Nietzsche: Optimism, passion and become who you are
By Dr Marcel de Roos, Psychologist PhD, the Netherlands www.marcelderoos.com
Another important thinker in the history of psychology is Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 – 1900). He was a German philosopher and writer, and became a professor at the University of Basel in Switzerland. Despite his short and tragic life (in his last twenty years his physical and mental health degenerated), he has published some very influential books. His work has had an important influence on modern culture and philosophy. In psychology and in psychotherapy his ideas have been used to understand motivation and self-improvement.
Nietzsche can be viewed as an optimist. He explored nihilism (a philosophy that asserts that life has no inherent meaning or purpose), but came with his own interpretation. He stated that Christianity has lost its meaning, there exists no supernatural being that defines good and evil and that gives purpose to life. There is no basis for our norms and values, and no absolute truth. We need to create those ourselves. This is in itself a quite optimistic outlook on life. By using nihilism as a starting point, humans have the ability to generate their own meaning and values in a world without purpose. It signifies that you overcome nihilism by finding meaningfulness.
Contrary to many other philosophers (for example the Stoics), Nietzsche propagates to embrace your passions. They shouldn’t be suppressed, but accepted as strong sources of suffering or intense pleasure. These are powerful forces that can elicit creativity and meaningfulness (even in painful experiences). Passions are according to Nietzsche indispensable for creating our personal values. His famous quote “one must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star” signifies that by embracing your inner chaos and complexity you can nurture personal growth, creativity and new ideas.
Become who you are: that means that you should slowly and carefully try to taste, savour and experience, which implicates that you need to leave your safe spot. Nietzsche doesn’t tell you what to do, but he tells you that you have to do it. That you owe it to yourself, if you don’t transform yourself, you’re being transformed!
Nietzsche wrote that you need to experimentally find out, you need to try out different things. You need to leave your house, meet other people, explore relationships, taste diverse life experiences, and don’t always open doors but close a few too. Don’t constantly follow others, but find your own way. Discover and learn until you have found what defines YOU. And above all, DARE. Daring initially gives a tinge of uneasiness, but if you don’t dare you will lose yourself. Dare to choose, to become free. Be it a study, a job, a relationship or a belief system.
With Nietzsche as your pocket therapist you can become your own Ubermensch, embrace life, and you will live your life without regret.
