List Price: $14.00 Details

Save: $2.01 (14%)

$3.99 delivery: May 14 - 19

Fastest delivery: May 12 - 17

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
As an alternative, the Kindle eBook is available now and can be read on any device with the free Kindle app. Want to listen? Try Audible.

$$11.99 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Secure transaction

Ships from	CatharsisBooks
Sold by	CatharsisBooks

Details

Ships from

CatharsisBooks

Sold by

CatharsisBooks

Return policy: This item is returnable

FREE Shipping on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon or get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery: Thursday, May 13 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon. Details

Fastest delivery: Monday, May 10
Order within 10 hrs and 4 mins Details

Used: Good | Details

Sold by giggil

Fulfilled by Amazon

Share <Embed>

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

Follow the Author

Irvin D. Yalom

When Nietzsche Wept: A Novel of Obsession Paperback – August 4, 1993

by Irvin D. Yalom (Author)

580 ratings

See all formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$15.99

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$111.22

$104.78

$8.13

Paperback

"Please retry"

$13.19

$9.18

$5.95

Paperback, August 4, 1993

$11.99

$1.60

MP3 CD, Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$14.99

—

Enhance your purchase

Print length

320 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Perennial
Publication date

August 4, 1993
Dimensions

1 x 6 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

0060975504
ISBN-13

978-0060975500
See all details

Frequently bought together

Total price: $43.77

These items are shipped from and sold by different sellers. Show details

Buy the selected items together

This item:When Nietzsche Wept: A Novel of Obsession by Irvin D. Yalom Paperback $11.99
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Ships from and sold by CatharsisBooks.
Love's Executioner: & Other Tales of Psychotherapy by Irvin D. Yalom Paperback $13.79
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.00. Details
The Schopenhauer Cure: A Novel by Irvin Yalom Paperback $17.99
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.00. Details

Highly rated by customers

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Irvin D. Yalom
1,040
Paperback
$13.79
In Stock.
Irvin Yalom
525
Paperback
$17.99
In Stock.
Irvin D. Yalom
492
Paperback
$14.99
In Stock.
Irvin D. Yalom
775
Paperback
$11.29
In Stock.
Irvin D. Yalom
441
Paperback
$17.13
In Stock.
Irvin D. Yalom
307
Paperback
$17.99
In Stock.

Deals related to this item

See all deals

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

34,757
$64.99
In Stock.
13,216
in Catnip Toys
$10.19
In Stock.

Special offers and product promotions

Amazon Business: Make the most of your Amazon Business account with exclusive tools and savings. Login now
Business Prime : For Fast, FREE shipping, premium procurement benefits, and member-only offers on Amazon Business. Try Business Prime free.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This talky first novel by psychotherapist Yalom is set in 1882, when Joseph Breuer, an eminent physician and mentor of Sigmund Freud, strives to apply his recently discovered talking cure to the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Irvin D. Yalom, M.D., is the author of Love's Executioner, Momma and the Meaning of Life, Lying on the Couch, and When Nietzsche Wept, as well as several classic textbooks on psychotherapy, including Existential Psychotherapy and the most widely used work on group therapy, The Theory and Practice of Group Therapy. He is Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at Stanford University and divides his practice between Palo Alto, California, where he lives, and San Francisco.

Start reading When Nietzsche Wept: A Novel Of Obsession on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Product details

Publisher : Perennial (August 4, 1993)
Language : English
Paperback : 320 pages
ISBN-10 : 0060975504
ISBN-13 : 978-0060975500
Item Weight : 10.1 ounces
Dimensions : 1 x 6 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #4,393,714 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #174,863 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
580 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		74%
4 star		18%
3 star		5%
2 star		1%
1 star		2%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Kate Cohen-Posey

One Book Better than the Next

Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2018

Verified Purchase

I have been remiss in writing reviews of Yalom’s books. I became a therapist in 1973 and soon after I read THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY, 1975 and not getting enough….then read EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOTHERAPY, 1980. Last fall at a therapy training, Yalom’s fiction was recommended to me and lickety-split I read THE SPINOZA PROBLEM, WHEN NIETZSCHE WEPT, and THE SCHOPENHAUER CURE, each book better than the one before, but all of them splendid! I started with Spinoza because I’d always respected him for being true to himself and love historical fiction. Reading a Midrash (a story that fills in the gaps) of Spinoza’s life helped me realize that I too have a “Spinoza Problem” because I think I’ve become a therapist bereft of a “methodological” community having developed my own brand of psychotheray. WHEN NIETZSCHE WEPT gave the juicy details of Breuer’s (Freud’s mentor) life and glimpses of a young Freud, not to mention an introduction to Nietzsche and his influence on psychology. It puzzles me that many therapists, thinking Freud is passé, have no interest in studying their roots and discovering that psychoanalysis is in our DNA. And finally—THE SCHOPENHAUER CURE. I did not have a clue who Schopenhauer was and I thank Yalom for his “philosophy for dummies” books. But, will someone please tell me if Yalom is familiar with the enneagram because Philip Slate is the prefect ennea-type 5: self-sufficient, avoids intrusions, observes rather than experiences, and seeks wisdom and skills. It helped me understand a significant other in my life—also a self-sufficient type. This last book, in its modern setting with flash-backs to the 1800s made me laugh, cry out loud, and is a candidate for the best book I ever read.

