Turin's Breakdown: Nietzsche's Pathographies and Medical

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Turin's Breakdown: Nietzsche's Pathographies and Medical DOI: 10.1590/1413-812320182310.25602016 3421 O colapso de Turim: patografias de Nietzsche TEMAS LIVRES FREE THEMES e racionalidades médicas Turin’s breakdown: Nietzsche’s pathographies and medical rationalities Rogério Paes Henriques 1 Abstract At age 44, after suffering a breakdown Resumo Aos 44 anos, após sofrer um colapso in Turin, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was di- em Turim, o filósofo Friedrich Nietzsche recebeu agnosed with neurosyphilis. There was no necrop- o diagnóstico médico de neurossífilis. Devido à sy on his body, so this medical diagnosis has been ausência de autópsia em seu corpo, tal diagnósti- questioned over the time. We conducted a litera- co médico vem sendo questionado historicamen- ture review on the medical diagnosis of Nietzsche, te. Realizou-se a revisão da literatura disponível which emphasizes three genres of pathographies sobre o diagnóstico médico de Nietzsche. Desta- that emerged successively as alternatives expla- cam-se três gêneros patográficos que emergiram nations for Nietzsche’s breakdown in Turin: (1) sucessivamente como explicações para o colapso narratives about syphilis (“demoniac-patholog- de Turim: (1) narrativas sobre a sífilis (“demoní- ical”); (2) narratives about functional psychosis aco-patológicas”); (2) narrativas sobre as psicoses (“heroic-prophetic”); (3) other narratives about funcionais (“heroico-proféticas”); (3) narrativas organic diseases, other than syphilis (“scientif- sobre outras doenças orgânicas, distintas da sífilis ic-realistic”). The latter – which correspond to our (“científico-realistas”). Estas últimas – que corres- study object in this work – undertake retrospec- pondem ao nosso objeto de estudo propriamente tive diagnostics, attempting to retrieve the “truth” dito neste trabalho – empreendem diagnósticos underlying the disease and elucidate “Nietzsche’s retrospectivos, buscando extrair a “verdade” sub- affair”. We inquire this detective-like impetus, jacente à doença e elucidar o “caso Nietzsche”. currently taken to the extreme by “evidence-based Questionamos tal ímpeto detetivesco, exponen- medicine”, and we denounce its anachronism. ciado atualmente pela “medicina baseada em evi- Syphilis has become a scientific fact only after the dência”, e denunciamos seu anacronismo. A sífilis death of Nietzsche. We conclude that the diagno- tornou-se um fato científico somente após a morte sis he received is shown to be consistent with the de Nietzsche. Conclui-se que o diagnóstico por ele nineteenth-century medical rationality and the recebido mostra-se consistente com a racionalida- 1 Centro de Educação syphilis status as a cultural fact at that time. de médica oitocentista e com o estatuto da sífilis de Ciências Humanas, Key words Turin’s breakdown, Nietzsche, como um fato cultural naquela época. Departamento de Pathographies Palavras-chave Colapso de Turim, Nietzsche, Psicologia, Universidade Federal de Sergipe. Av. Patografias Marechal Rondon s/n, Jardim Rosa Elze. 49100-000 São Cristóvão SE Brasil. [email protected] 3422 Henriques RP Henriques Introdução De acordo com os distintos gêneros pato- gráficos existentes, percebe-se que o diagnóstico O filósofo apátrida Friedrich Nietzsche, nas- médico de Nietzsche, por não ser ponto pacífico cido na Alemanha, professor aposentado por mo- entre os autores, determina diferentes possibili- tivos de saúde na Suíça, já em sua fase nômade e dades de apreensão de sua produção textual. Ou solitária – em 7 de janeiro de 1889, aos 44 anos seja, a recepção de sua obra filosófica parece ser – sofreu um colapso ao perambular pela Praça influenciada pela presunção do seu diagnóstico Carlo Alberto, quando de sua estada em Turim, médico. Nesse sentido, o diagnóstico de Nietzs- na Itália. Janz1 relata que, compadecido com o che não seria um mero apêndice, importando a açoite de um cavalo, Nietzsche teria se lançado todos que se ocupam da sua obra. ao pescoço do animal, abraçando-o e, posterior- mente, teria caído desfalecido, encarnando assim Gêneros de patografias de Nietzsche uma personagem dostoievskiana. Em 10 de ja- neiro de 1889, ele foi internado em estado clara- Aschheim3 relata que a batalha do “nietzs- mente maníaco na clínica psiquiátrica Friedmatt chianismo”, como ele designa as múltiplas ten- – localizada na Basileia, cidade onde outrora ele dências que reivindicavam o legado de Nietzsche havia lecionado –, dirigida pelo Dr. Ludwig Wil- entre 1890 e 1914, se dava em torno de dois mo- le. Nessa instituição, Nietzsche recebeu o diag- dos opostos de recepção de sua obra: “demoníaco nóstico de “paralisia geral progressiva” – PGP -patológico” versus “heroico-profético”, oriundos (neurossífilis), posteriormente confirmado na respectivamente do eugenismo