The Psychic Health of a Life Worth Leading and the Necessary Role of Obedience for Nietzsche
Abstract
This research project demonstrates Friedrich Nietzsche’s intention to direct the weak as well as the strong toward a life worth leading during each individual’s lifespan, by way of a long-term obedience in a focused direction, unique to each individual. Nietzsche identified barriers of the social order that hinder the flourishing of one’s psyche and ascertained the steps necessary for one to hurdle those barriers. This research entailed reading much of Nietzsche’s work and numerous critiques while collaborating with my mentor, Dr. Thomas Hawley, when Nietzsche’s philosophic caginess became overwhelming. Ultimately, Nietzsche concluded that the type of obedience chosen by a person, determined the health of that person’s psyche. However, Nietzsche’s words have held many contradictory interpretations due to constant 62 misreading. My research proposes that what Nietzsche did not say should be communicated as often as what Nietzsche did say, and that Nietzsche directed humans toward long-term obedience in a focused direction in order to obtain the psychic health of a life worth leading.
