When Nietzsche Wept

WHEN NIETSCHE WEPT

  When Nietsche Wept was written by Irvin Yalom. The novel, which is about hopelessness inside the mankind, is based on real characters from philosophy, like Nietzsche, Breuer and Freud. Even if the story is not true, the characters are perfectly placed into the story.

  In the book, Breuer and Freud are close friends, Breuer has his own clinic and he has perfect skills to heal psychological problems of people. He is a successful doctor. Freud works at university and studies over great theorems. One day, a woman called Lou Salome leaves a note to Doctor Breuer and the note says that she wants to talk about something.

  When they meet, the woman mentions Nietzsche. At this point, we learn that this woman is a very close friend of Nietzsche and try to solve problems about him. Even though Nietzsche has a psychological breakdown because of his thoughts, wide philosophy and his sickness, he absolutely refuses to come and see a doctor. Because of that, Lou Salome wants Breuer to heal Nietzsche without clinical techniques. Nietzsche shouldn’t know that Doctor Breuer is trying to help him.

  Also we know that Breuer’s previous patient is a woman called Bertha Pappenheim. She really has psychological problems that will never recover. Moreover, Breuer falls in love with this woman morbidly. He starts to think about Bertha, dreaming and daydreaming about Bertha, and one day he realizes that his whole life becomes all Bertha.

  It is really ironic and attractive that, every character of the book, even Doctor Breuer has hopelessness inside and no one can escape from pessimism or sickness. I absolutely recommend this book to everyone to understand the psychology of mankind.


Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Nietzsche_Wept
http://www.whiterabbit.net/@port05/Works/Writing/Reviews/when_nietzsche_wept.htm