Customer Reviews

When Nietzsche Wept: A Novel of Obsession

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

"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.

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.

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.

I should start off with why this historical novel only gets three stars even though it had a deep impact on me personally at the time I read it. Yalom is at best a semi-compelling novelist. He is a gifted psychologist (both academically and as a therapist), but his style of writing can be a bit dry (or maybe its the subject matter) so I had to deduct one star for his limited skills as a writer of fiction.

As with many meaningful books, this book has a small but loyal audience rather than having mass appeal. Given that Yalom is far from a giant in the literary world, I imagine the majority of the people who consider reading this book will have either a powerful interest in psychology (especially psychoanalysis) or a powerful interest in modern philosophy (especially the existential variety). Ideally, they will have at least, a healthy curiosity about both topics. I deducted the other star because I don't think this book will appeal to the "philosophy lovers" (redundant, n'est ce, pas?), particularly those oriented toward the work of Nietzsche, if they don't have that healthy curiosity about psychology. Although Yalom gives a very interesting interpretation of what Nietzsche's emotional make-up and what the nuances of his writing indicate about him personally, this is not a biography, nor a new take on Nietzsche. Anyone familiar with Nietzsche's biography will not be surprise by this novel, and at best will be amused at the dramatic license that Yalom takes in putting Nietzsche in a situation that never occurred. But if you consider yourself more inclined towards the psychological than the philosophical or biographical, then I would rate this book a four star read for you.

As stated before, When Nietzsche Wept is an historical novel. The main characters are of course Frederich Nietzsche and Dr. Josef Breuer, who stumbled across the psychoanalytic talking cure most closely associated with Sigmund Freud, who was Breuer's informal understudy, contemporary, and friend. Sigmund Freud plays a supporting role in the novel as well as Lou Salome (the lover who spurned Nietzsche's love and probably acted as the catalyst for his most prolific writing period) and Anna O. (appearing in the novel as Bertha, Breuer's patient whom he treated for hysteria). Of course all of these people are key players in the intellectual movement taking place in the late nineteenth century in Europe. But the meeting of Breuer and Nietzsche, while plausible, is a fabrication of Yalom, a springboard that allows him to explore one of his favorite subjects: existential philosophy.

It is obvious from Yalom's body of more academic work that he is a champion of the traditional psychoanalytic process. The key word is process, because Yalom uses this novel as a kind of `textbook example' of the psychoanalytic process. Note that Yalom is not interested in diagnosing mental illnesses from the DSM-IV and the like. He is of the thinking that just about all of us are suffering from some burning question: philosophical questions, morbid questions, existential questions. Yalom paints Breuer as the classic type A successful middle-aged man who finds himself having a midlife crisis. Its obvious that where Yalom portrays a large chunk of himself with Breuer: especially the bumbling and neurotic nature of that Breuer exemplifies in the novel. Yalom paints Nietzsche as a long-suffering intellectual attempting to completely detach himself from himself emotionally. In the course of the book, both men haphazardly stumble across emotional awakenings and enlightenments through the psychoanalytic process that they don't even realize they are involved in. Breuer's character muses throughout his and Nietzsche's treatment about the future implications of what he is discovering. The novel doesn't have a surprise ending or a gut-wrenching plotline. Just like Greek tragedies, you know how this one will turn out early on in the novel, but the enjoyment comes from watching the way things unfold.

It has been said about psychoanalysis that in order for the process one must have time to waste, even though each moment is an important step in the journey that has no definite ending or conclusion. Some will argue that this book unrealistically turns into a Fantasy Island episode in that it quickly ties up neatly at the end with everyone changed from their lessons and optimistic about the future given their new experiences. In truth, the psychoanalytic process is much slower and sporadic (kind of like a drunk staggering to his home...the steps are unsteady and sometimes in the wrong direction but he gets there eventually). To keep things interesting and palatable, Yalom has to speed things up to a dizzying pace that does take on an almost hackneyed resolution. These two men develop the kind of trust that usually takes years to develop in a matter of weeks. And they make the kinds of changes that are usually hard fought struggles for life in almost an instant. But at its core, this novel paints the picture of two people healing themselves and healing each other in a loving relationship, which is what the subtle art of psychoanalysis is all about. It is not a science so the poetic license is okay. In closing, I say that if you find yourself open to experiencing the creative journey that psychologists from Freud to Yalom himself have mapped out, especially with such historically significant and engaging characters, this be the novel for you.

