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0462/2016 - The breakdown in turin: Nietzsche’s pathographies and medical rationalities.
O colapso de turim: Patografias de nietzsche e racionalidades médicas.

Author:

• Rogerio da Silva Paes Henriques - Henriques, Rogerio da Silva Paes - Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicologia Social - <ruggerosph@gmail.com>

Thematic Area:

História e Saúde

Abstract:

At age 44, after suffering a breakdown in Turin, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche received the following medical diagnosis: neurosyphilis. There was no necropsy on his body, so this medical diagnosis has been questioned over the time. We conducted a literature review about medical diagnosis of Nietzsche. It emphasizes three genres of pathographies that emerged successively as alternatives explanations for Nietzsche’s breakdown in Turin: (1) narratives about syphilis (“demoniac-pathological”); (2) narratives about functional psychosis (“heroic-prophetic”); (3) other narratives about organic diseases, distinctsyphilis (“scientific-realistic”). The latter – which correspond to our study object itself in this work – undertake retrospective diagnostics, trying to extract the \"truth\" underlying the disease and elucidating the \"case Nietzsche.\" We inquire this detective impetus, taken to the extreme by “evidence-based medicine”, and we denounce its anachronism. Syphilis has become a scientific fact only after the death of Nietzsche. We conclude that the diagnosis he received is shown to be consistent with the nineteenth-century medical rationality and the syphilis status as a cultural fact at that time.

Keywords:

breakdown in TurinNietzschepathographies

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Henriques, Rogerio da Silva Paes. The breakdown in turin: Nietzsche’s pathographies and medical rationalities.. Cien Saude Colet [periódico na internet] (2016/Oct). [Citado em 19/09/2024]. Está disponível em: http://cienciaesaudecoletiva.com.br/en/articles/the-breakdown-in-turin-nietzsches-pathographies-and-medical-rationalities/15888?id=15888



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