Binswanger and phenomenology applied to mania

Abstract

Binswanger has a fundamental appreciation: he refuses to accept the so-called “Faculty Psychology”, and his thoughts and arguments are especially interesting for focusing at this point. We employ the analyses made by the author as an example of this and also as a focus of study of the maniac subjectivity. I would like to especially highlight the concept of “Ideenflucht”, the «flight of ideas», that later became pathognomonic of mania. It is also interesting to pay attention to the use that Binswanger made of Heidegger’s ideas, mainly taken from “Sein und Zeit”, because in this exceptional case, in which – as in many others – a psychiatrist supports his theoretical developments in a philosopher, Heidegger himself criticized the use that Binswanger made of his concepts. The place where we can circumscribe these issues is the “Zollikon Seminars”, given by Heidegger in Switzerland between 1959 and 1969 at the invitation of Dr. M. Boss.