Creativity, Consciousness, and the Urge to Leave a Mark - 01 | Nietzsche + Jung
Imagine a large pyramid made of cogs and wheels, pulleys and different shapes of metal, sprockets and belts, and roller wheels, all churning, rotating, and squeaking. Imagine the noise of an old factory, the off-white cooling oily emulsion trickling down. Rhythmic thuds. There are old, chipped, and tired small cogs at the base, endlessly rotating and feeling the weight of whatever is above them. At the very top shiny, large, and bright wheels are smoothly rotating, in polished brass. The machine, up there, is working with no friction, no noise, no oil trickling down. The wheels up there are incredibly happy. Rotating in the sun, this bright light shines on them. At the bottom, instead, tiny, frail, never repaired, never looked-after wheels. There, at the very bottom, the maintenance guy is an old, fat, greasy bloke, with dirty hands, chain-smoking a cigar and watching some old programs on a black-and-white TV with a sellotaped aerial.
This is how I saw life. This is why I believe in paleophenomenology as a methodology in response to this existential condition.
Throughout human history, from the earliest Neanderthal marks to the present day, there has been an enduring impulse: the need to create, to be seen, to leave a mark that stands against the passage of time. To be one of the large shiny brassy wheels up there, at the top of the pyramid. Paleophenomenology seeks to explore this primal drive, not as a mere historical curiosity but as a living reflection of the human condition — then as now.
1 : The Primal Urge to Create
At the heart of paleophenomenology is the idea that the drive to create is one of the most fundamental aspects of human existence. It is a need that transcends time, cultures, and individuals, going as far back as our earliest ancestors. This urge to leave a mark, to shape the world around us, is deeply embedded in our being. It can be seen most clearly in the ancient rock art found in caves such as La Pasiega, where the impulse to inscribe one's presence on the landscape is evident.
But what does it mean to leave a mark? I discovered a beautiful book by John Kaag which introduced me to Nietzsche and his philosophy. “To those human beings who are of any concern to me, I wish [...] that they should not remain unfamiliar with profound self-contempt, the torture of self-mistrust.” [1/173] For Nietzsche, the will to power represents the human drive to assert and extend one's influence in a world that can often seem indifferent or even chaotic. It is through acts of creation that humans assert their existence and imbue life with meaning. The marks left by ancient humans — whether handprints, symbols, or figures — can be seen as their way of staking a claim to reality, of saying, "I am here".
For the Neanderthals who created these few early forms of art, the world was one of uncertainty and vastness. The caves themselves, with their dark recesses and mysterious spaces, could easily evoke the unknown, the unseen, the invisible and the overwhelming forces of nature. Yet, it is within those spaces that they created. They etched into the stone and left behind traces of their presence, resisting the void, resisting the possibility of being forgotten. To me, those are the very first attestation of self-awareness, of not wanting to be the little cog at the bottom, in the dark, but needing to understand and explore an inner unknown vastness that was now becoming apparent.
Leaving a mark symbolizes an act of defiance against oblivion. It is a powerful statement that transcends the personal and reaches into the collective. These early creators may not have had a fully formed sense of individuality in the way we do today [there is still a lot we don’t know about them], but their marks still speak to the universal human desire to be remembered, to contribute to the continuity of life and meaning. Through their art, they achieved a form of immortality, allowing their presence to be felt across millennia.
In today's world, this same impulse persists. We create in myriad ways — through art, intellectual pursuits, social connections, and personal expression. While the mediums have evolved, the underlying desire remains unchanged. Whether we are carving symbols into stone or writing on a digital screen like I am doing now, we are driven by the same need to assert our existence, to push back against the void and to declare that we, too, are here, while trying to answer that same old question: why? Why are we here at all?
In the act of creating, we engage in a process of self-definition. For ancient humans, this act may have been tied to their environment and survival, but it was also an early form of reflection — a way to make sense of their world and their place within it. This search for meaning through creation is what connects us to them. It is through this primal urge that we can bridge the distance between their time and our own, recognizing that in leaving a mark, we are all participating in a timeless conversation.
2 : Nietzsche’s Concept of the Will to Power
One of Friedrich Nietzsche’s most important ideas is the concept of the will to power. For Nietzsche, this wasn't just a literal desire for control or dominance over others, but a fundamental force driving all human behaviour and life itself. Nietzsche is a philosopher who requires you to leave your chair, to move, to do. To stand up, look at that horizon and begin walking, knowing that there is no final destination but a myriad of infinite stops along your path.
