Philipp Mainlander zwischen Schopenhauers Nirvana und Freuds Todestrieb

Abstract

This chapter sketches a particular history of the Buddhist nirvana in Western philosophy and psychoanalysis. The Buddhist nirvana had a significant influence on Arthur Schopenhauer and his disciple Philipp Mainlaender, who radicalised it into "absolute nothingness". With Mainlaender, the search for an ever deeper tranquility is perceived as an echo of death in life. In turn, this became a foundational idea for the death drive in psychoanalysis. The present chapter analyses key passages of the original German texts in order to establish this particular trajectory in the history of ideas