médico atrelado clínica psiquiátrica da Universidade de Iena, diri- à degeneração e dos movimentos vanguardistas gida pelo Dr. Otto Biswanger, para onde ele seria do fin-de-siècle. Para além de sua evidente opo- transferido a pedido de sua mãe. Tal diagnóstico sição, ambos os modos de recepção comparti- médico seria então assimilado pela posteridade lhavam uma linguagem mítico-existencial tipi- como explicação oficial de seu “afundamento” ficando Nietzsche em termos trans-humanos, (Zusammenbruch, segundo a expressão presen- envolto numa aura de potência sobrenatural. Os te nas correspondências nietzschianas), após o gêneros patográficos associados à sífilis e às psi- qual, Nietzsche foi acometido por um processo coses funcionais derivam respectivamente desse degenerativo demencial do qual ele nunca mais binarismo originário entre detratores e adora- se recuperaria. Seu amigo, Franz Overbeck, que dores de Nietzsche, inseridos no contexto cultu- o transladou de Turim a Basileia, testemunhan- ral mais amplo da disputa em torno da herança do sua devastação, afirmou dias após o colapso: nietzschiana. Desse modo, apropriando-nos dos “Nietzsche não existe mais!”1. Tornou-se conse- termos propostos por Aschheim, designaremos quentemente dependente de cuidados externos, as patografias associadas à sífilis por “demoníaco prestados respectivamente por sua mãe e irmã, -patológicas”, enquanto as patografias atreladas até sua morte em 25 de agosto de 1900. às psicoses funcionais serão chamadas de “heroi- O diagnóstico médico de Nietzsche nunca co-proféticas”. foi ponto pacífico entre os comentadores, sendo a primeira grande crítica a ele datada do início Patografias demoníaco-patológicas da década de 19302. Desde então, muitos são os O primeiro gênero, constituído pelas “pa- autores que tentam pôr em xeque a associação tografias demoníaco-patológicas”, confirma o de Nietzsche com a sífilis, originando por con- diagnóstico oficial de Nietzsche, inspirando-se seguinte dois gêneros patográficos alternativos na obra Degeneration, publicada por Max Nor- ao diagnóstico oficial: (1) narrativas sobre as dau em 1892. Médico e antimodernista convicto, psicoses funcionais; (2) narrativas sobre outras Nordau denunciava então a suposta degeneração doenças orgânicas, distintas da sífilis. A partir do social de sua época, da qual Nietzsche seria um início do século XXI, as críticas têm ganhado fô- emblemático porta-voz3. Em 1902, a intuição de lego, sobretudo, por parte de autores oriundos do Nordau foi desenvolvida por Möebius4, célebre campo médico que vêm propondo novas hipóte- médico que escreveu a primeira patografia es- ses diagnósticas de doenças orgânicas a Nietzsche, pecífica sobre Nietzsche, sendo posteriormente diferentes da sífilis. Visamos analisar aqui tais crí- estabelecida por Lange-Eichbaum5,6 nos seus res- ticas patográficas recentes de autores do campo pectivos trabalhos de 1930 e 1947. médico sobre Nietzsche, não sem antes apresentar Tanto Möebius quanto Lange-Eichbaum, se- o primeiro gênero alternativo supracitado e a pa- gundo a pior tradição literária psicobiográfica, tografia decorrente do diagnóstico oficial. acabariam por associar vida e obra do filósofo, 3423 Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, 23(10):3421-3431, 2018 23(10):3421-3431, Coletiva, & Saúde Ciência patologizando seus escritos de forma capciosa e Churchill, Silvia Path, John Lennon, Leonard caricatural. Nesse sentido, a obra de Nietzsche se- Cohen etc. Segundo essa vertente patográfica, os ria um mero reflexo sintomático de sua doença, maiores bens, também, nos vêm pela loucura, e seu pensamento (torto) refletiria nada mais do dom divino – tal como se lê no Fedro, de Platão, que seu cérebro degenerado pelo efeito das bacté- tipificado no daimonion de Sócrates. rias sifilíticas. Janz1 assinala que a ampla recepção Embora as raízes desse gênero patográfico re- desse gênero patográfico (“demoníaco-patológi- montem manifestamente ao ethos grego clássico, co”) sobre Nietzsche dificultou a pesquisa niet- isso não implica todavia uma relação de continui- zschiana. Constitui-se de uma bricolagem duvi- dade histórica (linear e triunfante) em sua cele- dosa entre pseudociência psiquiátrica acerca do bração de Nietzsche. Sua redescoberta localiza-se “degenerado”7 e leitura desastrosa de sua obra. no movimento expressionista – representante do Em 1936, Jaspers8, médico e filósofo, contem- modernismo alemão até 1914 – que cultiva ten- porâneo a Lange-Eichbaum, também confirmou dência similar à “celebração da loucura”, cujo pa- o diagnóstico de sífilis: “Para a concepção de Niet- thos supostamente provedor de uma “perspectiva zsche (...) é essencial (...) o fato de que a doença iluminadora” (profética) libertaria das convenções mental do final de 1888 tenha sido uma doença sociais e das leis opressivas. Para o expressionismo
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