Note 415 — Chapter V

Dr. Max Zerbst, Nein und Ja! Leipzig, 1892, p. vii.: ‘It is not impossible that this little book may fall into the hands of some who are nearly connected with the invalid ... whom every indelicate treatment of his affliction must wound most deeply.’ The very last person having the right to complain of indelicate treatment, and to demand consideration, is surely a partisan of Nietzsche’s, who claims for himself the ‘joy in wishing to cause woe,’ and ‘grand unscrupulousness’ as the ‘privilege of the over-man’! Zerbst calls his book a reply to that by Dr. Hermann Türck; but it is nothing but a childishly obstinate and insolent repetition of all Nietzsche’s assertions, the insanity of which has been proved by Dr. Türck. It is exceedingly droll that Zerbst, appealing to a feeble compilation by Ziehen, wishes to demonstrate to Türck that there are no such things as psychoses of the will. Now, Türck has not said a single word about a psychosis of the will in Nietzsche; but Nietzsche, indeed, in Fröhliche Wissenschaft, p. 270, does speak of ‘monstrous disease of the will,’ and of a ‘will-disease.’ Zerbst’s objection, therefore, applies, not to Türck, but to his own master—Nietzsche.