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In a letter of February 1, 1900, Freud wrote to Wilhelm Fliess: “I have just acquired Nietzsche, in whom I hope to find words for much that remains mute in me, but have not opened him yet. Too
lazy for the time being” (Masson, 1985, p. 398). This cryptic utterance, for which no further illumination is provided in the context in which it appears, bears witness to the existence of an intellectual bond between two of the most influential thinkers of modern times. Discerning the precise nature of that bond is the daunting task that Ronald Lehrer has set for himself in his book, Nietzsche's Presence in Freud's Life and Thought.
It is always difficult for intellectual historians to assess the degree of influence that one thinker exerts on another, particularly when they have never met or openly acknowledged any influence. Freud explicitly stated on several occasions throughout his career that he had deliberately avoided reading the works of Nietzsche in order not to be influenced by him. The following statement from The History of the Psychoanalytic Movement is both typical and direct:
In later years I have denied myself the very great pleasure of reading the works of Nietzsche, with the deliberate object of not being hampered in working out the impressions received in psycho-analysis by any sort of anticipatory ideas. I had therefore to be prepared—and am so, gladly—to forgo all claims to priority in the many instances in which laborious psycho-analytic investigation can merely confirm the truths which the philosopher recognized by intuition. (Freud, 1914, pp. 15-16)
Although this statement explicitly denies any close familiarity with Nietzsche's works, it tacitly acknowledges at least a cursory acquaintance with some of the philosopher's central concepts, which Freud might have acquired before his self-imposed ban on reading him, and thus it provides the occasion for Lehrer to launch his inquiry.
What is the precise nature of Freud's acquaintance with Nietzsche's writings