Truth exists only in the search after truth.
---- Jacques. Lacan
"When Nietzsche Wept" is by Owen. With a psychotherapeutic novel published by Yalong (D. Yaron, 2011), with this wonderful work, I hope to immerse myself with you in 1882 and see where the conversation psychotherapy began. At the same time, in general, it is difficult for us to explain the process and connotation of psychotherapy to the public, and Yalong's novel is considered a successful attempt.
The storyline of the novel
The philosopher Nietzsche and Brehr, the most famous Viennese physician of his time, began a gripping "talk therapy." The story begins with Brel, who is trapped in lustful fantasies about patients and cannot extricate himself, and at the request of the charismatic Russian aristocrat Lu Salome, tries to cure nietzsche's "despair" who is not willing to accept help at all:
Like the prophet in Zarastutla, Nietzsche's madness was not accepted by the masses. Until he met Lu Salome, a beautiful and intelligent free woman, he thought she would become his twin mind, his disciple, his student, his lover. Nietzsche fell deeply in love with Salome, but Salome did not belong only to Nietzsche, he also had a competitor Paul... Finally, when Nietzsche proposed to Salome, Salome rejected him, and he fell into the abyss, feeling betrayed, and filled with loneliness and despair.
Because of Nietzsche's stubbornness, at the suggestion of the young medical student Freud, Breyer decided to persuade Nietzsche to receive therapy in a peculiar way: they swapped roles, allowing Nietzsche to treat Brel's own "despair" in the role of a doctor:
Brehr developed fantasies about his patient, Bertha, who struggled morally and emotionally. He fell into infinite missing of her every day. He enjoys Bertha transferring the pain of losing her father to him, the intimate gestures he makes, and content with her trance-like "You will always be my only man." So much so that he spends a lot of time every day fantasizing and is restless.
Nietzsche is very difficult to approach under normal circumstances, he hardly lets anyone into his heart, and only shouts "help me" when he has a migraine attack and goes into a trance state... But when Brel asked him to be his own psychic doctor, he was able to devote himself to his whole body and mind, into Brel's dreams, into Brehr's free associations, and look for the meaning behind it. Of course, what he didn't know was that in the process of such a spiritual exchange, he also opened his inner mind...
Breyer deepened his understanding of himself in Nietzsche's analysis of his constant dreams and free associations:
What does delusional Bertha mean? What's the point behind it?
Brehr eventually discovers that what he loves is not real Bertha, but a feeling of free choice, and a subconscious attachment to the warmth and safety of his mother's love (Brel's mother died when he was three years old, and Bertha subconsciously links Brel's imagination of her mother). Brehr finally broke out of his delusions and chose to return to the family he truly loved, while telling Nietzsche: Did you realize that your desire for Salome was also based on your fantasy about Salome: Did you see her? Or do you see only one prey—a disciple, a garden of your thoughts, a successor? Or, perhaps, like me, you see a beautiful, youthful, smooth satin pillow man, an embodiment of lust.
The story ends with the meeting of the hearts of two men when Brel says to Nietzsche: "Loneliness exists only in loneliness, and once it is shared, it evaporates." Nietzsche shed tears.
In the end Nietzsche did not intend to give up his dislike of women, not to give up his loneliness and pursue what was most important to him, but at least he knew his choice.
Existentialist interpretation
irving. Yalong systematically studied psychoanalysis in his early years, and gradually became more and more existential thinking of his own, so Yalong's psychotherapy is also called existential psychoanalysis or existential humanistic therapy.
The novel is full of Aaron's exploration of the central problems of his existence: freedom, loneliness, and death.
Brehr eventually discovered that the freedom he wanted was "freedom and a rope behind freedom." Despite being left in tears, Nietzsche chose "solitude" and will enjoy the "loneliness" of being alive. In middle age, whether Breel or Nietzsche, or any person with an independent personality, they begin to face and think about the approaching of death and the anxiety it brings, which in itself can be regarded as a kind of "existence"...
All three themes are Owen. The core of Yalong's thought, Yalong certainly spared no effort to make a very profound exploration in this psychotherapy novel. Regarding this part, which depends on the reader to read and experience it himself, I would like to continue with psychoanalysis and Freud.
Psychoanalytic interpretation
The events and periods described in the novel coincide with the founding of the pre-psychoanalytic period when Freud began to think about "talk therapy", when Freud was a close friend and assistant of Breyer, working together on Bertha (alias Anna in many of Freud's case reports). O) Conduct talk therapy. At that time, Brel would hypnotize Bertha, and they found that after hypnosis, Bertha's physical symptoms (the stiffness of various limbs) magically disappeared, but once they woke up, many of the symptoms were as usual. This triggered Freud's thinking about the human subconscious, and argued that it was not enough to understand the human psyche solely from the level of consciousness. Freud was not the first to discover and propose the concept of the subconscious, but he was the first to systematically explore and study this part, and in the years that followed, Freud and Brehr co-authored a series of papers and published the book Hysteria Studies in 1895, many of which made in discussions with Brehr, which is also considered the beginning of psychoanalysis (Che Wenbo, 2006).
