The Unrealized Duo (About the relationship of Lou Andreas-Salomé and Friedrich Nietzsche)

Abstract

This article is devoted to two great figures of European culture – Lou Andreas-Salomé and Friedrich Nietzsche. Fate has bound them as like-minded thinkers. For many years they maintained a friendship and theoretical unanimity. This article illustrates that mutual love can sublimate itself in joint work, in search of new ideas and concepts.

Nietzsche was, apparently, the first philosopher, who introduced the theme of suffering in philosophical discourse. Of course, in the history of philosophy were attempts to analyze this feeling. But Nietzsche gave a detailed phenomenology of this experience, suffering its different embodiments literally. First of all, he tried to glorify suffering, noting the ability of this sense to facilitate the ascent of the soul. However, he convincingly showed that it was not only the aspiration to spiritual heights. On the contrary, suffering is often associated with revenge and malice. Such a paradoxical combination of internal psychological states would later be called masochism.

But Nietzsche was not only a researcher of introspective world of man. He has also created a peculiar concept of man which can be called apophatic. The meaning of this philosophical-anthropological version was that: the enlightening elevation of a man is not justified. Man is a creature that combines contradictory features. In other words, each of us is a creature and Creator, each of us is clay, dirt, nonsense, chaos.

As for Salome, she, too, was not alien to philosophy. She quickly grasp new ideas and was able not only reproduce them, but also greatly enrich these thoughts with her own bright reflection. So, the philosopher and his female friend have tender feelings to each other. Even if the relationship between Nietzsche and Salomé was limited to common interest in romantic poetry, this meeting would have left a deep trace in Nietzsche’s soul. But the influence of Salome on the works of the philosopher was more profound. This led Nietzsche to think about the justification of suffering in the life of every person, because without it, human existence would lose its charm.

The article also shows that Nietzsche dreamed about marriage with Lou, but she wasn't ready to force their own views to create such an alliance. This “non-realized duo” left a deep mark on Nietzsche’s soul. It largely determined the tragic sight of the philosopher on the problems of life and impacted on the world of his feelings. Nietzsche eventually began to poeticize loneliness, his work showed his views that he expressed maliciously and passionately. Love, as shown in the article is able to inspire people, to inspire their work and give it spiritual depth and originality. Without amorous feelings between Friedrich Nietzsche and Lou Salomé and their long-term joint work, it is unlikely that Nietzsche would have reached the heights which we acknowledge now. But Lou also would not become a famous writer and psychoanalyst without meeting with Nietzsche.

The authors analyze the theme of suffering in pre-Nietzschean historical-philosophical tradition. It is known that Kant, like Nietzsche, was thinking about why suffering attracts some people. However, the German thinker did not consider this experience as a paradoxical combination of morbid states and pleasure, which the individual receives from such feelings. Kant considered the suffering and joy separately, not denoting their mutual attraction. Kant believed that no one wants another to experience suffering to feel his own well-being. Nietzsche first saw in pain a special kind of pleasure. The sufferer derives pleasure from the fact that he causes pain to the other and thus feels his superiority. Therefore, the suffering does not disappear, but rather multiplies.

It is necessary to have special intellectual insight to guess in suffering such emotional states as malice and desire to hurt. Traditional ethics interpreted human emotions as stable and transparent. Suffering is one thing, and malice is quite another. The sufferer deserves a sympathy and pity, and evil people – no. However, Nietzsche’s anthropological instinct shows that these conditions intersect and find the opposite meaning. Malice may transform into compassion and suffering may bring pleasure, inflicting pain on other people. Actually, people often have fun hurting other people with "a small fraction of malice".

The analysis of Salome’s reasoning about Nietzsche, by which she tried to give readers a more accurate idea of the spiritual world of the philosopher, is of great interest. She eventually became the interpreter of his work and his personality. The authors raise the question: why exactly Lou Salomé acts as a commentator of Nietzsche's ideas? What allows her to understand the caracter of the philosopher and his thirst for suffering? The article put forward the idea that Lou Salomé gave a very objective and accurate assessment of the philosopher’s personality and the meaning of his ideas. There was always the shadow of the great philosopher behind all writings of Salome. Lou Salomé testified that all ideas that Nietzsche developed or left for further consideration, were largely the story of his inner life, his inner struggle. Such a conclusion can venture only one who knew Nietzsche not only by his writings. Lou Salomé, presumably, had that right not only as a friend of Nietzsche, but also as a versatile researcher.

The contribution of Nietzsche to the philosophical interpretation of suffering is priceless. Undoubtedly, the attempt of the philosopher to recreate the world based on his own soul could not help searching of personal introspection. This in turn led Nietzsche to the suffering from himself, to the discontent with himself. This is what has formed, according to Lou, the fundamental principle of his spiritual being.