Chapelle (1993) in his book Nietzsche and Psychoanalysis discusses at length how the eternal return appears in psychoanalysis. Chapelle writes that while Nietzsche reintroduces the forgotten spirit of the eternal return, Freud’s psychoanalysis of transference provides concrete experiences of the eternal return. The two taken together are a positive feedback loop and enrich each other.
“Freud gives Nietzsche concrete implementation, while Nietzsche gives Freud broader philosophic significance” (p. 7). Chapelle discusses the concrete experience of the eternal return in everyday life: Freud’s repetition compulsion, with its metaphorical basis in the Fort-Da game, along with its presence in transference; uncanny experiences and related ideas that participate in uncanniness, such as the double developed by Rank, Jung’s concept of synchronicity, Hillman’s notion of Hades and Archetypal Psychology in general. We will explore these briefly and add to them since Chapelle does not include other work by Rank, Jung, and Grof, nor does he discuss depth psychology’s general fascination with origins and myth. So let us begin with origins and myth.