Nietzsche Didn’t Die of Syphilis
by Hanna
Some of the romance does seem to go away from Nietzsche’s character, when a recent medical study claims he didn’t die of syphilis. It implies that he didn’t visit brothels and his delusions of grandeur were symptoms of a neurological disease called frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
It explains even his recurrent migraines, which according to Salomé in Friedrich Nietzsche in seinen Werken were the reason for constant, creative transformations in his thought, as if not his body, but his thoughts were in a cycle of illness and recovery. Nietzsche claimed his father had the same symptoms (which are not scientifically documented and therefore untraceable). This shows that the migraines can not themselves be considered symptoms of his thought processes. But the study goes even further to claim that the migraines were indicators of the same neurological disease that caused his insanity and death.
I am in awe of how Nietzsche was able to draw on his pain to achieve greatness. It is clear that self-pity can never lead there. The question is however, was he able to see beyond his pain to actually behold other people? Or did his pain confine him to a certain awareness of self that although it overcame self-pity was limited to a European kind of enlightenment that doesn’t go as far as some Buddhist forms? Any ideas?
For more on the study, see Mind Hack’s post on it.
For the medical case study itself, see the article from Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica on EBSCO.
Surely, the fact he didn’t die of Syphilis doesn’t mean
1. He didn’t have it.
2. He didn’t visit brothels?
Thanks for your comment Rob! You make great points. Let me try to draw from what the medical study says to respond.
1. Syphilis is called GPI in the study. “When precisely Nietzsche first developed symptoms of this final illness remains unresolved. With certainty, he gradually developed ideas of grandiosity, memory problems and behavioural changes in the summer and autumn of 1888, but there are hints that he was showing signs of deterioration perhaps a year or two earlier. Thus, when he finally died it was after having suffered from his mental illness for at least 12 years. We opine that this would be unusually long for a case of untreated GPI.” (442) The study says that eople with untreated syphilis rarely lived longer than 3 years after the first appearance of symptoms. Therefore, scientifically speaking, he probably didn’t have syphilis. However, I’m not going to argue against the value of the cultural myth (I think myths are valuable).
2. I didn’t say he never went to brothels. I said the study implies—or rather takes as a premise—that he didn’t because of the following anecdote: “Nietzsche told [his friend] Deussen of a time when he inadvertently found himself in a brothel in Cologne, rather than a restaurant, but his only response was to go to the piano and play it! Thus, the evidence for a primary infection with syphilis remains uncertain.” (442)
OK, that makes sense, thanks.
Syphilis is caused by the treponema pallidum sprichete. Even if it is considered a sexually transmitted disease, it isn’t always acquired through sexual contact. There are rare cases where the infectious organism is passed on through open wounds or lesions as point of entry. Syphilis may also be passed on from mother to fetus during pregnancy and childbirth. It is a sad fact, though, that 25 percent of fetuses born of syphilitic mothers end up in stillbirths, while the remaining 75 percent develop congenital syphilis which may aggravate into another medical complication if left untreated. Also, people with syphilitic sores who remain sexually active are at higher risk of acquiring HIV or AIDS.,
Remember to look at our web portal
<http://www.foodsupplementcenter.com/gymnema-sylvestre-side-effects/