Nietzsche and Zapffe: Beauty, Suffering, and the Nature of Genius

many thinkers have proposed that human

beings require emotional stimulants and

psychological aids to mitigate the

hardships and burdens associated with

existence and to provide an energizing

conviction that life is worth without

such mechanisms one is prone to slip

into the sort of world weariness

expounded in the wisdom of silenus oh

miserable ephemeral race children of

chance and suffering why do you compel

me to say to you what would be most

beneficial for you not to hear what is

best of all is utterly unreachable not

to be born not to be to be nothing but

the second best for you is to die soon

in this video we will examine the

question as to why psychological

mechanisms are needed to cope with

existence and discuss what some of these

mechanisms are in the latter part of the

video we examine some of the

consequences that arise in cases when

these mechanisms fail paying particular

attention to how this relates to the

creative genius it is often suggested

that it is not so much existence in and

of itself that is difficult to Bear not

merely that we are children of chance

and suffering but the fact that we are

conscious of our troubled lot apart from

the fact there is no normal standard of

Health wrote the Spanish philosopher

Miguel duno nobody has proved that man

is necessarily cheerful by nature and

further Man by The Very fact of being

man of possessing Consciousness is in

comparison with the donkey or the crab a

diseased animal Consciousness is a

disease the suggestion that

Consciousness creates the existential

crisis that the majority of people

people spend their life fleeing from is

a common theme among a number of

thinkers in his essay the last Messiah

the philosopher Peter vessel zapa put

forth a harrowing condemnation of

Consciousness as the culprit which has

imposed an excessive burden on the human

race whatever happened a breach in the

very unity of life a biological Paradox

an Abomination an absurdity an

exaggeration of disastrous nature life

had overshot its Target blowing itself

apart a species had being armed too

heavily by Spirit made Almighty without

but equally a menace to its own

well-being so there he stands with his

Visions betrayed by the universe in

Wonder and fear the Beast knew fear as

well in thunderstorms and on the Lion's

claw but Man became fearful of life

itself indeed of his very

being some may question whether the

terrible truths of human existence are

really that terrible or whether those

who preach the tragic sense of Life are

merely sensitive Souls prone to

exaggerated claims for if these terrible

truths were really that tragic wouldn't

more people believe in the validity of

sil's wisdom or at the very least act

upon the guidance of ail Tron and

Retreat to a far away corner of the

world in the realization that there is

nothing to be gained in this life if we

really are but the children of chance

and suffering of silenus why in the

words of zapa has mankind not long ago

gone extinct during great epidemics of

Madness why do only a fairly minor

number of individuals perish because

they fail to endure the strain of living

zapa thought he had found the answer

cultural history as well as observation

of ourselves and others allow the

following answer most people learn to

save themselves by artificially limiting

the content of

Consciousness zapa identified three

psychological or more specifically

repression mechanisms by which

individuals artificially limit the

content of Consciousness and protect

themselves from the despair that can

ensue from becoming too conscious of the

tragic sense of Life isolation anchoring

and

distraction zapa defined isolation as a

fully arbitrary dismissal from

consciousness of all disturbing and

destructive thought and feeling

semiconscious or unconsciously

individuals avoid thinking about the

terrible truths of human existence

utilizing various strategies to ensure

tragic insights are kept as far away

from awareness as possible zapa called

anchoring which is a fixation of points

within or construction of walls around

the liquid fry of Consciousness the

happiest protection against the cosmos

that we ever get to know in life the

earliest and primary anchoring point is

the home and neighborhood one grows up

in as this anchoring Point loses its

efficacy over time individuals grasp on

to other anchors available to them in

their personal and social life such as

one's vocation a political party or a

religious Creed such anchorings provide

a sense of safety familiarity and

meaning protecting one one from moods of

existential disorientation and feelings

of cosmic insignificance in distraction

a very popular mode of Protection One

limits attention to the critical bounds

by constantly enthralling it with

impression a quick glance at our culture

of instant gratification whereby

individuals have constant access to and

constantly seek out mindless stimuli and

entertainment confirms zopa's

observation that distraction is a

popular means used by human beings to

minimize their awareness of the magic

nature of Life most of the time these

mechanisms successfully fulfill their

purpose of limiting the content of

Consciousness the majority of people

largely go through life without

succumbing to extreme states of world

weariness and with the conviction that

although life is difficult it has its

victories and is ultimately worth the

effort but what happens when these

mechanisms fail what happens when an

individual becomes increasingly aware of

the tragic sense of life is such an

individual faded to live in a constant

state of despair if one looks deeply

into life is one also faded to suffer

deeply along with the three repression

mechanisms outlined by zapa he also

posited the existence of a fourth remedy

against the pain of existence that being

sublimation sublimation differs in kind