This is an historical novel. All of the main characters are real historical figures, and Yalom has been reasonably faithful to both their lives and their characteristics. (See the Author's Note, pp. 303-6.) Josef Breuer was, indeed, a close associate of the young Sigmund Freud. Friedrich Nietzsche was, indeed, an intimate friend of the philosopher Paul Ree and had known the young Russian aristocrat, Lou Salome. The time and place of the novel are equally appropriate to these people. The period from late spring 1882 to the early winter of 1883 was a troubled period for Nietzsche, as his actual correspondence reflects, and his relationships with Lou, Paul, and his sister Elizabeth were major contributors to his depression and alienation. It was, however, a period of revolutionary re-direction in Nietzsche's thought, culminating in the completion of the first chapter of Thus Spoke Zarathustra in just one month's time.

In order to bring Breuer and Nietzsche together, however, Yalom was forced to create a purely fictitious meeting of Lou Salome, and Breuer and to give Lou an uncharacteristic burden of care toward Nietzsche's health and feelings. While none of this ever happened, it is not forbidden by the facts; that is, Nietzsche undoubtedly did pass through Vienna, during this period, and we don't know when or for how long.

Before leaving the subject of Lou Salome, we should observe that she was certainly the striking and charismatic figure that Yalom describes in this novel. Her brief relationship with Ree and Nietzsche was merely the beginning of a long series of relationships with intellectual giants of the period. A far more significant affair was with the great poet Rainer Maria Rilke. And furthermore, as an older woman, she became involved in Freud's school of psychoanalysis and knew Freud himself very well. Lou wrote several books, including her own Remembrances, which described Nietzsche and his philosophical thought.

The novel offers its readers interesting insights into Nietzsche's personality, occupations, and health. Equally, it presents interesting views of Freud and the early development of psychoanalysis in Breuer's work. Freud and Breuer eventually collaborated on a book, <EM>Studies on Hysteria</EM>. But, by far the most interesting aspects of the novel, are the carefully worked relationships between early ideas in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, on one hand, and Nietzsche's philosophical thinking, as it had developed through his works up to <EM>The Gay Science</EM>. The action takes place at an especially fortuitous time in the lives of all these characters.

While psychoanalytic therapy was developing in relation to the condition called hysteria, the novel explores its relationship with another condition, the existential despair of Nineteenth Century Western Civilization. This condition of despair had already been identified and discussed in the writings of Kierkegaard and Dostoyevsky and in the poems of Hoelderlin. Beginning with his book <EM>Human, All-to-Human</EM>, Nietzsche, too, was exploring existential despair. The novel's basic formula, then, brings together the future doctor of hysteria with the future doctor of despair. As it turns out, however, the doctor of hysteria is suffering from despair as well. The formula allows Yalom to ask a number of extremely interesting questions about the relevance of existential philosophy to psychoanalysis and the place of science in human life. These questions are posed and answers are suggested in a series of hospital interviews between Breuer and Nietzsche, in which Breuer has devised to trick Nietzsche into believing that he, Nietzsche, is treating Breuer's despair. Of course, Breuer discovers little-by-little that his despair is, indeed, something that needs treatment and that Nietzsche's thought is relevant. Doctor and patient become lost in a massive counter-transference phenomenon that, itself, has interesting historical links with the period.

What are the questions? And are there answers? The chief symptom of Breuer's despair is his intruding possession with his former patient Bertha. Nietzsche, on the other hand, never accepts the symptom's importance and asks Breuer to look beyond it. At the level of plot, this causes a funny turn-of-events because Breuer intentionally chose this possession in order to create a path for his hidden agenda, to lead Nietzsche into revealing his own obsession with Lou Salome. Nietzsche, instead, focuses on the question of realities that lie behind symptoms. This is the natural home of philosophy and, of course, it is the future home of psychoanalysis. Breuer's cure must lie in discovering the true nature of despair --- his despair and collective human despair.

As the discussions deepen, it becomes clear that moral choice is really at issue here. Despair lies, ultimately, in the recognition that one has made poor choices, perhaps never even chosen at all. Together, Nietzsche and Breuer surgically examine Breuer's life and the manifold ways in which it has been orchestrated by archetypal themes and other's needs. Bertha-as-symptom plays a role of suggesting choice. But life-with-Bertha is unimportant, perhaps even unreal; what is important is grasping the necessity of choice.

And on what grounds does one really choose one's life? Nietzsche directs Breuer's scrutiny toward his inner self. What really drives him? It is a difficult question to answer. No sooner does Breuer offer up a program but Nietzsche cuts his way underneath to demonstrate the program's "bad faith," the ways that it mediates and orchestrates control by external and inauthentic factors. Nietzsche's dissection of values seems unending.

