Reason Papers Vol. 37, no. 2 Reason Papers 37, no. 2 (Fall 2015): 150-162. Copyright © 2015 Portraits of Egoism in Classic Cinema III: Nietzschean Portrayals Gary James Jason California State University, Fullerton 1. Conceptual Review In the first of the trio of reviews, 1 we distinguished varieties of egoism from each other. “Psychological egoism” is the view that all people (or animals) act solely to maximize their self-interest. “Default egoism” is the view that while occasionally people can act in an ultimately other-regarding fashion (usually toward family and friends), they mainly act to maximize their self-interest. In the second of the trio, 2 we defined the psychological traits of egotism and cynicism, and the personality disorders of narcissism and psychopathology. I won’t rehearse the definitions of these concepts again, as they are not important in this review. What is important to recall here is the crucial point that egoistic theories presuppose a view of what is ultimately desirable (or non-morally good). Any philosophy holding that what is morally right (or rational) to do for any person is what maximizes the best results for that person, needs to tell us what “good results” means. A great nineteenth-century philosopher who advances egoism, Friedrich Nietzsche, maintains a striking view about this. Nietzsche believes that power in some sense—perhaps creative power—is the most important ultimately desirable thing. The Nietzschean egoist seeks to exercise his or her will to power. I shall examine how filmmakers have dealt with this view by analyzing the films Compulsion and The Moon and Sixpence. 3 1 Gary James Jason, “Portraits of Egoism in Classic Cinema I: Sympathetic Portrayals,” Reason Papers 36, no. 1 (July 2014), pp. 107-21. 2 Gary James Jason, “Portraits of Egoism in Classic Cinema II: Negative Portrayals,” Reason Papers 37, no. 1 (Spring 2015), pp. 119-36. 3 Compulsion, directed by Richard Fleischer (Twentieth Century Fox, 1959); The Moon and Sixpence, directed by Albert Lewin (United Artists, 1942).