Nietzsche Trauma and Overcoming

"Nietzsche Trauma and Overcoming " shows that Nietzsche suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and most probably was a victim of childhood sex abuse. I bring convincing evidence from his texts to support these claims, along with a discussion of corroborating psychological findings on these issues. I show that he teaches coping with pain and suffering, based on his life experience, with lessons from the school of war, the wisdom of reinterpretation, and artistic activity. His three themes of the Superman, Eternal Recurrence, and the Will to Power, the heart of his philosophy and psychology, are understood in a new light, in relation to his personal suffering and overcoming.

The book criticizes the attempts to diagnose Nietzsche as suffering from various psychiatric disorders, psychoanalyze him as a fatherless child grown old, and outing him as a closet homosexual. These approaches lead to a dead-end. Firstly, it is impossible to prove that someone is a paragon of mental health, not a covert homosexual, and unmoved by a parent’s death. Secondly, these speculations explain only a small part of Nietzsche’s personal statements, found in his writings. Thirdly, and most importantly, they do not change our understanding of his ideas and how they were arrived at; they do not increase our appreciation of him; and do not leave us with any lessons for life (the goal of any good writing according to Nietzsche).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1 NIETZSCHE AD HOMINEM
The Author-Text Connection
Travel Books and Masks
Nietzsche’s Quest
On Psychological Types

Chapter 2 STEREOTYPES AND SPECULATIONS
The Ills of Diagnosis
The Father Complex
Outing Nietzsche

Chapter 3 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND RIDDLES
Painful Riddles
Suffering and Trauma
The Trauma of War
The Multifaceted Torture of the Psychologist

Chapter 4 NIETZSCHE, DIONYSUS AND JESUS
Nietzsche, Dionysus, and Apollo
Two First-born Sons
Human Fathers

Chapter 5 POISON AND STENCH
Poisonous Relationships
Self-poisoning and Resentment
An Assortment of Poisons

Chapter 6 SNAKES AND MONSTERS
The Vision and the Riddle
The Sleepwalker Song
The Type of the Psychologist

Chapter 7 ABUSED CHILDREN AND ADULT SURVIVORS
Adverse Childhood Experiences
Adult Survivors of Sexual Trauma
The Inner World of Sexually Abused Children
An Idea from the Abyss

Chapter 8 PAIN AND SUFFERING
How Much Pain Can I Endure?
Nietzsche’s Emotional Pendulum
Life is a Woman
Faults and Blunders

Chapter 9 SAGE, WARRIOR AND CREATOR
The Great Suffering
The Way of the Sage
The Way of the Warrior
The Way of the Creator
Post-Traumatic Growth

Chapter 10 THE THREE OVERCOMINGS
The Search for Meaning
Dionysian Holism
The Will to Power
Superman and Higher Persons
Eternal Recurrence

ENDNOTES
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
INDEX

Uri Wernik, Psy.D is a senior clinical and medical psychologist, and certified sex therapist. He is in private practice and his work experience includes heading a unit for autistic adolescents in a psychiatric hospital, working with staff and students in an Academy of Art and Design, and facilitating groups for bereaved parents.
Dr. Wernik is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a founding member and former chairman of The Israeli Association for Sex Therapy, and a member of the board of directors of Transtherapy.org. He is the author of Nietzschean Psychology and Psychotherapy: The new doctors of the soul (Lexington Books: Lanham, Maryland, 2016), Chance Action Therapy: The playful way of changing (New York, Nova Science Publishers, 2010), and eight books in Hebrew, among them I Qoheleth [Ecclesiastes]: Psychologist, Philosopher, Poet (Jerusalem: Carmel, 1998). He also published articles on psychotherapy, sexuality, psychology of religion, and creativity. Additional information can be found at his website http://www.therapy.co.il

Nietzsche, philosophy, psychology, trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) childhood sex abuse (CSA), psychobiography, creativity, interpretation, reframing, resilience, post-traumatic growth, Will to Power, Eternal Recurrence, Superman, Overman, warrior, artist, pain, suffering, poisonous parenting, adverse childhood experiences (ACE), acceptance, amor fati, Dionysus, Apollo, depression, anxiety, father complex, Jesus, riddles, search for meaning, survivor, Zarathustra