Is there any way to turn such nihilism around in its tracks, to give meaning to "the sacred, Yes" that Nietzsche himself has posited toward life? Nietzsche reveals one of the leading messages of his forthcoming opus, <EM>Zarathustra</EM>. The concept of <EM>eternal recurrence</EM> presents us with a mortal challenge --- embrace life because you are stuck with it for eternity. Therefore, choose only what you can embrace fro eternity. Take choice seriously. Doesn't that just mean take life seriously? Perhaps in the sphere of psychoanalytic therapy this becomes the challenge that we should get beyond mere symptoms or otherwise suffer the fate of a reckless and incoherent life of symptoms alone, a life that wil surely destroy us within its extravagances.

The end of this book seems somewhat counter-productive. Breuer has Freud hypnotize him and lead him on a task of discovery, attempting to embrace his interpretations of Nietzsche's thinking. The exercise mistakes Nietzsche's thought but, nevertheless, results in a miraculous cure of Breuer's despair. Unfortunately, Yalom doesn't take the time to work through this conflict; that is, what "task" would Nietzsche have actually wanted Breuer to work his way through. Instead, the novel's action moves swiftly to a close with a culminating chapter in which Breuer and Nietzsche confide their hidden agendas. Everyone comes out honest, in the end, and the two friends part with a general sense that the philosophy of despair and the psychoanalysis of hysteria move on common ground.

I had the good fortune to read this book the summer before my senior year of college. I knew little about Nietzsche, Freud, Breuer or Yalom. How lucky, then, to discover them all in one fell swoop! Their imagined interactions take place against the backdrop of 19th Century Vienna, which Yalom develops richly--from its splendor and highly intellectual culture to the basest, crudest manifestations of its growing anti-semitism.

Yalom brings historical characters to life with wit, feeling and a stunning attention to detail. The character of Breuer is developed in such an intensely personal manner that one wonders how much Yalom drew from his own thoughts, fears and experiences. I have rarely seen so much of myself in a (semi-) fictional character. Nietzsche's defiance, brilliance and, ultimately, his frailty are portrayed thoroughly and believably.

Read this book in a moment of transition. Or read it when your life seems to stretch before you in a path of endless predictability. Read it when you face great challenge and pain, or when you are comfortable and complacent. It will inspire you to examine yourself and the path you have chosen.

"One must have chaos and frenzy within oneself to give birth to a dancing star."

Nietzsche, in WHEN NIETZSCHE WEPT

Like the writings of Nietzsche himself, commenting a great deal in this review on the book from a personal standpoint could serve to actually take away the luster of its brilliance, and its powerful effect. The words carry more weight and bounce to the ounce than any retort on them could hope to muster. The book begins rather slowly for me; you are so aware of the fact that the pieces of this profound chess game to be played are being put on the board in the first couple of chapters that it seems as if the writer, Dr. Yalom of Stanford University, is complimenting himself pedantically on his research. But that is the only thing that could keep this magnificent book from getting five stars from me; once he gets going and Nietzsche and Breuer begin their talks, my world began to open and my heart began to both break and be reinvigorated with fire as my mind was blown and reblown simultaneously. At the beginning you wonder when it's getting started, by the time you reach near the middle... be sure you don't have to be somewhere important, need a good night's sleep or get in a car to start driving- you won't be able to put it down! Nor will you escape from having it deeply, deeply touch you.

"I try to teach him that lovers of truth do not fear stormy or dirty water. What we fear is SHALLOW water!"

"If you kill God, you must also leave the shelter of the temple..."

"A wise Jewish teacher advised his followers to break with their mother and father and to seek perfection. THAT might be a step worthy of a lad of infinite promise. that might have been the right dance to the right tune..."

"... you take pride in your meekness. You make a virtue of necessity; you bury your feelings deep, and then, because you experience no resentment, you assume that you are saintlike..."

"...he presents himself as good- he does no harm- other than to himself and to nature! I must stop him from being one of those who call themselves good because they have no claws..."

"Duty? Can duty take precedence over your love for yourself and your own quest for unconditional freedom? If you have not attained yourself, then 'duty' is merely a euphemism for using others for your own enlargement."

"I dream of a love in which two people share a passion to search together for some higher truth. Perhaps I should not call it love. Perhaps it's real name is friendship."

"Bertha is a cornucopia of mystery, protection, and salvation! Josef Breuer calls this love. But its real name is prayer."

This is a wonderful book.

