Editing Friedrich Nietzsche (section)

=== Mental illness and death (1889–1900) ===
{{anchor|mental breakdown and death|breakdown|death}}[[File:Friedrich Nietzsche drawn by Hans Olde.jpg|thumb|Drawing by [[Hans Olde]] from the photographic series ''The Ill Nietzsche'', late 1899|251x251px]]On 3 January 1889, Nietzsche suffered a [[mental breakdown]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xeb80itrlRIC |title=The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche |date=1996 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-36767-7 |editor-last=Magnus |editor-first=Bernd |pages=79–81 |language=en |editor-last2=Higgins |editor-first2=Kathleen Marie}}</ref> Two policemen approached him after he caused a public disturbance in the streets of [[Turin]]. What happened remains unknown, but an often-repeated tale from shortly after his death states that Nietzsche witnessed the flogging of a horse at the other end of the Piazza Carlo Alberto, ran to the horse, threw his arms around its neck to protect it, then collapsed to the ground.{{Sfn |Kaufmann |1974 |p=67}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Verrecchia |first=Anacleto |title=Nietzsche in Italy |date=1988 |publisher=ANMA Libri, [[Stanford University]] |editor-last=Harrison |editor-first=T. |location=Stanford |pages=105–112 |chapter=Nietzsche's Breakdown in Turin}}</ref> In the following few days, Nietzsche sent short writings—known as the ''Wahnzettel'' or ''Wahnbriefe'' (literally "Delusion notes" or "letters")—to a number of friends including [[Cosima Wagner]] and [[Jacob Burckhardt]]. Most of them were signed "[[Dionysus]]", though some were also signed "der Gekreuzigte" meaning "the crucified one". To his former colleague Burckhardt, Nietzsche wrote:<ref>{{Cite web |last=Simon |first=Gerald |date=January 1889 |title=Nietzsches Briefe. Ausgewählte Korrespondenz. Wahnbriefe. |trans-title=Nietzsche's letters. Selected Correspondence. delusional letters. |url=http://www.thenietzschechannel.com/correspondence/ger/nilettersg.htm |access-date=24 August 2013 |publisher=The Nietzsche Channel |language=de |quote=Ich habe Kaiphas in Ketten legen lassen; auch bin ich voriges Jahr von den deutschen Ärzten auf eine sehr langwierige Weise gekreuzigt worden. Wilhelm, Bismarck und alle Antisemiten abgeschafft. |trans-quote=I put Caiaphas in chains; I was also crucified last year by the German doctors in a very lengthy manner. Wilhelm, Bismarck and all anti-Semites abolished.}}</ref><blockquote>I have had [[Caiaphas]] put in [[fetters]]. Also, last year I was crucified by the German doctors in a very drawn-out manner. [[Wilhelm II, German Emperor|Wilhelm]], [[Otto von Bismarck|Bismarck]], and all anti-Semites abolished.</blockquote>Additionally, he commanded the German emperor to go to Rome to be shot and summoned the European powers to take military action against Germany,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zweig |first=Stefan |author-link=Stefan Zweig |title=The Struggle with the Daimon: Hölderlin, Kleist and Nietzsche |date=1939 |publisher=[[Viking Press]] |series=Master Builders of the Spirit |volume=2 |page=524}}</ref> writing also that the pope should be put in jail and that he, Nietzsche, created the world and was in the process of having all antisemites shot dead.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nietzsches Briefe, Ausgewählte Korrespondenz, Wahnzettel 1889 |trans-title=Nietzsche's Letters, Selected Correspondence, Wahnzettel 1889 |url=http://www.thenietzschechannel.com/correspondence/ger/nlett1889g.htm |website=The Nietzsche Channel |language=de}}</ref>

