Creativity and madness, sparked by the intrusion of unconscious symbolism, arised from the same feminine depths--what Jung, following Goethe, called the realm of the Mothers. Which one triumphs depends on the strength of the ego under the onslaught of unconscious contents. In this book the author charts the developmental course of that ego, and its archetypal aspects. She has written a pyschobiography that ventures into the realm of the Mothers, so that the creativity and madness of Friedrich Nietzsche can be better understood.

Ecce Mulier begins with a presentation of the...