Elementi di una patografia nietzschiana. Tra Karl Jaspers e Gottfried Benn.

The aim of this article is to give an historical perspective on the interpretation of Nietzsche’s pathology. In order to do so, a comparative approach, between Karl Jaspers’ patography of Nietzsche and Gottrfried Benn’s, who, like Jaspers, was a trained physician, is presented. This comparative approach will focus on some key concepts: Nietzsche’s exceptionality, his solitude, and, of course, his illness. The paired analysis of Jaspers’ book, Nietzsche. Einfuhrung in das Verstandis seines philosophieren (1ed. 1936, 2ed. 1946, 3ed. 1949), and Benn’s speech, Nietzsche – nach funfzig Jahren (1950) is expected to provide insight not only on the development of pathography as a “genre”, but also on the cultural debate about Nietzsche in post-WWII Germany. To help in studying such a background, the voice of another important German intellectual, Thomas Mann, is taken into account. Mann, who has always been inspired by Nietzsche, held a speech about him, Nietzsches Philosophie im Lichte unserer Erfahrung, in 1947, the same year in which his book, Doktor Faustus, whose protagonist is an artist suffering from syphilis, was published.