The Schopenhauer Cure(119)

“I’m a philosopher,” said Philip, “with a doctorate from Columbia, and Tony, my coleader, is a counseling student.”

“A student? I don’t get it. How will you two operate here?” shot back Jason.

“Well,” answered Tony, “Philip will bring in helpful ideas from his knowledge of philosophy, and me, well, I’m here to learn and to pitch in any way I can—I’m more of an expert in emotional accessibility. Right, partner?”

Philip nodded.

“Emotional accessibility? Am I supposed to know what that means?” asked Jason.

“Jason,” interrupted another member, “my name is Marsha, and I want to point out that this is about the fifth challenging thing you’ve said in the first five minutes of our group.”

“And?”

“And you’re the kind of macho-exhibitionistic guy I have a lot of trouble with.”

“And you’re the kind of Miss Prissy who gives me a major pain in the ass.”

“Wait, wait, let’s freeze the action for a moment,” said Tony, “and get some feedback on our first five minutes from the other members here. First, I want to say something to you, Jason, and to you, Marsha—something that Philip and I learned from Julius, our teacher. Now, I’m sure you two feel like this is a stormy beginning but I’ve got a hunch, a very strong hunch, that by the end of this group, each of you are going to prove very valuable to the other. Right, Philip?”

“Right you are, partner.”





Notes


“Every breath we draw wards…”: Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation, trans. E. F. J. Payne, 2 vols. (New York: Dover Publications, 1969), vol. 1., p. 311 / § 57

“Ecstasy in the act of copulation…”: Arthur Schopenhauer, Manuscript Remains in Four Volumes, ed. Arthur Hübscher, trans. E. F. J. Payne (Oxford: Berg Publishers, 1988–90), vol. 3. p. 262 / § 111

“Life is a miserable thing…”: Eduard Grisebach, ed., Schopenhauer’s Gespr?che und Selbstgespr?che (Berlin: E. Hofmann, 1898), p. 3

“Talent is like a marksman…”: Schopenhauer, World as Will, vol. 2, p. 391 / chap. 31, “On Genius.”

“No one helped me,…”: Rüdiger Safranski, Schopenhauer and the Wild Years of Philosophy, trans. Ewald Osers (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991), p. 11.

“A happy life is impossible…”: Arthur Schopenhauer, Parerga and Paralipomena, trans. E. F. J. Payne, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000), vol. 2, p. 322 / § 172a.

“The solid foundations of our view…”: Ibid., vol. 1, p. 478 / chap. 6, “On the Different Periods of Life.”

“Splendor, rank, and title exercise…”: Safranski, Schopenhauer, p. 14.

“I no more pretended ardent love…”: Ibid., p. 13

“If we look at life in its small details…”: T. Bailey Saunders, trans., Complete Essays of Schopenhauer: Seven Books in One Volume (New York: Wiley, 1942), book 5, p. 24. See also Schopenhauer, Parerga and Paralipomena, vol. 2, p. 290 / § 147a.

“in the near and penetrating eye of death…”: Thomas Mann, Buddenbrooks, trans. H. T. Lowe-Porter (New York: Vintage Books, 1952), p. 509

“A master-mind could lay hold…”: Ibid., p. 510

“Have I hoped to live on…”: Ibid., p. 513

“so perfectly consistently clear…”: Thomas Mann, Essays of Three Decades, trans. H. T. Lowe-Porter (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1947), p. 373

“emotional, breath-taking, playing between violent contrasts…”: Ibid., p. 373.

“letting that dynamic, dismal genius work…”: Ronald Hayman, Nietzsche: A Critical Life (New York: Penguin, 1982), p. 72

“Religion has everything on its side…”: Schopenhauer, World as Will, vol. 2, p. 166 / chap. 17, “On Man’s Need for Metaphysics.”

“Could we foresee it…”: Saunders, Complete Essays, book 5, p. 3. See also Schopenhauer, Parerga and Paralipomena, vol. 2, p. 298 / § 155a.

“In endless space countless luminous spheres…”: Schopenhauer, World as Will, vol. 2, p. 3 / chap. 1, “On the Fundamental View of Idealism.”

“Just because the terrible activity…”: Ibid., vol. 2, p. 394 / chap. 31, “On Genius.”

“by far the happiest part…”: Safranski, Schopenhauer, p. 26

“Remember how your father permits…”: Ibid., p. 29

“feeling of two friends meeting…”: Schopenhauer, Parerga and Paralipomena, vol. 2, p. 299 / § 156

“I found myself in a country unknown to me…”: Safranski, Schopenhauer, p. 280

“The greatest wisdom is to make…”: Schopenhauer, Parerga and Paralipomena, vol. 2, p. 284 / § 143.

“The kings left their crowns and scepters behind…”: Safranski, Shopenhauer, p. 44.

“put aside all these authors for a while…”: Ibid., p. 37

“In my seventeenth year…”: Ibid., p. 41

“This world is supposed to have been made…”: Ibid., 58

“When, at the end of their lives…”: Schopenhauer, Parerga and Paralipomena, vol. 2, p. 285 / § 145