The Moral Defense: Nietzsche in the Clinic
Given that we can detect in the canonical work of many psychoanalytic thinkers the philosophical influences of Kant, Schopenhauer, Hegel, and Heidegger this presentation explores this point of connection between philosophy and psychoanalysis. Few thinkers have matched Friedrich Nietzsche’s psychological insights—a fact Freud acknowledged when he admitted to avoiding Nietzsche’s work to preserve the originality of his own ideas - yet the value of these insights for our clinical practice remains to be explored.
In this presentation, we will focus on one of Nietzsche’s most clinically resonant observations: that morality is often deployed as a psychological defense, protecting against intolerable affect such as shame and helplessness. Drawing on personal narrative and selections from her new book, Nietzsche on the Methods and Aims of Philosophy: The Seal of Liberation (Cambridge University Press), Merrick will outline two common defensive structures rooted in moralization.