19 people found this helpful

Helpful

mark jabbour

Nietzsche demystified

Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2015

Verified Purchase

Nietzsche demystified. Should you read this book? Yes, if you’re reading this review, because most likely, then, you’re interested in Friedrich Nietzsche’s ideas’, psychology, and/or psychoanalysis. It is strong on each of those topics. It is an interpretation, pure speculation, but the larger ideas – the philosophy of Nietzsche, the benefits of friendship, and the benefits of talking honestly and openly with someone, what I call “fearless communication,” are legitimate. Nietzsche is often not understood, or misunderstood; but here is what I gleaned about the man’s ideas from Yalom’s novel.

1. God was invented by man (= humans.)
2. Religion is a dodge – a wrong path taken by weak minded people.
3. People benefit from their sicknesses and illnesses, always.
4. Altruism (helping others) is a power play that benefits the helper and weakens the helped – because it places the helped in debt to the helper, who then feels superior. Thus, it makes the helper feel good about him or herself, while robbing the helped the opportunity to become who they truly are. Nietzsche’s main point: “Become who you are.”
5. Life is always a contest, i.e. a competition.
6. No pain, no gain.
7. No one embedded in a culture [social, say marriage; corporate, say any job; or institutional, say the police, military, and even academia] can choose freely.
8. A major problem is that people feel discomfort in the wrong thing.
9. Man is divided into two groups: Those who wish for peace; and those who wish for truth. One must choose between comfort and true inquiry.
10. Confessions are for the confessors benefit, not the recipients.
11. Despair is the price one pays for self-awareness.
12. Whatever does not kill you makes you stronger.
13. Become who you are.
14. The cause of your sickness, or illness, is secret to the self.
15. Women are false saviors.
16. Consciousness [normal everyday] is only the translucent skin covering existence: The trained eye can see through it—to primitive forces, instincts, to the very engine of the will to power. (see #5)
17. All motives spring from a single source – the drive to escape oblivion (= to be forgotten. To leave no clear trace that you were here.)
18. True Friendship is the joining together in the search for higher truths.
19. Your task is to die at the right time. ( = Be who you are and live as you should, by your own will. Consummate your life, and then you can ‘die at the right time’.)
20. Choose your life (= the way you live.) Don’t let it be assigned to you.
21. Time is a flat circle. You will live your life over and over again, an eternal recurrence, if you haven’t evolved to a place of freedom, wherein you actually choose and create your life. (= The Law of Attraction.)
22. Duty is a euphemism for using others for your own enlargement. (see# 4 &7, 17)

The plot/story is secondary to the revealing of Nietzsche’s philosophy. It posits that Freud might well have read Nietzsche, and together, with the intermediary, Breuer, they sort-of uncovered the unconscious, and the healing power of psychoanalysis. It, the plot, could have happened. In the end (of the story) Breuer and Nietzsche help each other understand their obsessions with what might be called ‘Phantom Lovers’; which is in itself intriguing. I loved this book.
Winter 2014

58 people found this helpful

Helpful

Annie

Clever Plot!

Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2017

Verified Purchase

When Nietzsche Wept will not have wide appeal due to the content. Written by Irvin Yalom, who is Professor Emeritus of Psychotherapy at Stanford University, the story centres on Nietzsche and Breuer, two men prominent in the nineteenth century in relation to the beginnings of psychoanalysis. Almost the entire book is about the discussions that took place between these two great thinkers of their time.
I have no background in psychiatry but I do love philosophy and discussion on the human psyche, so I found the book fascinating... the writing brilliant and the plot very clever.
Not recommended to those readers who prefer fast paced action.

14 people found this helpful

Helpful

diaphinia

Fascinating read

Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2016

Verified Purchase

Yalom is a fine writer, and this novel is a pleasure to read. Especially after reading his nonfiction (The Gift of Therapy, The Theory and Practice of Group Therapy) as a student, I appreciate this hypothetical vision of a relationship between one of the founders of modern psychology (Josef Breuer) and the philosopher whose work inspires many who study the human psyche (Friederich Nietzsche). This fictional extension of the development of the "talking cure" includes other forebears of today's counselors, such as Lou Salome and Freud. Anna O., the ostensible first recipient of the talking cure, is a palpable presence, though in absentia.

Yalom strives to improve people's lives through honest, empathetic, relationships as a counselor. It is no coincidence that his exploration of the origins of psychodynamic theory—which promoted the idea of the therapist as an impassive empty slate upon which the client was to project all desires—is all about relationship. The doctor is forced, through unusual circumstance, to "treat" the philosopher not as a doctor but as a friend. Despite the future assertions of Breuer's younger colleague, "Siggy" Freud, Yalom depicts therapeutic transformation as a product not of technique but of relationship.

