I don't even remember why I looked up the topic of whether or not Nietzsche died of neurosyphilis. OK, yes I do: it was because I Googled whether Beethoven had died a virgin (the jury's out on that), but someone's list of famous virgins contained Nietzsche too. (It suggested he got his syphilis medically - something I had never heard before, but I haven't tracked down who came up with that idea.)
Anyhow, it turns out that there has been a substantial body of doubt about whether N really did have the dreaded disease at all, and you can read on line a pretty good argument made out in 2003 by Leonard Sax in the Journal of Medical Biography as to why he did not. (It's a .pdf).
Given that the Wikipedia entry for N contains not only the common belief that he caught syphilis from a female prostitute, but also an alternative theory that he was gay and caught it in a male brothel in Genoa, it's pretty clear that is very broad uncertainty indeed as to what went on in Friedrich's sex life, if anything.
The Sax article is particularly interesting because it notes that there are examples of bizarre thoughts going on in Nietzsche's head, suggestive of mental issues, going right back to adolescence.
Not only that, but I also get to drag in my personal jihad against cannabis from this part of the paper, regarding N's sisters attempt to rehabilitate the image of her brother:
Mobius’ book came as a shock to Elisabeth. [He had re-stated the belief that N died of syphilis.] She set about the task of writing a definitive biography of her brother herself, to refute Mobius’ ‘‘vile insinuations’’. Her subsequent biography portrayed her brother as a saint. She included letters and testimonials from Nietzsche’s closest friends to the effect that he had always been chaste. Elisabeth suggested that the trigger for Nietzsche’s collapse was a mysterious ‘‘Javanese tea’’, which she claimed to have identified as Cannabis indica. Subsequent scholarship showed that Elisabeth’s suggestion was fantasy. There is no mention of ‘‘Javanese tea’’ or any variety of cannabis in any authenticated letter to or from Nietzsche. Elisabeth herself never mentioned it until the publication of Mobius’ book in 1902.What is this "cannabis indica"? Well, the Hash Museum of Amsterdam website (not a regular cyberhaunt of mine, but I figured it was more likely to be reliable than the scores of pothead sites that came up) confirms that it is closely related to cannabis sativa and certainly contains lots of cannabinoids and is used to get high.
OK, so it turns out no one believes Elisabeth was right; but as I say, biographers can't even decide if he was a virgin or male brothel customer.
I therefore choose to believe what suits my biases: Nietzsche may well have gone mad due to using cannabis. Take that, Jason Soon... hahahaha.
Update: first version spelt his name about 4 different ways. I think I have finally got it right. Who can trust a philosopher whose name is so hard to remember, anyway?
Literally hundreds of studies point to cannabinoids being protective against a range of neuropathologies. What could have caused his dementia is the then widespread use of mercury compounds to treat a range of ailments, including syphilis.
ReplyDeleteAs for the psychosis angle, at his age highly unlikely. Despite what you read in the papers or hear from some "specialist",there is still a lot of debate about the risks of cannabis and psychosis in those over 21. As for the lung cancer incidence, two weeks ago a review I read stated that two huge US studies found no association with lung cancer and another I read found none with COPD. I'm doubtful about the latter, I think that can happen, the former is easy to understand.