In his view, all living things are driven by the will to power, which can be understood as the instinct to grow, overcome obstacles, and assert one’s existence. This is that innate desire to grow, that shot from a potato, in a bag, left in a dark cellar which still looks for the light. This drive manifests in the human desire to create, challenge limits, and impose meaning on a world that, in Nietzsche’s eyes, might otherwise seem indifferent or even chaotic.
Nietzsche was critical of traditional morality, politics, and religion [the cults], which he believed often suppressed human creativity and individual expression. He was critical of all those Last Men so different from the imaginative, the extraordinary and the unique. Those Last Men, at the bottom; those little, churning, scraping, squeaking wheels
Don't we need them though?
I can't help myself asking.
Don't we need those Last Men doing minial jobs, head down,
questioning nothing but allowing for the brassy wheels to shine at the top?
Instead, he saw the will to power as the force that pushes individuals to transcend their limitations and express their unique strengths and abilities. For him, creating — whether through art, philosophy, music, or any other form of self-expression — was a way to rise above mediocrity and assert one's individuality.
3 : Creation as an Act of Power
In the context of paleophenomenology and the primal urge to create, Nietzsche’s will to power can be seen as the drive that motivated our ancestors to leave their marks on the world. They didn’t just passively exist; they actively shaped their environment by creating something meaningful, even if we can’t fully understand the specific meanings they attached to their art. Unfortunately, we still look at the past through our modern eyes and with our expectations. Still, I do believe that the act of creation itself was an assertion of their existence, a defiance of the overwhelming and sometimes hostile forces of nature. A primal urge to say “no”. An awareness of something else happening that was or was not in their control. An exploration of the inner workings.
Nietzsche’s ideas emphasize that in creating art, humans aren't simply making decorative objects. Creations are a way to “mitigate the horror of existence” Kaag reminds us [1/53]. It is an aesthetic experience, this desire to fix the sublime and the awe that we perceive. Early humans are asserting their power to create order and meaning in a world that might otherwise seem indifferent, meaningless, or just terrifying. When ancient humans left marks in caves like La Pasiega, they were doing more than just making a record of their presence — they were actively engaging with the world around them, using their creative energy to resist being swallowed up by the unknown or forgotten by time.
4 : The Eternal Recurrence and Immortality through Creation
If you had to live your life over and over again in exactly the same way, would you embrace it? This idea challenges us to think about how we live our lives and whether we create meaning through our actions.
While Nietzsche didn’t explicitly focus on immortality in the traditional sense as we understand it now, his concept of the will to power can be linked to the idea of achieving a form of immortality through creative acts: it is taking a stand and saying “this is what I choose and this is how I create meaning”. By leaving a mark we contribute something lasting to the world. For the ancient humans, the marks they left on the cave walls ensured that, in some way, they lived on. Their art became their legacy, a lasting testament to their existence.
5 : How Nietzsche Relates to Paleophenomenology
Connecting Nietzsche to paleophenomenology helps me understand even my own urge to create, and why it is so fundamental and necessary especially when related not just to the meaning of one life [i.e. mine] but to a life linked to billions of other lives which came before, and to all the other ones that will follow. For Nietzsche, creation is a way of exercising power over the conditions of existence and a response to life’s challenges and uncertainties. It is the only responsible thing to do: embrace the messiness and try. In my research, I am not interested in fully formed figurative drawings that are full of animals and people. I am looking for the odd one out, the very first mark. The tentative scratch. That smudge. By viewing cave marks as an expression of the will to power, we can see them not only as art but as acts of self-assertion in the face of the unknown; it is engaging with the deeper psychological and existential forces that push humans to live and create, to resist oblivion, and to assert existence.
6 : Nietzsche's Will to Power and Jung's Individuation
We could easily compare Nietzsche’s will to power to Jung’s individuation process. Both involve a profound journey toward self-actualization, creativity, and transcending limitations. However, while Nietzsche’s will to power is more of a metaphysical philosophical force driving existence, Jung’s individuation is a psychological and analytical process focused on integrating the self and achieving inner wholeness. Both Nietzsche’s will to power and Jung’s individuation emphasize the idea of striving toward a higher, more complete version of the self.
For Nietzsche, this is the driving force behind all human endeavours, pushing individuals to overcome obstacles, exert influence over their circumstances, and ultimately, to shape their own lives and identities. This force manifests in a desire to create, express oneself, and impose meaning on the world. For Nietzsche, this translates into be who you are. Similarly, Jung’s individuation process is about the integration of the distinct aspects of the self — the conscious and unconscious — leading to a sense of wholeness, of holding the tension within. For Jung, this is about becoming the person you are truly meant to be, aligning all the conflicting parts of the psyche, and realizing your full potential.
