The Madman Archetype

The Hermit archetype can also be seen as somewhat of a madman. Nietzsche evokes the figure of a madman who runs into the marketplace with a lit lantern in the bright morning hours, shouting that he is looking for God, while the crowd laugh at him. The madman mournfully declares, “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.” In a similar fashion, Diogenes the Cynic would walk around in the marketplace in full daylight with a lamp. When asked what he was doing, he would answer, “I am looking for a man.” Most people weren’t even worthy of the category “human”, for that demands virtue. The people who walk around worrying about money, power, and social conventions are the real “madmen”. Diogenes, who rejected all social conventions in favour of a simple life in conformity with nature, is the only reasonable human being in sight.