annethology
  • Home
    • About Annethology
    • About me >
      • A little more about me
    • About my books
    • Author talks
    • Contact me
    • Forthcoming events
    • World Mental Health Day
    • Privacy
    • Sign up for my newsletter
  • Sugar and Snails
    • Acknowledgements
    • Blog tour, Q&A's and feature articles >
      • Birthday blog tour
      • S&S on tour 2022
    • Early endorsements
    • Events >
      • Launch photos
      • Launch party videos
    • in pictures
    • Media
    • If you've read the book
    • Polari
    • Reading group questions
    • Reviews
    • In the media
  • Underneath
    • Endorsements and reviews
    • Launch party and events
    • Pictures
    • Questions for book groups
    • The stories underneath the novel
  • Matilda Windsor series
    • Matilda Windsor >
      • What readers say
      • For book groups
      • Interviews, articles and features
      • Matty on the move
      • Who were you in 1990?
      • Asylum lit
      • Matilda Windsor media
    • Stolen Summers >
      • Stolen Summers reviews
  • Short stories
    • Somebody’s Daughter
    • Becoming Someone (anthology) >
      • Becoming Someone (video readings)
      • Becoming Someone reviews
      • Becoming Someone online book chat
    • Print and downloads
    • Read it online
    • Quick reads
  • Free ebook
  • Annecdotal
    • Annecdotal blog
    • Annecdotal Press
    • Articles >
      • Print journalism
      • Where psychology meets fiction
    • Fictional therapists
    • Reading and reviews >
      • Reviews A to H
      • Reviews I to M
      • Reviews N to Z
      • Nonfiction
      • Themed quotes
      • Reading around the world
  • Shop
    • Inspired Quill (my publisher)
    • Bookshop.org (affiliate link)
    • Amazon UK
    • Amazon US
    • books2read

About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

TELL ME MORE

Reimagining the birth pangs of psychoanalysis: When Nietzsche Wept by Irvin D Yalom

2/6/2018

10 Comments

 
Picture

In 1882, in a wintry Vienna, two brilliant minds connect. One is an ambitious, although rarely read, philosopher; the other is a highly respected diagnostician and doctor to the rich and famous. The men are drawn to each other’s ideas but, although one’s a bachelor and the other a married father of five, they have more in common than they realise. Both men’s obsession with a much younger woman is threatening their well-being.


The philosopher has been persuaded to travel to Vienna to consult the doctor about debilitating migraines that blight the majority of his days. Alert to the risk of suicide, the doctor proposes he admit the philosopher to his clinic. Penniless yet proud, the philosopher cannot agree until the doctor proposes an exchange: he will treat the philosopher’s physical problems while the latter treats his despair.
 
The philosopher – obviously, from the title – is Friedrich Nietzsche, and the doctor Josef Breuer, one of the founding fathers of psychoanalysis. With Sigmund Freud, at that time still undertaking his medical training but collecting dreams as a “hobby”, also having a role as Breuer’s sounding board, the novel provides an alternative history of the origins of psychoanalysis. Although Breuer and Nietzsche never met, the philosopher’s perspective on the human condition and methods of self-analysis anticipates, at least in Irvin Yalom’s version, much of what is attributed to Freud.
 
When the main characters meet, Breuer has already stumbled upon a form of talking therapy. His treatment of Bertha Pappenheim – made famous in psychoanalytic circles under the pseudonym Anna O – involved a form of free association which she called “chimney sweeping” to uncover the origins of her “hysterical” symptoms. (Nietzsche takes this a stage further by showing that it’s not so much a matter of origins but meaning, p220.) But Breuer hasn’t considered this in a wider context until he meets Nietzsche and is both thrilled and disturbed by his unconventional beliefs (p75):
 
To say that hope is the greatest evil! That God is dead! That truth is an error without which we cannot live! That the enemies of truth are not lies, but convictions! That the final reward of the dead is to die no more!
 
Breuer is not being entirely honest when he offers himself as Nietzsche’s disciple. He hopes that, by sharing his own distress, he will inspire the philosopher to do the same. But, like anyone undergoing therapy as part of training, he has to bring genuine difficulties and, before he knows it, he’s hooked (p199):
 
Breuer now fully acknowledged his own despair and his need for help. He stopped deceiving himself; stopped pretending he was talking to Nietzsche for Nietzsche’s sake; that the talking sessions were a ploy, a clever strategy to induce him to talk about his despair. Breuer marveled at the seductiveness of the talking treatment. It drew him in; to pretend to be in treatment was to be in it. It was exhilarating to unburden himself, to share all his worst secrets, to have the undivided attention of someone who, for the most part, understood, accepted, and seemed even to forgive him. Even though some sessions made him feel worse, he unaccountably looked forward to the next with anticipation.
 
