The Handbook of Jungian Psychology: Theory, Practice and Applications

by Renos K. Papadopoulos

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) published The World as Will and Representation (or Idea) in 1819 in which he regarded humankind as being driven by blind, internal forces of which he is barely aware: these were the instincts towards conservation and towards reproduction or the sexual instinct. For Schopenhauer, the Will – an analogy of the unconscious – not only drives many of our thoughts which are often in conflict with our intellect (ego-consciousness), but also causes us to repel unwanted cognitions from consciousness. The similarity to later formulations of the unconscious have been spotted by many such as the writer Thomas Mann, who ‘felt that Freud’s description of the id and the ego was “to a hair” Schopenhauer’s description of the will and the intellect translated from metaphysics into psychology’ (Ellenberger 1994: 209).