intrigues. Significant in the Apollonian behavior is the exhibition of a controlled creativity and his ability to detach himself from all emotional involvement.
Dionysus[2] is the god of wine and homely daily acts upon which life depends. He is the god of joy. The son of Zeus and Theban, he is the only god in Greek Mythology who doesn't have both parents as divinities. Unlike some of the other gods, Dionysus does not always enjoy the pleasures of Mount Olympus. Hera, Zeus's wife, jealous of this offspring of her husband's infidelity, is Dionysus' bitter enemy. Frequently driving men wild, and creating conflict between freedom and ecstatic joy and savage brutality, Dionysus is not always the god of joy.
Dionysus knows great personal pain and suffering, not too dissimilar to the old god, Prometheus. As the god of win, he connects to the grape. Grape vines undergo extreme pruning with every branch cut away, torn to pieces. In winter the vine, as does Dionysus, becomes a gnarled stump—an ugly thing to behold. Winter brings death to this god and spring brings life anew, a time of joy, merriment, and erotic ecstasy.
Nietzsche presents a dark picture of Greece and her culture claiming art is a duality in much the same way as the duality of the sexes involves perpetual conflicts with only 'periodic reconciliations.' The two deities of the arts, according to Nietzsche, show a "tremendous opposition between the Apollonian art of the shaper and the non-figurative Dionysian art of music."
Nietzsche compares the two impulses of shaper and non-figurative art to their peculiar psychological states to which they give rise as dreaming and intoxication: Apollonian being the dreaming state and Dionysian the state of intoxication. For Nietzsche, dreaming means an inward vision, that is, dreamtime. Apollo, then, rules over the beautiful illusion of the inner world of fantasy and signifies measure, number, imitation, subjugation of everything wild and untamed.
Dionysus, on the other hand, represents the liberation of unbridled instinct, the breaking loose of the unbridled dynamism of animal and divine nature; thus, in the Dionysian mold, man appears as the satyr. He is the horror of the annihilation of the principium individuationis, and at the same time delights in its destruction.
This is the kind of intoxication that dissolves an individual into his instincts creating an explosion of the isolated ego upon the world stage. Consequently, the Dionysian orgy of an alienated, hostile, and enslaved nature celebrating in a reconciliation with man. In such a reconciliation, man feels he unites and reconciles, merges with his fellow men. The obliteration of the individuality of the person is complete. Nietzsche states, "Man is no longer the artist, he has become the work of art." That is to say, according to Nietzsche, "all the artistry of Nature is revealed in the ecstasies of intoxication."
In the second part of this essay, I'll discuss what this means according to psychiatrist, Carl Jung.
PART ONE
Norman W Wilson, PhD
Three authors form the basis for this essay: philosopher-poet, Friedrich Nietzsche's The Birth ofTragedy, psychiatrist Carl Jung's Psychological Types, and existential psychologist Rollo May's The Courage to Create.
Nietzsche, all too often maligned, claims there are two opposing forces in man's creative nature. He calls these the Apollonian and the Dionysian forces, deriving their names from the two gods in Greek Mythology.
Apollo, the Greek god of music, of the endowments to mankind is also the god of healing. As the sun god, he is the bearer of light, the purifier, and functions as the direct link between mankind and the gods. Yet, as with humankind, he has a mean, cruel, vindictive nature. He demonstrates a lack of pity and frequently involves himself in revenge and unkind intrigues. Significant in the Apollonian behavior is the exhibition of a controlled creativity and his ability to detach himself from all emotional involvement.
Dionysus[2] is the god of wine and homely daily acts upon which life depends. He is the god of joy. The son of Zeus and Theban, he is the only god in Greek Mythology who doesn't have both parents as divinities. Unlike some of the other gods, Dionysus does not always enjoy the pleasures of Mount Olympus. Hera, Zeus's wife, jealous of this offspring of her husband's infidelity, is Dionysus' bitter enemy. Frequently driving men wild, and creating conflict between freedom and ecstatic joy and savage brutality, Dionysus is not always the god of joy.
Dionysus knows great personal pain and suffering, not too dissimilar to the old god, Prometheus. As the god of win, he connects to the grape. Grape vines undergo extreme pruning with every branch cut away, torn to pieces. In winter the vine, as does Dionysus, becomes a gnarled stump—an ugly thing to behold. Winter brings death to this god and spring brings life anew, a time of joy, merriment, and erotic ecstasy.
Nietzsche presents a dark picture of Greece and her culture claiming art is a duality in much the same way as the duality of the sexes involves perpetual conflicts with only 'periodic reconciliations.' The two deities of the arts, according to Nietzsche, show a "tremendous opposition between the Apollonian art of the shaper and the non-figurative Dionysian art of music."
Nietzsche compares the two impulses of shaper and non-figurative art to their peculiar psychological states to which they give rise as dreaming and intoxication: Apollonian being the dreaming state and Dionysian the state of intoxication. For Nietzsche, dreaming means an inward vision, that is, dreamtime. Apollo, then, rules over the beautiful illusion of the inner world of fantasy and signifies measure, number, imitation, subjugation of everything wild and untamed.
Dionysus, on the other hand, represents the liberation of unbridled instinct, the breaking loose of the unbridled dynamism of animal and divine nature; thus, in the Dionysian mold, man appears as the satyr. He is the horror of the annihilation of the principium individuationis, and at the same time delights in its destruction.
This is the kind of intoxication that dissolves an individual into his instincts creating an explosion of the isolated ego upon the world stage. Consequently, the Dionysian orgy of an alienated, hostile, and enslaved nature celebrating in a reconciliation with man. In such a reconciliation, man feels he unites and reconciles, merges with his fellow men. The obliteration of the individuality of the person is complete. Nietzsche states, "Man is no longer the artist, he has become the work of art." That is to say, according to Nietzsche, "all the artistry of Nature is revealed in the ecstasies of intoxication."
In the second part of this essay, I'll discuss what this means according to psychiatrist, Carl Jung.
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