Böcker av Richard Schain

The Introduction to Writings from a Literary Ugly Duckling describes the situation of the author Richard Schain (apologies to the memory of Hans Christian Andersen). He is a total isolate as a writer, ignored by critics and public alike. The various reasons for this state of affairs are summarized. Nevertheless, Schain asserts that the situation has benefitted him greatly as a writer and as a human being. Writing for himself has made him into an independent personality, has chiseled out his spirit, and formed his soul, which is the one thing truly worth doing in this increasingly technological and spiritless society.There are eleven essays following the Introduction that represent the range of Schain's philosophical and political interests. (He often rereads his own writings when the mundane nature of his societal life weighs too heavily upon him.) Some of the essays express Schain's intuitions about the reality of the human soul, its metaphysical fate, and its role as the 'workshop' of Divinity. Others are devoted to Jesus the Jew (Yeshua ben Yosef), the never-ending relevance of Friedrich Nietzsche, the single human cause of the tragedy of the American Civil War (Abraham Lincoln), and the necessary future breakup of the global American empire.A final section is a narrative story in verse (Ivan Carter), modeled after Pushkin's Eugene Onegin. It deals with the suppressed but ubiquitous 'erotic impulse' and its effects on conventional social life

"The noble soul has reverence for itself." - Friedrich NietzscheThe purpose of these spiritual notebooks is to express and clarify the writer's consciousness of the relationships between his self (soul), Divinity (God), and the material world. A key intuition finally expressed is that God 'augments' his own Being through incorporating into Himself the consciousness of individual human beings. Each notebook builds on the previous ones, but also contains new insights of the writer. The project was essential for his well-being. What it reveals, however, may be of interest to other seekers of a spiritual dimension in their lives.

In Love With Eternity presents a project of philosophic thought. It is composed of a group of essays and fragments concerned with the creation of one's self, which self is the substance of reality for every human being. The nature of philosophy, however, has become blurred by the advancement of the sciences in the past two centuries, leading to a situation where philosophers consider themselves to be scientists--many would like to wear white coats if they could. Nevertheless, philosophy is not science but is metaphysics and is the consequence of the long recognized "metaphysical need" of homo sapiens. A central concept in these essays is that of the relationship of 'eternity' to time; one can regard with dismay the passage of time but love one's position in eternity. The concept of the "pointillist canvas of eternity" is presented as a new philosophical world view.Knowledge of the history of thought is essential for philosophical development and in this project, ideas of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Berdyaev are given special emphasis. The essay entitled "Philosophy: Rigorous Science or Intuitive Thought" asserts the primacy of the mysteriously rational, mysteriously intuitive human mind over the object world of science.

In this unique exploration of Nietzsche's life and behavior, Dr. Richard Schain challenges the widely held view that this important philosopher's actions and erratic writings were due to general paresis, or syphilis of the brain.