THE BOOK
When Nietzsche wept
Interesting
book by Irvin Yalom,
a psychotherapist who writes novels about philosophers going to therapy
(now, there's the basis for an hyper-intellectual approach to human
misery!). The story is that of a (fictional) encounter between the
philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (the guy who declared God dead) and
Joseph Breuer, a Viennese physician mentor of Sigmund Freud (who also
appears in Yalom's book as a secondary character).
Nietzsche and
Breuer and up essentially psychoanalyzing each other, both afflicted by
obsessions about women and death (like most middle age white males I
know). The interesting twist here is the continuous juxtaposition of two
different kinds of “talk therapy”: psychoanalysis and philosophical
council. The first one attempts to speak to the emotional side of us,
the second to the rational one. Neither can succeed on its own. Breuer
gets frustrated by Nietzsche's “high-minded” philosophical council of
taking the cosmic perspective, embracing the challenge and pain because
they'll make him a better man. What Breuer really wants is to shag a
former young patient (despite being married to a beautiful woman), and
not die. Don't we all? (Incidentally, the book is an excellent
“insider's look” at men's inner feelings, a must-read for women.)
But
the emotional approach on its own also fails. In the book, Breuer has
tried to help the very same patient he is sexually obsessed with,
succeeds for a while, only to see her falling back into her original
illness, jeopardize his marriage and career, and then do the same thing
over again with another doctor.
As both Plato and particularly
Aristotle clearly understood, the pain of the human condition is
generated by the difficulty of balancing what they identified as the
three parts of the soul (emotions, rational, and “spirited” -- in charge
of will), curiously close – though not exactly parallel -- to Freud's
own trinity of Id, Ego and Superego (respectively the emotional,
rational, and moral “minds”). David Hume also famously chimed in that
“reason is, and ought only to be, the slave of the passions (in “A
Treatise of Human Nature”), by which he meant that we don't do anything
unless we care for it, regardless of how logical (or not) the thing in
question is.
But of course, the real issue is: now that we know
all of this, does it actually help us overcome our fear of death? (Or,
for that matter, to shag the woman or man we want?) Well, yes and no.
Knowledge by itself (Aristotle again) will not do. But knowing where
some of our pain and powerful drives come from and how they act should
help us controlling or channeling them. Aristotle's recipe was: practice
makes better. Virtue and happiness are not something we are born with,
they are things we work toward. Like all worthwhile exercise, it is
painful and a bit unpleasant, but if we stick to it, it becomes easier,
and perhaps even enjoyable in its own right. Of course, it may take us a
few decades...
THE MOVIE
When Nietzsche Wept is an independent film released in 2007, starring
Armand Assante, Ben Cross and Katheryn Winnick. The movie is based on a
book of the same name by Irvin D. Yalom and was directed by Pinchas
Perry.
The film follows the storyline of the book quite
faithfully, although neither the book nor the movie is based entirely on
reality. Although the main characters and some of the facts are true,
the center piece of the novel (and of the movie), which was the
therapeutic encounter of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and
Austrian physician Josef Breuer, never happened.
When Nietzsche Wept
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
When Nietzsche Wept is an independent Bulgarian film released in 2007 and produced in the USA, starring Armand Assante, Ben Cross and Katheryn Winnick. The movie is based on the novel When Nietzsche Wept by Irvin D. Yalom and was directed by Pinchas Perry.
Plot
The film opens with the Russian-born novelist—who eventually became a member of
Freud's 'Vienna Circle'-- Lou Andreas-Salome (Katheryn Winnick) who had an unconsummated (Platonic) 'love affair' with German philosopher
Friedrich Nietzsche (Armand Assante), and to whom he allegedly proposed in 1882 (although whether her claims are true is very much up for debate) writing a letter to Dr Josef Breuer (Ben Cross), after hearing of his newly developed talking cure (Breuer was a friend of Sigmund Freud (Jamie Elman), who also appears in the story, and one of the influential fathers of psychoanalysis.). The two meet, and a reluctant and troubled Breuer agrees to Salome's plan; to cure the intense migraine attacks that plague Nietzsche, and at the same time, without his knowing, cure the despair that her refusal of marriage has inflicted upon him.
Salome has persuaded Franz Overbeck (Nietzsche's friend) to send him to Breuer, however, Nietzsche offers no support to Breuer, so the course of treatment must end. In a chilling parallel, an encounter with a mistreated horse causes Nietzsche to redeem his appointment with Breuer (Nietzsche finally went mad after stopping a man from whipping a horse using his own body, before breaking down in tears and descending into insanity). Nietzsche later visits a whorehouse, where he has another attack of migraine, exacerbated by the overuse of a sleeping draught. Nietzsche decides that he will, instead of pursuing treatment, leave for Basel. Meanwhile, an up-and-coming psychologist Sigmund Freud, friend of Josef and Mathilde Breuer, suggests that if Breuer was to make some confession to Nietzsche, he may stop seeing any positive sentiment shown as being a bid for power, and indulge in confessions of his own.
So, the next time they met, Breuer makes the suggestion that, while he treats Nietzsche's body, Nietzsche must "treat" Breuer of the despair that he feels after falling in love with one of his patients, Bertha Pappenheim (played by Michal Yannai), otherwise known as Anna O., a famous case which was discussed in a joint book by Breuer and Freud, later on.
The confessions lead to the two becoming open with each other, learning each other's way of life and finally the two becoming friends, but not before the film has explored a great deal of Nietzsche's philosophy and Breuer's psychoanalysis. Breuer's anguish over his supposed unhappiness is explored by means of his highly symbol-laden dreams, thus showing the importance of interpretation as a stepping stone in what would constitute Freud's approach to psychoanalytic techniques.
The film is host to a variety of famous faces of the day; Josef and Mathilde Breuer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Lou Salome, Sigmund Freud, Bertha Pappenheim, Paul Rée as well as references to Franz Overbeck, and the music of the composer,
Richard Wagner.
Critics
In terms of Nietzsche's thought, the representation is most immature and
pedestrian. The strongest parts of the film are few and far between in
this regard. Nietzsche and Breuer on a swan-shaped pedalo, in a state of
absurd and chaotic mania, contemplating the passage of time in an
insane dream to the theme from Tchaikovsky's
Swan Lake gives a
marvelous insight into the peculiar nature of Nietzsche's concept of
time, but this scene is all too brief; if it had been any longer, we
would perhaps expect dilution to occur once more. The other strong scene
is Nietzsche presenting the concept of the eternal return to Breuer,
which competently grasps the existential implications of the notion.
This is let down by the subsequent descent of Breuer into an existential
rebellion, in which his behaviour becomes erratic,impulsive and
foolish, in a great departure from the form and style we might expect of
someone who has truly grasped Nietzsche's thought.
As a whole, the film is probably worth watching, since there really
isn't anything else out there like it. The dream sequences are
marvelous, and I suppose this is relevant to Nietzsche's thought, but it
definitely remains unclear whether this relevance is intentional, or
merely a device. Watch with low expectations, or you will be sorely
disappointed, and perhaps even a little angered at the representation of
Nietzsche and his thought. I am left hoping for a greater film to
appear in the near future, which will cast this peculiar piece of cinema
in a more objective light.