from the other three remedies in that it

is a matter of transformation rather

than repression via sublimation the

individual harnesses the large amounts

of energy associated with being overcome

by the pain of living and utiliz izes

such energy to Fashion creative works of

beauty through stylistic or artistic

gifts can the very pain of living at

times be converted into valuable

experiences positive impulses Engage The

Evil and put it to their own ends

fastening onto its pictorial dramatic

heroic lyric or even comic

aspects zapa's mechanism of sublimation

which he called the rarest of protective

means is similar to nich's advice for

those higher humans whose disposition

renders the unable to utilize the

repression mechanisms which protect the

masses from World weariness for such

higher humans who distinguish themselves

from the lower by seeing and hearing and

thoughtfully seeing and hearing

immeasurably more n recommends using art

as a means of revitalization from the

suffering that results from looking

deeply into life the truly serious task

of art is to save the eye from gazing

into the horrors of the night and to

deliver the subject by the healing bomb

of Illusion from the spasms of the

agitations of the will n considered art

as such a highly effective antidote to

tragic Insight because it induces what

he called Rous a German word translated

as rush or

intoxication for one to create any work

of beauty or truly appreciate Beauty in

art or nature one must first enter into

a state of

Rous for there to be art for there to be

any aesthetic doing and seeing one

physiological precondition is

indispensable Rous Rous must first have

enhanced the excitability of the whole

machine else there is no art Rous is a

rare and unique State categorized by n

as one of the more powerful of

experiences possible for human beings

when an aesthetic phenomena stimulates

such a state the individual is vaulted

into a higher mode of being one

categorized by power strength and an

intoxication which mirrors the

excitement of

sensuality art reminds us of states of

animal Vigor it is on the one hand an

excess and overflow of blooming

physicality into the world of images and

desires on the other an excitation of

the animal function through the images

and desires of intensified life an

enhancement of the feeling of Life a

stimulant to it it is because Beauty

stimulates states of Rous the feeling of

increased strength and fullness that n

heralded art as the great stimulus to

life for those higher humans whose

tragic Insight is Keen and sensitive but

what is interesting is the degree to

which tragic insight into the nature of

life is needed in order to stimulate

states of Rous could it be that the more

aware one is of the terrible truths the

more one will experience the rapturous

and ecstatic state of Rous a look into

the nature of Genius will offer insight

into this question it has long been

known that many Geniuses throughout

history whose creative Powers seem to

dwell high above mere mortals have

struggled with pathological States

senica stated that no genius has existed

without a touch of Madness and Aristotle

claimed Those Who Have Become eminent in

philosophy politics poetry and the Arts

have all had Tendencies toward

Melancholia more recently Dean Keith

Simmon in his book origins of Genius

summarized numerous studies which have

established empirically a connection

between psychopathological states and

creativity perhaps at least some of the

pathological States common among

Geniuses is stimulated by their

inability to use the repression

mechanisms outlined by zapa resulting in

a hyper awareness of the horrors of the

night this would explain why the lives

of so many Geniuses were constituted by

periods of severe Melancholy suffering

and inactivity followed by rapturous and

productive states of creativity and

ecstasy I.E Rous without access to the

repression mechanisms that keep most

individuals on a relative even psychic

Keel day in and day out the only way

such individuals could persevere in life

after spending so much time staring into

the abyss is to break free from their

despair in an almost superhuman state of

joy and Power

n one such genius spent much of his life

in extreme states of suffering writing I

am more of a battlefield than a man he

suffered physically due to his weak

disposition and extreme migraines as

well as emotionally due to his

self-imposed Solitude and

psychologically due to his complete lack

of recognition among his peers and above

all else he suffered from spending so

much time gazing into the horrors of the

night yet he also reached Peaks unknown

to all but a select few the intensities

of my feel feeling make me shudder and

laugh he wrote several times I could not

leave the room for the ridiculous reason

that my eyes were inflamed from what

each time I had wept too much on my

previous day's walk not sentimental

tears but tears of joy I sang and talked

nonsense filled with a glimpse of things

which put me in advance of all other

men if confronting the tragedy of Life

opens one up to experiencing states of

Rous maybe the majority of individuals

by utilizing repression mechanisms to

protect themselves from tragic insights

also confine themselves to a narrow

range of experience whereby the

rapturous state of Rous the great

stimulus to life is rarely if ever

experienced by protecting oneself from

the terrible truths of human existence

one may also be protecting oneself from

experiencing life more fully deeply and

joyfully in the words of dunam Muno and

the Supreme beauty is that of tragedy

the Consciousness that everything passes

away that we ourselves pass away and

that everything that is ours and

everything that environs us passes away

fills us with anguish and this anguish

itself reveals to us the consolation of

that which does not pass away of the

Eternal of the beautiful