When Nietzsche Wept [Paperback]

Irvin D. Yalom (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 4, 2005

In nineteenth-century Vienna, a drama of love, fate, and will is played out amid the intellectual ferment that defined the era. Josef Breuer, one of the founding fathers of psychoanalysis, is at the height of his career. Friedrich Nietzsche, Europe's greatest philosopher, is on the brink of suicidal despair, unable to find a cure for the headaches and other ailments that plague him.

When he agrees to treat Nietzsche with his experimental "talking cure," Breuer never expects that he too will find solace in their sessions. Only through facing his own inner demons can the gifted healer begin to help his patient. In When Nietzsche Wept, Irvin Yalom blends fact and fiction, atmosphere and suspense, to unfold an unforgettable story about the redemptive power of friendship.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This talky first novel by psychotherapist Yalom ( Love's Executioner ) is set in 1882 Vienna, where Joseph Breuer, an eminent physician and mentor of Sigmund Freud, has applied his recently discovered talking cure to a woman afflicted with multiple symptoms of hysteria. But now it is Breuer who needs help, for he has become obsessed with the beautiful Anna O. although she is no longer his patient. On vacation in Venice, he is asked by Lou Salome, an imperious Russian woman, to treat German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who has threatened suicide because of her rejection. Nietzsche consults Breuer in Vienna and, after a series of subtle subterfuges, agrees to a month of daily meetings; Breuer's plan is to employ the talking cure on the bristling Nietzsche under the guise of getting the philosopher to help him with his own obsession and related depression. In this intelligent, fully imagined tale, Yalom accurately evokes the encapsulated world of Breuer and Nietzsche's sessions as well as the social and intellectual milieu of the period, but the narrative is constrained by too much telling ("Perhaps dreams can express either wishes or fears," Freud observes in a discussion with Breuer)--at the expense of showing--and a manipulated, unconvincing resolution. Major ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Freud's mentor, Josef Breuer, attempts to cure Friedrich Nietzsche of suicidal despair in the clinics, cemeteries, and coffeehouses of 19th-century Vienna--in this first novel by the author of the bestselling Love's Executioner: an entertaining and highly original tale of an uncompromising friendship between two brilliant men. Distinguished physician, renowned scientist, beloved husband and father, Josef Breuer finds himself at 40 simultaneously at the crest of his professional life and near the bottom of a pit of incomprehensible despair. Cursed with nightmares, insomnia, and obsessive sexual fantasies of his former patient, Anna O. (whom he cured, miraculously if temporarily, through a new technique called ``talk therapy''), Breuer welcomes the distraction when the imperious future psychoanalyst Lou Salom‚ demands that he use talk therapy to cure the suicidal depression of her friend, Friedrich Nietzsche. Because the poverty-ridden, unknown philosopher is too proud to accept spiritual help from anyone, Breuer must somehow cure the younger man without his knowledge--but the physician welcomes the challenge, and soon solves it by posing as the patient himself and begging Nietzsche's help in relieving his own existential pain. Unable to refuse, dour Nietzsche agrees to embark on a month of daily ``talks'' with the physician. The ensuing dialogue between a man of the world and an unworldly man becomes increasingly compelling as first Breuer, then Nietzsche, uncovers his forgotten past and delves deep into his own and the other's unconscious desires and fears. Throughout, Yalom's evocation of Breuer imprisoned in a classic midlife crisis, Nietzsche stymied by his own pride, loneliness, and terror, Lou Salom‚ cracking her feminist whip, and young Sigmund Freud eagerly following each conversation's twists and turns make for a stimulating dip into the pools of 19th-century philosophy, psychology, and culture. A delectable fantasy--in which the sole disappointment is that it didn't actually occur. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (January 4, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060748125
• ISBN-13: 978-0060748128
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (79 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #501,813 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two powerful figures and the birth of a science, August 4, 2003

By 

N. Tsafos (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: When Nietzsche Wept: A Novel of Obsession (Paperback)

"When Nietzsche Wept" is a fictional encounter between Friedrich Nietzsche, the nineteenth century philosopher, and Josef Breuer, a Viennese doctor who is one of the founders of psychoanalysis. The story takes place in 1882, when Doctor Breuer accepted to help Nietzsche fight his hemicrania and despair. What follows is a captivating story of intrigue, betrayal and the development of an intimate friendship. But the book's highlight is the dialogue between Nietzsche and Breuer, in which the author touches upon the issues of life, death, love, lust, passion and freedom.

In the process of the story, Irvin Yalom presents Nietzsche's philosophy in a portrayal that is candid and captures the complicated mystique of the brilliant philosopher. And, Dr. Yalom's story-telling is so lucid that one can fully comprehend the logic of Nietzsche's philosophy. In the end, "When Nietzsche Wept" is a window into Nietzsche's innermost thoughts and psyche.