Nevertheless, Breuer has not found this transition to “patient” easy as he must face some painful questions about himself. What is he avoiding by his workaholic attitude? What deeper anxieties do his obsessional thoughts about his former patient, Bertha Pappenheim, obscure?
 
Frustrated at the slow pace of change, in a manner that many on either side of psychotherapy will recognise, Breuer demands Nietzsche tell him how to break free of his obsession. I imagine
Yalom, a highly renowned American psychiatrist and existential therapist, would have enjoyed sending his characters on a wild goose chase through various cognitive-behavioural techniques until, speaking for both, Nietzsche declares (p220):
 
Our last sessions have been false and superficial. Look at what we tried to do: discipline your thoughts, control your behavior! Thought training and behavior shaping! These methods are not for the human realm! Ach, we are not animal trainers!
 
There are other touches of humour (such as when Breuer expects his wife to acquiesce to his bid for freedom, and understand the convoluted reasons behind it) but, overall, I found When Nietzsche Wept a poignant story of
wounded healers and second chances, and the despair and vulnerability that sometimes coexists with success. Although the pairing of philosopher and doctor disregards the boundaries of contemporary psychotherapy, their encounter illustrates many of the ways exploratory therapy differs from an ordinary conversation (which is sometimes difficult for the uninitiated to grasp):
 
  • confronting “negative” emotions, including despair
  • a search for the “truth” rather than comfort
  • looking below the surface of presenting problems
  • the therapist supports the client to find their own way of becoming the person they are
  • speaking freely without censorship
  • it’s difficult, painful but also potentially rewarding,and even joyful
  • the therapist also learns from the patient
  • the relationship is key
 
In an afterword to my copy (Harper Perennial, 1992/2003), the author explains that he wrote this as a teaching novel, but don’t let that put you off! Irvin Yalom knows how to spin a story, and When Nietzsche Wept is an absorbing read.

With my list of fictional therapists now approaching sixty, I ought to have stumbled upon this one sooner, so thanks to Erin Stevens for flagging it up. And in good time for my forthcoming posts on real therapists fictionalised, which will be the third in my series at The Counsellors Cafe magazine.

Picture
In addition to my interest in fictional therapists, I came to this novel to learn more about Nietzsche. Having only recently discovered, courtesy of Norah Colvin, that he, and not Hallmark, is the originator of what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, I didn’t expect to find myself so much in sympathy with (Yalom’s version of) his perspective. My compassion aroused for the fictional Nietzsche, I began to envisage what doesn’t kill you as his own defence against terrible loneliness and an incapacitating illness that seems beyond control. Perhaps if he’d experienced a genuine therapy, he’d have been able to let go of this false belief, or at least avoid it being imposed on others.

Picture
A little over three months ago, I started playing with a novel-length project set in a dystopian near-future where that premise rules. It’s (currently) narrated from the point of view of a fourteen-year-old boy who despairs of ever finding his strength and fears he won’t survive the adolescent rite-of-passage of Bootcamp.


Picture


My characters are named after historical warriors, so the latest response to
flash fiction prompt is the perfect opportunity to introduce that might-be novel in the form of a 99-word story.


Independence Day


Whose is this voice that thunders in her head? Who will she become if she listens? Yet someone must lead, so why not Joan? What she lacks in years, she brings in passion.
Standing in the stirrups to adjust her seat in the saddle, she channels the spirit of her namesake. Her armour might be card, but her lance is real, and Joan knows how to use it. Not that she thinks she’ll need to today as she steers the procession through cheering crowds. Skirmish is rare on Independence Day, but a woman warrior is always primed for action.




Thanks for reading.

You might also like my tribute to The Warrior Women of Ireland which is a late addition to last week’s post sharing a secret on
my second novel’s first birthday.


Picture
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
10 Comments
Norah Colvin link
3/6/2018 10:51:38 am

Anne, This is a book for me. I can't wait to read it. In fact. I have just bought the audiobook. What a combination - philosophy and psychoanalysis. Thank you for the mention, but I'm afraid that piece of information was also new to me.
What an intriguing beginning to a new novel project (no redundancy intended) and a great flash to support it. Works well.
And I'm so excited comments are now accepted. Must go back and try to remember what words of wisdom I attempted to share on previous posts. :)

Reply
Annecdotist
4/6/2018 02:20:01 pm

I thought it might appeal, Norah, so looking forward to finding out what you think of it. (If you’ve got enough car journeys to get it “read”.)
Yes, it’s great to be getting comments again and, although I’d love to read yours, don’t worry about catching up. Life is hectic enough.
I’m glad my new project is looking okay to you at the moment, although I’m conscious you’re not keen on dystopian fiction.

Reply
Norah Colvin link
10/6/2018 08:41:21 am

I'm thoroughly enjoying the novel, Anne. It was a great recommendation for me. Thank you.

