When Nietzsche Wept (2007) on Netflix
Lou Salome writes to Viennese doctor Josef Breuer about his talking cure. She wants him to treat Friedrich Nietzsche's migraines and, in secret, the despair her refusal of marriage left in him.
- Netflix3.2/5
- IMDb6.4/105,257 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Plot summary
Lou Salome writes to Josef Breuer, a Viennese doctor who has developed a talking cure, after she hears of it. Breuer is a friend and mentor to Sigmund Freud. Salome and Friedrich Nietzsche had a platonic attachment, and her refusal to marry him left him in despair. She asks Breuer to treat the migraines that plague Nietzsche and, without Nietzsche's knowledge, the despair behind them. Breuer is reluctant and troubled but agrees. Salome persuades Nietzsche's friend Franz Overbeck to send him to Breuer. Nietzsche gives the doctor no support, believing that accepting the treatment would mean surrendering his power, and the course of treatment must end.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about When Nietzsche Wept (2007)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film uses a real episode as a chilling parallel: Friedrich Nietzsche went mad after he used his own body to stop a man whipping a horse, then broke down in tears and descended into insanity. In the film, a mistreated horse prompts him to keep his appointment with Dr Josef Breuer.
- The despair Breuer confesses in the film is over his love for his patient Bertha Pappenheim, known as Anna O. That case was discussed in a joint book by Breuer and Freud in 1895, a work widely recognized as a major influence on early psychoanalysis.