[[File:Nietzsche Olde 05.JPG|left|thumb|Nietzsche in the care of his sister, 1899]]
On 6 January 1889, Burckhardt showed the letter he had received from Nietzsche to Overbeck. The following day, Overbeck received a similar letter and decided that Nietzsche's friends had to bring him back to Basel. Overbeck travelled to Turin and brought Nietzsche to a psychiatric clinic in Basel. By that time Nietzsche appeared fully in the grip of a serious mental illness,<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Malcolm |year=2011 |title=1889 |url=https://www.dartmouth.edu/~fnchron/1889.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120208181453/http://www.dartmouth.edu/~fnchron/1889.html |archive-date=8 February 2012 |access-date=28 September 2019 |website=Nietzsche Chronicle |publisher=[[Dartmouth College]]}}</ref> and his mother Franziska decided to transfer him to a clinic in [[Jena]] under the direction of [[Otto Binswanger]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Safranski |first=Rüdiger |url=https://archive.org/details/nietzschephiloso00safr_0/page/371 |title=Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |year=2003 |isbn=0-393-05008-4 |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/nietzschephiloso00safr_0/page/371 371]}}</ref> In January 1889, they proceeded with the planned release of ''[[Twilight of the Idols]]'', by that time already printed and bound. From November 1889 to February 1890, the art historian [[Julius Langbehn]] attempted to cure Nietzsche, claiming that the methods of the medical doctors were ineffective in treating Nietzsche's condition.<ref>{{Cite web |editor-last=Sorensen |editor-first=Lee |title=Langbehn, Julius |url=http://arthistorians.info/langbehnj |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190608170651/http://arthistorians.info/langbehnj |archive-date=8 June 2019 |access-date=29 September 2019 |website=Dictionary of Art Historians}}</ref> Langbehn assumed progressively greater control of Nietzsche until his secretiveness discredited him. In March 1890, Franziska removed Nietzsche from the clinic and, in May 1890, brought him to her home in Naumburg.<ref name=":1" /> During this process Overbeck and Gast contemplated what to do with Nietzsche's unpublished works. In February, they ordered a fifty-copy private edition of ''[[Nietzsche contra Wagner]]'', but the publisher C. G. Naumann secretly printed one hundred. Overbeck and Gast decided to withhold publishing ''[[The Antichrist (book)|The Antichrist]]'' and ''[[Ecce Homo (book)|Ecce Homo]]'' because of their more radical content.<ref name=":1" /> Nietzsche's reception and recognition enjoyed their first surge.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Safranski |first=Rüdiger |url=https://archive.org/details/nietzschephiloso00safr_0/page/317 |title=Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |year=2003 |isbn=0-393-05008-4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/nietzschephiloso00safr_0/page/317 317–350]}}</ref>

In 1893, Nietzsche's sister, Elisabeth, returned from [[Nueva Germania]] in Paraguay following the suicide of her husband. She studied Nietzsche's works and, piece by piece, took control of their publication. Overbeck was dismissed and Gast finally co-operated. After the death of Franziska in 1897, Nietzsche lived in [[Weimar]], where Elisabeth cared for him and allowed visitors, including [[Rudolf Steiner]] (who in 1895 had written ''Friedrich Nietzsche: A Fighter Against His Time'', one of the first books praising Nietzsche),<ref>{{Cite book |last=Steiner |first=Rudolf |title=Friedrich Nietzsche, in Kämpfer seine Zeit |year=1895 |location=Weimar |language=de |trans-title=Friedrich Nietzsche, in Fighters of His Time}}</ref> to meet her uncommunicative brother. Elisabeth employed Steiner as a tutor to help her to understand her brother's philosophy. Steiner abandoned the attempt after only a few months, declaring that it was impossible to teach her anything about philosophy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bailey |first=Andrew |title=First Philosophy: Fundamental Problems and Readings in Philosophy |publisher=[[Broadview Press]] |year=2002 |page=704}}</ref>
[[File:Eh-dm-27.JPG|thumb|upright|After the breakdown, [[Heinrich Köselitz|Peter Gast]] "corrected" Nietzsche's writings without his approval.|alt=|left|350x350px]]

