Convalescence, Mourning, and Sociality

Abstract

This chapter examines Nietzsche’s concept of convalescence by comparing it with the Freudian work of mourning. In contrast with influential subjectivist readings of Nietzsche—specifically those of Derrida and Deleuze—the comparison with Freud helps to show the suffered nature of socio-historically embedded subjectivity. In his preoccupation with convalescence , Nietzsche is articulating the conditions for the possibility of the overcoming of our bad culture. For Freud , the mournful slowly decathect from all subtle attachments to the lost object ; similarly, the convalescent undergoes a sustained decathexis from ressentiment . That this ordeal is conditioned by its relational context implies an imperative to transform social conditions.