Annecdotist
11/6/2018 10:35:02 am

So glad you liked it, and hope it’s sparked lots of ideas.

Norah Colvin link
23/7/2018 07:26:05 am

I've just finished the book, Anne. I thoroughly enjoyed it, then enjoyed it even more after listening to the afterword. What fascinating stuff. I think I would have enjoyed exploring this area more. I never liked the behavioural psychology we did at college. Push button A and we respond in this way. It might be true but I liked to think we weren't as predictable as that. I disliked it so much I rebelled by not studying - and passed the test anyway. (Which is probably a good thing as I may not have graduated otherwise.)
This combination between philosophy and psychoanalysis is a perfect fit for me. Thank you for your recommendation. I saw as I scrolled through that you have another psycho-analysis review that I've yet read. I'll have to make my way there soon.

Annecdotist
23/7/2018 05:34:20 pm

Glad you enjoyed it, Norah. I’m smiling at your rebellion against behavioural psychology – I actually enjoyed all those pigeons and dogs, and even some of the simple/simplistic interventions I was introduced to in my clinical training. Which would have been great for treating spider phobics and the like, but the people I saw in my first job had much more complex difficulties.
The other fictional therapist you might have missed is involved – this time as a friend – with another famous person, this time from literature.

D. Avery link
3/6/2018 02:05:38 pm

Ha! Hanging with Herr Nietzsche. What an interesting story. I sometimes wonder about using real people in works of fiction, but I suppose as long as we all know it's fiction it does make the ideas more accessible. Your flash is a good teaser for your project. Seems like you are always primed for action!

Reply
Annecdotist
4/6/2018 02:14:49 pm

Certainly makes it more accessible for me, but easy to confuse fact with fiction if you get your learning this way. The afterword in my edition went some way towards unravelling this.
I think you’re equally primed to shoot off those 99-word stories.

Reply
Charli Mills
5/6/2018 10:04:36 pm

What a delightful book for many reasons -- alternative history, Nietzsche, and an author's 'teaching' novel. I was also amused at the number of exclamation points! I always enjoy your analysis of the psychoanalysts, Anne. 60! Wow! That deserves some exclamation. And I didn't realize that your dystopian near-future story was continuing. I'm enjoying this new warrior character.

Reply
Annecdotist
6/6/2018 09:41:05 am

I thought so too, Charli, and ditto about the exclamation marks which I didn’t notice until I was dictating those quotes. The author has a couple of other therapy novels which I hope to read soon.
I must admit that among my sixty are many therapists with a very small role to play. Hard to tell if this is a recent phenomenon, but there seems to be a tendency to throw in a failed therapy to underline the depths of a character’s difficulties.
Yes, I am continuing to play with Snowflake, although hard to tell if it’s got the right ingredients. But even if it doesn’t work, it’s a way of learning about plot – I think it’s likely to be my most plotty novel so far. And the excitement’s building, as I am almost at the midpoint reversal. A genuine hero’s journey, although the narrator is nothing like as heroic as his friend Joan. I wasn’t sure about the voice – how could I ventriloquise a fourteen-year-old boy? – but my critique buddies have seen the opening 3000 words with positive feedback, apart from an overwritten first page.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Free ebook: click the image to claim yours.
    Picture
    OUT NOW: The poignant prequel to Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home
    Picture
    Find a review
    Picture
    Fictional therapists
    Picture
    Picture
    About Anne Goodwin
    Picture
    My published books
    entertaining fiction about identity, mental health and social justice
    Picture
    My latest novel, published May 2021
    Picture
    My debut novel shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize
    Picture
    Picture
    My second novel published May 2017.
    Picture
    Short stories on the theme of identity published 2018
    Anne Goodwin's books on Goodreads
    Sugar and Snails Sugar and Snails
    reviews: 32
    ratings: 52 (avg rating 4.21)

    Underneath Underneath
    reviews: 24
    ratings: 60 (avg rating 3.17)

    Becoming Someone Becoming Someone
    reviews: 8
    ratings: 9 (avg rating 4.56)

    GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Issue 4 GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Issue 4
    reviews: 4
    ratings: 9 (avg rating 4.44)

    The Best of Fiction on the Web The Best of Fiction on the Web
    reviews: 3
    ratings: 3 (avg rating 4.67)

    2022 Reading Challenge

    2022 Reading Challenge
    Anne has read 2 books toward their goal of 100 books.
    hide
    2 of 100 (2%)
    view books
    Picture
    Annecdotal is where real life brushes up against the fictional.  
    Picture
    Annecdotist is the blogging persona of Anne Goodwin: 
    reader, writer,

    slug-slayer, tramper of moors, 
    recovering psychologist, 
    struggling soprano, 
    author of three fiction books.

