When Nietzsche Wept: A Novel Of Obsession

“To find dawns and golden possibilities, to love a rich, bold soul: everyone needs that, he thought, at least once in a lifetime.”

Breuer thinks this to himself wistfully. Life without hope and passion will lead one to despair, which ironically, is the state he finds himself in as the novel begins.

“God knows I have no idea about curing despair: I can’t cure my own.”

Breuer thinks this to himself in response to Lou Salome’s request to treat Nietzsche’s despair. The language Breuer uses here underscores the collaborative nature of his work with Nietzsche. Breuer is himself mired in despair and unable to do anything about it by himself. What he and Nietzsche discover together is an insight at the heart of the talking cure and of subsequent developments in psychotherapy: that they can do for one another what they have been unable to do for themselves.

“Once the excess cerebral electrical charge responsible for symptoms is discharged through emotional catharsis, then the symptoms behave properly and promptly vanish!”

Freud says this to Breuer in response to the latter’s explanation of his treatment of Bertha. Breuer essentially describes a rudimentary form of immersion therapy in which he hypnotizes Bertha and gets her to confront her fears, leading to a cessation of the emotional agitation she had been experiencing.