"When Nietzsche Wept" By Irvin D. Yalom
Recently I've read the novel called "When Nietzsche Wept" by Irvin Yalom. I think the English text will be pretty hard for me so I decided to read the Russian version.The story is set in in Europe in the 19th century, mostly in a Vienna, Austria. Professor Breuer is an important and well respected doctor. He got a strange offer to take care of an unknown philosopher Nietzsche. It should be described as a treatment for the soul, but appears to look like health care- because Nietzsche rejects any intrusions into his privacy. Breuer starts working on the treatment, using psychoanalysis (an early prototype of it, because a psychoanalysis was developed later). But Nietzsche hadn't wishes to open his soul to anyone else.
Breuer spent a lot of time in discussing with Nietzsche and in a way became a his patient. Breuer was suffering from midlife crisis, with all its related problems like having a cold relationships with his wife, disappointment about getting oldness, feeling that he has wasted his life doing things that he really don't want to do, etc. Nietzsche helps Breuer to find the origins of his problems to eliminate them.
Despite the novel is a work of fiction, it contains many references to real occurrences and personalities. The author Yalom wonderfully weaved all that things into the entire story. I got a great pleasure in reading this book.



