When Nietzsche Wept - by Irvin D Yalom (Paperback)

About the Book

Asked to treat Friedrich Nietzsche for his suicidal despair following a broken love affair, eminent Viennese physician Josef Breuer devises an ingenious approach that would force Nietzsche to apply his own theories to cure himself.

Book Synopsis

From the
acclaimed author of Love's Executioner and Schopenhauer's
Couch, comes a
"fascinating...shrewd intellectual thriller" (Los
Angeles Times Book Review)
about pioneering Viennese psychoanalyst Josef Breuer and his intriguing patient--Friedrich
Nietzsche

In nineteenth-century Vienna, a
drama of love, fate, and will is played out amid the intellectual ferment that
defined the era. Josef Breuer, one of the founding fathers of psychoanalysis,
is at the height of his career. Friedrich Nietzsche, Europe's greatest
philosopher, is on the brink of suicidal despair, unable to find a cure for the
headaches and other ailments that plague him.

When he agrees to treat Nietzsche
with his experimental "talking cure," Breuer never expects that he too will
find solace in their sessions. Only through facing his own inner demons can the
gifted healer begin to help his patient. In When Nietzsche Wept, Irvin
Yalom blends fact and fiction, atmosphere and suspense, to unfold an
unforgettable story about the redemptive power of friendship.

From the Back Cover

In nineteenth-century Vienna, a drama of love, fate, and will is played out amid the intellectual ferment that defined the era. Josef Breuer, one of the founding fathers of psychoanalysis, is at the height of his career. Friedrich Nietzsche, Europe's greatest philosopher, is on the brink of suicidal despair, unable to find a cure for the headaches and other ailments that plague him.

When he agrees to treat Nietzsche with his experimental "talking cure," Breuer never expects that he too will find solace in their sessions. Only through facing his own inner demons can the gifted healer begin to help his patient. In When Nietzsche Wept, Irvin Yalom blends fact and fiction, atmosphere and suspense, to unfold an unforgettable story about the redemptive power of friendship.

Review Quotes

"An intelligent, carefully researched, richly imagined novel." - Boston Globe
"Strong and authentic. The element of surprise is a magical, jolting moment." - Washington Post Book World
"When Nietzsche Wept is the best dramatization of a great thinker's thought since Sartre's The Freud Scenario." - Chicago Tribune