Buytendijk, F.J.J.

The medical doctor Buytendijk was unique in that his philosophical starting point was the healthy human being rather than the ill person. In his wide range of health science publications, Buytendijk preoccupied himself only rarely with methodological issues. A seeming discussion of methodology is contained in his De Psychologie van de Roman (Psychology of the Novel) (1962), in which he argues that one can only really understand what one cares about. He speaks of “the objectivity of love,” and in reflectively analyzing novels by Fyodor Dostoevsky, he shows how literature might provide especially relevant insights for psychological understanding. He also provides fascinating insights into the phenomenology of reading fiction. In discussing Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, he likens the narrating voice of the text to that of the lover or the mother. In the presence of such pure love, there is the experience of solid ground, of deep trust that pervades the words as well as the silence about the words. “We must believe in the novel,” says Buytendijk, “more than a child in a fairytale and only thus do we, as readers, enter a new world as virtual reality and discover a life and meaningful relationship of an order different than the one given to us in our own existence” (1962, p. 37).

Selected Readings:
Buytendijk, F. J. J. (1961). Academische Redevoeringen. Utrecht: Dekker & Van de Vegt.
Buytendijk, F. J. J. (1962). De Psychologie van de Roman: Studies over Dostojevski. Utrecht: Aula Boeken.
Buytendijk, F. J. J. (1970a). “Naar een Existentiële Verklaring van de Doorleefde dwang.” Tijdschrift voor Filosofie 32(4): 567–608.
Buytendijk, F. J. J. (1970b). “Some Aspects of Touch.” Journal of Phenomenological Psychology 1(1): 99–124.
Buytendijk, F. J. J. (1973). Pain: Its Modes and Functions. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Buytendijk, F. J. J. (1974). Prolegomena to an Anthropological Physiology. Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press.
Buytendijk, F. J. J. (1988). “The First Smile of the Child.” Phenomenology + Pedagogy 6(1): 15–24.