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
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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
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