The novel hints at the therapeutic techniques of psychoanalysis: free association and the parsing of dreams. Free association refers to letting the patient uncontrollably, freely describe the images and thoughts that enter the mind to the analyst, and the analyst maintains an evenly suspended attention (this is also an important concept of psychoanalysis, which is not expanded here), and to analyze the patient at the right time.
The analysis of dreams, as the name suggests, is the analysis of dreams, and Freud believed that dreams are the fulfillment of wishes. He believes that human dreams are the operation of the subconscious mind, and it is necessary to understand and interpret the repressed parts of the subconscious mind through the analysis of dreams.
The novel's Bertha suffers from a "conversion hysteria", which was very common in Freud's time. Bertha's limb paralysis symptoms are actually a reaction to the repressed subconscious content, and the treatment is to make the repressed partially conscious. During the hypnosis process, the depression is lifted, and the patient's symptoms will temporarily disappear, but they will come back after waking up. As a result, Freud gradually abandoned the method of hypnosis and used free association and dream analysis more to achieve the process of subconscious consciousness.
Dr. Brehr also has a lot of repressed content: in Nietzsche's "treatment" of Brehr, Brehr constantly presents his own free association content, and finally completes the deep understanding and repression of himself in a dream of himself. This is a bit like the process of psychoanalysis, through the continuous consciousness of the repressed subconscious content, the patient acquires a deep understanding of the self and thus heals (of course, the main scene of classical classical psychoanalysis is mentioned here, more than 100 years later, psychoanalysis has had a lot of essential expansion, and the methods and techniques used may have been very different, but the subconscious content of the focus on the patient is still unchanged at the core of psychoanalytic technology).
Overall, the psychotherapy scene described in the novel is more focused on humanism and the inner communication between the two people, which is probably Yalong's intention to better illustrate his thoughts. So, I still want to go back to the truth of history and experience their real stories together.
Real character stories
The novel is certainly not the most real history, but all the characters and actions are based on real events, and the fictional place is: the protagonist of the novel, the famous doctor Brel and Nietzsche, have never met, and Brel has never treated Nietzsche. However, this may be the brilliance of the novel, nietzsche, in the last months of 1882, was mired in depression and even suicidal tendencies. Borrowing from the encounter between Nietzsche and Dr. Brehr, Aaron profoundly portrays the process of psychoanalysis initiation, and of course, as an existential humanistic psychologist, he also joined his own thinking.
Nietzsche
For contemporary philosophy, Nietzsche is a presence that cannot be ignored.
Breeer and Freud
Breuer, Josef (also translated as Breyle) 1842-1925. Son of a Jewish religious teacher, the most famous physician in Vienna of that era. In terms of physiology, in 1868 Breuer and physiologist Évald Herrin EwaldHering discovered some reflexes related to breathing. In the 1870s, he first discovered that the inner ear semicircular canal is a balancing organ. In 1880 Brehr entered a new realm. At this time, he studied a female patient (at the time of the report he called her "Anna. O”）。 She suffers from psychiatric disorders, including various dysfunctional (and even sometimes paralyzed) and split personality. Brel found out if to let Anna. O talk about his fantasies (sometimes with the help of hypnosis), and his symptoms will be alleviated. Breuer believes that the important cause of this disease is buried deep in the subconscious, and if it is consciously spoken of, there is a chance of healing. Many of Breuer's and his colleagues and assistants, Freud, were included in the 1895 book The Study of Hysteria, the beginning of psychoanalysis.
But then Breyer and Freud disagreed with Freud on the effects of hypnosis and sexual impulses on hysteria, and the two eventually parted ways. Freud continued to develop his theories and became the founder of psychoanalytic theory.
Freud's theory caused a great sensation and controversy at the time, which led to his 13 nominations for the Nobel Prize in Medicine, but he did not get it once. But psychoanalysis, founded by Freud, has evolved over 100 years and is still an important part of clinical therapeutic psychology. The latest development is to use modern technology and neuroscience to verify psychoanalytic theories, resulting in cutting-edge disciplines such as neuropsycholysis (Lu Yingjun, 2010).
Bertha
Bertha is one of the most famous and important cases in the history of psychoanalysis. In the Hysterical Study and later in Freud's descriptions, she is pseudonymized anna. O。 Bertha began to develop the disease in 1880 at the age of 21. Her symptoms include: language confusion, esotropia, severe visual disturbances, paralysis (forming contractures), right upper and lower limbs, some left upper extremities, cervical muscle paralysis, and decreasing contractures of the right upper extremities. Symptoms were exacerbated by the death of his father in April 1881 and he developed sleepwalking. After being treated by Brehr and Freud, Bertha's pathological state and symptoms gradually ceased in June 1882.
road. Salome
Salome is also a real person in history, and there are many descriptions of her legendary experience. Her love affair with Nietzsche was opposed by the Nietzsche family, especially her sister Elizabeth. Later Salome became not only a disciple and psychoanalyst of Freud, but also fell in love with the Austrian poet Rilke.
Salome, Paul and Nietzsche, 1882
bibliography:
D. Yalon Owen. When Nietzsche wept. Hou Weizhi, trans. China Machine Press, 2011
CHE Wenbo. Freud Anthology. Changchun Publishing House, 2006.
LV Yingjun. Brain and Mind- Neuropsychoanalysis Research (Dissertation), 2010.