Timothy Abraham

Thanks to this book, I have grown to love, respect and have a tender spot in my heart for Nietzsche. Based on the infamous quote "God is Dead" I always took him to be an arrogant man who didn't know what he was talking about. A book like this helps me take Nietzsche in his own context. It is so easy to read, fun, intellectually stimulating, and I keep feeling that I am getting more and more educated. Nietzsche had such a gentle soul but in his books he sounded shrill, often combative. How is that? Well, it's no great mystery. If no one will listen, it's only natural to shout (p.195). He wrote for us, for you and me, as his philosophy was about life and for life. This reminds me of why Sartre also wrote books of philosophy when he never intended to philosophize, per se; he only was writing about as we generally live it. From chapter 15 onwards, Nietzsche is an outstanding psychotherapist who knows the ins and outs of human soul and helps Dr Breuer with his despair. They swap roles and the doctor here is the patient. Nietzsche's writing succeeds not because he is intelligent or scholarly but because he has the daring to detach himself from the comfort of the herd and face strong and evil inclinations, and what doesn't kill him will make him stronger as usual. The most important lesson that I am learning from this book, what is sticking in my brain and I would love to keep remembering it is what Nietzsche is advising Dr Breur to do:Be a man and do not follow me-but yourself. But yourself! Here he is warning against subordination to people and that we should copycat nobody. To each is their own path. Follow your own calling. Call no man a father. My way might be perfect for me, but it is not necessarily perfect for you as well. The best I can do is to help you find your own way, but never to encourage you to blindly find my way. Become yourself. Stick to who you are.