Abstract
The main purpose of the article is to rehabilitate the syphilis diagnosis proposed by the German neurologist Paul Möbius in his work Nietzsche. Illness and philosophie (Nietzsche. Krankheit und Philosophie). For this purpose, it reviews the ambiguous relation the physician maintains with the philosopher’s sister - always eager to elaborate versions to deviate from the hypothesis of a syphilis diagnosis -, brings to light Möbius’ comment about the “accident” that would have befallen their father, evinces the correlation between paralysis and syphilis, compares Elisabeth and Möbius’ versions to the brothel anedocte (1865), narrated by Paul Deussen, and eventually unravels the philosopher’s excessive (and suggestive) concerns about his nose, that could be affected as an outcome of syphilis. And if Möbius makes a mistake in excessively pathologizing his interpretations of Nietzsche, the text also points to how much the patologization of elements of the intellectual pathway has contributed to the unconcerned transmission of his work.
Keywords:
diagnosys; syphilis; paralysis; pathologization; nose