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Binswanger, Ludwig

Binswanger was a founder of the existential school of psychiatry as he ventured to apply philosophical ideas of Heidegger to the psychological understanding and treatment of psychiatric patients. According to the interpretation of Binswanger’s clinical work by Nassir Ghaemi, a later colleague of one of his most compelling case histories, Binswanger made great efforts to understand the subjectivity of his most famous patient, Ellen West—her schizophrenic ways of being in the world by using his new Heidegerrian existentials of temporality, spatiality, corporeality, social relationships, and own world, world with others, and surrounding world. Interestingly, Binswanger proposed that there are different modes of existence and that every human being has control over their mode(s) of existence such as being a business person, being a romantic, being an artist, and being a parent. As well human beings can transcend their worldly existence by falling in love, by committing to a life of care and service for others, and so forth. Thus, there is the primary mode of being-in-the-world and the transformed mode of being-beyond-the-world according to one’s striving.

 

Selected Readings:
Binswanger, L. (1963). Being in the World. New York: Basic Books.

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