“When I have promised my patients help or improvement by
means of the cathartic treatment I have often been faced by
this objection:
‘Why, you tell me yourself that my illness is probably
connected with my
circumstances and the events of my life. You cannot alter
these in any way. How
do you propose to help me then?’ And I have been able to make
this reply: ‘No
doubt fate would find it easier than I do to relieve you of
your illness. But
you will be able to convince yourself that much will be
gained if we succeed in
transforming your hysterical misery into common unhappiness.”
–Sigmund Feud-
For all the similarities in their thought, Freud and
Nietzsche have starkly different view on the possibility of
human happiness.
For his part, Feud, medical doctor and self-avowed man of
science, celebrates
the advances of technology and the power of his own
psychoanalytic method; but
he is quick to add, however, that the human condition is one
that is
necessarily unhappy. Nietzsche, on the other hand, sees the
human condition as one that is full of hope, calls
on us to becoming “dancing stars,” and names his own
philosophical project a
“joyful science.”
Describe why and how Freud’s theories commit him to his
characteristically pessimistic view of the human condition.
Then, consider how
Nietzsche would critique Freud’s views and why he himself is
instead so
optimistic about the possibility of our future happiness.
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