Overcoming Limits: Nietzsche’s will to power is often described as a drive to transcend limitations — whether societal, personal, or psychological. It’s about breaking free from constraints and becoming something greater. Jung’s individuation also involves overcoming limits, specifically those imposed by the unconscious forces within us, such as unresolved traumas that shape our behaviour. Through individuation, we confront and integrate these unconscious elements, allowing us to grow beyond the limitations they impose.
Creation and Self-Expression: Nietzsche saw creation — whether in art, philosophy, or life itself — as a key way of exerting one’s will to power. For him, creating something meaningful is a way of asserting one’s existence in the world. Similarly, for Jung, creative expression is a vital part of individuation. The process of confronting the unconscious often leads to new forms of self-expression, including even living authentically.
Self-Assertion and Authenticity: Nietzsche’s ideal is the Übermensch (often translated as “overman” or “superman”), an individual who fully embraces the will to power, overcomes societal norms and lives according to their own values — harmonising order with chaos. This figure embodies the highest form of self-assertion and authenticity. Jung’s individuated person shares similar qualities as someone who has achieved balance and integration between the conscious and unconscious, and who lives a life that is authentic to their inner self.
Existence and Meaning: Both thinkers were concerned with how humans can find meaning in life. For Nietzsche, meaning is not given by any external authority (like religion or politics) but must be created by the individual through the exertion of their will to power. In Jung’s psychology, meaning comes through the individuation process, as the individual integrates the various parts of the psyche and achieves greater self-awareness. Both processes — Nietzsche’s self-overcoming and Jung’s individuation — are ways of affirming life and confronting the existential challenges of existence.
While there are many parallels, there are of course also key differences between Nietzsche’s and Jung’s views: Nietzsche is more philosophical, concerned with humanity's existential condition and how individuals can create meaning in a world without inherent purpose while Jung’s individuation is rooted in psychological development and healing; Jung places a much greater emphasis on the role of the unconscious mind in shaping human behaviour and the individuation process. Jung’s work is also heavily influenced by the collective unconscious and archetypes as universal symbols and themes shared across humanity while Nietzsche was more focused on the individual’s power.
I like how their ideas complement each other well, though, especially in my paleophenomenological approach, where the drive to create and the process of self-realization can be explored through both philosophical and psychological lenses. In both philosophies, there is a sense of becoming — moving toward a more complete, authentic, and empowered version of oneself. The Übermensch is a figure of self-mastery and self-creation, while the individuated self is someone who has integrated all aspects of their psyche. In my paleophenomenological framework, this could reflect how ancient humans engaged with the world around them, not just as passive participants in their environment but as creators shaping both their inner and outer worlds, a process that once started, could not have ever been stopped. Their art can be seen as an expression of this process of becoming — an assertion of their emerging consciousness and self-awareness. In paleophenomenology, the act of leaving a mark can be seen as a way of dealing with both the external chaos of the world and the internal chaos of the psyche. Just as modern humans use creativity to express and transform their shadows or confront existential fears, ancient humans may have used cave art to wrestle with the unknown forces of nature, death, and survival. And with all those new thoughts, visions, and images which populated both their dreams and waking hours: all that new intangible ungraspable invisible.
In paleophenomenology, this is the observable tension between individuality and self-reflection, and the shared experience of being human. The marks left in caves might express both individual experiences and collective, archetypal symbols that aim to connect ancient humans to something larger than themselves. This mirrors the process of individuation, where one must confront both personal and collective elements of the psyche. Ancient humans engaged with their environment not as something to be feared or avoided, but as something to be embraced and marked. Everything was a question and a search for an answer. The act of creating art in caves could be seen as a way of affirming life, stating a newfound solution, even in the face of uncertainty and danger. Within my paleophenomenological framework, this methodology could explore how ancient humans were not just creating art but were hence engaging with deeper existential and psychological forces. Their marks were not just practical or symbolic; they were an assertion of life, existence, and consciousness in the face of the unknown.
I believe that by integrating Nietzsche and Jung, a richer interpretation of the querying behind ancient art can be offered as both a personal and collective expression of humanity’s earliest steps toward learning how to oversee self-awareness and meaning-making.
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During my years at York SJ University, I read a lot of Martin Heidegger’s existential phenomenology so, next, I want to explore him and the struggle between inauthenticity and authenticity, looking at themes around being "stuck" [do you remember, those wheels at the very bottom?] and the relationship between individuals and their place in the world.
See you next time?
onwards and upwards,
mx
#paleophenomenology #fredricknietzsche #carljung #martinheidegger #johnkaag #individuation #willtopower
[1] Kaag, J. [2018] Hiking with Nietzsche. London : Granta Publishing
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