Equally compelling is Yalom's discussion of psychoanalysis. If Nietzsche's words are half of the book's appeal, the other half has to be the development of the dialogue between Nietzsche and Breuer. The psychoanalytical method is being invented as the book progresses -- and Dr. Yalom has done an excellent job of presenting the foundations of psychoanalysis as if springing out of spontaneous dialogue between two men.

This book is not only an excellent and easy read, but also highly didactic, appealing to those interested in philosophy or psychology. But more broadly, Dr. Yalom's words have such power and applicability that no one could be left uninterested in what he has to say.

79 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intellectually Challenging and Personally Meaningful, April 1, 2001

By 

Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: When Nietzsche Wept: A Novel of Obsession (Paperback)

This is one of the most intellectually stimulating, personally relevant, important books I have ever read. What a rare treat Yalom has given the world. That being said, this book may not be for everyone (but what is?). In many ways, I feel as if this novel was written just for me, and I feel sure that many other readers likewise come away feeling the book was written especially for them. Do you have to know Nietzsche in order to enjoy this book? You do not, but it will certainly appeal to you more if you do. I approached this book purely as a Nietzsche admirer, and I worried that my favorite philosopher might be portrayed poorly or unacceptably in its pages. In fact, he was not. No one can say whether this fictional treatment of Nietzsche is a true depiction of this great man, but it really does not matter. The importance of this book comes not through the descriptions of its characters, but from the meaning you as an individual take from its themes. These themes are grand and universal, the themes that Nietzsche addressed in his factual life--the meaning of life, fear of aging and death, each person's place in society, and both aloneness and loneliness. Everyone knows these themes, the emotions they stir up, the doubts they employ as daily hurdles on the living of one's life, the truly cosmic loneliness that each individual knows and combats at some point or points in his/her life. Not everyone can face these challenges or even acknowledge them; those who cannot will do well to stay away from this book.

What a joy it is to read a truly intellectually challenging work in these modern times. Don't read this book to be entertained. Read this book to seek understanding of life and your place in it. I cannot stress enough how personal the message of this book seems to be. In the final pages, Nietzsche revealed to Dr. Breuer his one great fear, and that fear was my own great fear, expressed in words that described it better than I ever could. I had to put the book down momentarily and just say "My God . . ." That gave this book incredible meaning for me. I should say that I did not come away overjoyed or overly burdened from the experience of finishing the book, but I certainly came away more in tune with my own thoughts and my own philosophy, challenged to remain steadfast in my own intellectual thoughts and pursuits, and buoyed (yet not elated) to know that at least one other person on earth has knowledge of the intellectual and emotional struggles that I sometimes resigned myself to believe were solely my own.

Please, do not start reading this book unless and until you are ready to devote yourself to it and to yourself. The first few chapters are not gripping and do not really offer a visionary glimpse of the meaning and magic of the book. The early conversations, particularly between Nietzsche and Breuer, are sometimes rather stilted and "phony." Do not be discouraged in the early stages of the read because intellectual stimulation and personal challenge await you soon thereafter, and I believe that you will find yourself hard pressed to stop reading until the very end. More importantly, the book will remain with you even after you have placed it back on the shelf. That is the greatest praise that a novel can be given.

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Inspiration Through Sorrow In Old Vienna, June 13, 2000

By 

Scott Carpenter (Newport Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: When Nietzsche Wept: A Novel of Obsession (Paperback)

Breuer and Nietzsche never met, but Dr. Yalom considers the intriguing possibilities in this novel of psychological and philosophical ideas. Dr. Yalom is a professor of phsychiatry at Stanford and a proponent of "existential psychotherapy," so he is able to create drama derived almost entirely from the emotional portraits of the characters rather than the actions and struggles of the characters in the external world. Yalom's achievement is to make the reader care about Breuer and Nietzsche as they struggle to confront (or avoid) their greatest fears and weaknesses. The reader is drawn into intimate conversation with the brilliant but unloveable Nietzsche and the gifted but ungrateful Breuer. The necessary whining is balanced by just enough action and intellectual history to propel the narrative forward. Along the way the genesis of psychotherapy and existentialism is consisely explained using dialogue from Breuer, Freud and Nietzsche as well as quotations from their actual works. But this book not about theory. The sorrow of these great men is transformed into inspiration for the reader as they struggle to embrace the wisdom of amor fati, to love one's fate. We are reminded of our own need to accept complete responsibility for our choices and to boldly face life's challenges. One need not embrace an existentialist worldview to find inspiration in such advice. Neither does the Professor preach philosophy in his drama. Rather, the reader is invited to achieve a synthesis of his own after observing the strivings of the characters. Vienna was an intellectual microcosm of Europe in the late 19th Century, so the city bcomes a character in the story, with various characters, some historical, some fictional, acting as the sounding board for Breuer's and Nietzsche's nascent philosophies. This is not a book for readers put off by lengthy dialogues, and it is short on dramatic action and romance. But for those who might enjoy urgent and intimate conversation with great minds on the verge of their greatest achievements, When Nietzsche Wept may be as therapeutic as an afternoon with close friends over cafe melange at the Cafe Landtmann.