According to Nietzsche, pain is an essential element of the emotional growth of people. Without pain, a person would be incapable of feeling happiness because it is pain is an integral part of living. People grow through pain and they appreciate happiness more after they have been through difficulties in life. In the book Ingenious Pain , the protagonist, James Dyer, is incapable of feeling pleasure or pain and he chooses to become a surgeon and the lack of emotions makes his profession easier for him.
The story is set in 1771 in England where James Dyer is working as a doctor and thinking about the fact that he was predestined to become a surgeon because he was capable of working with a knife. However, he is aware of the fact that he has always lacked compassion. James was born with the inability to feel pain physically as well. This could be the case because his mother conceived him on ice, but it is only a presumption. James is cold and makes everybody feel unpleasant because of this. He is an exceptional human being because he does not even seem to be human. At first he works as a part of a show which promotes a medicine for pain, but he is soon discovered by Canning, a scientist, who decides to study him among other odd people. At this time, it was interesting to people to observe people they considered to be freaks.
According to Nietzsche, the man who is smart: “strives for freedom from pain, not pleasure. The priority for all those seeking contentment was to recognize the impossibility of fulfillment and so to avoid the troubles and anxiety that we typically encounter in its pursuit” (De Botton 134). People are not supposed to be looking for happiness, but to stay away from pain. However, Nietzsche modified his theory by adding a belief that the power lies in abstinence. James Dyer is using his disadvantage in the best possible way that he can, by becoming a surgeon. He is supposed to save people’s lives and this is more effective when he is deprived of emotions. It is interesting to see how James feels no physical pain: “One small scar on the left stands out like a tiny raw nipple, seeps fluid. Of the other scars, fifteen or twenty on either hand, there is nothing to complain of beside a tiresome itching. Nothing to be unpleased about ” (Miller 308).
De Botton also writes that Nietzsche changed his theory once he experienced pleasure in life and he declared that he did not agree with Schopenhauer anymore. “Fulfillment was to be reached not by avoiding pain, but by recognizing its role as a natural, inevitable step on the way to reaching anything good” (De Botton 138). It is normal that a person needs to know pain in order to be able to recognize happiness. Life cannot be fulfilled without experiencing both of these feelings.
When James begins to study to become a surgeon, his true character is revealed. He is not afraid of physical pain and does not care about anyone’s feelings. This makes him a good surgeon because he becomes a great surgeon, the only one capable of performing difficult surgeries and feeling good at the same time. His colleagues believe that he takes pleasure from this and his hand is steady all the time.
Nietzsche believes that: “in the gap between who we wish one day to be and who we are at present, must come pain, anxiety, envy and humiliation. We suffer because we cannot spontaneously master the ingredients of fulfillment” (De Botton 139). James Dyer is a man who finds his purpose in life by becoming excellent in his profession while healing people at the same time. He compensates for his shortcomings by being an altruist. Since, he cannot feel either pain or pleasure, he makes sure to help other people, and that is how he pays his debt to the society. Moreover, it was not his decision to be deprived of feelings and sensations because he was born as such. He puts his handicap to a good use and becomes a person who performs best in the times of crises.
James has an advantage in life because he does not have to feel empathy for people in order to heal them. The situation when a maid offers him her sexual services he feels lumps in her breasts and he does not do anything to help her because that is not a challenge for him. He does lack emotions and while helping many people, he spoils everything by being insensitive towards people like the maid because it is evident that he does not care whether she lives or dies. Nietzsche does not believe that happiness is irrelevant, only that it is not possible without feeling pain: “Nietzsche deeply values independence, and he finds in Epicurus a kindred soul on this point” (Saint-Andre 331). James Dyer is independent and he is doing his best to feel satisfied in his own life. He is excited by performing challenging surgeries and it seems that he does find happiness in life. James is fulfilled with his profession and he does not hide it from his patients. He admires his own work more than he is happy to see patients who are recovered. James is an interesting person and his character is intriguing because he is so different than any other man. The readers must ask themselves whether he has a heart at all, but it is obvious that once he finds his true calling, he find pleasure in life as well.
It is possible to overcome all feelings and become rational and accept to value things in a different way than usual. This is the way through which James manages to overcome his problem cause by lack of emotions. “Nietzsche claims that he himself is a nihilist who has somehow though nihilism through to the end and overcome it, presumably through his revaluation of values” (Clark 90). James Dyer takes great pleasure from being a great doctor and he is excited to participate in the challenge of Catherine the Great. Russia is a place where with harsh cold weather and extreme temperatures which is convenient for James.
What Nietzsche had in mind is the fact that there is no happiness without feeling pain and there is “an uncomfortable paradox: happiness and sadness are but two sides of a single Janus face” (McMahon 470). Perhaps, since James is capable of feeling pleasure he feels pain in his own way. In the end of the book, James meets a witch who makes him capable of feeling and he goes through a great transformation because of this. He becomes vulnerable and it makes his profession difficult because he is no longer numb. First, James feels emotions and afterwards his pain becomes physical as well which is intense because he had numerous injuries inflicted upon throughout his life. The greatest result is that he begins to feel empathy and this is necessary for him to become a genuine human being who cares about other people.
It is true that there is no great happiness without great pain, but there is also moderation. In the case of James, he has an anomaly and he seems to be selfish more than unable to feel anything although he does not feel physical pain as well. He is a great surgeon and he is good for the society as a whole because of that. However, he becomes a complete person, once his feelings are restored by the witch. Nietzsche’s philosophy about happiness proves that there is no man capable of feeling nothing and that pain is connected with pleasure.
Works Cited
De Botton, Alain. The Consolations of Philosophy. London: Penguin, 2001. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.
Miller, Andrew. Ingenious Pain. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 2012. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.
Saint-Andre, Peter. "Nietzsche, Rand, and the Ethics of the Great Task." The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies 10.2 (2009): 329-42. Print.
Clark, Maudemarie. "Suffering and the Affirmation of Life." Journal of Nietzsche Studies 43.1 (2012): 87-98. Print.
McMahon, Darrin M. "What Does the Ideal of Happiness Mean?" Social Research 77.2 (2010): 469-90. Print.
