And Nietzsche cried (novel)

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And Nietzsche wept (orig. When Nietzsche Wept , translated by Uda Strätling) is a novel by the American author and emeritus professor of psychiatry Irvin D. Yalom from 1992 (German 1994). The protagonists of the fictional plot of the book are the real historical figures Friedrich Nietzsche and Josef Breuer , who meet in Vienna around 1882. Real historical secondary characters in the plot are Sigmund Freud , who was friends with Breuer, and Lou Andreas-Salomé . Other people who only have meaning in the plot through their relationship to the main characters are Breuer's patient Bertha Pappenheim , the philosopher Paul Rée and Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche .

Book cover

action

Nietzsche's friend and admirer of his work, Lou Andreas-Salomé , who has a differently understood triangular relationship with Nietzsche and the philosopher Paul Rée , has heard of a new treatment method by the respected Viennese doctor Josef Breuer for the healing of “mental ailments”. The self-confident young woman wants to convince him to treat Nietzsche's mental ailments under the pretext of treating Nietzsche's physical ailments. Fascinated by Salomé's person, Breuer agreed to the strange pact after initial resistance and began treatment after Nietzsche was persuaded to come to Vienna.

Because of regular paralyzing bouts of severe headaches, Nietzsche has become a restless traveler, constantly on the lookout for climatic conditions that enable him to live and work normally. None of the twenty-four doctors he had consulted so far could not alleviate his suffering. Breuer, impressed by the long list of references, does not initially believe that he would be able to help the solitary patient. In fact, attempts to create an action plan also fail and Nietzsche says goodbye without having achieved anything on the eve of his departure. After an acute migraine attack that set in during the night, the summoned Breuer managed to persuade the philosopher to be admitted to a Viennese clinic. To do this, he resorted to a trick: he made him believe that he himself, Breuer, needed help and that Nietzsche could help him out of his crisis of meaning. In the course of the philosophical conversations that the two now have every day, Breuer increasingly takes on the role of the person being treated, as Nietzsche's relentless sense of the truth makes him aware of the true extent of dissatisfaction with his life. He not only admits his marital problems, but also his obsession for his former patient Bertha Pappenheim, whom he protects with the pseudonym Anna O. Because of his openness, he believes that he is gradually getting Nietzsche to talk about his love triangle with Lou Salomé and Paul Rée. However, his patient does not show any nakedness. Nietzsche's radical renunciation of all self-deception and weakness and his absolute love of freedom have led him into a personal dilemma of loneliness and despair, from which Breuer cannot help him.

Breuer, for his part, suffers from the exact opposite: As a well-known Jewish doctor, he is firmly embedded in the social structures of his time and his milieu. In his recurring dream, which Nietzsche interprets correctly, at the end of his personal realization and development opportunity he is confronted with the fear of death. He sees his family as a burden. He has lost all emotional access to his wife Mathilde. Nietzsche advises him to regain freedom.

The climax of the plot is Breuer's breakout of his bourgeois life: after saying goodbye to his wife and family, he leaves Vienna, gives up his doctor's practice and his social position and travels to Constance to see Bertha Pappenheim again. In the Binswanger Clinic, he observes how she behaves provocatively towards her new doctor as she used to towards him. This helps him break away from her. He travels back to Vienna and visits his former assistant, whom he also had to dismiss at his wife's insistence. He realizes that Eva has built a new life in the meantime, and so he can free himself from the feelings of guilt he had towards her. He returns to his wife Mathilde free and strengthened. Nietzsche taught him to choose his existence consciously. The reader only learns in retrospect that Breuer did not actually undertake his liberating visits to Bertha and Eva, but played them through under hypnosis; this under the direction of his younger friend and colleague Sigmund Freud .

In the end, Breuer accepts his life and returns to his family and social environment, while Nietzsche remains alone to turn to the writing of his work Also Spoke Zarathustra . But Nietzsche also benefits from this encounter, as he recognizes the value of interpersonal affection through it and removes his emotional blockage in tears.

meaning

Central quotes from Nietzsche's work are woven into the fictional plot. Yalom uses the quotes “Become who you are!”, “In the end, one loves one's desire and not what is desired” and “A safe life is dangerous!” On the one hand to interpret Nietzsche's person psychologically - on the other hand to explain the fundamental contradictions, but also to thematically fix the similarities between the two main characters and, ultimately, the personality parts that wrestle with each other to different degrees in each person.

people

  • Josef Breuer is a doctor practicing in Vienna who agrees to treat Nietzsche's mental ailments under a pretext without his knowledge.
  • Friedrich Nietzsche , a philosopher whose relentless search for truth and turning away from self-deception and weakness has led to a personal dilemma of loneliness and despair.
  • Sigmund Freud , who is later to become the founder of psychoanalysis , is a confidante and friend of his mentor and sponsor Breuer.
  • Lou Andreas-Salomé shares a complex triangular relationship with Nietzsche and the philosopher Paul Rée, which Nietzsche and Salomé in particular understand differently. She persuades Breuer to conspire to treat Nietzsche.
  • Bertha Pappenheim is a patient of Breuer, through whose case Lou Salomé found out about Breuer's treatment method (the so-called "speech cure"), and with whom Breuer has developed a relationship that borders on obsession.

filming

literature

  • Irvin D. Yalom: And Nietzsche cried . Ernst Kabel Verlag, Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-8225-0294-4 .