Nietzsche: Be ashamed of good luck, and thus your ego will perish
We all seek and desire good fortune, but Nietzsche has a very different opinion about it.
We always complain about every situation and wish for more, but the prophet Zarathustra in Nietzsche’s book says:
«I love him who is ashamed when the die falls in his favor and then asks himself: am I a cheating player? For he wants to perish.»
Zarathustra: The Shame of the Favorable Die
Nietzsche presents us with a character who, when fortune favors him, instead of feeling satisfied or victorious, feels ashamed and wonders if he has cheated. Why? Because his deep desire is not to accumulate worldly success, but to perish.
"Perishing," from a Jungian perspective, must be understood as a dissolution of the ego, a radical transformation. The one who "wants to perish" does not seek comfort or self-preservation but longs to transcend.
It is the death of the old self, the self that desires to secure its existence and stability. The shame this character feels is a sign that some attachment remains, a remnant of the old instinct for self-preservation.
The ordinary player welcomes fortune, celebrates it, takes advantage of it, protects it, uses it to consolidate his position. But the one Zarathustra loves does not fit into this logic. His success unsettles him because his goal is not to win, not worldly success, but to break the illusion of the game itself.
In the modern world, we are taught to pursue success, security, and external validation. But Nietzsche’s character feels shame when fate favors him. This suggests that his sense of life is not in accumulation but in surrender, in loss, in transformation.
Breaking the Illusion of the Game Itself
The central issue is the sacrifice of the ego, surrendering to a process greater than mere personal gain. That process, which is "greater," is none other than the goal of the Self, what we know in Jungian terms as individuation.
"Breaking the illusion of the game itself" means questioning the meaning of success and failure within the framework in which we usually understand life.
The "game" represents the conventional logic of existence: winning, losing, advancing, accumulating, being recognized. Most people live within this structure without questioning it; they play to win, seeking security, prestige, power, happiness.
But the character that Zarathustra praises does not fit this logic. When the die favors him, he feels ashamed and wonders if he has cheated. This means that he is not playing to win in the usual sense. His true goal is not to succeed, but to perish—that is, to transcend his limited identity.
From Jung’s perspective, this implies a crisis of the self: if life grants us success, we might interpret it as confirmation that we are on the right path. But for someone undergoing a deep transformation, unexpected success can be a distraction, a trap that keeps him at a superficial level of existence.
Fate as Wound and Fulfillment
Zarathustra says:
«I love him whose soul is also deep in the wound and who can perish in a small experience: thus, he gladly crosses to the other side of the bridge. I love him whose soul is so overflowing that he forgets himself, and all things are within him: thus, all things become his setting sun.»
Carl Jung explains:
«To perish means, in reality, to fall. For he is entangled; he is easily wounded; and fate holds him captive, and thus he becomes complete. It is a full and perfect acceptance of what one is, drawing the final conclusion from the fact of being what one is.»
Nietzsche describes someone whose soul is so deep that he can perish in a small experience. This means that his being is not protected by a shell of indifference or calculation but is completely permeable to life. Any experience can transform him, even the smallest one.
This kind of soul feels deeply, is vulnerable, and in that vulnerability lies its greatness. It does not need grand events to change; each moment is enough to touch its essence. In every experience, it can lose itself because it is completely open to life.
It is a state of total surrender. It is not annihilation but expansion. The person stops seeing themselves as a separate entity and becomes part of the whole.
Jung highlights a crucial point: fate holds this type of person captive, and thus he becomes complete.
This means that his destiny is not to escape life, but to become entangled in it, to fully accept what he is, with his wounds and limitations. The wound is not an obstacle; it is the path. Only one who is willing to be wounded by life can truly become whole.
Here, Jung introduces a central idea in his thought: individuation only occurs when we fully accept what we are. It does not mean perfection, but integration. He who does not accept his destiny remains fragmented, incomplete.
Accepting what one is to its ultimate consequences is what Jung calls «drawing the final conclusion from the fact of being what one is.»