Nietzsche's insanity was originally diagnosed as [[tertiary syphilis]], in accordance with a prevailing medical paradigm of the time. Although most commentators{{who|date=May 2021}} regard his breakdown as unrelated to his philosophy, [[Georges Bataille]] wrote poetically of his condition ("'Man incarnate' must also go mad")<ref name="Bataille">{{Cite journal |last1=Bataille |first1=Georges |last2=Michelson |first2=Annette |date=Spring 1986 |title=Nietzsche's Madness |journal=[[October (journal)|October]] |volume=36 |pages=42–45 |doi=10.2307/778548 |jstor=778548}}</ref> and [[René Girard]]'s postmortem psychoanalysis posits a worshipful rivalry with [[Richard Wagner]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Girard |first=René |author-link=René Girard |year=1976 |title=Superman in the Underground: Strategies of Madness – Nietzsche, Wagner, and Dostoevsky. |journal=[[Modern Language Notes]] |volume=91 |pages=1161–1185 |doi=10.2307/2907130 |jstor=2907130 |s2cid=163754306 |number=6}}</ref> Girard suggests that Nietzsche signed his final letters as both Dionysus and the Crucified One because he was demonstrating that by being a god (Dionysus), one is also a victim (Crucified One) since a god still suffers by overcoming the law. Nietzsche had previously written, "All superior men who were irresistibly drawn to throw off the yoke of any kind of morality and to frame new laws had, if they were not actually mad, no alternative but to make themselves or pretend to be mad."  (Daybreak, 14) The diagnosis of syphilis has since been challenged and a diagnosis of "[[bipolar disorder|manic-depressive illness]] with periodic [[psychosis]] followed by [[vascular dementia]]" was put forward by Cybulska prior to Schain's study.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cybulska |first=E. M. |year=2000 |title=The madness of Nietzsche: a misdiagnosis of the millennium? |journal=Hospital Medicine |volume=61 |issue=8 |pages=571–575 |doi=10.12968/hosp.2000.61.8.1403 |pmid=11045229}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Schain |first=Richard |title=The Legend of Nietzsche's Syphilis |publisher=[[Greenwood Press]] |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-313-31940-2 |location=Westport}}{{Page needed|date=September 2010}}</ref> [[Leonard Sax]] suggested the slow growth of a right-sided retro-orbital [[meningioma]] as an explanation of Nietzsche's dementia;<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sax |first=Leonard |year=2003 |title=What was the cause of Nietzsche's dementia? |journal=Journal of Medical Biography |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=47–54 |doi=10.1177/096777200301100113 |pmid=12522502 |s2cid=6929185}}</ref> Orth and Trimble postulated [[frontotemporal dementia]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Orth |first1=M. |last2=Trimble |first2=M. R. |year=2006 |title=Friedrich Nietzsche's mental illness – general paralysis of the insane vs. frontotemporal dementia |journal=Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica |volume=114 |issue=6 |pages=439–444; discussion 445 |doi=10.1111/j.1600-0447.2006.00827.x |pmid=17087793 |s2cid=25453044}}</ref> while other researchers have proposed a hereditary stroke disorder called [[CADASIL]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hemelsoet |first1=D. |last2=Hemelsoet |first2=K. |last3=Devreese |first3=D. |date=March 2008 |title=The neurological illness of Friedrich Nietzsche |journal=Acta Neurologica Belgica |volume=108 |issue=1 |pages=9–16 |pmid=18575181}}</ref> Poisoning by [[mercury (element)|mercury]], a treatment for syphilis at the time of Nietzsche's death,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Dayan |first1=L. |last2=Ooi |first2=C. |date=October 2005 |title=Syphilis treatment: old and new |journal=Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy |volume=6 |issue=13 |pages=2271–2280 |doi=10.1517/14656566.6.13.2271 |pmid=16218887 |s2cid=6868863}}</ref> has also been suggested.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hammond |first=David |title=Mercury Poisoning: The Undiagnosed Epidemic |date=2013 |page=11}}</ref>

In 1898 and 1899, Nietzsche suffered at least two strokes. They partially paralysed him, leaving him unable to speak or walk. He likely suffered from clinical [[hemiparesis]]/hemiplegia on the left side of his body by 1899. After contracting [[pneumonia]] in mid-August 1900, he suffered another stroke during the night of 24–25 August and died at about noon on 25 August.<ref>Concurring reports in Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche's biography (1904) and a letter by Mathilde Schenk-Nietzsche to [[Meta von Salis]], 30 August 1900, quoted in Janz (1981) p. 221. Cf. Volz (1990), p. 251.</ref> Elisabeth had him buried beside his father at the church in [[Röcken]] near [[Lützen]]. His friend and secretary Gast gave his funeral oration, proclaiming: "Holy be your name to all future generations!"<ref>{{Cite web |last=Schain |first=Richard |title=Nietzsche's Visionary Values – Genius or Dementia? |url=http://www.philosophos.com/philosophy_article_31.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060513011228/http://www.philosophos.com/philosophy_article_31.html |archive-date=13 May 2006 |publisher=Philosophos}}</ref>

[[File:Röcken (Lützen), the grave of Friedrich Nietzsche.jpg|thumb|Nietzsche's grave at [[Röcken]] in Germany.]]
[[Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche]] compiled ''[[The Will to Power (manuscript)|The Will to Power]]'' from Nietzsche's unpublished notebooks and published it posthumously in 1901. Because his sister arranged the book based on her own conflation of several of Nietzsche's early outlines and took liberties with the material, the scholarly consensus has been that it does not reflect Nietzsche's intent. (For example, Elisabeth removed aphorism 35 of ''The Antichrist'', where Nietzsche rewrote a passage of the Bible.) Indeed, [[Mazzino Montinari]], the editor of Nietzsche's ''[[Nachlass]]'', called it a forgery.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Montinari |first=Mazzino |author-link=Mazzino Montinari |title=The 'Will to Power' Does Not Exist}}</ref>{{Incomplete short citation|date=September 2024}} Yet, the endeavour to rescue Nietzsche's reputation by discrediting ''The Will to Power'' often leads to scepticism about the value of his late notes, even of his whole ''Nachlass''. However, his ''Nachlass'' and ''The Will to Power'' are distinct.<ref name=":3" />