The Ways of the Unconscious: Nietzsche's Influence on Freud

It has gradually become clear to me what every great philosophy up till now has consisted of—namely, the confession of its originator, and a species of involuntary and unconscious autobiography. - Nietzsche (from Beyond Good and Evil)

Freud (1856-1939) of course will have a lot to say about the nature of the “unconscious” activity that Nietzsche (1844-1900) boldly claims underlies all great philosophies. Nietzsche relished being a provocateur, so this claim, like so many of his claims, is to be taken in that light. But he’s right that the Unconscious plays an outsize role in why philosophers (and the rest of us) feel and say and do—and think—as we do. It also plays an outsize role in human suffering, and therefore in healing.

In future notes I’ll be looking at how the Unconscious comes into play in our relationships and how to work with it. But I want in this short note to expose a philosophical root underlying Freud’s general idea of the Unconscious and its ways—one traceable to Nietzsche.

Nietzsche appears to have had a considerable influence on Freud’s thinking about the Unconscious and related matters. Though Freud repeatedly denied he’d ever read Nietzsche, the evidence suggests otherwise. Perhaps Freud had repressed the memory in his Unconscious in order to feel “emotionally more comfortable.” It seems likely Freud’s human all-too-human vanity made it hard to admit that some of his core ideas had been influenced by Nietzsche, among others. So he borrowed them without acknowledgement. (Freud’s lucky he wasn’t a university president!)

As an undergrad I was a passionate student of Nietzsche’s work. During that time I remember reading Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents. I was shocked to find no mention of Nietzsche in a work that seemed to me so infused with Nietzschean insights. So it was gratifying, years later, to find a scholarly article titled “The Influence of Nietzsche on Freud’s ideas.”¹ I quote the authors’ short abstract:

Background: The striking analogies between the ideas of Freud and Friedrich Nietzsche, whose works were published from one to three decades before those of Freud, have been commented upon, but no previous systematic correlation of the ideas of Nietzsche and Freud has been made.

Method: The major works of Nietzsche were read, and each possible analogy to an idea later broached by Freud was correlated by a systematic review of his works. Any references to Nietzsche in Freud's writings and reported conversations were culled.

Results: Concepts of Nietzsche which are similar to those of Freud include (a) the concept of the unconscious mind; (b) the idea that repression pushes unacceptable feelings and thoughts into the unconscious and thus makes the individual emotionally more comfortable and effective; (c) the conception that repressed emotions and instinctual drives later are expressed in disguised ways (for example, hostile feelings and ideas may be expressed as altruistic sentiments and acts); (d) the concept of dreams as complex, symbolic "illusions of illusions" and dreaming itself as a cathartic process which has healthy properties; and (e) the suggestion that the projection of hostile, unconscious feelings onto others, who are then perceived as persecutors of the individual, is the basis of paranoid thinking. Some of Freud's basic terms are identical to those used by Nietzsche.

Conclusion: Freud repeatedly stated that he had never read Nietzsche. Evidence contradicting this are his references to Nietzsche and his quotations and paraphrases of him, in causal conversation and his now published personal correspondence, as well as in his early and later writings.

As those familiar with Freud will appreciate, this summary describes major “concepts” of Nietzsche’s thought that are present in Civilization and its Discontents and other works. Of course Freud made major original contributions to our thinking about the Unconscious and how to work with it. Whatever ideas and inspiration he borrowed from Nietzsche, I come back to the fact that the truth is universal, and belongs to any and all who arrive at it. (Still, it’s good manners to acknowledge those who helped point the way!)

For those curious to learn more about Nietzsche’s influence on psychoanalysis, I recommend Irvin Yalom’s novel, When Nietzsche Wept. Yalom imagines a sustained encounter between Nietzsche and Josef Breuer. Breuer was Freud’s mentor and early collaborator. The conceit of the novel is that Nietzsche thinks he’s in treatment for his migraines. Whereas in fact Breuer has been asked by Nietzsche’s friend—the brilliant and beautiful Lou Andreas-Salomé—to save Nietzsche from a despair that threatens to deprive the world of his philosophy. (As a matter of history, Salomé was actually a friend of both Nietzsche and Freud, and also one of the first female psychoanalysts.) In a role reversal that mirrors the gist of this note, it turns out that Nietzsche has perhaps more insight to offer than his would-be therapist, Breuer. The plot thickens!

1. Chapman AH, Chapman-Santana M. The influence of Nietzsche on Freud's ideas. Br J Psychiatry. 1995 Feb;166(2):251-3. doi: 10.1192/bjp.166.2.251. PMID: 7728371.