Reddit reviews The Affirmation of Life: Nietzsche on Overcoming Nihilism

"or, better, one of those introductory books that begin with a short overview of the primary material that follows the intro."

Just to clarify for myself - you are talking about those books that explain the core concept of the book before the actual book begins, right?
As of right now, I have two books I would like to buy that deal with Nietzsche: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0631226540?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_6&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
and
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674030648?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_2&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Do you think I should only get one of them and then as a second book a book by Nietzsche with that introduction by someone else that explain the core idea briefly?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0674030648?pc_redir=1409149865&robot_redir=1

Most if not all of the ideas in my post are from the book Affirmation of Life: Nietzsche on Overcoming Nihilism. It explores these ideas in much more detail including relevant ideas from Schopenhauer and Kant.

To mention just one secondary source-I'm just about finished with Reginster's The affirmation of Life: Nietzsche on Overcoming Nihilism. It's excellent both for the way it engages prominent interpretations of key concepts in Nietzsche's philosophy and for the defense of its own thesis about the problem of nihilism and reevaluation of values. http://www.amazon.com/The-Affirmation-Life-Nietzsche-Overcoming/dp/0674030648

> I often discuss my general thoughts on life with my psychiatrist/psychologist and according to them I have inadvertently appropriated the mindset of Frederick nietzsche, despite never reading his work or anything, and I have been described as a nihilist fairly frequently.

This is very interesting. Nietzsche is one of my all-time favourite thinkers, and his message is often misunderstood as being nihilistic, whereas in general he is actually opposed to nihilism and suggests a path toward overcoming it. He certainly understands the drive toward nihilism though; he himself was crippled with multiple ailments to the point where he had to go on the 19th century version of "disability" (he received a pension from the university he taught at after retiring early due being unable to continue teaching). In the end he had to dictate a number of his later works since he couldn't even read anymore. He knows a lot about suffering, and yet still offers a message of hope and progress toward something better. I can't really recommend him enough, this might be a good place to start if you're interested.

> As a disabled person I've been told I'm not allowed to work, even voluntarily part time, or I lose my benefits.

It's really too bad that governments make it difficult for disabled people to make progress. My partner's brother has epilepsy and a bad back, and is thus unable to work in most jobs for which he's qualified, and is in a similar position. The aim should be to enable disability pension recipients, but unfortunately bureaucracy sometimes gets in the way. I can understand how this might make a person pessimistic toward the future.

> I guess it may not be western society as a whole, but it's marginalisation of people that don't fit the mould that have caused my sociopathic behaviour (well, and me, I'm definitely a constant factor).

That's right, it seems to be an unfortunate aspect of human nature that people who don't fit comfortably in to predetrmined categories are often marginalized for no good reason. There might be another factor involved in the sociopathic behaviour as well (and this is what I'm driving at), and that is, the sociopathic behaviour. It's something of a self-fulfilling prophecy where doing what you feel in deep down is wrong might actually make you more nihilistic, because somewhere in your heart, you know that there really are values worth holding on to, even if you determine these values for yourself.