My work shows how in the process he anticipated many of the developments of modern psychoanalysis. Schelling suggested that the ostensible meaning of a myth often might be just a superficial facade constructed by the conscious mind in order to dissemble the true motivations of the unconscious. I argue that Schelling's discovery of the role of the unconscious was his most important contribution to the study of religious symbolism. I next take up the analysis of Schelling's theory of potencies. Individuality and concrete volition are necessary, he claims, in order to provide the ground for any subsequent elaboration of conceptual relations.
Essence succeeds existence and works to make it comprehensible.
The imposition of form onto what was originally formless threatens to undercut the second potency's logical independence. A dialectical struggle between the two moments ensues. In this manner, both the particularity of existence and the universality of reason find their places within a reconstituted principle of spirit. While acknowledging the legitimate concerns that led Schelling to formulate this intriguing new doctrines, I find his solution to be deficient in several ways. The chief difficulty is that, in his effort to make room for free will in his dialectic, Schelling leaves his system vulnerable to charges of arbitrariness.