In this scholarly, spirited, and at times spellbinding book, Jungian analyst Trudy Bendayan boldly ventures into the soaring and abysmal inner world of Friedrich Nietzsche. Tracing the neglected influence of the feminine in Nietzsche's life and thought, she offers a profound empathetic reading of relevant outer events and relationships as well as of the thinker's fantasies as revealed not only in his published philosophical works but also in poems, letters, notebooks, and other less well known writings. As each main phase of Nietzsche's life is rigorously and sensitively explored, there emerges an increasingly persuasive account of the connections between the nature of his primal relationships, the trajectory of his professional and creative career, his desolate personal life, and his eventual mental breakdown. As well as providing an invaluable resource for analytical psychologists, Bendayan's groundbreaking work of Jungian psychobiography teems with insights that could refresh the understanding of even seasoned scholars of Nietzsche.