CosmosStag ·
Nietzsche describes an addiction to an idea as an Apollonian/Dionysian dichotomy. To explain as briefly as possible, Apollonian dynamic is associated with the imagination and the Dionysian with the instinct. Animals are understood as lacking the Apollonian dynamic, and thus addiction to an idea is a special human thing. According to Nietzsche, use of the imagination leads to fear of the instinct because people can imagine all the bad things that might happen to them if they follow their instincts. For example, if they go out and hunt for food, they might get eaten by a predator. If they go and talk to a girl, they might get humiliated. The addictive idea shows them a false image which tells them that giving into their fear is a good idea. For example, if they never talk to a girl and starve themselves, they will go to heaven. People are loath to drop the addictive idea, even if they can apprehend with their rational mind the utter implausibility of it, because of a feeling of nihilism that creeps up when they contemplate such a thing. If their addictive idea is not real, then that means everything they have been doing is meaningless. That is tough to accept because of loss aversion. Furthermore, everything in real life is tainted in comparison to the purity of the false idea. How can food be pleasurable when so much risk is required to get it? Nietzsche's theory was originally applied to Christianity, but it has a general application--ideas can be very addictive. The narcissist is someone who is addicted to the idea that his childhood superman is real. Nietzsche also describes a process of recovery from an addictive idea. Over time, someone can become recalibrated to reality and come to enjoy the things that he formerly found fearful and come to accept that everything good is a trade-off, not perfection. This is the Nietzschian man (sometimes called the superman, or overman). The emptiness that the narcissist perceives when he starts to look past his fake personality is like nihilism--but it seems that there is nothing in narcissism that corresponds to the Nietzschian superman. He is too damaged. He was supposed to grow out of fantasy many years ago, and today his brain is no longer capable of making that transition. Real friendship is like food that he cannot digest. His drug, his fantasy, is the only thing he can eat.