What is Daseinsanalyse? History, authors and treatment

Hello friends!

A dear reader asked me to write about the Daseinsanalyse, also known as Existential or Phenomenological-Existential Analysis. In this text, therefore, we will try to talk about what is the Daseinsanalyseits history and main authors.

In the academic discipline of history, we find that in order to begin to define historical time, we often have to go back in time. In the case of Daseinsanalysethe story begins with Martin Heidegger, the most important and influential philosopher of the 20th century.

I say that we have to go back because Heidegger was never a psychologist or a psychiatrist. His area of ​​activity is philosophy, although he has participated in congresses and directly influenced both psychology and psychiatry.

In addition to Heidegger, we must bear in mind the contributions of Binswanger, founder of the field of descriptive psychiatry. Boss, creator of the psychotherapeutic method and Condrau, who inaugurated the school Daseinsanalyse of psychotherapy.

the vocabulary of Daseinsanalyse

Heidegger is an original author in philosophy and, as such, created his own vocabulary to express his thoughts. The very word Da-Sein (Being-there) in Daseinsanalyse (literally Being-there analysis) is a neologism.

In the table below, created by the website of the International Association of Daseinsanalyse we can visualize the main terms:

German
English
French
Portuguese

Sein Being Être Ser Dasein Being-There Être le-là Dasein (Ser-ai) In-der-Welt-Sein Being-in-the-world Être-au-monde Ser-in-the-world Entwurf /
Geworfenheit Project/Thrownness Project /
Déréliction Project/
Ser-launched Sein-zum-Tode Being-towards-death Être-vers-la-mort Ser-para-death Sorge Care Souci Care/healing Zeit Time Temps Tempo Ereignis Event Evénement-appropriant Appropriative happening Gelassenheit Detachment Laisser-être / Sérénité Serenidade Lichtung Clearing Eclaircie Clearing Offenständigkeit Openness Apérité Overture Entschossenheit Resoluteness Résolution Resolution Frei-Sein Being-free Être-libre Ser-livre

history of Daseinsanalyse

Heidegger published his masterpiece Being and Time (Sein und Zeit) at the beginning of the 20th century (1927), already with the objective of making an analysis of the being, of the being that is there, situated and present in its world.

Ludwig Binswanger (1881-1966), a psychiatrist, also at the beginning of this century tried to show how science – with its own methodology – left out the specificity of human experience and behavior and missed the fundamentals of what the being of the entity is.

Medard Boss (1903-1990), also a psychiatrist, who can be regarded as the creator of the therapeutic method daseinsanalysis he insisted on differentiating between Heidegger’s analysis of being (ontology) and the method of therapy, since the fact that the latter is based on the former does not mean total identity.

According to the International Association of Daseinsanalyse🇧🇷

“THE Daseinsanalyse seeks the meaning of the existence of each human being in his personal experience. The scope of therapy Daseinsanalyse is based on understanding how the phenomenon of human existence shows itself in its acceptance of what is as It is”.

You Zollikon Seminars uttered by Heidegger in this city were edited by Boss and this book presents the fundamentals of Daseinsanalyse🇧🇷

“The seminars have as their initial question: What does it mean to exist? Other concepts discussed include empirical experience, reality, objectivity, extension as a property of space, what it means to occupy space, perception, the notion of a material body (korper), the human body (Leib) and body phenomenon (Leibphanomen) and freedom”.

Gion Condrau (1919-2006) was co-founder and director of the Daseinsanalytic Institute for Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, later known as Zurich School of Daseinsanalysis, in Switzerland. Trained in psychiatry, neurology and philosophy, Condrau trained with Boss and attended Zollikon seminars. His work is focused on the theory of neuroses and psychosomatics according to the principles of phenomenology. In 1990, Condrau and the Zurich group founded the International Federation of Psychotherapy Daseinsanalytica Psychotherapy (Daseinsanalytic Psychotherapy), known by the acronym IFDA.

And, finally, we must mention the work of Alice Holzhey, who united Freud’s psychoanalysis with Heidegger’s existential anthropology, with Kierkegaard and Sartre.

Theory and Method

As I am not an expert on Daseinsanalyse, I will quote some excerpts from the IFDA on the theory, method and treatment of this important theoretical approach used in psychology.

“THE Daseinsanalyse can be understood as a form of psychoanalysis that has a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach and has an ontological-anthropological orientation. It goes beyond the scientific model of psychoanalysis which is limited to the objectification of human existence. Its focus is on the phenomenon itself (a phenomenon is understood as what shows itself and reveals itself to us).

Guided by the insights of Husserl’s phenomenology that what “is” will show itself as it is, the Daseinsanalyse focuses on the phenomenon as the foundation of the meaning of human life. This is revealed as the patient’s being-in-the-world is focused. The foundation of therapy is in the other human being (Da-sein) in their own relationship with the therapist. From the beginning, analyst and patient are involved in a primordial human relationship in which each contributes his or her share. Both are involved in the event that determines the development of their mutual relationship, leading to the patient’s autonomy and showing him his place in the world.

The starting point of the analysis is the understanding of human suffering, its existence as a human being. Existence is not being a sentient being as an object but rather a particular way of being of men who are related to the world and to being-there”.

Treatment

Treatment within the existential approach can be done with any type of patient, as long as he is motivated and wants to participate in the process in which he will evaluate and analyze his own existence.

“The aim of Daseinsanalyse is that the person is able to remain open and in an optimal state for his world, allowing freedom and openness for his being-there and his dynamics. Common concerns are your being and your non-being, life and death, but also being your true and authentic self as far as relating to yourself and others, being open to the present in your relationship with the other (being-with) and open to the environment (Umwelt🇧🇷 which is everything that is not human, both animate and inanimate beings”.

The sufferings presented, despite initially taking away the patient’s freedom, show him who he is and who he is not, thus enabling his transformation from the radical freedom of every being.

Conclusion

The aproach daseinsan analysis it is a very important approach in psychology and psychotherapy. As it is a foreign term, we often hear more about Existential Analysis or the Existential-Phenomenological approach. As its original source is philosophy, there are questions concerning its epistemological status.

In other words, such an approach can be criticized for not being scientific (some authors argue in the third force of psychology that to study the human being a science of understanding and not a materialist science is necessary).

As it has a very philosophical foundation, students who are interested in the approach will have to study Husserl (the creator of phenomenology), Sartre and Heidegger in depth. It is also suggested to study German, as Heidegger created his own language that makes more sense in the original language.

Learn more about Husserl

Evidently, this text does not intend to exhaust the history of daseinanalysis, nor be a compendium with the main authors. The objective was to give an overview for those who want to go deeper, they will find a lot of specialized bibliography.

Questions, suggestions, comments, please write below!

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