The Legend of Nietzsche's Syphilis (review)

As the title indicates, Richard Schain's biography of the great philosopher is an attempt—a successful one, it seems to this reviewer—to show that he did not suffer (as is usually claimed) from syphilitic, but from schizophrenic madness. (The serologic test to diagnose the sexually acquired mental illness was introduced by Wasserman only six years after Nietzsche's death.) In contrast or in addition to the many previous biographies, this book focuses on the medical aspects of Nietzsche's life. He shared both migraine and epilepsy with several members of his family; he had cholera twice, as well as diphtheria and dysentery.

Nietzsche's talents were many, especially musical: he played the piano once in a brothel, and even composed music. He studied theology and philology, and in 1869 he went to Basel, becoming professor of philology and a Swiss citizen—but then he joined the Prussian army fighting the French. Returning to his sister in Saxony, now age thirty-four, he wrote: "My existence is a 'fearful' burden," yet, "this pleasure in knowledge brings me to heights in which I am victorious" (p. 26). At age forty-nine, after having completed Also Sprach Zarathustra, he wrote: "everything is boring, painful, degoutant. . . . I . . . have a sense of imperfection" (p. 29).

Nietzsche never used the typewriter given him as a present. He drank no alcohol or coffee, according to Stefan Zweig. He lived in a shabby chambre garnie, his clumsy wooden trunk containing only a second old suit—but there were lots of books and manuscripts, and boxes of tinctures against headaches such as chloral and veronal, which often made him groggy. For his chorioretinitis he saw the famous A. Graefe in Halle and received a poor prognosis. In his works between 1880 and 1884 there are passages about madness, one about the madman seeking God with a lantern. He quotes Plato saying "the greatest benefits have come to Greece through madness" (p. 34).

Chapters 6, 7, and 8 are about the philosopher's breakdown in Turin, his fourteen months in a Jena madhouse, and his "descent into apathy," with constant headache and vomiting in the summer of 1888 "in which the whole machine isn't good for anything. Or rather I can think clearly but not favorably over my situation" (p. 37). He had completed his last three works. From November 1888 to 6 January 1889 he wrote one hundred letters; Schain quotes from one of the last week (a whole printed page long), containing such phrases as: "Since I was condemned to spend the next eternity making bad, so I do a little writing here which really doesn't require much, very pretty, and not at all demanding" (p. 40).

In the spring of 1888, aged forty-four, Nietzsche traveled to the important city of Turin, recommended to him by a friend. It was here that he spent the rest of the year and lapsed into acute mania after finishing Ecce homo, his autobiographic masterpiece. He also exchanged letters with August Strindberg. On his admission to the asylum in Friedensblatt he recognized the admitting physician, whom he had met several years before, and remained "obedient and obliging," enjoying his meal and bath (p. 50); the diagnosis was "progressive paralysis." At his mother's request he was transferred to the Jena asylum, closer to her home. He stayed there for fourteen months, under Binswanger, and under the influence of Griesinger.

Today Nietzsche's symptoms would be characterized as a manic psychosis. Although he was quite reasonable at times, he would also urinate in his water glass, among other psychotic activities (such as breaking a window when he saw a rifle behind it). The treatment was urinary "inunctions." He recognized his mother and spoke quite intelligibly with her, went for walks with her, and was...