Conflict and Risk for Life: Nietzsche and Freud

Abstract

In developing the relationships in the works of Nietzsche and Freud, the theme of risk and conflict has not been addressed in depth, but has generally been taken as a subsidiary element for the analysis of other aspects. This article will seek to show how the way in which the vital is thought of by both authors will be modified according to the relationships that life itself has-both internally and externally-with respect to risk and conflict. From this point on, a point of inflection will be marked where, in the work of both authors, the conflict passes structurally to occupy the very center of what is vital: The tendency seen from the perspective of psychoanalysis in Freud and from Wille zur Macht in Nietzsche will then imply an empowerment of the subject in the face of the inherent risk that such conflict supposes.