12 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

J. Pa

Another excellent book by Yalom

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 18, 2018

Verified Purchase

I thought this was a fascinating story and I enjoyed the blend of fact and fiction. I love how Yalom explains ideas in such a digestible and intriguing way, and this book has opened my eyes to Nietzsche's contribution to the developing field of psychotherapy. As a trainee therapist, I have learnt so much from Yalom's books and encourage my non-therapist friends and family to read these too as they give such an insight into the human mind and key existential ideas. i came away from this book feeling I'd learnt more about myself, and also have new ideas for therapy with my own clients. Would highly recommend!

8 people found this helpful

Herman Norford

I Almost Wept Too

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 27, 2011

Verified Purchase

When Nietzsche Wept by Irvin Yalom is not the kind of novel I normally read. It was selected for reading by a book reading group. It turned out to be a reading that I enjoyed but above all I was intrigued by the novel.

The novel belongs to that ever more emerging genre known as faction - defined by The Concise Oxford Dictionary as: "a book, film, etc. using real events as the basis for a fictional narrative or dramatization." Think of most of those awful bio-pictures that are churned out by Hollywood and you have got the picture. However, When Nietzsche Wept is certainly not awful. Instead, what the reader gets from Yalom is an intriguing psychological thriller, and a novel of ideas delineated through two real characters namely Josef Breuer and Friedrich Nietzsche.

The novel is set in late nineteenth century Vienna, specifically focusing on the year 1882. The action takes place against a backdrop of a fin de siecle that saw the likes of not just the two protagonists but also Sigmund Frued among others. It was a period that saw significant development in medicine, the emergence of psychoanalysis and a new moral philosophy that focused on the individual. In the novel, Yalom invest his two main characters with a common facet namely two middle aged men obsessed with a much younger woman. In Nietzsche's case it Lou Salome and for Breuer it is Bertha Pappenheim. I suppose inevitably this obsession leads both men to suffer angst. Lou Salome from a sense of guilt or fulfilling her own desire meets the physician Breuer and comes up with a scheme to refer Nietzsche to him for treatment. Breuer and Nietzsche eventually meet and through a long process of negotiation and connivance a tacit agreement is reached that Breuer will treat Nietzsche's ailments but the table is turned and Nietzsche finds himself counselling Breuer. This sets the scene for a very good psychological or preferably intellectual thriller.

Out of this conundrum, Yalom's novel presents a world of intrigue, fascinating characters and multi-layered themes. Just to mention some of the obvious themes to be found in the novel. It is about friendship, the methodological relationship between patient and doctor, the frailty and vulnerability of human beings, the development of medicine and psychoanalysis, and above all it delineates Nietzsche's individual moral philosophy.

Along with Nietzsche, Breuer and Freud, Yalom's novel is peopled with, or at least there is discussion of, geniuses such as Brahams, Bruckner, Wittgenstein, and Wagner. However, it must be said that female characters are not well presented in this novel they merely act as antagonist providing a means for the plot to progress. Yalom's characters function in a world of change and invention yet ironically in some ways they still remain in a world averse to change and bridled by old conventions. Lou Salome's adversity to marriage and her acknowledgement of what Viennese society would think of the menage a trios between her Paul Ree and Nietzsche is testimony to the tension between old and new society.

What makes When Nietzsche Wept outstanding is the relationship between Nietzsche and Breuer. This relationship provides a means for discussing some of Nietzsche's ideas. Here are two examples, Nietzsche's view of truth: "Truth is arrived at through disbelief and skepticism, not through a child like wishing something was so" and "Dying is hard. I've always felt the final reward of the dead is to die no more." I found discussion of such ideas stimulating and thought provoking.

Having said that, on a downside, at times in the novel, reading about such intellectual ideas became sluggish. In other words, the narrative felt stuck as in places Yalom seems to have had difficulties in progressing the discussion of ideas between Breuer and Nietzsche.

Yalom's novel is not a highly imaginative piece of fiction after all it is faction. Nonetheless it is a well conceived novel with a well delivered story. For a novel that I would not normally read it nonetheless turned out to be a good and worthwhile read.

12 people found this helpful

DrRheology Limited

Cheshire police abusing children made Neitzsche weep

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 15, 2020

Verified Purchase

Neitzsche wept after reading about the extensive child abuses carried out, assisted, and covered up by Cheshire police.

One person found this helpful

shelley baldwin

Loved this book such and interesting way to combine psychology and philosophy

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 29, 2020

Verified Purchase

Loved this book so interesting

georgia k.

One of my favourites ever

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 22, 2019

Verified Purchase

So good. So wise.

See all reviews

What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Buy new: $11.99 $3.99 delivery: May 14 - 19 Ships from: CatharsisBooks Sold by: CatharsisBooks

Buy used: $7.15

Follow the Author

Similar authors to follow

When Nietzsche Wept: A Novel of Obsession Paperback – August 4, 1993

Enhance your purchase

Frequently bought together

Highly rated by customers

Deals related to this item

Special offers and product promotions

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Product details

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?

Buy new:

$11.99

$3.99 delivery: May 14 - 19

Ships from: CatharsisBooks

Sold by: CatharsisBooks

Buy used:

$7.15