    LATEST POSTS HERE
    I don't post to a schedule, but average  around ten reviews a month (see here for an alphabetical list), 
    some linked to a weekly flash fiction, plus posts on my WIPs and published books.  

    Your comments are welcome any time any where.

    Get new posts direct to your inbox ...

    Enter your email address:

    or click here …

    RSS Feed


    Picture

    Tweets by @Annecdotist
    Picture
    New short story, “My Dirty Weekend”
    Picture
    Let’s keep in touch – subscribe to my newsletter
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Popular posts

    • Compassion: something we all need
    • Do spoilers spoil?
    • How to create a convincing fictional therapist
    • Instructions for a novel
    • Looking at difference, embracing diversity
    • Never let me go: the dilemma of lending books
    • On loving, hating and writers’ block
      On Pop, Pirates and Plagiarism
    • READIN' for HER reviews
    • Relishing the cuts
    • The fast first draft
    • The tragedy of obedience
    • Writers and therapy: a love-hate relationship?

    Categories/Tags

    All
    Animals
    Annecdotist Hosts
    Annecdotist On Tour
    Articles
    Attachment Theory
    Author Interviews
    Becoming Someone
    Being A Writer
    Blogging
    Bodies
    Body
    Bookbirthday
    Books For Writers
    Bookshops
    CB Book Group
    Character
    Childhood
    Christmas
    Classics
    Climate Crisis
    Coming Of Age
    Counsellors Cafe
    Creative Writing Industry
    Creativity
    Cumbria
    Debut Novels
    Disability
    Editing
    Emotion
    Ethics
    Ethis
    Family
    Feedback And Critiques
    Fictional Psychologists & Therapists
    Food
    Friendship
    Futuristic
    Gender
    Genre
    Getting Published
    Giveaways
    Good Enough
    Grammar
    Gratitude
    Group/organisational Dynamics
    Hero’s Journey
    History
    Humour
    Identity
    Illness
    Independent Presses
    Institutions
    International Commemorative Day
    Jane Eyre
    Kidney Disease
    Language
    LGBTQ
    Libraries
    Live Events
    Lyrics For The Loved Ones
    Marketing
    Matilda Windsor
    Memoir
    Memory
    Mental Health
    Microfiction
    Motivation
    Music
    MW Prequel
    Names
    Narrative Voice
    Nature / Gardening
    Networking
    Newcastle
    Nonfiction
    Nottingham
    Novels
    Pandemic
    Peak District
    Perfect Match
    Poetry
    Point Of View
    Politics
    Politics Current Affairs
    Presentation
    Privacy
    Prizes
    Psychoanalytic Theory
    Psychology
    Psycholoists Write
    Psychotherapy
    Race
    Racism
    Rants
    Reading
    Real Vs Imaginary
    Religion
    Repetitive Strain Injury
    Research
    Reviewing
    Romance
    Satire
    Second Novels
    Settings
    Sex
    Shakespeare
    Short Stories General
    Short Stories My Published
    Short Stories Others'
    Siblings
    Snowflake
    Somebody's Daughter
    Stolen Summers
    Storytelling
    Structure
    Sugar And Snails
    Technology
    The
    The Guestlist
    Therapy
    TikTok
    TNTB
    Toiletday
    Tourism
    Toxic Positivity
    Transfiction
    Translation
    Trauma
    Unconscious
    Unconscious, The
    Underneath
    Voice Recognition Software
    War
    WaSBihC
    Weather
    Work
    Writing Process
    Writing Technique

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Picture
    BLOGGING COMMUNITIES
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from havens.michael34, romana klee, mrsdkrebs, Kyle Taylor, Dream It. Do It., adam & lucy, dluders, Joybot, Hammer51012, jorgempf, Sherif Salama, eyspahn, raniel diaz, E. E. Piphanies, scaredofbabies, Nomadic Lass, paulternate, Tony Fischer Photography, archer10 (Dennis), slightly everything, impbox, jonwick04, country_boy_shane, dok1, Out.of.Focus, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Midwest Region, Elvert Barnes, guillenperez, Richard Perry, jamesnaruke, Juan Carlos Arniz Sanz, El Tuerto, kona99, maveric2003, !anaughty!, Patrick Denker, David Davies, hamilcar_south, idleformat, Dave Goodman, Sharon Mollerus, photosteve101, La Citta Vita, A Girl With Tea, striatic, carlosfpardo, Damork, Elvert Barnes, UNE Photos, jurvetson, quinn.anya, BChristensen93, Joelk75, ashesmonroe, albertogp123, >littleyiye<, mudgalbharat, Swami Stream, Dicemanic, lovelihood, anyjazz65, Tjeerd, albastrica mititica, jimmiehomeschoolmom