With commendable accuracy Irvin Yalom explores the intriguing historical hypothetical: what if the emerging philosophies of Nietzsche and the theories and practices of Freud had crossed paths? Creative minds incubating ideas to be born of the same time and place naturally share similar cultural influences. Foremost in this instance are the scientific developments in Europe, the emerging philosophic ideas, and the political and social scene in Vienna at the end of the 19th century. The author's speculative plot and characterizations of Nietzsche and Bruer, Lou Salome and Freud engage a reader's imagination to muse on the multiplicity of human experiences that might have influenced these very human creative minds. The author's subtitle, "A Novel of Obsession." would seem to draw fast attention to Dr. Bruer's romantic obsession with his patient, Anna O. It is Bruer's quick insight and diagnositc genius that reveals tht Nietzsche, who seeks Bruer's medical care, may experience a similar, even more devastating obsession--with the beguiling Lou Salome. Both men make attempts to assuage these passionate interruptions by sublimating their feelings. Nietzsche isolates himself to philosophize about life and indulges in compulsive habits; he becomes physically exhausted. Bruer embarks on an exhausting daily routine that does not quiet his fantasies but only widens the emotional distance between him and his loving wife. This misdirection of passion by both men becomes a common bond. Yalom employs an inventive role reversal of doctor and patient that lends greater insight to both characters. (In employing this approach to the plot, Yalom in no way historically discredits Freud as being the inventor of "the talking cure" and the "Father of Psychotherapy.") For Nietzsche and for Bruer, the "cure" is wrought by trust and truth. We see the "magic" of friendship unfold. Only with the most daring emotional honesty can each man attain a new level of self-awareness . . . Nietzsche wept.

If you are, like me, a fan of Irving Yalom's non-fiction, you might wonder at what you will encounter in his fiction. Wonder no more. This book is fantastic!

A highlight of his non-fictional accounts of psycho-therapeutic encounters with patients has always been the deep humanity of his characterization of people - even desperately unhappy people. He accomplishes the same in this book, while taking-on the daunting task of centering his fictionalized account around some of the most famous names in the history of philosophy and psychology.

If you have not read Yalom, I would encourage you to buy this book - but do so along with a purchase of one of his non-fiction works: "Momma and the Meaning of Life : Tales of Psychotherapy" or "Love's Executioner : And Other Tales of Psychotherapy", and go ahead and read the latter first. You might well have little anticipation of enjoying accounts of psychotherapy, but I think you will discover that Yalom, at least, does a captivating job of describing the human condition through his eyes and those of his patients. Along the way you will slowly unravel the nature and power of Yalom's "existential" approach to therapy. Once you have encountered this approach to life and life-change through the mixture of the personal and the theoretic in Yalom's non-fiction, you will doubly enjoy the undercurrents of "When Nietzche Wept". Most novels seek to imbed one of more philosophies of life within their character's being or actions. But so many of these turn into such a hodge-podge of pop-culture and authorial idiosyncrasy that characters can lack the coherence that binds us to them as readers. Under the hands of an accomplished novelist this coherence is the challenge met - and the connection to the reader is the connection to the seeming hodge-podge of our own lives - but such success is sadly uncommon.

Yalom takes a different tack and succeeds wonderfully, building his characters upon a deeply developed professional awareness of what drives and defines us. Having established over decades of thought and therapy and writing the central elements at the core of being - which he collectively captures as "existential" - he builds his characters on that base. It is an amazing thing to see how compellingly these characters present themselves and, in my opinion, further proof of the fundamental power and veracity of the existentialist perspective.

Yalom is no dry Camus, though, worrying his suicide beads. He and his characters show a powerful connection to life which is manifest in their powerful connection to the world of ideas. As larger-than-life historic figures, his main characters, Nietzche and Josef Breuer (with Sigmund Freud as a minor character!) do not emerge with the gloss of historical polish. But neither do they emerge as simple folks. The mutual swell of their explorations of the nature of man meets with an explosive energy that Yalom expertly guides through a full and developed and engaging story.

Dr Yalom's novel is set in Vienna at the end of the 19th century, on the eve of the birth of psychoanalysis. The main characters are the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, Dr Joseph Bauer, one of the founders of psychoanalysis, and a then young (the year is 1882) medical intern called Sigmund Freud. As these protagonists discuss their ideas, preoccupations and frustrations, they create an original plot of a fictional relationship between an exceptional analysand and a talented analyst. As the fictional dialogue between Breuer and Nietzsche unfolds, the reader becomes aware of the fact that at this epoch it must have been the first time that a doctor realised that what mattered is not what a patient said but that he said it. These were truly the first steps towards psychotherapy. Breuer's task was not made easy by Nietzsche's character. His social fears and his misanthropy made him select an impersonal and distant style. His tone was often harsh and brittle, particularly when he talked about his deceptive lover, Lou Salomé, a woman Nietzsche actually met in the spring of 1882. The unpleasant experience he had with this one and only love affair made him resentful towards women. He felt that they corrupted and spoiled him, he avoided them because he thought that he was ill suited for them. This partly explains Nietzsche's total isolation, his feeling of belonging nowhere, having no lover, no circle of friends, no home, no family hearth, his life sounding like a hollow echo.
A wonderful achievement showing sad and troubled characters in an intriguing cross-discussion of philosophy and emerging psychotherapy, yet as gripping to read as a detective story.