Nietzsche’s Therapy of Therapy

Bibliographic Data

ID23199665
AuthorsMarta Faustino (0000-0002-5492-8539, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume46
Issue1
Publication date2017-12-20
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueNietzsche Studien (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0342-1422 • E-ISSN: 1613-0790
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/nietzstu-2017-0107
OpenAlexW2791869976
LanguageEN
Citations received3

This paper examines Nietzsche’s relation to the therapeutic philosophical tradition paradigmatically represented by the Hellenistic schools. On the one hand, given his project of rehabilitating Western culture and his understanding of the philosopher as a “physician of culture”, Nietzsche seems also to hold a therapeutic understanding of philosophy; on the other hand, he is extremely critical of any (philosophical, moral or religious) attempt to heal mankind. This paper does not aim to solve this tension but rather characterizes Nietzsche’s endeavor in this respect as a therapy of therapy. Through analysis of a) the basic features of the Hellenistic conception of philosophy, b) Nietzsche’s development of the analogy of the “philosophical physician”, c) his diagnosis of culture, and d) his criticism of previous therapists, I show that Nietzsche can be formally included in this tradition of thought, even if this inclusion has implications for the tradition itself. As I suggest, given the self-referentiality of Nietzsche’s therapy, his inclusion in this tradition might in fact simultaneously entail its own self-suppression.

Analogy · Criticism · Epistemology · Inclusion (mineral) · Literature · Psychotherapist · Relation (database) · Social science · Sociology · Education, Literature, Philosophy Research · Medicine · Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and Hegel · Philosophy · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism · Psychology

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