Abstract

Nietzsche is a disciple and initiate of Dionysus. His Dionysian perspective has been neglected and/or misunderstood by most interpreters of Nietzsche. It is not generally known that Nietzsche's Dionysian writings profoundly influenced the four founding fathers of Depth Psychology . They repressed his influence. This dissertation began the task of returning Nietzsche and Dionysus from repression. Nietzsche's ideas on the Higher man, the Overhuman, and self-overcoming were developed into a new interpretation of Nietzsche as a Dionysian soul therapist. This interpretation is based upon Nietzsche's Dionysian therapeutic faith that profound suffering develops a noble soul. The first part of this dissertation introduced Nietzschs's psychology through exploring his life, legend, repression in Depth Psychology and the current literature. Part two explored Nietzsche's Dionysian worldview, Dionysian psychology, and Dionysian psychotherapy. ;This dissertation argued that Nietzsche's Higher man represents the development of individual consciousness and the Overhuman represents the development of soul. In light of Nietzsche's distinction between the Higher man and the Overhuman, Freud's conceptualization of the goal and method of depth psychotherapy was critique as being a therapy for the development of a Higher man. Freud's method of therapy relies on the therapeutic power of becoming conscious with the aim of developing a conscious rational human being--a Higher man. tn contrast, a Dionysian method of psychotherapy relies on the therapeutic power of self-overcoming with the aim of cultivating a noble soul--an Overhuman. Self-overcoming was described as a Dionysian initiation process of overcoming conscious resistances to becoming unconsciously experiential. Dionysus was proposed as an archetypal foundation for a depth psychotherapy that aims towards the development of the nobility of soul in contrast to Freud's depth psychotherapy that aims towards the development of individual consciousness. Nietzsche's writings offer an unexplored therapeutic, psychological, and philosophical foundation for a Dionysian depth psychotherapy of soul-making