Freud's Relationship to Nietzsche: Some Preliminary Considerations

From the early years in the development of psychoanalysis through the present day, there has been discussion and debate regarding the extent to which Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900) discussed and elaborated upon ideas generally ascribed to Freud (1856-1939) as well as the extent to which Freud may have been influenced by Nietzsche in the development of a number of fundamental psychoanalytic concepts.

Freud stated on more than one occasion that he never studied Nietzsche (although he made attempts to do so and ceased when he felt “smothered by an excess of interest” [Nunberg and Federn, 1962, p. 354]) and gave assurances that Nietzsche had no influence upon the development of his own ideas. He stated that in fact he avoided reading Nietzsche during certain periods (the timing on these periods is never made clear) because he knew he would find ideas similar to his own; this much was quite clear to him and he wished to preserve the autonomy of his thought.

During the early years and decades of the development of psychoanalysis, many observers, both within and outside of the psychoanalytic community, commented on the similarities between the ideas of Nietzsche and Freud. A number of the early analysts were familiar with Nietzsche's writings. Gregory Zilboorg (1961) wrote that as early as 1905 Eduard Hitschmann read a paper in Freud's house on the subject of a comparison of the ideas of Freud and Nietzsche (pp. viii-ix). At two meetings of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society in 1908 at which, respectively, Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo were discussed, members present commented