"In 1954, The Dream and Existence by the Swiss psychiatrist Ludwig Binswanger was published in a French translation with an introduction by Michel Foucault. In his introduction Foucault announced that there would be a subsequent work that "will endeavor to situate existential analysis in the development of contemporary reflection on man". Foucault never published this book but he did write a manuscript, which was never published. This is that manuscript. In Binswanger and Phenomenology Foucault carries out a systematic examination of "Daseinsanalysis ", comparing it to the approaches of psychiatry, psychoanalysis and phenomenology, and champions its ambition to understand mental illness. With this approach we see the beginnings of Foucault's quest to rethink the treatment of mental illness, its ambiguities and weaknesses, and his moves in the direction of metaphysical speculation. This work will lead Foucault towards the radically new perspective that we will encounter in the History of Madness and the History of Sexuality . As Foucault will say in that latter volume, "studying forms of experience in their history is a theme that came to me from an older project: that of making use of the methods of existential analysis in the field of psychiatry and in the field of mental illness.""-- Provided by publisher.
In the early 1950s, the young Michel Foucault took a keen interest in the method of existential analysisDaseinsanalysedeveloped by the Swiss psychiatrist Ludwig Binswanger. He gave a lecture course on this topic at the University of Lille in the spring of 1953 and wrote a detailed introduction to the 1954 French translation of Binswangers Dream and Existence (1930), in which he promised a forthcoming book that would situate existential analysis within the development of contemporary reflection on man. This book presents Foucaults unpublished manuscript on Binswanger and existential analysis for the first time in English, offering crucial insight into his intellectual development.
Foucault carries out a systematic examination of Daseinsanalyse, contrasting it with psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and phenomenology and championing its ambition to understand mental illness. In his critique of existential analysis, Foucault began his turn toward emphasizing the primacy of experience, which would lead to the radically new perspective and genealogical methods of The History of Madness and The History of Sexuality. Revealing a little-known influence on Foucaults historicist approach, Binswanger and Existential Analysis reminds us of his unparalleled ability to destabilize our conceptions of self.
This book presents Michel Foucaults unpublished manuscript on the Swiss psychiatrist Ludwig Binswanger for the first time in English, offering crucial insight into his intellectual development.
