ABSTRACT
Friedrich Nietzsche, born in 1844, was grandfather not only to the existentialists, but to the whole of dynamic psychotherapy. Every young man in Europe with the least instinct to rebel was inspired by Nietzsche at the end of the nineteenth century. Freud avoided reading Nietzsche so that he would not be over-influenced by him, although that would have been difficult, as he was the talk of Viennese cafe society, and frequently discussed in the popular press. The unconscious mind, with its disguises, inhibitions, repression, and sublimation of basic instincts, the reaction formations to them, its self-deceit and the contrary hostile emotions, are all ideas found in Nietzsche. Being over-civilised Christian men, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche both missed out on those experiences that tribal societies use to toughen up the muscles of masculine love. Kierkegaard and Nietzsche grew up to hate and reject the civilisation of their time, that is, Christianity.
