CHAPTER 8The Bicameral
8. The Bicameral System of Culture
Leaving academia · Thinking, the body, language · Paul
Ree · From Human, All Too Human to Daybreak · The
immoral bases of morality · Desecrations · Religion and
art demystified · The bicameral system of cultureI Ν EARLY JANUARY 1880, Nietzsche wrote to his doctor
Otto Eiser: "My existence is an awful burden—I would have dispensed
with it long ago, were it not for the most illuminating tests and experi-
ments I have been conducting in matters of mind and morality even in
my state of suffering and almost absolute renunciation—the pleasure I
take in my thirst for knowledge brings me to heights from which I tri-
umph over all torment and despondency. On the whole, I am happier
than I have ever been in my life" (.Β 6,3). This is only one of the numer-
ous letters in which Nietzsche linked physical suffering and mental tri-
umph. Between 1877 and 1880, his health was quite precarious. There
were regular bouts of terrible headaches, vomiting, dizziness, and
painful eye pressure. A combination of severe visual impairments
brought on almost total blindness. Nietzsche's previous winter in
Sorrento (1876-77) had offered some relief, but when he took up his
teaching duties in Basel again, in the spring of 1877, his suffering
returned.
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