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Early psychoanalytic reception of Friedrich Nietzsche Friday 18 May 2007 In this meeting of the seminar `Psychoanalysis and German Studies´ we will be focussing on the reception of the work of Friedrich Nietzsche by the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society in 1908. Nietzsche´s works formed the basis for discussion at two of the Wednesday evening meetings of the Society that year: on 1 April the group discussed the Third Essay from Zur Genealogie der Moral (sections 5-9), and on 28 October the text for discussion was Nietzsche´s (only recently published) autobiography Ecce homo. The freewheeling debates represent some of the earliest psychoanalytic engagement with Nietzsche´s work, including contributions from Adler, Rank and Freud himself. Topics range from speculative remarks on Nietzsche´s sexuality and insanity to more general discussion of the relation between psychoanalysis and philosophy. Nietzsche´s achievement in anticipating some of the key findings of psychoanalysis is acknowledged and appreciated, yet Freud´s reception of his philosophical precursor is decidedly ambivalent. The minutes of the two meetings give a fascinating insight into the dynamics of Freud´s circle and the milieu of early Nietzsche reception in Vienna. They will be introduced, respectively, by Martin Liebscher (IGRS) and Duncan Large (Swansea), and are available for downloading from the IGRS website here: http://igrs.sas.ac.uk/events/PsychSem18May07.pdf ------------------------------------------ Dr Duncan Large School of Arts/German, Swansea University Singleton Park, GB-Swansea SA2 8PP Tel.: +44 (0)1792 205678, extn. 4729 Home tel./fax: +44 (0)1792 204167 http://www.swan.ac.uk/german/large.htm