When Nietzsche Wept

Synopsis

It is based on the novel with the same name. "When Nietzsche Wept is a 1992 novel by Irvin D. Yalom, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University, an existentialist, and psychotherapist. The book takes place mostly in Vienna, Austria, in the year 1882, and relates a fictional meeting between the doctor Josef Breuer and the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The novel is a review of the history of the philosophy and psychoanalysis and some of the main personalities of the last decades of the 19th century, and revolves around the topic of 'limerence.'
The novel starts with Dr. Josef Breuer sitting in a cafe in Venice, Italy waiting for Lou Salomé, who was involved with Friedrich Nietzsche. She has written a letter stating that the future of the philosophy of Germany is at stake and that the German philosopher needs help desperately. The plot develops into a therapy where Breuer needs to have his soul treated, i.e. to help him get over a patient who he treated for hysteria and with whom he has fallen in love, whereas Nietzsche needs help with his migraines. Influenced by the revolutionary ideas of his young disciple Sigmund Freud, Josef Breuer starts the dangerous strategy that will mean the origin of the psychoanalysis. Thanks to their unusual relation, both of them will see how their perspective of life changes completely. The story also explains how Friedrich Nietzsche received the inspiration to write his famous book, Thus Spoke Zarathustra." [Wikipedia]

Genre

Historical

Released

2007

Location

Europe

Period

19th century Vienna;

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